What is the reason for prepaid gratuities on select dining?

[Lsimon]

Is that true? It's easy to move to Select from traditional? The worst that could happen to us would be to get stuck with early seating!

 

There have definitely been cruises where select was full and they were not allowing people to change to it. I think it would be a huge mistake to sign up for a dining time that wouldn't be acceptable to you with plans to change later.

[Starry Eyes]

Best solution is to take an assigned early seating which is in high demand with a wait list. When you board you can easily change to select dining and then you get your dining preference and haven't had to prepay so you could use the OBC. it works for us.

 

That seems like a reasonable solution if and only if you'd be happy enough potentially staying in early seating.

 

I have certainly been on many cruises where early seating was in high demand. So imagine a cruise where early dining is in very, very high demand....Of course there is an early seating waitlist, and many of those people took Select dining as their second choice. Since early dining preference is very, very strong on that certain cruise, select dining also has waitlist though late seating is wide open. I am not sure every single MadreD would skip the Select dining waitlist to move somebody from early to select; Some likely would, others might not. So you could wind up having to sticking with early or moving to late.

 

Now let's run the contrary scenario. The ship happens has a very large contingent that dines late that week (younger people, a large group(s), certain nationalities, whatever)....So late dining is oversubscribed in this example. And Select dining, too, is full with a waitlist in this example. Early dining then has plenty of openings...if that is what you booked, you'll likely stay in early dining as the other options are oversubscribed.

[dkjretired]

I have to admit that I am another one of those people who doesn't get it. I have no issues with paying gratuities so it's not a case of "I don't want to tip." Many times I have onboard credit that I would like to use for gratuities but can't if they must be prepaid.

 

Several people have said that you have to prepay because you might get a different waiter each night and it makes it easier for Celebrity to disperse the gratuities by having them in advance. That would only hold true if Celebrity knew in advance which waiter would be serving you each day. I don't believe that is the case. Unless you make advance reservations, how would Celebrity what time you will show up at the dining room or if you will show up at all? I have opted to eat in the buffet a few times.

 

If you don't prepay your gratuities, Celebrity automatically adds the charge to your Seapass account each day. You have to stop by guest relations if you want the amount adjusted. It seems like Celebrity could do that for passengers with Select dining as well as for those with traditional. If you have prepaid your gratuities but want to add more for some people, you can do that by stopping by guest relations.

 

When I sailed on Silhouette last year, I wanted to book Select dining because we didn't plan to eat in the MDR and didn't want to hold places at a table we weren't going to use. Select dining was fully booked when I inquired and just to get our names added to the waiting list, we had to prepay our gratuities. We were not assigned to Select dining prior to boarding. It seems like they could change their system so you only have to prepay if you are assigned to Select.

 

We had a fabulous cabin steward and I was able to add additional gratuities for him to my Seapass account even though I had prepaid the standard gratuity amount. Since we didn't eat a single meal in the MDR, I didn't add any additional gratuities for those unknown waiters. We added tips to each of our specialty restaurant bills for those waiters since I wasn't sure if they received any of the gratuity amount we had prepaid for waiters. We also left some cash on the table the two evenings that we ate in the buffet.

 

It would be nice if Celebrity make prepaying of gratuities optional. That would allow those who want to prepay them to do so but allow those of us who would like to use OBC for gratuities to do that. I guess as others have said, Celebrity (and their sister line, Royal Caribbean) has a policy that gratuities must be prepaid and we either have to live with that or take our business elsewhere.

 

They don't know which waiter you have each night in select dining so they pool the tips. They are not pooled in traditional, thus the difference.

[kyriecat]

To make sure I am understanding this correctly since the answer above is a little brief, the reason Celebrity says select dining passengers have to prepay their tips and traditional dining passengers don't is because the tips for select dining are pooled and traditional aren't. Does it really take over two months (prepaid gratuities are due with final payment for select dining) for Celebrity to figure out how to distribute the gratuities among the waiter pool?

 

If that is really their answer, my response is buy a better payroll accounting program or hire compentant accountants. A payroll subroutine should be able to distribute the tips appropriately in the blink of an eye without affecting timing of the pay checks. Other cruiselines have figured it out.

 

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised when I read about the number of errors on Seapass accounts.

[jagoffee]

To make sure I am understanding this correctly since the answer above is a little brief, the reason Celebrity says select dining passengers have to prepay their tips and traditional dining passengers don't is because the tips for select dining are pooled and traditional aren't. Does it really take over two months (prepaid gratuities are due with final payment for select dining) for Celebrity to figure out how to distribute the gratuities among the waiter pool?

