Cruise Cash for Gratutities, or Pay Now?

[jvitatoe26]

Hello! I will be on the Valor in May, booked Early Saver and am already paid in full. I have a quick question that I am hoping someone can help me with. I dont really use credit cards and I was hoping to avoid carrying a lot of cash or using my debit card for S&S. Does anyone know if I can purchase cruise cash to cover my gratuities?

 

Also, does anyone know if I can just call in to Carnival and pay for the gratutities now, or the Steakhouse now? I wasnt given the option of paying when I made the reservation.

 

Thank you so much!

[firefly333]

You had the option of prepaying tips when you booked, so there must be something online you didnt see or your TA or PVP didnt know you wanted to prepay.

 

I dont know how far out you can still prepay, but call and ask whomever you booked with.

 

I would prepay before I would go thru a bunch of rigamaroll buying OBC.

[taszmom]

You can prepay your gratuities now. Did you not complete the online check-in yet? Part of that is setting up your Sail & Sign account and you can state cash. You have to put down a cash deposit $100-$350, depends on length of cruise. I also believe you can pre-book the steakhouse now and they charge your credit/debit card now for it.

[jvitatoe26]

You can prepay your gratuities now. Did you not complete the online check-in yet? Part of that is setting up your Sail & Sign account and you can state cash. You have to put down a cash deposit $100-$350, depends on length of cruise. I also believe you can pre-book the steakhouse now and they charge your credit/debit card now for it.

 

Hello! I did initially (at booking) have the option to pay gratuities but did not. I have reserved steakhouse but there was no option to pay online nor when I received my confirmation. Also, I have completed online check in, no place to pay them now unless I missed it somehow. I'll double check :)

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[violetsmile]

Hello! I will be on the Valor in May, booked Early Saver and am already paid in full. I have a quick question that I am hoping someone can help me with. I dont really use credit cards and I was hoping to avoid carrying a lot of cash or using my debit card for S&S. Does anyone know if I can purchase cruise cash to cover my gratuities?

 

Also, does anyone know if I can just call in to Carnival and pay for the gratutities now, or the Steakhouse now? I wasnt given the option of paying when I made the reservation.

 

Thank you so much!

 

 

Honestly, I'd wait a little while before deciding what to do. I have always elected to pre-pay my gratuities (ok, "always" being a whopping 3 cruises :o), and this time, I regret it. I'm sitting at $560 OBC from being booked ES, and some is refundable, some isn't. I wish I hadn't prepaid, because then I could use nonrefundable OBC to pay for them! So, if I were you, I'd sit tight and see if there are any price drops. If there are, they'll cover your gratuities. If there aren't, I'm pretty sure you can just call Carnival and pay them ahead of time over the phone with a debit card. As someone who uses a credit card for everything (I mean EVERYTHING...and yes, I pay it off every month, and enjoy the cash back I get out out it), I'm not sure how you booked your cruise to begin with, but if you did it over the phone with a PVP, you should be able to call them and pay for gratuities the same way.

[jvitatoe26]

Honestly, I'd wait a little while before deciding what to do. I have always elected to pre-pay my gratuities (ok, "always" being a whopping 3 cruises :o), and this time, I regret it. I'm sitting at $560 OBC from being booked ES, and some is refundable, some isn't. I wish I hadn't prepaid, because then I could use nonrefundable OBC to pay for them! So, if I were you, I'd sit tight and see if there are any price drops. If there are, they'll cover your gratuities. If there aren't, I'm pretty sure you can just call Carnival and pay them ahead of time over the phone with a debit card. As someone who uses a credit card for everything (I mean EVERYTHING...and yes, I pay it off every month, and enjoy the cash back I get out out it), I'm not sure how you booked your cruise to begin with, but if you did it over the phone with a PVP, you should be able to call them and pay for gratuities the same way.

 

Hi! Thanks for the tip! I think I will sit tight, maybe I will get lucky :)

 

Also, I paid with a debit card. I pay everything with a debit card lol, Im the kind of person who will buy a pack of gum with my debit card. I have never really been a big credit card user and I have debit cards for all of our accounts, including savings accts. I have one cc, but the pre cruise rental car and hotel holds will take a chunk out of the limit. Haha, and of course I pre-paid the car and the room with a debit card!

