Gratuities

[shot2bits]

I am sure that this has been covered elsewhere, but if it has, I can't find it!

We are thinking of booking our second Celebrity cruise for 2015. I know that gratuities are automatically added to your end of cruise bill. We prefer to tip those who give us special service, waiters, room maids etc so is it possible to opt out of the automatic tipping and do our own thing? Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

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[lovemylab]

On celebrity you only have to prepay gratuities if you've booked Select Dining. Otherwise, you can either choose to have them added onto your onboard account or tip on your own. They are not automatically added.

[nekzaadvakil]

Gratuities can be prepaid along with the final payment. If it isn't then Celebrity adds automatically the gratuities amount to your on board account on a daily basis, UNLESS you go to Guest services and specifically ask them not to, once you are on the cruise. We did the same in 2013 and last month on the Silhouette and there was no issue. The stateroom attendants seemed alot happier to get their gratuities in cash on the 2nd last day of the cruise.

[Project_gal]

As the OP is from the UK, I believe that there are a few things to bear in mind:

 

1 It is more often than not assumed that you will pre-pay your gratuities in the UK. I know that when Celebrity quote me a price these days, it includes the pre-paid gratuities. It is, therefore, easier to pre-pay than not.

 

2 Your wait staff and stateroom attendants will know that you have opted out of pre-paid and auto-gratuities. As you are from a country with a poor reputation, it may be assumed that you will not tip, or tip badly, at the end of the cruise. The OP may wish to avoid that situation.

 

3 A portion of the pre-paid or auto-gratuities go to behind-the-scenes crew members who, although you do not see them, form an essential part of ensuring you receive great service.

 

4 If you do not pre-pay or use auto-gratuities, whoever you hand cash to at the end of the cruise will have to hand the money over so that it can be shared in the same way as your auto-gratuities would have been.

 

5 As the service on Celebrity is unlikely to be poor, IMHO you are better pre-paying your gratuities and leaving any personal tipping for extras you wish to give for exceptional service.

[Wine-O]

Gratuities can be prepaid along with the final payment. If it isn't then Celebrity adds automatically the gratuities amount to your on board account on a daily basis, UNLESS you go to Guest services and specifically ask them not to, once you are on the cruise. We did the same in 2013 and last month on the Silhouette and there was no issue. The stateroom attendants seemed alot happier to get their gratuities in cash on the 2nd last day of the cruise.

 

Yeah, they were happy because they were afraid you were going to stiff them. :rolleyes:

 

As Project_gal says, prepay your gratuities or leave them on your automatic daily seapass deduction. If you remove them, all the staff knows. I certainly wouldn't want the wait staff to spit in my food. :eek:

[shot2bits]

Yes, I know we in UK have that reputation, but I am the exception! Anyway, based on the advice here, we will prepay. We are going for the western Med 14 day cruise in August 2015. The '123' offer works and as we have been before, and much to my surprise, we are upgraded to concierge C2. Looking forward to it already!

 

 

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[Max Circus]

That is a great decision. I like the pre-paid because it removes one more potentially stressful situation from sailing ahead of time. If I choose, I can tip additionally to whoever I want - at my discretion and timing.

 

It was one thing I hated about RCCL. I am not sure if they do it anymore, but on the final night you received envelopes with vouchers for each person you had to tip (Stateroom steward, Waiter, Assistant Waiter - and an optional one for the Maitre D). Then you were to hand these to the people - which was very awkward at dinner.

[Lsimon]

As the OP is from the UK, I believe that there are a few things to bear in mind:

 

1 It is more often than not assumed that you will pre-pay your gratuities in the UK. I know that when Celebrity quote me a price these days, it includes the pre-paid gratuities. It is, therefore, easier to pre-pay than not.

 

2 Your wait staff and stateroom attendants will know that you have opted out of pre-paid and auto-gratuities. As you are from a country with a poor reputation, it may be assumed that you will not tip, or tip badly, at the end of the cruise. The OP may wish to avoid that situation.

 

3 A portion of the pre-paid or auto-gratuities go to behind-the-scenes crew members who, although you do not see them, form an essential part of ensuring you receive great service.

 

4 If you do not pre-pay or use auto-gratuities, whoever you hand cash to at the end of the cruise will have to hand the money over so that it can be shared in the same way as your auto-gratuities would have been.

 

5 As the service on Celebrity is unlikely to be poor, IMHO you are better pre-paying your gratuities and leaving any personal tipping for extras you wish to give for exceptional service.

 

This is all good info, but item #4 on your list is a key point. If one removes the charged gratuities so they can pay in cash the staff is obligated to turn the cash into the pool it otherwise would have gone to. So unless someone intends to stiff the staff by reducing or eliminating the gratuity payment the whole exercise of removing your gratuities to pay in cash is a lot of extra work for nothing. Likewise if one decides they'd like to tip extra the staff does get to keep the extra regardless of whether the base gratuity service charge was paid in cash, charged or prepaid.

 

If you like the interaction of handing the cash over so you can directly acknowledge the great service you received then I have a couple other suggestions. A nice thank you, either verbally or with a note, will accomplish the same thing. We keep a small supply of basic thank you cards in our travel kit and use these to write short notes tot he staff that has served us well. Usually we include a little extra cash tip in these but that is our personal decision and tipping extra is not required. A note to management about good service, naming the staff, will go a long ways in rewarding those that have served you as well. You can do this by giving the note to customer relations. We used to include these on a separate page with our end of cruise evaluation forms but I've read on these boards they've recently eliminated those paper forms.

