What is the advantage of prepaying gratuities?

[sparks1093]

I personally feel that the ultimate cons of pre-paying is the fact that if you are not happy with any part of service theres nothing you can do about it.

 

That out ways any pros for me.

 

The two cruise lines that I have cruised with still allow you to adjust the gratuities/service charges even if you've pre-paid them.

[sparks1093]

I have yet to have service so bad that I removed gratuities. I have not given extra, but have never removed them. If things were that bad I would speak to management long before it was time to hand out gratuities.

 

Same thing here.

[Paulette3028]

I have yet to have service so bad that I removed gratuities. I have not given extra, but have never removed them. If things were that bad I would speak to management long before it was time to hand out gratuities.

 

I agree and if service was poor enough to want to reduce gratuities, by day 3 a conversation would be going on with upper management, and above the Head Waiter/Maitre'D level.

[Velvetwater]

I have yet to have service so bad that I removed gratuities. I have not given extra, but have never removed them. If things were that bad I would speak to management long before it was time to hand out gratuities.

 

I have never had to remove ours thankfully but due to a rather unfortunate series of incidents with our room steward we adjusted ours slightly (with the wait staff getting some her grats as they were fabulous). This was done after various conversations with Guest services and Management.

 

Never knew NCL/Carnival still let you adjust...thats worth knowing as we sail with Carnival and have looked at NCL quite seriously this year.

Edited April 15, 2015 by Velvetwater

[SadieN]

We've had lousy stewards on Princess. (Where are the supervisors?) We leave the grats on but do write on our comment cards.

Removing grats is a short term solution, the comment card is long term.

[Paulette3028]

We've had lousy stewards on Princess. (Where are the supervisors?) We leave the grats on but do write on our comment cards.

Removing grats is a short term solution, the comment card is long term.

 

The comment card would be ONLY the beginning for me....they have corporate officers that need to read (directly from the cruiser) about the poor service.

 

And if necessary -- more than one corporate executive.

[groinky]

For any Canadians reading this thread there can be very good reasons to prepay your gratuities.

 

On our last 2 cruises it was cheaper tp pay our gratuities up front in CDN$ than it was to pay in US$ on the ship. Prepaid CDN was $82.65 vs $84 US on the ship.

 

I was going to post the exact thing!

 

As Canadians we saved as well this winter by prepaying in Canadian dollars.

I was shocked when they gave me the price and questioned it. They confirmed it was and sure enough we not only paid less but considering the exchange was around 30 percent at the time we saved a nice sum, especially considering it was a 14 night cruise!

[SantaFeFan]

One advantage to NOT prepaying hasn't been mentioned yet - using any OBC you may have to pay the tip amount.

[ducklite]

One advantage to NOT prepaying hasn't been mentioned yet - using any OBC you may have to pay the tip amount.

 

Mine always seems to go to the spa. Still not sure how that happens. ;)

[A2Mich]

Why not just pay the gratuities a couple weeks in advance and make a payment to the card for them at the same time in order to maintain the credit line?

 

 

Good question. Just telling you what my buddy did.

[GUT2407]

I'm planning a cruise in Hawaii on Pride of America and one site is offering the choice of additional $50 OBC OR specialty dining package OR prepaid gratuities for two OR credit to shore excursions at each port (excluding start/finish). Depending on the fine print for the excursion credit which could be up to $300 the prepaid gratuities looks like a good deal and is valued at up to $30/day so I make that $210 on a 7 night cruise. Or am I missing something??

 

That sounds aabout right.

 

I know my last cruise was with a choice of $200 OBC Drinks package or Tips paid.

 

We don't drink

Tips were $177

So we took OBC

[Eileenieg63]

We chose MTD on RCI, therefore prepaid gratuities goes hand in hand with that. Not a big deal, only $120 for DH and I, as we're only on a 5-night to Bermuda (our FIRST cruise EVER!!)

Since I'm new to all of this, maybe you can steer me in the right direction.

I have read on other posts that some folks like to have coffee in their cabin every morning before going to breakfast. We would love this!

How would this be arranged, and would steward expect tip for doing this? As I read prior, staff doesn't know who is prepaid or not. I certainly wouldn't mind tipping extra if that's the norm. :confused:

Thank you for your advice,

Eileen

[GUT2407]

We chose MTD on RCI, therefore prepaid gratuities goes hand in hand with that. Not a big deal, only $120 for DH and I, as we're only on a 5-night to Bermuda (our FIRST cruise EVER!!)

Since I'm new to all of this, maybe you can steer me in the right direction.

I have read on other posts that some folks like to have coffee in their cabin every morning before going to breakfast. We would love this!

How would this be arranged, and would steward expect tip for doing this? As I read prior, staff doesn't know who is prepaid or not. I certainly wouldn't mind tipping extra if that's the norm. :confused:

Thank you for your advice,

Eileen

 

 

Just place a room service order for your morning coffee.

 

A tip isn't required but many [most] tip a dollar or two, but have the money ready because they won't hang around with their hand out waiting for it.

