UK Travellers - Gratuity pre paid good value?

[marymungoandmidge]

Hi, I am trying to work out whether it would be better to pay the Gratuity once on board in USD or prepay in GBP. If my calculations are correct, it seems to be prepay in GBP as the exchange rate seems to be better, surprisingly! but would appreciate confirmation of this as I have only ever cruised on a British Ship.

The cost in GBP for 7 nights for the two of us is £116.96

 

Thank you

[wendychloecruiser]

My calculations make it out to be advantageous to pay in GBP, unless you have OBC you want to make use of.

Edited April 12, 2016 by wendychloecruiser

[BARNET]

Have always pre-paid our and have accepted it as part of the cruise price, if not it will be added daily on to your sea-pass account and you will have to pay at the end of the cruise that is my understanding.

At the moment the £ is down low against the $ IMO mainly due to the up coming vote on whether to leave the EU, not sure when you are sailing if after June you could wait and see if it improves then. If you decide you want to pre-pay either call RCL or your TA.

I would wait hope the £ improves against the $ then pay in £ prior to sailing.

Edited April 12, 2016 by BARNET

[marymungoandmidge]

My calculations make it out to be advantageous to pay in GBP, unless you have OBC you want to make use of.

Thanks, just as I thought although the drinks packages do not seem to be as favourable with the exchange rate. Not quite sure how they work these prices out :)

[marymungoandmidge]

Have always pre-paid our and have accepted it as part of the cruise price, if not it will be added daily on to your sea-pass account and you will have to pay at the end of the cruise that is my understanding.

At the moment the £ is down low against the $ IMO mainly due to the up coming vote on whether to leave the EU, not sure when you are sailing if after June you could wait and see if it improves then. If you decide you want to pre-pay either call RCL or your TA.

I would wait hope the £ improves against the $ then pay in £ prior to sailing.

 

Thanks, sailing in 3 weeks so need to make a decision as I was going to use my Clarity card but have read that RCL are not very good at billing in USD and their exchange rate is usually in their favour. So it is now either USD cash or prepay GBP.

[BARNET]

Thanks, sailing in 3 weeks so need to make a decision as I was going to use my Clarity card but have read that RCL are not very good at billing in USD and their exchange rate is usually in their favour. So it is now either USD cash or prepay GBP.

I would agree RCL exchange rate tends to be 3-5 cent down on the current rate what I would do is wait for a week or so and keep checking the exchange rate on the BBC web site IMO the £ hopefully will not drop below $1.40 if it starts to rise look for some where near you that offers a no extra charge on exchanging and take $ with you and pay in cash, I take it that you have opted for a cash account on-board ?

[marymungoandmidge]

I would agree RCL exchange rate tends to be 3-5 cent down on the current rate what I would do is wait for a week or so and keep checking the exchange rate on the BBC web site IMO the £ hopefully will not drop below $1.40 if it starts to rise look for some where near you that offers a no extra charge on exchanging and take $ with you and pay in cash, I take it that you have opted for a cash account on-board ?

 

I will opt for a cash account as I cannot guarantee that RCL will charge my credit card in USD which would have been my preferred method as I would have got the bank rate rather than tourist rate.

[fragilek]

if paying on board it would be best to make use of the better rates RCL give when you purchase OBC - rate is about 1.51 (see recent thread) I think

[fragilek]

yip I just checked its 1.51

[kernow]

We always pre pay gratuities when we book more for convenience than anything else, I like to keep the onboard account as low as possible. Another option for you may be to call and buy enough onboard credit now to cover gratuities. There was a thread on here within the last couple of days where people said that they are currently giving a rate of 1.51 per pound which is pretty good.

 

 

Perhaps we've just been lucky but we've never had any problems on RCL with our card being converted to pounds by the cruise line, we've always been charged in dollars. It has happened on other cruise lines.

 

Julie

[heatherb1958]

if paying on board it would be best to make use of the better rates RCL give when you purchase OBC - rate is about 1.51 (see recent thread) I think

 

Currently when pre purchasing OBC through RCI UK it will cost you £70 for 100 Dollars.

I purchased some a couple of days ago so that rate is current, so a rate of 1.43

[little britain]

yip I just checked its 1.51

 

 

 

I phoned a few days ago and was quoted £70 for $100 which is 1:428. Yes, slightly better than M&S but definitely not 1:51.

 

Gratuities go up 14/4 so if you want to save a bit it is better to prepay before then.

 

I will opt for a cash account as I cannot guarantee that RCL will charge my credit card in USD which would have been my preferred method as I would have got the bank rate rather than tourist rate.

 

 

 

Just check your account during the cruise, if it is still showing in $$$ then it is likely they will charge you in $$. It it is showing in £ then you have time to get it changed before the cruise ends.

Edited April 12, 2016 by little britain

[heatherb1958]

I just checked my invoice.