[dkjretired]

On celebrity you only have to prepay gratuities if you've booked Select Dining. Otherwise, you can either choose to have them added onto your onboard account or tip on your own. They are not automatically added.

 

Actually the tips are added automatically to your bill, that is the default if you haven't pre-paid. If you wish to have them removed you can but they are definitely added daily to your bill.

[Big Chief]

If one removes the charged gratuities so they can pay in cash the staff is obligated to turn the cash into the pool it otherwise would have gone to

 

I do not wish to impugn the hard working staff, but what is the mechanism (other than the honor system) to ensure the staff member "turns the cash in"? I believe it to be better to allow "auto" tipping with cash supplement where appropriate.

[Lsimon]

I do not wish to impugn the hard working staff, but what is the mechanism (other than the honor system) to ensure the staff member "turns the cash in"? I believe it to be better to allow "auto" tipping with cash supplement where appropriate.

 

First off a hope that an employee will be honest and follow policies and not try and evade the system. Second, presumably threat of discharge and potential for "testing". Similar to the mechanism that ensures employees at any employer follow polices and do not try the cheat or steal from their employer.

Edited July 4, 2014 by Lsimon

[cruisestitch]

They are trusted to enter our staterooms when we are not there. They are trusted with the company's inventory. They are trusted to follow the rules in their off hours. So I guess that's the mechanism in place when it comes to the cash gratuities.

[Wine-O]

They are trusted to enter our staterooms when we are not there. They are trusted with the company's inventory. They are trusted to follow the rules in their off hours. So I guess that's the mechanism in place when it comes to the cash gratuities.

 

If you give them cash gratuities in addition to the auto prepay, they get to keep that.

[boogs]

I do not wish to impugn the hard working staff, but what is the mechanism (other than the honor system) to ensure the staff member "turns the cash in"? I believe it to be better to allow "auto" tipping with cash supplement where appropriate.

 

The crew live in tight quarters, sharing small rooms and public areas. Anyone affected by a passenger removing the tips will know, and will know who they would have shared those tips with and who may be handed their tips in cash. Being that they live in such tight quarters, you can bet that it would be difficult to hide any tips not turned in as required. If word got out that a certain crew member was hoarding their tips, I don't think the situation would end up well for that crew member. ;)

 

As everyone here has recommended, leave the auto tips in place and tip extra to those you feel provided better than expected service. On every cruise I have been on there have been a few who have earned the additional tips, and often some that I don't tip extra because I felt they did only what was expected.

Edited July 4, 2014 by boogs

[DonnaK]

That is a great decision. I like the pre-paid because it removes one more potentially stressful situation from sailing ahead of time. If I choose, I can tip additionally to whoever I want - at my discretion and timing.

 

It was one thing I hated about RCCL. I am not sure if they do it anymore, but on the final night you received envelopes with vouchers for each person you had to tip (Stateroom steward, Waiter, Assistant Waiter - and an optional one for the Maitre D). Then you were to hand these to the people - which was very awkward at dinner.

 

They don't do this anymore. Gratuities on Royal Caribbean are handled the same way they are handled on Celebrity, either prepaid or added to your acct as a daily service charge.

Edited July 4, 2014 by DonnaK

[blubelle57]

That is a great decision. I like the pre-paid because it removes one more potentially stressful situation from sailing ahead of time. If I choose, I can tip additionally to whoever I want - at my discretion and timing.

 

It was one thing I hated about RCCL. I am not sure if they do it anymore, but on the final night you received envelopes with vouchers for each person you had to tip (Stateroom steward, Waiter, Assistant Waiter - and an optional one for the Maitre D). Then you were to hand these to the people - which was very awkward at dinner.[/quote

 

This is our first Celebrity cruise previously RCCL. We have prepaid our gratuities but I'm assuming from your post we will not have to hand out envelopes on the last night. On our previous cruises we put something extra in with the vouchers. Whats the system on Celebrity?

[DonnaK]

 

This is our first Celebrity cruise previously RCCL. We have prepaid our gratuities but I'm assuming from your post we will not have to hand out envelopes on the last night. On our previous cruises we put something extra in with the vouchers. Whats the system on Celebrity?

 

Again, on Royal Caribbean, you no longer have envelopes/vouchers.

 

On both cruiselines, if you prepay gratuities, or if you leave the daily service charge on your account, then there is nothing else to do. The wait team and housekeeping will know that you have paid your gratuities. They will know who removed the gratuities charge from their onboard account, and who has already paid.

Edited July 4, 2014 by DonnaK

[MaxiKK]

As tips/gratuities are not the norm here, I'm not quiet clear on this, we had pre-paid gratuities last year, but we still tipped all those who had gone the extra mile to make the difference on our cruise. So, did all the extra tips go into a pool? Just wondering???

[boogs]

As tips/gratuities are not the norm here, I'm not quiet clear on this, we had pre-paid gratuities last year, but we still tipped all those who had gone the extra mile to make the difference on our cruise. So, did all the extra tips go into a pool? Just wondering???

 

If you kept the auto or pre-paid gratuities in place, the requirement for the staff to hand over cash tips was no longer required. Any additional tip amounts you gave out above the auto tips could be kept by those individuals.

Edited July 4, 2014 by boogs

[blubelle57]

On both cruiselines, if you prepay gratuities, or if you leave the daily service charge on your account, then there is nothing else to do. The wait team and housekeeping will know that you have paid your gratuities. They will know who removed the gratuities charge from their onboard account, and who has already paid.

Thanks that seems a much better system. Glad to hear Royal Caribbean have the same policy now.