advantage to including gratuities in original booking?

Even if prepaid, you can lower them if necessary. Prepaying doesn't change that.

I didn't say you couldn't

I didn't say you couldn't

True, but in my opinion you insinuated it with the following statement.

I'm in the Pre-pay group. I like to have it out of the way. I can't think of any reason I would want to lower them as someone mentioned so that isn't an issue to me.

I wanted others who may not know to know for sure that prepaying didn't matter when it comes to raising or lowering one's gratuities.

I opted to prepay. It's just one less thing I have to worry about later.

I want as much prepaid upfront as possible.

I want as much prepaid upfront as possible.

Where you save the most is prepaying your mortgage ;)

Where you save the most is prepaying your mortgage ;)

Better yet, pay cash for your house and forgo the mortgage completely. But that really has nothing to do with cruising. ;)

Same here. We started prepaying our tips when we got off the Glory with a $19.57 balance on our sail and sign account. We had a huge amount of OBC that would have been cut in half if we had not prepaid. We tried it at our PVP's suggestion and have done it ever since. It's not a matter of worrying whether we can pay. I get immense satisfaction when these things are taken care of beforehand and we get to use all our OBC on things that we enjoy.

I don't understand why topics like this come up. You have to pay them, so who cares when?

 

I owe the IRS $500. Who cares if I pay it today or wait until 4/15, I still have to pay it.

We always prepay. There is nothing that any team member could really do to have us reduce tips. They all work hard. Service would pretty much have to be totally non existent.

On my next cruise, it's 3 people in the cabin, and I did not prepay, i told the virgin cruiser that he would have to pay his own tips. but on my upcoming back2 back, I prepaid, just so once on board, my 100 OBC can be used for fruity NA drinks, and I have no worries about what I may or may not have to pay. I want it done and out of the way! do a smooth cruise.:)

One might prepay if the cruise is a gift for one or more passengers

Where you save the most is prepaying your mortgage ;)

That's a good point. It probably doesn't matter whether you prepay or not for most people and is just a matter of personal preference. But if you have balances on high interest credit cards then it would be really stupid to prepay gratuities instead of paying those balances off as quickly as possible!

Where you save the most is prepaying your mortgage ;)

My house is mortgage free, but thanks for the tip. 😉

That's a good point. It probably doesn't matter whether you prepay or not for most people and is just a matter of personal preference. But if you have balances on high interest credit cards then it would be really stupid to prepay gratuities instead of paying those balances off as quickly as possible!

OMG.....and if you have a car loan it's really really stupid to prepay your grats as well.....get that car loan paid off first!!!! :eek:

Then again, if one's finances are that tight they probably shouldn't be going on a cruise to begin with as the cost of the cruise will do more good paying off loans than the little bit from gratuities. ;)

We understand, YOU don't want to pay early and that's fine. But stop coming up with outlandish reasons to try and make others follow in your footsteps. If someone wants to pay early, that's good. If someone wants to wait till they leave the ship, that's good as well.

Wow...this thread has gone beyond nuts from the OP's simple question!! Good thing the OP did not ask about paying the cruise off early..ya know..before the due date. I can only imagine the financial unrest THAT request would have caused!!

Wow...this thread has gone beyond nuts from the OP's simple question!! Good thing the OP did not ask about paying the cruise off early..ya know..before the due date. I can only imagine the financial unrest THAT request would have caused!!

You've been around here long enough. This is par for the course.

You've been around here long enough. This is par for the course.

lol!! Yep, absolutely 110% is.

OMG.....and if you have a car loan it's really really stupid to prepay your grats as well.....get that car loan paid off first!!!! :eek:

 

Then again, if one's finances are that tight they probably shouldn't be going on a cruise to begin with as the cost of the cruise will do more good paying off loans than the little bit from gratuities. ;)

 

We understand, YOU don't want to pay early and that's fine. But stop coming up with outlandish reasons to try and make others follow in your footsteps. If someone wants to pay early, that's good. If someone wants to wait till they leave the ship, that's good as well.

It's not an outlandish reason just because you disagree with it and quite frankly I could care less when you pay your gratuities but the thread asked an opinion and I stated mine. I have as much right to state my opinion is you have to state yours. And if for some reason someone did consider a point that I brought up to make good common sense why would you object if they decided to imitate my actions? Some people would never get to go on a vacation if they pay off every loan before booking a vacation! But when you're talking about an action that makes absolutely no difference in your life such as whether to pay a charge that is not actually due yet as opposed to waiting until a little later date and instead paying off a high interest credit card balance so that you lower your interest expense in the interim that's a different story.

I don't understand all this worrying everyone does over what their final will look like.

 

The day I decide to book the cruise, I have the money. Maybe that is the difference. I don't thunk gee, I better use this money to pay for tips instead of having to worry about where the money will come from to pay the tips after the cruise.

 

If I pay it now our pay it later, the money is there. No reason to try to juggle it.

 

I don't care when you pay it, it just puzzles me how many post say they do it do so they don't have to worry about it later.

 

 

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For me, I save as I go to pay for my cruise and excursions.

Unlike some of you who have no debt, I do.

Should I not travel? Probably, but I'm not going to spend my time not enjoying life.

I make sure my debts are paid, money in my savings for a rainy day, and any trips I plan are saved for.

Additionally, the only thing that gets paid for upfront is my cruise deposit; the balance, which includes the gratuity, is paid by final payment.

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It's not an outlandish reason just because you disagree with it and quite frankly I could care less when you pay your gratuities but the thread asked an opinion and I stated mine. I have as much right to state my opinion is you have to state yours. And if for some reason someone did consider a point that I brought up to make good common sense why would you object if they decided to imitate my actions? Some people would never get to go on a vacation if they pay off every loan before booking a vacation! But when you're talking about an action that makes absolutely no difference in your life such as whether to pay a charge that is not actually due yet as opposed to waiting until a little later date and instead paying off a high interest credit card balance so that you lower your interest expense in the interim that's a different story.

<facepalm>