[taszmom]

You need to call CCL and tell them you want to pre-pay your gratuities and you can do it the week /few days before you sail. Why not use your debit card for the sail & sign account instead of carrying that much cash around?

[jvitatoe26]

You need to call CCL and tell them you want to pre-pay your gratuities and you can do it the week /few days before you sail. Why not use your debit card for the sail & sign account instead of carrying that much cash around?

 

I originally had planned on doing that but then read somewhere ob here that the initial credit auth / hold for debit cards can be as high as $200 x how many nights the cruise is, so in our case that's $1400. I also read that daily there is another credit auth/hold, for the total amt of every charge you have made to your S&S that day and then at the end its a separate transaction for the total amount due and the holds may not be released for up to two weeks after. Maybe someone can verify this??

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[maryred]

I originally had planned on doing that but then read somewhere ob here that the initial credit auth / hold for debit cards can be as high as $200 x how many nights the cruise is, so in our case that's $1400. I also read that daily there is another credit auth/hold, for the total amt of every charge you have made to your S&S that day and then at the end its a separate transaction for the total amount due and the holds may not be released for up to two weeks after. Maybe someone can verify this??

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

Somebody gave you the wrong information. Here's a copy and paste from Carnival's FAQ page

"How is my credit card charged?

During embarkation, when your credit card is swiped, an initial hold of $75 (for cruises 5 days or less) or $100 (for cruises 6 days or more). Then, throughout the voyage incremental holds will be obtained as needed. You should know, this will reduce the amount of available credit on the credit card or restrict the availability of cash in the checking/debit account. Authorization hold releases to your account is entirely up to your issuing bank.

 

All charges will be automatically billed at the end of the voyage. On the final morning of the cruise, a statement detailing all purchases made with your Sail & Sign card will be delivered to your stateroom. If you made a cash deposit and there is an overpayment at the end of the cruise, you will receive the overpayment in the form of a check, attached to the detailed statement received on the final morning of the cruise.

 

Cash Deposit:

U.S. Currency and Traveler's Checks may be used to open your Sail & Sign Account. Once on board, please visit our Guest Services Desk who will gladly assist you in opening your account. Throughout the cruise, as you approach the deposit limit, our Guest Services Desk will notify you that additional money must be deposited.

 

"Recommended" deposits per sailing duration:

2-4 day cruises: $100 USD deposit pp

5-8 day cruises: $200 USD deposit pp

9+ day cruises: $350 USD deposit pp"

 

Just to try to clarify what they mean by "incremental holds will be obtained as needed", they may send a another hold request that is equal to the amount spent on the previous day when you fund you S&S account solely by debit/credit card. So if you go ahead on the first day and book 3 excursions @ $100 each for 2 people ($600 total) you could have a second hold request for $600 in addition to the initial hold. Then on the 2nd day you decide that the Cheers program fits your bar spending and that adds another $692 (for 2 people on a 7 day cruise) that could trigger a 3rd hold placed against the card for $690 (they round to the nearest $5 mark). AT this point you may have the possibility of $1390 being held against your debit/credit account and you have yet to reach a single port. The reason I say possibly is because some banks and some credit card companies do not hold a pending charge against your available funds or credit line while others do, but this decision is completely up to the financial institution issuing the card as well as how long the hold will appear in your pending transaction file. (Call your bank or credit card company for their latest terms of use.) But conversely if you purchase things on board sparingly you may never have an additional hold placed but it is a gamble that you will not fall for some of the hard sell tactics that all cruise lines present for certain areas like the Spa and gift shops.

Personally I have found the best way to avoid the "incremental holds" is to have a mixed backing for the S&S account, such as starting with a debit or credit card but waiting until the lines at Guest Services or the kiosks are short then add actual cash (or traveler's checks) to the account. Also paying up front prior to embarkation for as much of the big $$$ items such as excursions, spa treatments, and auto-gratuities tends to lower the chance or amount placed as additional pending holds against the card or a need to carry lots of cash to fund the account. These actions can mostly be be accomplished up to 1 week prior to boarding

 

Other options you have if you know in general what you will spend on board are the Carnival Gift Card and the new Crui$e Ca$h options, if not wanting to have to carry a lot of cash or risk holds against your card. You purchase these prior to boarding, though only the Crui$e Ca$h is automatically applied to your S&S account.