 

If that is really their answer, my response is buy a better payroll accounting program or hire compentant accountants. A payroll subroutine should be able to distribute the tips appropriately in the blink of an eye without affecting timing of the pay checks. Other cruiselines have figured it out.

 

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised when I read about the number of errors on Seapass accounts.

 

The fact that Select dining tips cannot be removed under any circumstances is probably the most significant factor.

[FLACRUISER99]

The fact that Select dining tips cannot be removed under any circumstances is probably the most significant factor.

I agree 100% with this statement!!

[Lsimon]

The fact that Select dining tips cannot be removed under any circumstances is probably the most significant factor.

 

It may be a systems issue...

 

While no one knows the actual reasons, I'll speculate that the reason is a combination of the two points in the quotes above.

[Beachbook]

I have glanced through the replies and none made sense to me so I will tell you my perspective.

 

If you take Early or Late seating, you do not have to do prepaid gratuities, you sit in the MDR at the same table with the same waiter and assistant waiter for the whole cruise and you develop a relationship with that person. On the last night of the cruise you give them a tip based on your service and the relationship which the waiter has developed with you. Some cheap guests stiff the waiter, no matter how good the service, but most give the recommended tip or more.

 

If you are on Celebrity Select dining you are eating at different tables each night and thus will have a different waiter and assistant waiter each night. Some times you might get the same person, but usually you will not. If you had to bring the tip money to the table each night that would be awkward in the cashless system on the ship. So the prepaid gratuities are all taken care of and you do not have to worry about it. The cruise line does not have to remember you were served by X waiter on a specific date, just that the number of guests with "Select" dining on Monday night paid a total amount of Z and divide that amount by all the waiters that worked in Select that night and wow, they each get a tip.

 

On Holland America they charge the tips to your ship board account each day and divide the passenger total by the crew that are in the pot, same basic idea.

 

Prepaid gratuities for Celebrity Select guest makes complete sense and is a system that works. If someone does not like paying in advance they can choose early or late seating. If they are not happy with their service they can go to the front desk and ask for a refund of the tips for that day or even for the whole cruise.

 

Hope that helps make sense. Enjoy your cruising!

[mgmigs]

They automatically add the gratuity to your sea pass account somewhere along the cruise when you do traditional dining anyway. I think. It is usually about halfway through.

[HopefulCruiser123]

:rolleyes:

If you do not like the system book with another cruise line

Gratuities on a 15 day is $180, the interest on the gratuities is peanut compared to trip

 

I really hate responses like this. It is arrogant at best.

 

My question would be about the drink package or even better, the 123 promotion. If you have the drink package and you choose select dining and you have prepaid your gratuities, do the remaining gratuities for drinks under the package get charged to your sea pass?

 

I have zero problem with the auto tips being charged to my sea pass each day, but I don't see any logical reason for some passengers being forced to pay 2 months in advance while others are charged after our cruise is completed (for those of us on daily auto tips, our credit cards are not hit every day of our cruise....they are actually charged to our cards, in total with other expenditures charged to our sea passes, after we disembark). Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong about that.

[Cockatoos]

We are from 'a country with a culture of not tipping' BUT we have never had a problem with the grats and tipping on all the cruises we having taken. In fact we always pay the grats and tip on top to the crew have made our cruise outstanding.

 

Has anyone considered that is financially beneficial for X to receive the pre paid grats months prior to the completion of the cruise, hence earning interest on the money till it is paid the crew?

[Cruise Junky]

Add me to the list of people that don't get it either. Celebrity was kind of late to the party of Select Dining. All other lines seem to be able to handle it ok. I just put it down to a lack of ability on Celebrity's part to deal with it. Maybe their accounting system is as bad as their website?

[Fouremco]

Forgetting for the time being the issue of when passengers pay Celebrity the gratuities, in advance for select or on board for traditional, does anyone know when the waitstaff is paid? I could be wrong, but I would imagine that they all get paid at the same time, including their share of gratuities, whether they serve upstairs or down in the MDR or in any of the other restaurants.

 

[Fouremco]

If you take Early or Late seating, you do not have to do prepaid gratuities, you sit in the MDR at the same table with the same waiter and assistant waiter for the whole cruise and you develop a relationship with that person. On the last night of the cruise you give them a tip based on your service and the relationship which the waiter has developed with you. Some cheap guests stiff the waiter, no matter how good the service, but most give the recommended tip or more.

It's my understanding that Celebrity automatically adds gratuities for your restaurant and stateroom services to your onboard SeaPass account on a daily basis if you are a traditional diner. Are you suggesting that not paying an additional gratuity is perceived as stiffing the staff?

[Cruise Junky]

I have glanced through the replies and none made sense to me so I will tell you my perspective.

