I don't understand "prepaid gratuities" on Celebrity Silhouette!

[hulamoon]

It's my understanding to remove tips one must do it several days before the invoices are sent out. I have lined up numerous times for incorrect charges on my account, not for tips. Except once on a other line I added tips for staff. Now we do it directly for outstanding staff. Waiting for the last day is dicey, more than once the last day the person was no where to be found.

 

With open seating I believe you can ask for the same after each time and set up a fixed seating. Just because it is open doesn't mean you can't request the same staff. I recall standing in a rather long line of folks screaming at the open seating staff and watching them patiently tell one person after the other if they want to eat at a certain time they can take the reservation. So

 

In reference to the old post, it did sound old but I honestly did not catch this one. CC members are always telling people to use the search feature is his why they keep co in back I wonder.

[terrierjohn]

The reason Select Dining has pre-paid grats is because it was introduced before X started the auto tip system, so anytime diners were made to pay in advance to ensure the Select waiters were not disadvantaged.

Of course fixed diners could still "stiff" their waiters by simply not tuning up in the MDR on the last night.

But when X introduced the auto tip they still insisted that Select diners maintain the pre-paid grats., although they continue to allow fixed diners to opt out of the auto tip if they want to, however Select diners cannot get a refund no matter how much they demand it. Which seems rather perverse to me.

Not that I would ever want to opt out of paying the grats, but I would like Celebrity to allow me to pay them on my onboard account which might enable me to use my OBC, if I have enough.

[hulamoon]

Thank you TerrierJohn...I now understand how it became the unreasonable odd rule that it is. I suppose the only reason to keep it now is to control capacity in select.

[cle-guy]

What happens if you cannot cruise at the last minute? You have lost the cost of the cruise and the prepaid gratuities? :

 

If you fail to sail, only your Crusie Fare is kept.

 

You will be refunded gratuities, port fees, taxes and any other ancillary bookings you made including excursions, drink packages etc.

[cle-guy]

Isn't it really a matter of pay me now or pay me later, it's gonna get paid at some point so the net effect is ZERO...unless one is planning to stiff the staff of course,

 

Call it a tip, gratuity, service charge, whatever it is still $12 out of my pocket. Add it to the cruise fare, it's still $12 more out of my pocket, AND taken out in advance like the prepaid gratuities are. And likely results in less service levels, and likely still many people feel the need to tip so they end up double tipping!

 

Really, the only people who can complain about it are those who go into the cruise planning on not paying any gratuities, no matter what other issue they try to disguise it as such as "i tip better than that but I won't now so I'll show them (you still can leave an extra amount if you seriously are a better tipper than that, not adding more does nothing to change the way the line thinks, it just shows the server you are not a good tipper is all); "They are earning interest on my money!"; "I'm losing interest payments from my bank" - Well, my small travel savings account that has about $5,000 in it makes about 27 cents a month interest.

 

$84 gratuity (7 days) is 1.68% of my $5000, so 1.68% of my 27 cents interest over 18 months (maximum time to book a cruise) is 8 cents. So loss of interest is not really an argument....

 

Pay it accept it as a rule of the cruise much like no smoking in cabins and no irons can be brought on and only 2 bottles of wine per cabin be brought on. It's a rule/Policy is all it is.

 

I firmly believe though that only those who plan on stiffing the staff are getting hurt by this policy.

Edited August 13, 2014 by cle-guy

[terrierjohn]

I firmly believe though that only those who plan on stiffing the staff are getting hurt by this policy.

cle-guy, clearly you failed to read the last line of my post.

As a Select diner I have absolutely no problem in paying the gratuity, but I would like to have the same opportunity as the fixed diners to offset this against my OBC by paying it on my final on-board account, on the odd occasion when I have more OBC than I can drink.;)

Edited August 13, 2014 by terrierjohn

[cle-guy]

cle-guy, clearly you failed to read the last line of my post.

As a Select diner I have absolutely no problem in paying the gratuity, but I would like to have the same opportunity as the fixed diners to offset this against my OBC by paying it on my final on-board account, on the odd occasion when I have more OBC than I can drink.;)

 

touche'! Valid point here I hadn't considered.

 

I have honestly never had enough OBC that I couldn't find ways to spend it and still have to pay more before leaving.

[tootielove2cruise]

The daily "recommended" minimum gratuities include the dining room gratuities as well as gratuities for stateroom attendants and other staff. The basic gratuity is $11.50 per day per person and is slightly higher for Concierge Class cabins, Aqua Class cabins and Suites.

 

 

FYI gratuities have increased they are now:

$12 per person per day in staterooms

$12.50 per person per day in Concierge Class and AquaClass® staterooms

$15.50 per person per day in suites

[dalgirl]

Our TA promotion was prepaid gratuities, but because we opted for select dining, we have to pay the gratuity fee up front and then the TA gives us an OBC to offset our payment. This is fine for someone who will spend more than the OBC, which we do, but for someone like my mother who never spends additional on board, it would be an inconvenience.

