switch of pre-paid grats?

[petenmarion]

Has anyone recently gotten a switch of free pre-paid gratuities to a pay them yourselves before cruise to get anytime dining and then get an on board credit? What do you do with the credit if you don't buy anything?

Thanks,:(

[reallyitsmema]

This sounds like an issue with your travel agent. Not all people get free prepaid gratuities.

[Cigar King]

Why would you switch the gratuities at all. Assuming you will still pay them at the end, it would just be a wash.

[petenmarion]

The promo here is that you get pre-paid grats so 'someone' is paying them either up front or the cruiseline is deducting them from the cost up front. On way or another, the client does not have to shell out the money... when you choose anytime dining, grats must be paid with the 'final payment' in order to assure the anytime 'product'... which is fine - BUT if either the agency or the cruiseline does not absorb this benefit up front, it leaves the patron (me) to spend the same amount of the benefit (between $150-350) in 'goods on board, before 10 pm the night before disembarkation.... doesn't sound so much like a "free or pre-paid gratuity" at that point.... esp if you really can't carry what you need to buy on board to accommodate that amount of expense OR if you have already arranged ALL excursions off board by now AND you don't drink.... where else can you use up that amount of OBC... PS don't gamble either... I'm sure someone out there has used my TA and it is curious nobody has had the experience that I have..... just fishing.:eek:

[Cigar King]

OK...I'm obviously missing something, probably just another sign of old age. Here's how I see it. You get the gratuities paid. I don't see why it matters who pays them, or when. All that matters is you are not paying them. Now, if you are saying that you can not select, MTD, and have the gratuities apply, so you need to shell out for them in advance, AND you will spend zero extra dollars on the cruise so you won't use the credit, then I believe that you will get the extra refunded to your credit card. You can also go to the casino and get cash. They may charge you 3%, but, I have heard that they will waive that fee if you have a credit balance. BTW, you might also consider signing up for MTD once you are on board, then you could use your credit, since the gratuities would be paid.

[skandls]

If you don't spend a penny onboard the ship - charge your gratuities to your SeaPass account. If you want to tip extra give that in cash. Ship board credit minus 'gratuities' equals $0.

[sherilyn70]

My TA paid them upfront for me and gave me MTD. I think maybe you need to have this converasation with your agent instead about how they handle the credit.

[petenmarion]

Sherilyn,

You're absolutely correct... that was the intent and the promise. The TA was supposed to pay the grats. up front as you suggest. This issue of anytime dining came up only after I had made final payment and the fare I paid dropped by $900 for a balcony. Several weeks ago, I could have simply cancelled the booking, lost my deposit, rebooked exactly the same thing with them, and come out ahead of the game by a couple hundred dollars... but I was told IF the price of a suite drops below what I paid, they would just upgrade me from a balc. to a suite. Well, that happened and when I called to upgrade they told me it was a 'happy hour' sale only and it didn't count... so NO on that...(PS as of today, it's been a 3 day sale, quite the 'happy hour'. By the way, this pay up front my 'free, pre-paid grats' did not come up until AFTER this all happened.)

I e-mailed the TA early yesterday... asking for a recap on exactly what I have in the form of 'goodies' as they advertised when I purchased a 7 day AND 12 day BTB... and suggested that IF I have to pay the grats now on either or both - does this mean I have in fact not made 'final payment'? It took till last evening to get a response, but the head honcho did respond by retracting the pay up on the grats for the first cruise but is now contemplating the 12 day cruise... fortunately I have several cabins booked for the same cruise for other people and will KNOW if they only make ME do it.... Today is another day... as someone suggested, I can always just 'give' the $$$ away to the staff in the form of double tipping....once by way of pre-pay to the cruiseline up front and again off of the OBC... we'll see. Thanks to all for input...