 

If you take Early or Late seating, you do not have to do prepaid gratuities, you sit in the MDR at the same table with the same waiter and assistant waiter for the whole cruise and you develop a relationship with that person. On the last night of the cruise you give them a tip based on your service and the relationship which the waiter has developed with you. Some cheap guests stiff the waiter, no matter how good the service, but most give the recommended tip or more.

 

If you are on Celebrity Select dining you are eating at different tables each night and thus will have a different waiter and assistant waiter each night. Some times you might get the same person, but usually you will not. If you had to bring the tip money to the table each night that would be awkward in the cashless system on the ship. So the prepaid gratuities are all taken care of and you do not have to worry about it. The cruise line does not have to remember you were served by X waiter on a specific date, just that the number of guests with "Select" dining on Monday night paid a total amount of Z and divide that amount by all the waiters that worked in Select that night and wow, they each get a tip.

 

On Holland America they charge the tips to your ship board account each day and divide the passenger total by the crew that are in the pot, same basic idea.

 

Prepaid gratuities for Celebrity Select guest makes complete sense and is a system that works. If someone does not like paying in advance they can choose early or late seating. If they are not happy with their service they can go to the front desk and ask for a refund of the tips for that day or even for the whole cruise.

 

Hope that helps make sense. Enjoy your cruising!

 

No, actually it makes no sense. Celebrity has auto tipping in the MDR, they're charged daily on your account. You can tip over and above, but the daily service charge is a daily amount on your bill. Other lines that have any time dining do the exact same thing, a daily charge on your bill. Celebrity seems incapable of this so has to charge it in advance. This has nothing to do with stiffing the staff, it's Celebrity's inability to do the same thing as all other lines. Not a huge deal for us, but stil annoying, especially for anyone with OBC to be used. If Celebrity are that incompetent to deal with tips like other lines do, they should make it a level playing field and charge everyone in advance.

[Oville]

Add me to the list of people that don't get it either. Celebrity was kind of late to the party of Select Dining. All other lines seem to be able to handle it ok. I just put it down to a lack of ability on Celebrity's part to deal with it. Maybe their accounting system is as bad as their website?

 

No, actually it makes no sense. Celebrity has auto tipping in the MDR, they're charged daily on your account. You can tip over and above, but the daily service charge is a daily amount on your bill. Other lines that have any time dining do the exact same thing, a daily charge on your bill. Celebrity seems incapable of this so has to charge it in advance. This has nothing to do with stiffing the staff, it's Celebrity's inability to do the same thing as all other lines. Not a huge deal for us, but stil annoying, especially for anyone with OBC to be used. If Celebrity are that incompetent to deal with tips like other lines do, they should make it a level playing field and charge everyone in advance.

 

Sorry, but Royal Caribbean does the same thing with MTD.

[melsuli]

I opted for 'select dining' even though as an aqua class passenger I can dine in Blu, therefore there is no requirement since it has an open dining facility.

 

My reason for doing this is because I like the idea of pre-paying gratuities whilst also having the ability to tip 'extra' for excellent service above and beyond?

 

Coming from a non tipping culture I have no difficulty in conforming to the 'when in Rome' outlook and feel no desire to solve the enigma of why do X operate such a policy? :eek:

[Cruise Junky]

Sorry, but Royal Caribbean does the same thing with MTD.

 

I lump them into the same group. They must use the same system

[Oville]

I lump them into the same group. They must use the same system

 

That was my guess back in Post 19.

[Cruise Junky]

That was my guess back in Post 19.

 

How does Azamara handle it?

[HopefulCruiser123]

Ya know, after reading all the other guesses as to why they do this, and the thought that some may use OBC toward gratuities, my thought would be that Celebrity might prefer that you use the OBC toward additional purchases while onboard and taking the gratuities away as one option of how to spend it is one way to accomplish that.

[Bobocasey]

RCL and Celebrity and Azamara are all part of the same company. Azamara has the tips added into the price of the cruise regardless when you eat. Azamara is only select.

[Cruise Junky]

RCL and Celebrity and Azamara are all part of the same company. Azamara has the tips added into the price of the cruise regardless when you eat. Azamara is only select.

 

Right, I forgot Azamara now included the tips.

[richsea]

I would suggest that if you want to know the reason that Celebrity makes you prepay gratuities if you choose Select Dining, you should ask THEM, because it is obvious that on one here has the answer.....and if Celebrity is perfectly honest, they will answer "Because we want to."

[WpgCruise]

Without a doubt the BEST ANSWER EVER.

 

 

 

I would suggest that if you want to know the reason that Celebrity makes you prepay gratuities if you choose Select Dining, you should ask THEM, because it is obvious that on one here has the answer.....and if Celebrity is perfectly honest, they will answer "Because we want to."