Personally I don't like the Crui$e Ca$h concept for 1 simple reason, it is use it this cruise or lose it, so if you over purchase the credits there is no refund if not used in it's entirety on a single booking #. With the Carnival Gift Card there is more flexibility as it can actually be used to pre-book (Carnival) excursions prior to sailing, use it to order items in Gifts and Service, or pre-pay the auto-gratuities, as well as used to provide funds for your S&S account (you do need to deposit the funds much the same way as cash). What makes it better than the Crui$e Ca$h is any funds not used towards a single voyage are either still on the original card or if you do over deposit from the Gift Card to the S&S account it will be refunded as a new Gift Card. Then the balance left on the gift card can be used to book another cruise or given as a gift (or sold) to some one else sailing w/ Carnival .

[jvitatoe26]

Thank you for all of this information!!! I think what we will do is purchase our excursion pre cruise and purchase cruise cash to cover the spa treatment Im planning on and steakhouse reservations. We will also pre pay our gratuities over the phone with carnival. This still leaves us with $120 OBC and then we can deposit a couple hundred bucks each and go from there, and if we need to switch to debit card hold mid cruise we can do that then.

 

Here's another question for you...how much cash do you bring for ports?? How do you travel safely with your cash?? We have 5 ports and need cash for taxis, chair rentals, drinks etc

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[Ksea1961]

I plan on $75 pp for port days for food, drinks or souveniers and tips. I bring the credit card too in case we find something more expensive. I have a cross body travel bag to hold the cash, card, IDs, tickets, etc. I leave the rest of our cash and another credit card in the safe in the cabin just in case. I think I will make copies of our ID's this year and leave those in the safe too. I do not take our passports off the ship.

[Gemynii]

Cash Deposit:

U.S. Currency and Traveler's Checks may be used to open your Sail & Sign Account. Once on board, please visit our Guest Services Desk who will gladly assist you in opening your account. Throughout the cruise, as you approach the deposit limit, our Guest Services Desk will notify you that additional money must be deposited.

 

"Recommended" deposits per sailing duration:

2-4 day cruises: $100 USD deposit pp

5-8 day cruises: $200 USD deposit pp

9+ day cruises: $350 USD deposit pp"

 

We don't have a bank account or credit card, just pre-paid cards, so we used cash on our cruise. As stated in the post by maryred, they have a recommended deposit amount, but it is not required. All of our excursions were already paid and we boarded with only $230 OBC on our account (3 pax, 5 days). One time during the cruise, we had to go to guest services because our balance was low (after gratuities were charged), so we just put another $100 down. *You can actually pay onto your account as you need it.* We ended up getting a $43 check the last morning. Obviously, the amount you need will depend on how much you plan on spending. BTW, Guest Services did not contact us when our balance was low, we just couldn't use our S&S.

 

On port days, we took $200 cash with us and left the rest locked in the safe.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using Tapatalk HD

[jvitatoe26]

Thanks for all the information! Its really helpful! This next question may not apply if you depart from US, but do just use an ATM near port or do you travel via plane with your cash? We have two flights into San Juan and then have two days there pre cruise so Im concerned more abt keeping cash safe through our travels and in the hotel. Any tips??

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[cruzinlisa]

Here's another question for you...how much cash do you bring for ports?? How do you travel safely with your cash?? We have 5 ports and need cash for taxis, chair rentals, drinks etc

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

It depends on whether we have a prepaid excursion booked or not. If we have an excursion booked and paid for, then I budget around $50 per port for souveniers and snacks/drinks (we usually do not eat a full meal). If we have something booked that is pay when you arrive or we don't have anything planned, then $100 to $125 per port (or more, depending on what I plan to do). I usually bring a few small envelopes with me and when I arrive, I put the money in the evelope for each port. Then when it comes time to go, I only take what I need. Sometimes if I have left over from one port, I will put it into the next port.