 

Sometimes your Steward will deliver room service sometimes someone else. But even if it is your steward it is extra work so a tip won't go astray, over 5 nights it'll cost you $5-$10 if you do tip.

[jaybee1965]

Have a FABULOUS time Eileen, the planning is fun too.

 

I have only cruised once (so far) so not really sure what expectations of the steward are but we did get room service breakfast one morning which kind of surprised me. Its usually an expensive option in a hotel but no extra charge on a cruise. You would probably only get the dining room Americano coffee so depends if that's to your taste.

 

*snap* GUT2407 - the friend I cruised with who is more experienced than I has been on other cruises where bar staff noted they got cokes every afternoon and took them back to the cabin so if you have a nice cabin steward I would imagine if you arrange coffee the first morning and tip him/her it could arrive like clockwork every morning.

Edited April 23, 2015 by jaybee1965
add last para

[Eileenieg63]

Just place a room service order for your morning coffee. A tip isn't required but many [most] tip a dollar or two, but have the money ready because they won't hang around with their hand out waiting for it.

Sometimes your Steward will deliver room service sometimes someone else. But even if it is your steward it is extra work so a tip won't go astray, over 5 nights it'll cost you $5-$10 if you do tip.

 

That's easy enough...thanks!

[Illyria]

The time when you really DON'T want to prepay your gratuities is when you know you will have a lot of OBC that can be applied toward gratuities once onboard. Other than that...doesn't really matter.

 

I don't ever adjust automatic gratuities based on actual or perceived poor service. When you do the math, each person gets $.75-$3/day out of the total daily amount. Even if a waiter was slow or surly or inattentive, he still brought me my food. If the steward wasn't stellar, he still cleaned the room. As far as I'm concerned, he earned his daily couple of bucks or whatever.

[Marseydotes]

I've heard that the best thing to do to avoid a big bill at the end of your cruise is to "gift" yourself some on board credit (OBC), which then can be used for ant pythons from spa to bar to tips. This makes sense to me, as I like longer cruises where the totals can leave a rather sour taste as we leave the ship.....

[Marseydotes]

Don't you love auto-correct?

 

"Anything" --not ant pythons. Though the mental image is sort of interesting.....

[Eileenieg63]

Thanks Jaybee... I'm getting over all the pre-cruise anxiety and will definitely have a good time. I would love to arrange to have a pot of coffee sent up every morning, and would certainly tip extra.

 

Illy, Marsey.. we have OBC and will probably use that on beer for DH and a few "drink of the day" for me! :D

Edited April 23, 2015 by Eileenieg63

[jaybee1965]

Don't you love auto-correct?

 

"Anything" --not ant pythons. Though the mental image is sort of interesting.....

LOL I was wondering what I'd missed in spa treatment

[Imalismom]

I pre-pay for a couple of reasons.

 

(1) I do not want a large bill at the end of my vacation, so everything is prepaid prior to leaving - even if its just cash in an envelope with the name of the event/hotel/cab etc.

 

(2) I prepay things on board so that *if* the price goes up (which it did indeed do with NCL and my upcoming cruise), I got the lower rate - with my upcoming cruise, prepaying saved me $38.

[momoftwinteens]

Royal Caribbean does, I'm not sure about others.

I'm not so sure that is true, or maybe it has changed.

I, just this morning, did a mock booking for the Harmony of the Seas, since I am interested in cruising on her with my travel companions in January 2017. Anyway, I went as far as the page for paying for the cruise. When I selected My Time Dining, I was still given the option of either prepaying the gratuities or not.

Since I have never sailed RCL, perhaps it is different with the different classes of ships. I don't know. I only know what happened this morning. This was on the RCL website, by the way.

[NMLady]

I'm not debating the automatic gratuities, but I am wondering what the advantage is of prepaying the gratuities rather than just having them charged to your onboard account and paying them with your credit card when you settle your account?

 

Since interest rates are so low that there is no advantage in keeping the money in the bank, since we always pay the gratuities we prepay them for two reasons:

1) the payment is on a different credit card billing than the shipboard charges

2) it makes the final statement easier to read. The charges are done per person per day so not having the daily gratuity on there makes it easier to verify other charges to ensure no mistakes.

[NMLady]

Thanks Jaybee... I'm getting over all the pre-cruise anxiety and will definitely have a good time. I would love to arrange to have a pot of coffee sent up every morning, and would certainly tip extra.

! :D

 

You do not prearrange morning coffee. In your cabin there should be some breakfast order cards. Each night check coffee on there and any pastry you want, check what time frame you want it delivered in the morning and then hang it on the outside of your cabin door before you go to bed. Your coffee will be delivered in the morning at the time you chose.

Or, in the morning you can phone room service and ask for coffee but it will then take about 45 minutes for delivery since they are busy doing the pre-orders.

[NMLady]

One advantage to NOT prepaying hasn't been mentioned yet - using any OBC you may have to pay the tip amount.

 

If you are cruising NCL and have OBC from NCL it can not be used for the DSC.

(DSC = Daily Service Charge, what some call the gratuity).