Jump to content

Funny ES Question w/Prepaid Gratuities…


hschlink

Recommended Posts

Hey All,

We booked our Legend cruise for 4/22/2012 a year ago and pre-paid our gratuities ($10 pp/day = $140).

This morning the cruise went down in price so I filled out the ES form to get the onboard credit. Well when I got the confirmation back I didn’t get as much onboard credit as I thought. When looking at my booking I noticed that we were now being charged the higher pre-paid gratuities ($11.50 pp/day = 161).

Does this seem right? If I call Carnival do I have a chance at reverting back to the $10/ pp/day? I know it’s not a huge amount but I feel that I should only be charged the original fee…

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The same thing happened to me. I have a back to back booked and both weeks' prices dropped a couple of weeks ago. I have gotten a small obc, but not as much as anticipated. Seems a little like the fuel surcharge a couple of years ago. They had to back out of that one, and now have a disclaimer in place to protect themselves. Anyway I decided not to argue it. At least the money is going to the crew and not CCL's pocket.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was told no...once they started the new amount everyone pays it, and if you prepaid the gratuities the difference would be on your onboard account once you boarded...this way you paid a bit more but won't have a charge waiting for you when you board.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes it happened to me too on my first ES price drop. I mentioned it to the guy on the phone but they actually screwed ours up so bad by changing the booking to Past Guest rate that we lost our FCC OBC, too. It took over an hour of being mostly on hold while he escalated to his supervisor who then they escalated it to theirs. In the end he got the ES status back on the booking and my OBC back but I forgot about the gratuities. I decided it's not worth the time and I'd more than likely tip extra anyways.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was told no...once they started the new amount everyone pays it, and if you prepaid the gratuities the difference would be on your onboard account once you boarded...this way you paid a bit more but won't have a charge waiting for you when you board.

 

The difference was not on our onboard account in January, we pre-paid and this was grandfathered in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was told no...once they started the new amount everyone pays it, and if you prepaid the gratuities the difference would be on your onboard account once you boarded...this way you paid a bit more but won't have a charge waiting for you when you board.

 

Actually anyone that prepaid the tip by the one day notice that was given was grandfathered in to the 10.00 per day per pax.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My price drop wasn't about gratuities but about gov. fees and taxes. On my 1st price drop which was the lesser amount of my price drops, my gov. fees and taxes went up. On my 2nd and 3rd price drops, my gov. fees and taxes stayed the same. It didn't make sense to me, but hey, I am still saving about $300. I would still like to know what's up with this. Did this happen to anyone else? You would think the gov. fees and taxes would have went up on the 2nd price drop. :confused:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My price drop wasn't about gratuities but about gov. fees and taxes. On my 1st price drop which was the lesser amount of my price drops, my gov. fees and taxes went up. On my 2nd and 3rd price drops, my gov. fees and taxes stayed the same. It didn't make sense to me, but hey, I am still saving about $300. I would still like to know what's up with this. Did this happen to anyone else? You would think the gov. fees and taxes would have went up on the 2nd price drop. :confused:

 

The taxes on my price drop went up as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey All,

 

We booked our Legend cruise for 4/22/2012 a year ago and pre-paid our gratuities ($10 pp/day = $140).

 

This morning the cruise went down in price so I filled out the ES form to get the onboard credit. Well when I got the confirmation back I didn’t get as much onboard credit as I thought. When looking at my booking I noticed that we were now being charged the higher pre-paid gratuities ($11.50 pp/day = 161).

 

Does this seem right? If I call Carnival do I have a chance at reverting back to the $10/ pp/day? I know it’s not a huge amount but I feel that I should only be charged the original fee…

 

as long as you prepaid before 10/31/11, you were grandfathered. yes, call carnival.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Both happened to me. I booked ES and when I submitted my first price drop it came back approved but tips went from 140 to 161 & government taxes & fees went up from 126 or 8 to 135.18. I emailed Carnival back about this. No response. I called my PVP at Carnival & was told to resubmit the form & put all this in the comments. I did. No response. I also asked John Heald. No response. I asked a carnival rep while on the phone about another matter. She said I dont know. I went to Carnival's forums & submitted this as a question under "looking for carnival assisstance" I got one reply that nicely said read the early saver rules & anytime they have to recalculate your cruise summary it will be redone with the then current taxes fees & tips. The second response said.. Its your own money they are refunding its not like your price is going up( Duh..) they applied it to your fees & I should feel lucky I didnt have to pay the increase & be more appreciative of any obc. ( I really dont think that was an actual carnival rep that made the last comment) But I was offended regardless. So I gave up. Figured I had exhausted all options. It really wasnt about the money as I had called pvp prior to all this & asked if I could give her an extra 21 for the tips that I had noticed they had gone up now & she refused saying she couldnt but I could always tip more when onboard. That the tips were correct & billed according to when I booked.

I've received several price drops since then & cringe when I submit them as I'm now fearful instead of an obc I might get a bill. Yesterday I got a price drop approved I had requested & I received 21 dollars too much. On my summary it says...Credit/Coupon $21.??????????

Soooo I'm wondering has there been enough questioning on this that they are now refunding this? Do I have a secret benefactor that gave me $21? Do I dare ask about this? Would I even get an answer if I did? I would have really just liked to have understood the right procedure vs the wrong one. Dont dare post as a thread & give all the critics another chance at blasting me for not being appreciative of the obc I receive as deserved for booking according to ES program.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...