So confused! Please help!

[Laurie7724]

Okay so I’ve been getting different information from different reps on carnival. Some say gratuities are mandatory and others say they are not and you can pay gratuity as you go on your own and have them removed from your account on the last day. My question is which is correct? Also if I open up an expense account with cash on the first day with say $100, will they automatically take the gratuities out on the first day leaving me with a zero balance or does it not come out until the last day? Therefore I would have to go pay for them on the last day if I didn’t have enough left in my prepaid expense account. Any response later would be much appreciated.

[JMAE]

Gratuities are not required, you can have them removed from your account. We like having them on our account add provide additional tips base on the service we receive.

 

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[schazzy]

If I remember correctly from before I started prepaying, they charge your account daily for the gratuities. I honestly like prepaying like it's part of the fare and getting it out of the way and if you feel while on the cruise that the service wasn't good, you can go to guest services and adjust the amount for the area of service (cabin steward or dining staff) or just remove it completely.

[stobe1]

Don't remove gratuities. That is the ultimate low.

[schazzy]

Don't remove gratuities. That is the ultimate low.

 

If someone does it just to be cheap, then I agree with you.

[riffatsea]

We think of the gratuities as part of the cost of the cruise. Yes, i suppose you can take them off but then the wonderful crew will get nothing from you and they deserve the tips! IF you tip in restaurants then you know that tipping is part of our American culture and the crew will expect them from everyone unless something is horrible about the service you get.

[karlmonday]

I cruise on the very cheap, however I never remove gratuities and actually tip extra for my waitstaff and cabin steward.

[Laurie7724]

Don't remove gratuities. That is the ultimate low.

 

Firstly I never suggested I was not going to tip. I was asking if I chose to tip on my own instead of using the “suggested tip” that carnival automatically adds. Whether that be more or less would be up to the level of service we received. In no way did my post ever suggest we didn’t plan on tipping at all. Nonetheless thanks for your response.

[Kamloops50]

Firstly I never suggested I was not going to tip. I was asking if I chose to tip on my own instead of using the “suggested tip” that carnival automatically adds. Whether that be more or less would be up to the level of service we received. In no way did my post ever suggest we didn’t plan on tipping at all. Nonetheless thanks for your response.

 

Tjis scenario will create issues for the crew. If you remove auto gratuities you be denying staff you don't see from their tip. This auto gratuity is for many staff you don't like the dish washer . If removed , any cash given to the room steward or MDR waiter has to be turned in and distributed among the staff.

The bars add an automatic 15 or 18% tip to all drinks.

[stobe1]

Firstly I never suggested I was not going to tip. I was asking if I chose to tip on my own instead of using the “suggested tip” that carnival automatically adds. Whether that be more or less would be up to the level of service we received. In no way did my post ever suggest we didn’t plan on tipping at all. Nonetheless thanks for your response.

 

This is the part of your post I was referring to: "others say they are not and you can pay gratuity as you go on your own and have them removed from your account on the last day".

I will restate. It is the ultimate low to have gratuities removed.

 

I was just trying to give you better advice to contradict the bad advice you have been given.

Edited May 26, 2018 by stobe1

[Laurie7724]

This is the part of your post I was referring to: "others say they are not and you can pay gratuity as you go on your own and have them removed from your account on the last day".

I will restate. It is the ultimate low to have gratuities removed.

 

I was just trying to give you better advice to contradict the bad advice you have been given.

 

EXACTLY!! Have them removed IF you have already paid them as you go. Wasn’t aware the gratuities were split among other behind the scene workers. :)

Edited May 26, 2018 by Laurie7724

[cruisinqt]

I’ve noticed that the gratuities usually hit our account midway through the cruise. I’ve had some cruises deduct it daily though. We would put $50 in our kids accounts and then midway through the cruise they wouldn’t be able to make charges. It was because gratuities were charged to their accounts which took up all of their spending money. Now we just add in the gratuity amount to their account when we set their charging limit. So yes you need to add enough cash to cover gratuities plus what you plan on spending. You can take gratuities off and hand out tips personally but it’s just easier leaving it in your account.

