Prepaid Gratuities

[janroatan]

Do most cruisers pre pay the gratuities for their cruise?

Pros and Cons of doing so?

[www3traveler]

I always pre-pay mine.  When I book a cruise, I always add the cost of the gratuities.  If the price for them goes prior to the cruise, my cost is locked-in.

[d9704011]

I pre-pay just to have the expense out of the way.  Exception.... if I have a significant amount of OBC, I will let them take the grats out of that pot while I'm onboard.

[Hadacareer]

I prepay, one less thing to worry about!

[KateQ22003]

I prepay because it makes the final bill have less line items, which makes it easier to spot mistakes.

[ziggyuk]

I normally prepay to lock in the price and avoid the annual price increase but right now with the current situation, I'm paying on my ships account as there's too much uncertainty right now, better in my pocket for the time being.

[Jonslola]

I also prepay my gratuities, as previous posters have said, it's nice to have one less thing to worry about. 

[latebloomer56]

We generally pre-pay but when we have OBC we use this. I like this feature because we have less of a balance to pay after the trip.

[tony s]

We never do as the one time we did the service was beyond horrible. We pay at end and usually add extra

[Hadacareer]

6 minutes ago, tony s said:

We never do as the one time we did the service was beyond horrible. We pay at end and usually add extra

We had one cruise where the service was terrible, I went down to comment and right away they credited our account ..no issues..I was very surprised..I think they had a lot of complaints that cruise

[SSFun]

We prepay for the same reasons listed above. One less thing to pay for while on the ship and lock in the price. We have had great service on our cruises. Every once in a while we get a crew member that is not so great but we try to write it off as a bad day for that person. Definitely have never had such poor service throughout an entire cruise so as to not want to pay the gratuities. We actually usually tip on the ship as well if we are getting good service from certain crew members. Can't wait to get back on the ship!

[Oakman58]

We prepay just to get it out of the way and lock in the price of the DSC.

[MsTabbyKats]

1 hour ago, KateQ22003 said:

I prepay because it makes the final bill have less line items, which makes it easier to spot mistakes.

Ditto

[julig22]

3 hours ago, d9704011 said:

I pre-pay just to have the expense out of the way.  Exception.... if I have a significant amount of OBC, I will let them take the grats out of that pot while I'm onboard.

 I thought you couldn't use obc (at least the nonrefundable) for gratuities?

[All-ready2cruise]

10 minutes ago, julig22 said:

 I thought you couldn't use obc (at least the nonrefundable) for gratuities?

You are correct, depending who gives you the OBC. If it's from NCL, it's a no. If it's a TA it is likely ok to use for the DSC/Gratuities.  

[roger001]

Pay now or pay later.  Just a personal decision.  No difference.  I pay later.  

[JamieLogical]

I usually pay a couple weeks before we sail just to get it out of the way, unless I read about an upcoming price hike. I have never waited to pay them onboard.

[TrumpyNor]

Always prepaying, for same reasons as other have listed. 

Edited June 22, 2021 by TrumpyNor

[ChiefMateJRK]

2 hours ago, roger001 said:

Pay now or pay later.  Just a personal decision.  No difference.  I pay later.  

That makes two of us (and I believe based upon this thread that we are in a very small minority).  The only time I prepaid is when there was an imminent price increase between final payment date and sail date.

[julig22]

Since I now have to pre-pay excursions, I won't be pre-paying gratuities because (fingers crossed) my intent is to have guest services refund excursion expenses to my account so I can use OBC.  Then the refunded money would pay gratuities.

 

[ggTexasGal]

@julig22

Per the following NCL Terms and Conditions,

https://www.ncl.com/termsandconditions/promotions

 

Unless you (or NCL) cancel pre-booked excursion(s), you would NOT receive any OBC, because you pay the fully discounted (Up to $50 excursion credit and/or any Platinum Discount) upfront when booking!  

Edited June 22, 2021 by ggTexasGal
added info

[Jamesatgsu]

2 hours ago, All-ready2cruise said:

You are correct, depending who gives you the OBC. If it's from NCL, it's a no. If it's a TA it is likely ok to use for the DSC/Gratuities.  

I didn't know that. It makes sense, but doesn't work that way on Carnival. I assumed it would be the same. 

[All-ready2cruise]

3 minutes ago, Jamesatgsu said:

I didn't know that. It makes sense, but doesn't work that way on Carnival. I assumed it would be the same. 

Yeah, many pax are surprised by this info, however, don't get Carnival and NCL confused.  Other than the fact that they both have cruise ships... other things can be quite different.  

Enjoy your cruise. 

[julig22]

10 minutes ago, ggTexasGal said:

@julig22

Per the following NCL Terms and Conditions,

https://www.ncl.com/termsandconditions/promotions

 

Unless you (or NCL) cancel pre-booked excursion(s), you would NOT receive any OBC, because you pay the fully discounted (Up to $50 excursion credit and/or any Platinum Discount) upfront when booking!  

I think you misunderstood.  I have OBC that I want to use to pay for my excursions.  In the past, you just reserved your excursions and could use OBC to pay for them.  Now that you have to pre-pay, the only way to use OBC for excursions is to either wait until you are onboard and book then or, as I hope to do, refund my payment once onboard so I can use existing OBC.

[Two Wheels Only]

I have a question.....

 

I've never bid but if I was booked in a non-suite and pre-paid the DSC, what would happen if I won my bid for the Haven? Would I pay the difference or am I covered by what I pre-paid?