Do gratuities have to be prepaid.....

We have a new agent at a travel agency we have done buisiness with before.

Today was final payment for a Vista cruise 2/19/17.

My husband just gave me the print out and the TA billed us for gratuities.

This makes no sense to me as we always have them billed on board.

Is this a new Carnival thing or the TA?

I

TA. If you want something done right, do it yourself. :)

Nope, prepay is optional.

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I thought this seemed strange. Always have gratuities added each day.

Oh my - Am I going to have a phone call with this guys boss.:eek:

We always prepay gratuities, one less thing to worry about. We also tip cash to room service, pool servers, and our room steward. Prepaying is probably more common than post paying, or paying daily, which I never heard of.

Pre-pay TOTALLY optional. Will indeed be added to your S&S account daily beginning on or about the second day on-board if not pre-paid. You may remove or adjust at Guest Services.

I have no problem with paying gratuities - and we almost always tip extra in cash directly to people.

My problem was with a TA who billed me for pre-paid gratuities,without my knowledge. Told us he was billing our credit card one amount for final payment - but he added the gratuities and so our card was billed for more.

Seems like a very bad thing for a TA to tell you you are being billed one amount and then you are billed a higher amount.

It's not the money - we will be paying one way or the other. it is the fact that a Travel Agent lied to us.:(:mad:

I thought this seemed strange. Always have gratuities added each day.

 

 

 

Oh my - Am I going to have a phone call with this guys boss.:eek:

If it was stressful for you.

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Pay now or later...same amount! They will charge it to your account if you don't pre-pay...

I have no problem with paying gratuities - and we almost always tip extra in cash directly to people.

My problem was with a TA who billed me for pre-paid gratuities,without my knowledge. Told us he was billing our credit card one amount for final payment - but he added the gratuities and so our card was billed for more.

Seems like a very bad thing for a TA to tell you you are being billed one amount and then you are billed a higher amount.

It's not the money - we will be paying one way or the other. it is the fact that a Travel Agent lied to us.:(:mad:

Recently gratuities were increased ... however, if one added them to their booking before a certain date and paid them with the final payment amount, the old rates were accepted. Perhaps your TA handled it tnat way and saved you some money ... but that does not excuse him from charging you a different amount without an explanation. Sorry, but I don't recall the deadline for the old rate ... perhaps it is in Carnival's FAQs.

How much gratuities have you paid per person per day?

We are sailing in Feb in a full suite, opted to add them to our booking before Carnival's deadline, and paid theold amount of $12 each per day.

It's not the money - we will be paying one way or the other. it is the fact that a Travel Agent lied to us.:(:mad:

Couldn't agree more. Take your mad out on the right people. In general I have found crew members are excellent and deserve tips. On the other hand being mislead always annoys me.

We have a new agent at a travel agency we have done buisiness with before.

Today was final payment for a Vista cruise 2/19/17.

 

My husband just gave me the print out and the TA billed us for gratuities.

 

This makes no sense to me as we always have them billed on board.

 

Is this a new Carnival thing or the TA?

I

Get rid of that TA.

Is it possible it was an accident and the TA hit the button unintentionally? Or maybe there was a miscommunication somewhere? For the record, pre-paid gratuities are not part of the TA's commission so it would not have benefited him. He is human and humans do make mistakes.

Call and ask what happened, but at least give him a chance to explain or realize the error before you get the firing squad lined up.

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Get rid of that TA.

Agree.

Totally optional as to when you pay them, however it seems like most folks pre-pay just so they know their true all-in cost, and are done with it.

We have a new agent at a travel agency we have done buisiness with before.

Today was final payment for a Vista cruise 2/19/17.

 

My husband just gave me the print out and the TA billed us for gratuities.

 

This makes no sense to me as we always have them billed on board.

 

Is this a new Carnival thing or the TA?

I

Absolutely not. The choice is YOURS.

We have a new agent at a travel agency we have done buisiness with before.

Today was final payment for a Vista cruise 2/19/17.

 

My husband just gave me the print out and the TA billed us for gratuities.

 

This makes no sense to me as we always have them billed on board.

 

Is this a new Carnival thing or the TA?

I

We've had that happen when we call Carnival to book and they always try and add the gratuity and insurance on. They're sneaky like that.

I tell them we will pay the tips on board and we get our own insurance.

We don't want to give Carnival another almost $300.00 in tips before it's due.

Your TA should have asked you if you wanted to pre pay or pay onboard.

Could it have been in your paperwork and you missed it?

We cruised on another line. The gratuities were scheduled to go up prior to our cruise, so we opted to pay them so we got billed at the current rate and saved some money. So that is another reason why it is a good idea sometimes.

I prefer to prepay myself. Less money to pay later. Also I know how much I can spend later for shopping after I have paid for everything.

It's understandable that Carnival tries to get that money in advance. That's potentially millions of dollars per week that they can collect interest on (or avoid paying interest on some debt) for ~10 weeks... either way they are doing better than the 0.01% we're all getting so it's non-trivial. I wonder if they can claim this on their books a quarter in advance also, since it's paid but not delivered?

What happens if pre-pay and then cancel 1 day out, or even no-show? I would assume these are fully refundable, but... :confused:

Also, note this from Carnival:

For cruises that begin in Barbados, all gratuities are pre-paid and automatically added during the booking process.

It's understandable that Carnival tries to get that money in advance. That's potentially millions of dollars per week that they can collect interest on (or avoid paying interest on some debt) for ~10 weeks... either way they are doing better than the 0.01% we're all getting so it's non-trivial. I wonder if they can claim this on their books a quarter in advance also, since it's paid but not delivered?

 

 

 

What happens if pre-pay and then cancel 1 day out, or even no-show? I would assume these are fully refundable, but... :confused:

 

 

 

Also, note this from Carnival:

Gratuities will be refunded along with taxes/port fees in the event of a noshow or cancellation.