 

I thought the gratuities were kind of steep until I found out how much it’s divided up. Like our room steward has helpers he shares with. And so do our MDR waitstaff. And our tips are a BIG part of their wages. They don’t get paid much at all (kind of like waitresses.) And most of them come from poor countries and have big families they support back home. So they really count on those tips. That’s why even if my service isn’t stellar I still leave the tips on. But if they do a really great job, I tip extra. :)

 

Just be forewarned that tipping is a hot topic here and people jump to conclusions and get really rude about it. There are a lot of nice people on these boards but for some reason the whole tipping thing gets them all worked up. Take what they say with a grain of salt. It’s not you, it’s the topic. Have a great cruise.

[sanger727]

Okay so I’ve been getting different information from different reps on carnival. Some say gratuities are mandatory and others say they are not and you can pay gratuity as you go on your own and have them removed from your account on the last day. My question is which is correct? .

 

 

Tips will be automatically added. You CAN remove them onboard.

 

As others have said, doing this and tipping ‘on your own’ not recommended for a variety of reasons.

1. If you remove the tips the assumption is that it was due to bad service so I am concerned that it reflects poorly on your steward and wait staff

2. You will miss tipping some of the people serving you since they whole compensation system is now set up around the auto tips

3. If you are doing anytime dining you’ll have different wait staff every night which would necessitate carrying cash all around the ship with you

 

But yes, it can be done. I don’t know what day the gratuities hit the account. But unless you physically go down and remove them, if they cause a cash account to go negative, they won’t let you leave without paying the balance.

 

 

 

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[CruisingNole]

You have to be a special kind of low life to take money out of the pockets from those who serve you.

[lizardhowson]

Firstly I never suggested I was not going to tip. I was asking if I chose to tip on my own instead of using the “suggested tip” that carnival automatically adds. Whether that be more or less would be up to the level of service we received. In no way did my post ever suggest we didn’t plan on tipping at all. Nonetheless thanks for your response.

 

You should understand that if your decide to "tip on my own", all those behind the scenes who work to make your vacation possible are left out - cooks, dishwashers, laundry personnel, etc as you never see them to tip them.

 

Carnival's auto gratuities are fairly distributed among all those who make your vacation possible and enjoyable.

 

Most of us know full well that removing gratuities and saying I want to tip on my own is just a way to avoid paying a fair tip total.

[maryred]

I will echo another poster in stating if you remove the auto-gratuity this generates a black mark for your whole service team on their work performance review. If you decide to tip cash only, rather than leaving the auto-gratuity in place, bring at least 10 envelopes w/ note cards. On each note as your signature line include your name, ship's name, sailing date, cabin and booking #. Address each note to single members of your service teams, but you might need to ask your head waiter or head steward for some of their teams member names as you may never see the galley runner, the table bus people, your assistant room steward, the covering steward, or several others that are assigned directly towards making your cruise enjoyable. In the note include your rating of their performance to cancel out the negative the removal of the auto-grat causes. Also have plenty of singles to tip roving personnel like the Lido buffet bus crew, the people cleaning the hallways in your cabin area, the housekeeping members policing trash and tableware in public areas. These "not personal team" crew members get their tips through a tip pool and don't require a personal note.

As to your original quandary, hotel/restaurant auto-gratuities are adjustable and removable once they have been assessed on board. They charge your S&S account with the auto-grats on day 2 or 3 of most cruises (though very short cruises may do it on day 1) if you have not prepaid these prior to boarding. If the assessment of the auto-grats causes your cash based S&S account to 0 out you will first receive a call or voice message on your cabin phone, if no response within 6-8 hours you will be paged over the ship's PA to go to the Guest Services desk. Usually a denial of purchase is most peoples clue that they will have to deposit more funds or put a credit/debit card on file before you can make any new charges to your account. (In some cases you might be prevented from leaving the ship at ports of call until your account is brought up to date.)

On the other hand, auto-grats charged when making drink purchases or from spa appointments are non-negotiable on the receipt, no simply crossing them out. You will need to request the beverage or spa manager to override the transaction, providing you with a new receipt to sign. On speciality dining the auto-grat is rolled into the upgrade price, and can not be separated out.

