Select Dining - Agua Class tips not charged.

I hesitate to bring this subject up again on CC as it has been so routinely discussed. We are on a Summit August Bermuda sailing booked in Agua Class. We just made our final payment and no gratuities were charged. We checked with our TA and they did not include gratuities in their agency offers. We opted for X's shipboard credit and classic drink package instead of gratuities. We intend to have many dinners in Blu or specialty restaurants, so would be better off not prepaying the gratuities that would go to MDR staff. Has Celebrity changed their mandatory tipping policy as it pertains to Agua Class?

The policy change is you are no longer required to prepay the tips for select dining. They will be charged daily to your on board account.

Thank you for your quick response. When did this change occur? We were booked on Silly in March and the tips were charged in Concierge Class.

I understood that the potion of the gratuities for dining room crew DID go mostly to the wait staff in BLU if you were Aqua Class. Is that incorrect?

We were in Aqua on Infinity a couple of weeks ago and had to prepay our gratuities. We have another couple of Aqua Class cruises booked, and as far as I'm aware, we will still need to prepay the gratuities - they are listed on our confirmation sheet, which also lists us as 'Select Dining' - the default that comes up when booking Aqua. I would be interested to know where the policy change was announced and when, as it will presumably affect our next cruise.

We were in Aqua on Infinity a couple of weeks ago and had to prepay our gratuities. We have another couple of Aqua Class cruises booked, and as far as I'm aware, we will still need to prepay the gratuities - they are listed on our confirmation sheet, which also lists us as 'Select Dining' - the default that comes up when booking Aqua. I would be interested to know where the policy change was announced and when, as it will presumably affect our next cruise.

It has been at least a few months, and if IIRC Celebrity confirmed it here. I'm certain a search of this forum will answer the when.

The tips have always been split up between the food service staff in the dining rooms, the buffets, etc. and the staff that clean your room....and maybe a few others.

They used to make you prepay your tips if you chose select dining but made a change on this as of about 2 months ago. Now, they are added to your daily folio just as they were when you had traditional dining. Yes, the tips will be paid accordingly to your servers in Blu but a portion still goes to your room stewards and other dining staff that works throughout the ship as they will still be serving you in other dining areas when Blu is not open.

Here you go:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2304665&highlight=prepaid+gratuities

The tips have always been split up between the food service staff in the dining rooms, the buffets, etc. and the staff that clean your room....and maybe a few others.

 

They used to make you prepay your tips if you chose select dining but made a change on this as of about 2 months ago. Now, they are added to your daily folio just as they were when you had traditional dining. Yes, the tips will be paid accordingly to your servers in Blu but a portion still goes to your room stewards and other dining staff that works throughout the ship as they will still be serving you in other dining areas when Blu is not open.

Thank you. I understand the splitting. I just got confused because the OP was wanting to remove the tips because they didn't want them going to MDR servers when they will be eating in BLU. So I just wanted to make sure that that portion of the tips (that would go to MDR servers if you were in the MDR) does in fact go to the equivalent servers in BLU.

I have no issue with the remainder of the dining services portion being divided among the ones in other locations I might use and the behind the scenes people. :)