 

I think it is dumb to ask anytime diners to pay before sailing, but not anyone else since X now has a set service charge. Knowing that this payment was originally in place before they started charging the auto service charge makes it more understandable, but no less ridiculous.

 

We are looking forward to our first X cruise and hope that the pre payment of the gratuities is the only dumb thing we encounter:cool:

[cle-guy]

Our TA promotion was prepaid gratuities, but because we opted for select dining, we have to pay the gratuity fee up front and then the TA gives us an OBC to offset our payment. This is fine for someone who will spend more than the OBC, which we do, but for someone like my mother who never spends additional on board, it would be an inconvenience.

 

I think it is dumb to ask anytime diners to pay before sailing, but not anyone else since X now has a set service charge. Knowing that this payment was originally in place before they started charging the auto service charge makes it more understandable, but no less ridiculous.

 

We are looking forward to our first X cruise and hope that the pre payment of the gratuities is the only dumb thing we encounter:cool:

 

In this case, why not ask the TA to simply pay the gratuity part of your invoice when payments are left, thus leaving you with only the fare being charged to you and no OBC to del with?

 

Multiple payment methods can be used when making payments, especially with a travel agent. I've told mine for example charge $500 to my friend, and the balance to me.

[ariawoman]

cle-guy, clearly you failed to read the last line of my post.

As a Select diner I have absolutely no problem in paying the gratuity, but I would like to have the same opportunity as the fixed diners to offset this against my OBC by paying it on my final on-board account, on the odd occasion when I have more OBC than I can drink.;)

 

The only way to circumvent this is to book fixed dining and then on board try to switch to select. Sometimes you can, sometimes you cant. :-)

[dalgirl]

We have a great TA, but they don't even post OBC until right before we sail - I am sure just in case we change our mind, can't sail, etc. We will still be ahead - I know that we will spend a lot more on board than the credit - but it is just annoying. If everyone paid, I would not be bothered, but I never liked to be singled out - it is almost like a punishment for choosing to eat when we feel like it;)

[hulamoon]

It probably wouldn't annoy me if I had not experienced great open seating without prepay on other lines. Cle-guy I respectfully disagree it is only an issue for someone wanting to stiff the staff.

 

It's annoying and a waste of manpower in explaining why to guests. It's inconsistent and there are no legitimate reasons for it with auto pay. The reason there is not as much fuss about it I think, is so many on CC have their TA's pay the Grats. Unless it is some kind of capacity control, it confuses more than delivers service.

 

Celebrity wastes manpower explaining, re explaining, all of us calling numerous times for the same issue on confusing promotions and rules. New clients should not have doubts before boarding. I would rather see that manpower go to finally delivering a professional website. It's way past time.

[Lsimon]

... The reason there is not as much fuss about it I think, is so many on CC have their TA's pay the Grats....

 

The reason that there isn't much fuss about it is isn't that most CC'ers have free gratuities but because that it's been around for several years and most people finished fussing about it years ago. Note this thread hadn't had a new post in nearly three years until yesterday and it wasn't the first.

 

I've always suspected that the real reason was system limitations on Celebrity's systems and the fact that they've never changed it. I think it was basically that it was easier for them to require the prepayment then to change the system to accommodate the changes needed for select dining and still allow on board auto pay. I think they have enough other system issues with higher priority they've been working on, or should have been working on, since this came up.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Lsimon

[cle-guy]

I've always suspected that the real reason was system limitations on Celebrity's systems and the fact that they've never changed it. I think it was basically that it was easier for them to require the prepayment then to change the system to accommodate the changes needed for select dining and still allow on board auto pay. I think they have enough other system issues with higher priority they've been working on, or should have been working on, since this came up.

 

I fully support this supposition.

 

Just look how many keystrokes they have to make to enter a free drink with drink package. should be press Vodka drink button, swipe sea pass card that identifies it as free and closes it out. They have at least 8 other keystrokes to handle the "free" drink.

 

I think they have a lot of manual processing to do actually, partly why they stop adjustments to folios 2 days out.

 

I'm a Retail guy who has implemented dozens of POS systems, I pay attention to such minute details...

[Cruise Junky]

It probably wouldn't annoy me if I had not experienced great open seating without prepay on other lines. Cle-guy I respectfully disagree it is only an issue for someone wanting to stiff the staff.

 

It's annoying and a waste of manpower in explaining why to guests. It's inconsistent and there are no legitimate reasons for it with auto pay. The reason there is not as much fuss about it I think, is so many on CC have their TA's pay the Grats. Unless it is some kind of capacity control, it confuses more than delivers service.

 

Celebrity wastes manpower explaining, re explaining, all of us calling numerous times for the same issue on confusing promotions and rules. New clients should not have doubts before boarding. I would rather see that manpower go to finally delivering a professional website. It's way past time.