On the 6th April I purchased 300 Dollars for £210.

I preferred it when it was £60 for 100 Dollars only a couple of months ago:)

[heatherb1958]

I phoned a few days ago and was quoted £70 for $100 which is 1:428. Yes, slightly better than M&S but definitely not 1:51.

 

Gratuities go up 14/4 so if you want to save a bit it is better to prepay before then.

 

Okay, I rounded it up:p

 

 

We always pre pay our tips now. It just makes life simpler.

[paul_a142]

I just checked my invoice.

On the 6th April I purchased 300 Dollars for £210.

I preferred it when it was £60 for 100 Dollars only a couple of months ago:)

 

Hi Heather excuse my ignorance but how do you go about purchasing OBC I didn't realise that you could do it.

 

Thanks in anticipation.

 

Regards.

 

Paul

[Clarea]

Hi Heather excuse my ignorance but how do you go about purchasing OBC I didn't realise that you could do it.

 

Thanks in anticipation.

 

Regards.

 

Paul

Call 01932 834 243, or freephone: 0800 0182020 to purchase OBC.

[marymungoandmidge]

if paying on board it would be best to make use of the better rates RCL give when you purchase OBC - rate is about 1.51 (see recent thread) I think

 

Thank you, I did not realise that you can buy OBC and that is a great rate :D I will have a search for the thread.

[marymungoandmidge]

We always pre pay gratuities when we book more for convenience than anything else, I like to keep the onboard account as low as possible. Another option for you may be to call and buy enough onboard credit now to cover gratuities. There was a thread on here within the last couple of days where people said that they are currently giving a rate of 1.51 per pound which is pretty good.

 

 

Perhaps we've just been lucky but we've never had any problems on RCL with our card being converted to pounds by the cruise line, we've always been charged in dollars. It has happened on other cruise lines.

 

Julie

 

Thank you. I also prefer not to receive a huge bill at the end but also didn't want to prepay & get charged a dismal exchange rate. I have calculated that they are giving 1.61 on the prepay gratuities at the moment which was a huge surprise to me because the drinks package rate vary from 1.23 to 1.33.

[marymungoandmidge]

I phoned a few days ago and was quoted £70 for $100 which is 1:428. Yes, slightly better than M&S but definitely not 1:51.

 

Gratuities go up 14/4 so if you want to save a bit it is better to prepay before then.

 

 

 

 

 

Just check your account during the cruise, if it is still showing in $$$ then it is likely they will charge you in $$. It it is showing in £ then you have time to get it changed before the cruise ends.

 

Thank you, I will still need to buy on board so will watch my account. I have been comparing the BBC currency data against M&S etc and the rate on BBC has been around the 1.42 so nice to see RCL using the bank rate for the OBC.

[marymungoandmidge]

Currently when pre purchasing OBC through RCI UK it will cost you £70 for 100 Dollars.

I purchased some a couple of days ago so that rate is current, so a rate of 1.43

 

Thanks, really useful information as I would never have known about this :)

[marymungoandmidge]

Call 01932 834 243, or freephone: 0800 0182020 to purchase OBC.

 

Thank you for the contact details, I shall call them today.

 

So glad that I started this thread, a big THANK YOU to you all for the information :D

 

I wish there was a thank you button available for each post as I have made this thread extra long :)

[fragilek]

oh dear I bought mine 2 weeks ago and got 1.51 - I just check my email receipt - wish I bought more now :(Strange as it is usually set for the whole year - Last whole year - as I charged up many many times was 1.67 (I put on a lot then withdrew the excess at the end of the cruise for my xmas Florida hols

Edited April 13, 2016 by fragilek

[Clarea]

Thank you for the contact details, I shall call them today.

 

So glad that I started this thread, a big THANK YOU to you all for the information :D

 

I wish there was a thank you button available for each post as I have made this thread extra long :)

You're welcome, and please report back which number you are able to use. I've not gotten any feedback on those in a while.

[Lanzalady]

We've prepaid ours in advance because whatever the actual exchange rate is on the day, you can guarantee that Royal Caribbean will be charging you a higher rate. We live in Spain and booked our Eastern Med/Greek Isles cruise for June via royalcaribbean.uk. Before booking, we did our EUR - £ calculations and compared our calculated price to the euro price shown on the royalcaribbean.es website and it worked out cheaper to book through the UK site. But when my credit card bill arrived, the price was quite a bit higher than we has calculated, even taking into consideration that there is a charge for paying on a credit card. At least when you book in advance in £ sterling, you will know how much you are going to pay. And it's also nice not to have to think about tipping again, as you have already pre-paid yours.

[marymungoandmidge]

You're welcome, and please report back which number you are able to use. I've not gotten any feedback on those in a while.

 

Hi, I used the 01932 834 243 successfully to pay the gratuities. The OBC is currently working out at approx. 1.423 so may wait a week for that. Thanks again.