Increasing Gratuities

[carnival03]

If we booked a cruise six months ago for May 2019 and between now and then gratuities go up, are we grandfathered into the current rate? We haven't prepaid our gratuities yet and I'm wondering if we should before the new year. 

[voyager70]

1 minute ago, carnival03 said:

If we booked a cruise six months ago for May 2019 and between now and then gratuities go up, are we grandfathered into the current rate? We haven't prepaid our gratuities yet and I'm wondering if we should before the new year. 

 

You should be grandfathered in at the current rate.  Be prepared for some interesting feedback 😜

 

[Clarea]

Depends on how Royal runs the increase.

 

They could say that all cruises booked before a certain date pay the old rate.

 

Or, they could say that prepaid gratuities have to be added to a booking before a certain date to get the old rate.

 

In other words, add prepaid gratuities to be sure. 

[carnival03]

34 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

Depends on how Royal runs the increase.

 

They could say that all cruises booked before a certain date pay the old rate.

 

Or, they could say that prepaid gratuities have to be added to a booking before a certain date to get the old rate.

 

In other words, add prepaid gratuities to be sure. 

 

35 minutes ago, voyager70 said:

 

You should be grandfathered in at the current rate.  Be prepared for some interesting feedback 😜

 

 

Thank you both. That's probably what I'll end up doing, just was curious.

[Wine-O]

I remember when Celebrity increased their gratuities, only if you pre-paid, you were grandfathered.  

 

Are daily gratuities going up?  I haven't heard.

[Clarea]

5 minutes ago, Wine-O said:

 

Are daily gratuities going up?  I haven't heard.

 

Nothing reported here.

[SRF]

Last year, they had a deadline to pre-pay at the old rate, if you left them to pay on board, you would pay the new rate.

[mugtech]

Expect an increase by the end of 2019 at the latest.

[Iamcruzin]

8 hours ago, carnival03 said:

 

 

Thank you both. That's probably what I'll end up doing, just was curious.

You can also go to guest services and reduce the daily rate to what the original rate was when you booked the cruise. It's no different than pre paying the old rate up front.

[Wine-O]

7 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

You can also go to guest services and reduce the daily rate to what the original rate was when you booked the cruise. It's no different than pre paying the old rate up front.

It's my understanding that if you go to guest services, you have two options -- either remove them altogether or increase them on all or just a select few, i.e. stateroom attendant and/or waiter.   I've never heard of being able to reduce the daily amount altogether or for any particular person.  Has something changed?

[Iamcruzin]

1 hour ago, Wine-O said:

It's my understanding that if you go to guest services, you have two options -- either remove them altogether or increase them on all or just a select few, i.e. stateroom attendant and/or waiter.   I've never heard of being able to reduce the daily amount altogether or for any particular person.  Has something changed?

 I have never done this myself but I have read about  passengers reducing the daily gratuity to what ever amount per day they saw fit. Usually they go on about how they reduced the daily charge and tipped out individuals. I would think that it would be easier to arrange dropping the entire daily amount a dollar or two than to add extra to a select few.

 

I honestly  I think that it's B.S. if they don't grandfather in those who booked early or  they should just raise the rate at the time of booking. They know when they are going to increase the rate and should apply it to those  future sailings.  I don't agree with paying it up front to avoid the increase as some may have OBC from a TA that they might want to use for the gratuity.

Edited December 3, 2018 by Iamcruzin

[Thorben-Hendrik]

12 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

 I have never done this myself but I have read about  passengers reducing the daily gratuity to what ever amount per day they saw fit. Usually they go on about how they reduced the daily charge and tipped out individuals. I would think that it would be easier to arrange dropping the entire daily amount a dollar or two than to add extra to a select few.

You can not just reduce - it is all or nothing!👍😎

[Wine-O]

2 hours ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

You can not just reduce - it is all or nothing!👍😎

That's my understanding.

[steamboats]

I have a cruise booked for 2020. Told my DH to add the gratuities right now as you never know... Up to 2020 they can raise them twice.

 

As for the previous raises... There was always a date line for those with booking to add the gratuities to their booking. But you had to pay them in advance (which I do anyway).

 

steamboats

[mugtech]

19 hours ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

You can not just reduce - it is all or nothing!👍😎

Someone said that since their boarding was delayed until 1AM they had one day of service charges removed no problem.

[carnival03]

I ended up prepaying them the other day. No worries now 🙂 

[davekathy]

On ‎12‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 3:53 AM, mugtech said:

Expect an increase by the end of 2019 at the latest.

And your source? 

[TravisP]

I am on HOTS in April 2019. We did the prepaid gratuities at the lower rate of 13.50 a day. Just paid off the balance this past Saturday. 

[CruisinBarb63]

The last time they did an increase, you had to be prepaid to be grandfathered in.  We have prepaid just in case.

[HicksRA]

I prepaid mine before the hike on an upcoming cruise in April. 

If they try to increase mine I’ll tell them to either accept what I’ve already paid or remove the gratuities altogether. Their choice..

[mugtech]

4 hours ago, davekathy said:

And your source? 

History

[davekathy]

2 hours ago, mugtech said:

History

Now that I'll believe. 

[Sitzmark]

On 12/3/2018 at 8:02 AM, Thorben-Hendrik said:

You can not just reduce - it is all or nothing!👍😎

On Oasis in 2016 you could remove all or part of the gratuity.  You could also increase if you wanted.  No questions asked.

[Wine-O]

11 minutes ago, Sitzmark said:

On Oasis in 2016 you could remove all or part of the gratuity.  You could also increase if you wanted.  No questions asked.

That's new.  It's always been you can remove all or keep all, never decrease any one portion.   You can increase one or two, but never decrease one or two.  

 

Is this something new?  I'm not sure the 2016 policy is  in effect today.

 

Edited December 18, 2018 by Wine-O

[Loonbeam]

2 minutes ago, Wine-O said:

That's new.  It's always been you can remove all or keep all, never decrease any one portion.   You can increase one or two, but never decrease one or two.  

 

Is this something new?  I'm not sure the 2016 policy is  in effect today.

 

I have to dig back, pretty sure it changed in 2017.  You also need to explain WHY you want them removed now, and its considered a negative mark against your cabin steward and waiters (if not ATD) in many cases (not specifically as regards you but they do look collectively at service charge removal patterns - if they see a pattern in a certain cabin area example - they also, or at least they used to) take nationality into account of pax (again, not specifically, in aggregate, for a cruise that has a lot of AUS cruisers for example, a spike in removals is not a red flag).