Selecting Your Time Dining causes you to have to prepay gratuities? True or Not?

[highbridge5]

When I talked to my TA about changing my dining selection to Your Time dining, she warned me that this would mean that Carnival would now charge me for all the automatic gratuities ($10 by 7 days by 7 of us) at the time that I changed the selection on my reservation. I don't have a problem with paying the tip, I just have a certain budget and paying for the tip was in the cruise budget, not this month's budget.

 

Has this been anyone else's experience?

 

I understand that if you decide that your seating doesn't work for you,

you can ask to switch to Your Time dining once you are on board. Obviously, this is a one-time deal and I would not expect them to change

it every day. I'm inclined to keep my late dining and then see how it works and then switch if I need to.

 

Has anyone switched dining selections and how painful was it?

[klmorg]

We scheduled Anytime or Your Time Dining for our upcoming cruise (and CANNOT wait for that BTW), and our Carnival PVP did not mention having to prepay gratuities. I don't think your TA is giving you accurate information about that.

[cruise.freak]

I booked out cruise through a PVP and they told me anytime dining I would have to prepay tips also. Not sure how new this is but this was about a month ago.

[Guienevere_Arianette]

Just got off the ship yesterday; booked Any Time for the first time, through a TA...did not prepay grats, nor was I asked to do so...

[coachw]

I booked beginning of Sept for my cruise and i didnt "have" to pay for a my tips for anytime dining although i elected to take that option.

[psbtrvlr]

Just got off the ship yesterday; booked Any Time for the first time, through a TA...did not prepay grats, nor was I asked to do so...

 

 

Me too.

[yogi2929]

For Assigned Dining the weekly grats are always posted on the first day. I don't see why Anytime Dining would be any different.

[obnancy]

I was on Elation last week and assigned late dining. Went to the Maite' D upon boarding and nicely asked to be changed to anytime. The person in front of me was so rude to him, shouting and ranting and raving about stuff the maitre' D didn't have control over, his travel agent had screwed up.

 

When I expressed sympathy for having to deal with them, he graciously changed us to anytime. Remember to tip your Maitre' D.

[Jsme]

I am booked on 2 cruises with Carnival with ATD and no you do not have to prepay your tips. RCI requires you to do so but Carnival does not.

[Oakman]

We were on the Legend in September and chose Anytime Dining (which we loved) and were told we would have to prepay gratuities. We booked directly through Carnival. I actually like pre-paid gratuities.

[KULPN]

We switched from early dining to your time dining and were not told that.

[cruzenagain]

We have had any time dining on the past 3 cruises and are booked for any time dining on our next two cruises. We have never been asked to prepay tipping. Tipping has been added to our account the first day just like traditional seating.

[katiel53]

We just made final payment for our Dream cruise and we have Anytime Dining and did not have to pre-pay. We also have the same thing booked with Royal Caribbean and were originally told we had to pre-pay and it wasn't a problem. Then about 4-5 weeks ago, our TA called to tell us that we no longer had to pre-pay tips for Freedom of the Seas.

 

My guess is that RCI charged the pre-pay and others didn't and then others decided to and realized RCI didn't so poof gone!!! I know that other countries require pre-paid tips so the employees get tipped, but I guess I don't understand why all tips would have to be pre-paid by choosing this dining.

 

I could understand pre-paying dining room tips, but what does the cabin steward have to do with dining? Anyway, we always tip at least the minimum, and mostly tip over, so it's not a big deal to us. Enjoy!

[highbridge5]

Thank you everyone. It would appear that

 

a) like me, some were told to prepay (both on Carnival and RCL)

b) most people were not asked to prepay (both on Carnival and RCL)

c) switching during the cruise should be possible if requested nicely

 

(Of course, many things are possible if requested nicely - or at least that

is what I try to get my kids to remember about 10 times a day :D)

 

hb5

[gargoyle999]

I have 4 upcoming cruises booked with Your Time dining. 2 were booked with a TA and two booked with a PVP. No one said anything about pre-paying tips, nor do my invoices reflect having to pay for them at final payment.