Prepaid Gratuities

[YHZcruiser]

We were offered prepaid gratuities as an incentive for booking. I am curious as to how things should then work on the ship. Are we still expected to provide some kind of tip to room stewards and other staff or does staff know ahead of time?

 

If they've already been paid, then I am assuming I should not have to worry too much about it.

 

Any thoughts?

[Jancruz]

We were offered prepaid gratuities as an incentive for booking. I am curious as to how things should then work on the ship. Are we still expected to provide some kind of tip to room stewards and other staff or does staff know ahead of time?

 

If they've already been paid, then I am assuming I should not have to worry too much about it.

 

Any thoughts?

 

The staff has no idea..and it is up to you whether or not you give any extra tips..I usually do if the service is very good

Jancruz1

[Verity]

On Celebrity the staff is given a print out of the prepaid tips. We also received prepaid gratuities as an incentive for our Azamara cruise. If someone gives us exceptional service, we give them more in tips but we never feel pressured or obligated to do so. Sometimes we don't give them more. It just depends.

[BJC]

It is interesting that you have indicated that prepaid Gratuities are an incentive, as we have prepaid G’s in Australia as part of the Cruise Price, mostly because we don’t “Tip” in Australia, however they are paid by us as part of the price, hope that it does represent a real savings incentive for you and not a bit of a con job!:(

Where we have prepaid we too are used to having Celebrity hand out the envelopes with the note inside saying that we had prepaid, and like many if we had received exceptional service we put in a little more.

However if I understand correctly with Azamara we were told that the Gratuities were to be automatically added to your shipboard account, so as such it is the same as prepaid as far as the distribution is concerned, whether or not they give you the envelopes or not I don’t know.

Sorry but this whole Gratuities business is so foreign to most Australians that it just smacks of Cruise lines not paying their staff a reasonable wage and having the punters top it up by way of Gratuities, it just seems so wrong, but hey that’s what you get with living in an egalitarian society.;)

Regards, BJC

[tgg]

BJC,

 

There are no envelopes on Azamara. If your travel agent prepays your gratuities (which is essentially just a small discount on the cruise fare), you will see a credit for that amount on your shipboard account. If gratuities have not been prepaid, that amount will be added to that same account and you will have to pay it at the end of the cruise along with the rest of your bill. Some people feel the need to tip on top of that amount, many others don't.

[Verity]

BJC,

 

There are no envelopes on Azamara. If your travel agent prepays your gratuities (which is essentially just a small discount on the cruise fare), you will see a credit for that amount on your shipboard account. If gratuities have not been prepaid, that amount will be added to that same account and you will have to pay it at the end of the cruise along with the rest of your bill. Some people feel the need to tip on top of that amount, many others don't.

 

Thank you for explaining how Azamara handles this. I agree with BJC about the cruiselines not paying their employees a living wage. Whenever we cruise, we automatically prepay our gratuities because I could not tolerate thinking someone was doing something for us as a slave. We just consider the gratuities as part of the cost of our cruise. Someone on another thread suggested buying international calling cards to give someone who has gone over and beyond what is expected. However, I honestly never feel that I have to tip additionally. My husband and I always pick up after ourselves so it's very easy to clean our room. We are not demanding people and rarely ask for anything. The people in Iceland feel the same way as the people in Australia. Tips are not expected because they are paid a living wage.

[Napi's Mom]

Gratuities are just added to onboard account...so if you have a credit it will be deducted from that and go into a "pool" for all waiters, stewards(butlers) and share alike, Unless this would be a simple gratuities prepay, then they would just put your contibution into the "pool". If paying yourselves...you did have choice when we were aboard first day or so to request not to have it added to account, so that you could "adjust" the amount if very displeased with service I guess!

When we got a $200 spa credit I had no wish to avail myself of spa massages etc. So I bought the products (Shampoo etc) we had supplied to cabin from the spa...it costs a fortune 5 bottles took up the whole $200 ! Otherwise I understand you can "buy" the use of the spa thassalotherapy (SP?) pool for the cruise either daily charge or full trip!