Booking dining question

[Salf777]

First time on Celebrity. My booking include OBC so I booked a specialty restaurant on the app. It allowed me to use my OBC in my account to reserve and pay. We might want to cancel one if we do so will we credited the OBC right away or will it be lost or are we better served waiting till we are onboard to cancel and/or change

[Arizona Wildcat]

You can cancel any time before you board.  $$ returned to your account.

We always wait until boarding as deals offered unless a holiday sailing

[jelayne]

Our recent cruises the on board deals haven’t been anything to get excited about.  Last 3 cruises some restaurants had zero availability and those that did had $5 off and late dining times.  

[gizmodog]

I wanted to book 3 specialty dinners before our cruise in January but was amazed that they wanted to add on an additional almost $50 for gratuity on top of the price. 
when did they start doing this? Usually I book on board and always leave our server an additional tip, I’m not sure I want to book on line and pay gratuity for what I was always told gratuities were included . Maybe I’m behind the times but I never knew they did that!

[Jim_Iain]

You should be able to book them using the OBC but the trick is you have to click the little button that says apply OBC. 

[jelayne]

2 hours ago, gizmodog said:

I wanted to book 3 specialty dinners before our cruise in January but was amazed that they wanted to add on an additional almost $50 for gratuity on top of the price. 
when did they start doing this? Usually I book on board and always leave our server an additional tip, I’m not sure I want to book on line and pay gratuity for what I was always told gratuities were included . Maybe I’m behind the times but I never knew they did that!

The added the gratuity about 2 months ago.  Whether you book on board or via the cruise planner you will be charged the 18% automatically. 

[gizmodog]

Thanks for your response, I knew that wasn’t charged last year. Guess if they want to add 18% and not get a cash tip it works out even. I will probably though skip the specialty. Maybe when I’m board I will change my mind.

 

[osborne66]

They added the automatic gratuity as most were getting stiffed at the Specialty Restaurant 

[Mark_T]

5 hours ago, osborne66 said:

They added the automatic gratuity as most were getting stiffed at the Specialty Restaurant 

I'm at least a little worried that it is the other-way around, we were always told that the up-charge included the gratuity, and we would usually tip extra anyway.

 

Now they are explicitly adding 18% to the charge I suspect that many who used to tip extra will stop doing that, so I hope the 18% really is going into their tip pool...

Edited July 3, 2022 by Mark_T