 

I completely agree with you and as a Princess cruiser I thought X/RCL to be incompetent that the couldn't handle it like other lines. But to honest, I've given up, there's no point complaining, it's been like that for years now. I do wish they'd charge everyone ahead of time though to make it fair

[Cruise Raider]

Our TA promotion was prepaid gratuities, but because we opted for select dining, we have to pay the gratuity fee up front and then the TA gives us an OBC to offset our payment. This is fine for someone who will spend more than the OBC, which we do, but for someone like my mother who never spends additional on board, it would be an inconvenience.

 

I think it is dumb to ask anytime diners to pay before sailing, but not anyone else since X now has a set service charge. Knowing that this payment was originally in place before they started charging the auto service charge makes it more understandable, but no less ridiculous.

 

We are looking forward to our first X cruise and hope that the pre payment of the gratuities is the only dumb thing we encounter:cool:

 

I had never thought about this as being a hassle before but reading this has educated me. I really don't have much of a problem with them charging me ahead of time and since they are refundable, I am now, once again, totally fine with them doing this. If they weren't refundable, I would be booking the traditional seating instead and hoping they could switch me to any time dining once I am onboard.

 

Now, for using your gratuities with your onboard credit if your TA offers them to you as a free perk, this OBC is refundable and will go back onto the credit card on which you booked the cruise. They will use your non-refundable OBC first and then if anything left over from your refundable OBC, you will get that back. So, in essence, you aren't losing anything by paying for the gratuities ahead of time, even if they are a free perk.

We had free gratuities before and gotten a surprise credit back on our credit card the month after we got back home. Thought we used it all but then realized that the gratuities were paid for twice, once by us and once by the TA. If you book a cruise and the gratuities are thrown in as a perk, you will still have to pay them at final payment but it will be considered refundable OBC when onboard.

[cle-guy]

 

Now, for using your gratuities with your onboard credit if your TA offers them to you as a free perk, this OBC is refundable and will go back onto the credit card on which you booked the cruise. .

 

Genius, forgot this nuance to the OBC game!

[teecee60]

Celebrity wastes manpower explaining, re explaining, all of us calling numerous times for the same issue on confusing promotions and rules. New clients should not have doubts before boarding. I would rather see that manpower go to finally delivering a professional website. It's way past time.

 

 

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=once+upon+a+time+in+your+wildest+dreams&FORM=VIRE6#view=detail&mid=4C3E460EF2CD3925783F4C3E460EF2CD3925783F

Edited August 14, 2014 by teecee60

[hulamoon]

Haha TeeCee60..,,I dare to dream, the impossible dream...;)

[dkjretired]

I fully support this supposition.

 

Just look how many keystrokes they have to make to enter a free drink with drink package. should be press Vodka drink button, swipe sea pass card that identifies it as free and closes it out. They have at least 8 other keystrokes to handle the "free" drink.

 

I think they have a lot of manual processing to do actually, partly why they stop adjustments to folios 2 days out.

 

I'm a Retail guy who has implemented dozens of POS systems, I pay attention to such minute details...

 

Agree,look how screwed up their Blu dining arrangements are handled, you almost have to pick the opposite of what you want. Apparently their internal systems are as screwed up as the web site.

[CruisingChick]

The daily "recommended" minimum gratuities include the dining room gratuities as well as gratuities for stateroom attendants and other staff. The basic gratuity is $11.50 per day per person and is slightly higher for Concierge Class cabins, Aqua Class cabins and Suites.

 

Larry basic gratuities are now $12 per person per day.

 

Not exactly sure when it went in to effect, but it was there on our Summit cruise to Bermuda May 25th.

 

Here's what it says on Celebrity's web-site:

 

How are gratuities handled onboard?

For your convenience, we automatically add gratuities for your restaurant and stateroom services to your onboard SeaPass® account on a daily basis in the following amounts, which may be adjusted at your discretion:

• $12 per person per day in staterooms

• $12.50 per person per day in Concierge Class and AquaClass® staterooms

• $15.50 per person per day in suites

Edited August 14, 2014 by CruisingChick

[Adidas4fun]

Larry basic gratuities are now $12 per person per day.

 

Not exactly sure when it went in to effect, but it was there on our Summit cruise to Bermuda May 25th.

 

Here's what it says on Celebrity's web-site:

 

How are gratuities handled onboard?

For your convenience, we automatically add gratuities for your restaurant and stateroom services to your onboard SeaPass® account on a daily basis in the following amounts, which may be adjusted at your discretion:

• $12 per person per day in staterooms

• $12.50 per person per day in Concierge Class and AquaClass® staterooms

• $15.50 per person per day in suites

Take a look at the date of Larrys post that you have quoted - sept 2011

[CruisingChick]

Take a look at the date of Larrys post that you have quoted - sept 2011

 

WOW! Thanks for pointing that out. Obviously I didn't realize this was an old thread. Why do all these old threads keep popping up?

[cruisestitch]

This brings up, again, why it would be advantageous for Cruise Critic to lock old threads - so people can't resurrect them, complete with their out-of-date information. Time marches on…...