Question for CruiseFever

[Live2vacation]

Chris,

 

You replied to a previous post of mine. You commented that you had X add your gratutity to your on-board account. By the way, it does sound like we will be on the same cruise on 12 Jan 06.

 

Can I actually tell X to add my tip before the ship sails? If so, how?

 

Thanks and happy sailing. :)

[Live2vacation]

Chris...I forgot to mention that I booked thru my TA. Does that matter?

[Char]

Hey there :D

I'm not Chris but I can answer your question. If you booked through a TA it is the TA who must deal directly with Celebrity. Call him/her on Monday and request that they have Celebrity add the tip.

[Yahtic]

Celebrity will give you the option of putting the tip on your on board account when you are on the ship. You have several days in which to respond, it is no hassle.

[CruiseFever]

Both of the above are correct.

 

Some lines will let you pre-pay gratuities. Some will add them on a daily basis to your shipboard account.

 

I think the way Royal Caribbean did it on our Empress of the Seas cruise last month was the best. We had the option of handing the tips with actual money in an envelope to the recommended individuals or we could go to the guest services desk and fill out a form that automatically added them to our shipboard account. I like that it was NOT automatic.

 

Princess and Carnival do the automatic tipping which I think is kind of rude and really takes a lot out of the whole tipping thing. You know, the "you did good, here's a nice tip" or "you were horrible, you're not getting so much" method. They tell you that you can adjust the amount up or down by visiting the pursers desk. They don't actually come out and say it but I have been led to believe that the crew knows who took the tips off and blah blah blah....its a whole mysterious game thing.

 

On the Empress we were given vouchers on the afternoon of the last full day to put in envelopes to hand to the suggested crew members. Our Head Waiter was awsome so we put some extra in there for him.

 

For me, the advantage is that I want to pay for as much of my vacation up front as possible. That's why guests buy coke cards, bon voyage gifts from home, etc. It's a convenience thing.

 

My thought is "I'm going to pay at least that much anyway, might as well get it over with"

 

Someone who knows please correct me if I am wrong but I've thought that Celebrity and Royal Caribbean handle tips pretty much the same way as each other?

[Live2vacation]

Thanks Chris and everyone else. I will contact my TA and see what she can do for me. She's great, and I'm sure she will take care of everything.

I consider myself a good tipper, and may actually give extra to those who should get extra. I simply would like to get the normal tipping amounts to those who normally get the money. It's a very good possibility that we may never set foot in the main dining room, so giving those folks the extra money that they probably look forward to would only happen if I can do it on account (since I may never see them). Our cruise is only for 2-nights, so that alone will make it a little difficult to find all the people we would need to tip. Believe me, I don't mind tipping. I just want to make sure that everyone is covered, and the on account method should solve that problem. I don't want anyone to get short changed.