Do you prepay gratuity?

[I Luv Crusin]

Two reasons I will not prepay.

1. Knowing it will be on my S&S helps curb additional spending while on the cruise.

2. Though I have not withheld auto tips to date, (was really tempted on one cruise) it is my understanding that prepaid gratuities cannot be reimbursed. If you are really unhappy with your room steward or if your waiter insulted you terribly, you would have no recourse. You already paid them.

 

We prepay and it is not refundable but IF I was unhappy my recourse would be to talk to the head of housekeeping or the dining room. Just removing tips wouldn't help. The prepaid tips are where I start and I tip more as warranted.

[chloemonkey]

What are your thoughts and what do you do?

 

We choose to prepay and then give additional to cabin steward, butler, etc. but have done it both ways......just seems easier to have the "minimum" covered and then only have to worry about the "extra" tips.

 

Now.....we have not cruised Carnival for over 5 years! So I would appreciate you experts telling me how you actually manage to PREPAY the gratuities! As I have not found it on our cruise info page....

[chill6x6]

Pre-paying gratuities....

IMO that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Who would even THINK of that other than the party RECEIVING it? How is it possible to pre-pay a gratuity when I don't yet know what kind of service I received??:confused: Sorry but it's impossible for me to understand the concept....

[dramaqueenjan]

Do i just call carnival to pre pay? Or wait until i board?

[tinkermel]

we prepaid when we made our ressie..think you'll should call cruiseline and they should add prepaid tips to your account.

and for the savers out there, i normally don't prepay anything i don't have too... it's our first cruise i thought staff would like to know we already tipped, since you pay anyways I didn't think it's a big deal to 'save my money'. is only 4day cruise.. and yes, I am prolonging payment,I paid w/my cc and that bill doesn't come til we're back..figured I'll take the airline miles on my cc . I can't wait 1 week til we cruise!

[CourtneyLovesCruising]

Well, I have on board credit from a future cruise certificate, for an amount more than our tips. So, the tips are automatically covered. I call Bon Voyage to add money to my sign and sail account.

[Surfwench]

Yes! One less thing, and the crew knows we are good guys right from the beginning. :-)

[Express Man]

Yes! One less thing, and the crew knows we are good guys right from the beginning. :-)

 

 

Thats a Old Fairy tale...They dont know. If they did and warented worse service to those whom chose to add it to the S&S card..They would probally get a reduced amount from those whom chose to pay via there S&S card thru OBC or whatever payment they chose.

[cruzsnooze]

What are your thoughts and what do you do?

 

I don't pay for services until after I receive them. If I had to cancel or was a no show for my cruise I don't care to loose money I didn't have to pay in advance.

[jasbo49]

I don't prepay the grocer for the food I anticipate buying, and I don't prepay Carnival for the tips I anticipate giving.

 

Jim

[CBCGirl]

I am not pre paying my tips. My worry with prepay is that if I receive really poor service I would have no recourse but filing a complaint, which is usually not given much attention by most companies. In an environment that tipping is expected a tip is an excellent way to get your point across. I do want to preface this by saying that I'm pretty laid back and easy to please so the likelihood of me reducing tips is highly unlikely, but I want to keep that option.

[westcruzer]

We ALWAYS pre pay our gratuities, just consider it part of the cruise fare. One less thing to pay for at cruise time:D

 

baf

 

AGREED....and pay a little extra in cash if a particular person goes above and beyond.

[Hat Pinz Guy]

AGREED....and pay a little extra in cash if a particular person goes above and beyond.

 

 

same here

 

if princess would let us do that we might would actually sail them more often

 

nothing better than getting on a ship with prepaid gratuities and onboard credits taken care of!:D

[klmorg]

same here

 

if princess would let us do that we might would actually sail them more often

 

nothing better than getting on a ship with prepaid gratuities and onboard credits taken care of!:D

 

If you're talking about pre-paying gratuities & OBC, you can do that on Princess, too.

[mrpayroll]

Do i just call carnival to pre pay? Or wait until i board?

 

If you wait till you board, it is too late to prepay....

[misstopgun]

We prepay and it is not refundable but IF I was unhappy my recourse would be to talk to the head of housekeeping or the dining room. Just removing tips wouldn't help. The prepaid tips are where I start and I tip more as warranted.

Yes I agree and the one time I was tempted, this is what I did. An officer came to my room to discuss the issues with me and the matter was resloved. (Trust me, this was highly unusual lack of service, something I had never experienced before).

 

If it hadn't been resolved, the next step would have been to remove auto tip, however, if I could not be assured that only the person causing the issue would be penalized. I would have left all intact.

[Texas_firefighter]

What are your thoughts and what do you do?

 

 

Yep, that way it isn't taken out of our onboard credit!

[maighdeanmhara]

Yes, we do. I just paid it for our December sailing- always pay it when I make the final payment. We consider it part of our cruise fare.

 

I also rack up OBC and am considering drink tickets this time around. . . not sure, though. I like to avoid that sticker shock!

[MrsJoshuaRanoni]

If you prepay, always bring a copy of your itemized receipt with you. On my last RCCL cruise I had prepaid my tips and then found them on my onboard account the last night. When I went to Guest Services to get it situated they stated they had no way of proving what I paid and that I needed to repay. This cruise, I will make sure to bring a copy of everything that was prepaid!

[Stede Bonnet]

If you prepay, always bring a copy of your itemized receipt with you. On my last RCCL cruise I had prepaid my tips and then found them on my onboard account the last night. When I went to Guest Services to get it situated they stated they had no way of proving what I paid and that I needed to repay. This cruise, I will make sure to bring a copy of everything that was prepaid!

 

Yes, I will do this too. Carnival had to mail my friend a refund earlier this year because of this issue

[Wolfie48]

What are your thoughts and what do you do?

 

DW and I have pre-paid the last couple of cruises, and now iwll never go back to the old way. ;)

[Jenny in TX]

We always pre-pay our gratuities. I like as much paid for before our cruise as possible.

[cruisecrazy82]

We always pre pay gratuities, no matter what line we are sailing on. Just one less thing to worry about :)

[nodogkisses]

I guess we're in the minority here--we never prepay our gratuities.

[livestocruisetoo]

Yes.