[SkyPiglet]

Okay so I’ve been getting different information from different reps on carnival. Some say gratuities are mandatory and others say they are not and you can pay gratuity as you go on your own and have them removed from your account on the last day. My question is which is correct? Also if I open up an expense account with cash on the first day with say $100, will they automatically take the gratuities out on the first day leaving me with a zero balance or does it not come out until the last day? Therefore I would have to go pay for them on the last day if I didn’t have enough left in my prepaid expense account. Any response later would be much appreciated.

 

When it comes to mandatory or not, as others have chimed in, they are not, but they are a somewhat strong expectation. People rationalize and justify it in different ways, either pre-paying or keeping the auto-gratuities and sometimes paying extra along the way, removing the autos and paying staff individually by hand, or just removing the auto gratuities after running out of money or deciding not to pay them. Everyone has their reasons, and opinions, and it can be an extremely hot-button issue on here, but strictly speaking, they are not mandatory.

 

When you set up your account, most people back it up with a credit card instead of cash, so having a zero balance isn't the most common situation. Usually the gratuities are charged to the S&S account in the last half of the cruise. I have been on a cruise where my credit card failed (long story) and we had an unpaid balance on our S&S account. Though not related to gratuities, the recourse was to get a promissory note (which turned out to be unnecessary because I had just enough spare cash).

 

Many first time cruisers who didn't know what to expect get surprised when the gratuities show up on their account. To make everything more worry free, I find it easiest simply pre-pay the gratuities and then not worry about it, knowing that everyone is covered. You can always bring a bit of extra cash if someone goes way above and beyond.:D Though in my experience, service has always been way above satisfactory, you always can go to guest-services if there are any issues.

[Cafedumonde]

We just prepay gratuities so they never "hit" our acct. Every cruise we see people taking them off at guest services. It is awkward and the people doing it always look a bit... well, let's just say desperate type people. When I've witnessed it, CCL staff do not just take off gratuities, they ask a lot of questions about service and it usually gets animated. They also call in managers etc. It doesn't look like anything I would want to deal with. That's probably why you've been told by some people that they are mandatory. Because even though they technically are not mandatory, when you go to have them removed, from what I have witnessed, they treat them as if they are mandatory. Eventually they probably will make them fully mandatory .

[keene state mom]

I like to pre pay with final payment that way its part of the cruise price , and you do not see it on your bill .. Then go ahead and give a little extra to those that took good care of you with a big thank you ,most will hug you good by , it makes you feel really good as you leave .

[teague38]

We just prepay gratuities so they never "hit" our acct. Every cruise we see people taking them off at guest services. It is awkward and the people doing it always look a bit... well, let's just say desperate type people. When I've witnessed it, CCL staff do not just take off gratuities, they ask a lot of questions about service and it usually gets animated. They also call in managers etc. It doesn't look like anything I would want to deal with. That's probably why you've been told by some people that they are mandatory. Because even though they technically are not mandatory, when you go to have them removed, from what I have witnessed, they treat them as if they are mandatory. Eventually they probably will make them fully mandatory .

 

Just my opinion but I think they should be mandatory. If you can't afford or just don't want to pay the gratuities then don't go on a cruise. Same goes for eating out. I think the daily amount is really cheap per person for all the food and service you get. Even if I had a bad room steward I would still never take off gratuities since they are split between everybody. The room steward would just not get the additional tip at the end of the cruise.

[DHnDWplus2]

We just prepay gratuities so they never "hit" our acct. Every cruise we see people taking them off at guest services. It is awkward and the people doing it always look a bit... well, let's just say desperate type people. When I've witnessed it, CCL staff do not just take off gratuities, they ask a lot of questions about service and it usually gets animated. They also call in managers etc. It doesn't look like anything I would want to deal with. That's probably why you've been told by some people that they are mandatory. Because even though they technically are not mandatory, when you go to have them removed, from what I have witnessed, they treat them as if they are mandatory. Eventually they probably will make them fully mandatory .

This! Watching the guest at Guest Services the day the auto grats hit is an option for onboard entertainment[emoji16] btw, love the screen name!

 

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[cjnix29]

I really just wish they would cut out the auto tips and increase cruise fare by this amount and pay their people a real wage. Stop the madness!!

[tea4ular]

How is it possible that someone isn't aware that folks "behind the scenes" are part of the tip-pool? Even on land, in a restaurant, part of the tip you leave for your server is shared among those you never see.

 

There are none so blind as those who will not see.