Two simple questions on the prepaid gratuities

[Jay Bee]

(I tried to find the answers to these in the very long and ridiculous thread on the gratuity increase, but I gave up.)

 

1. Is it necessary to actually pay the gratuity or can I just add it to my account as usual?

 

2. Where oh where can I do this??? I have sifted through that reservation 3 times and nowhere do I see the option for adding prepaid gratuities.

 

Thank you.

Jan

[mattpro]

Gratuities can be prepaid when you book your cruise.

 

If not prepaid, they will show up on your final bill.

 

If you have MTD gratuities must be paid in advance.

[frank808]

Gratuities can be prepaid when you book your cruise.

 

If not prepaid, they will show up on your final bill.

 

If you have MTD gratuities must be paid in advance.

You donot have to have gratuities prepaid for my time dining. This was changed about a year ago.

[maureencruiser]

Prepaid means you pay before you cruise. Unless you have MTD, you can just show up and cruise and the grats will be added each day. No fuss, no muss.

[Ourusualbeach]

(I tried to find the answers to these in the very long and ridiculous thread on the gratuity increase, but I gave up.)

 

1. Is it necessary to actually pay the gratuity or can I just add it to my account as usual?

 

2. Where oh where can I do this??? I have sifted through that reservation 3 times and nowhere do I see the option for adding prepaid gratuities.

 

Thank you.

Jan

 

You can add them to your account now. Payment is due at final payment.

 

Best to call Royal to add them.

[maureencruiser]

You donot have to have gratuities prepaid for my time dining. This was changed about a year ago.

 

Oops, posting at the same time, thanks for the correction. So, OP, just cruise as usual.

[MommaBear55]

And if you have already booked and now want to prepay, you call whomever you booked with. It will be added to your bill and you pay it with your final payment

[Jay Bee]

You can add them to your account now. Payment is due at final payment.

 

Best to call Royal to add them.

 

Thank you, all, for the responses. I reserved the cruise months ago without adding gratuities. Now I want to prepay them before the increase, but there is no place to do so on the reservation. It's only a few bucks difference and no big deal in my opinion and I know I can take care of it later, but if they made such an issue about prepaying before April 14, there should be an option to do so even for MTD cruisers.

 

As much as I deplore having to call them, I will do it, I guess. It may be worth the extra seven odd dollars NOT to call.

[Ourusualbeach]

Thank you, all, for the responses. I reserved the cruise months ago without adding gratuities. Now I want to prepay them before the increase, but there is no place to do so on the reservation. It's only a few bucks difference and no big deal in my opinion and I know I can take care of it later, but if they made such an issue about prepaying before April 14, there should be an option to do so even for MTD cruisers.

 

As much as I deplore having to call them, I will do it, I guess. It may be worth the extra seven odd dollars NOT to call.

 

I called yesterday and was on hold for less than 2 minutes.

[Grandma Dazzles]

Thank you, all, for the responses. I reserved the cruise months ago without adding gratuities. Now I want to prepay them before the increase, but there is no place to do so on the reservation. It's only a few bucks difference and no big deal in my opinion and I know I can take care of it later, but if they made such an issue about prepaying before April 14, there should be an option to do so even for MTD cruisers.

 

As much as I deplore having to call them, I will do it, I guess. It may be worth the extra seven odd dollars NOT to call.[

 

You can prepay gratuities for a cruise, either do it yourself with RC, or with your TA. Simpler just to call RC.

 

You do not have to prepay gratuities when booking MTD. This changed a long time ago.

 

Gratuities at the current rate are posted to your Seapass account daily for each person for whom you are responsible for charges. This is done daily, not on your final bill.

Edited April 2, 2016 by Grandma Dazzles

[MommaBear55]

A lot of misinformation here.

 

You can prepay gratuities for a cruise, either do it yourself with RC, or with your TA. Simpler just to call arac.

 

You do not have to prepay gratuities when booking MTD. This changed a long time ago.

 

Gratuities at the current rate are posted to your Seapass account daily for each person for whom you are responsible for charges. This is done daily, not on your final bill.

 

The rate is changing May 1st, so cruises after that will be at the new rate, not the current rate. If you choose to add prepaid tips before April 14, you will pay the current rate.

[spookwife]

 

If you have MTD gratuities must be paid in advance.

 

 

No longer true. they removed that requirement some time ago as many people were complaining about not being able to use OBC towards them..

[Grandma Dazzles]

The rate is changing May 1st, so cruises after that will be at the new rate, not the current rate. If you choose to add prepaid tips before April 14, you will pay the current rate.

 

Sorry if I was not very clear. When I said "current rate" I was talking about daily posted gratuities to your Seapass account therefore they would be at the current rate for that particular cruise. I was trying to make the point that once on board gratuities are posted daily to your account for each passenger you have agreed to be responsible for. They are not added in one line item on your on board final bill .

 

Yes, lots of passengers will prepay to avoid the coming price increase, but for MTD you do not have to.

 

Sorry my post wasn't clearer.

[Desert Cruizers]

We booked a cruise for August 2017 and added the gratuities at time of booking so it appeared on our invoice, I was told even though it was on our invoice, to avoid the new rate we had to pay prior to the April 14 deadline by our TA, then i find out that if it is on our invoice then we are locked in at the current rate. If this is the case i wouldn't have paid them until I made final payment

[Clarea]

We booked a cruise for August 2017 and added the gratuities at time of booking so it appeared on our invoice, I was told even though it was on our invoice, to avoid the new rate we had to pay prior to the April 14 deadline by our TA, then i find out that if it is on our invoice then we are locked in at the current rate. If this is the case i wouldn't have paid them until I made final payment

It's unfortunate that Royal cannot clearly communicate the conditions when they make changes.

[nealstuber]

It's unfortunate that Royal cannot clearly communicate the conditions when they make changes.

 

You would think by now they'd be better at it since they've had so much practice!

[Clarea]

You would think by now they'd be better at it since they've had so much practice!

I've come to the conclusion that their communication is designed to be ambiguous and imprecise. It's just been happening too long for it not to be corporate policy.

[nealstuber]

I called yesterday and was on hold for less than 2 minutes.

 

Went to make my final payment yesterday (through my TA). First call from TA to RCCL was to make sure they had applied my BOA credit to the booking -15 min, second call was to process the charge - 20 mins. Third was to find out if I could downgrade the free spa package that came with Balconies to the dinner for two that came with OVs (18 mins). When I was told "No" I asked the TA to call back about upgrading to a W (suite) Guarentee, and hung up after my phone indicated I had been on the line with the TA for over an hour.

 

Maybe, if they weren't so plugged up with people trying to save $7.70 on a 7 day cruise for two, my TA would have gotten through. :rolleyes:

Edited April 3, 2016 by nealstuber

[jagsfan]

Since I haven't been notified by RCCL that the gratuities are increasing, maybe I should play dumb when the time comes. (Yeah, like that would work). I will use OBC to pay, so I can't prepay.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[Kmcspoon]

We have a lot of cash equivalent OBC. We were planning on using it for laundry and gratuities.

 

How difficult is it to just have Customer Service adjust the daily gratuity rate back to what it was when we made our final payment, which was the old gratuity rate.

 

I do not feel the urgency to prepay by April 14 in order to "lock in" a rate.

 

I do not feel it is cheating the staff either, as many people are prepaying at the old rate, so that is what will theoretically be distributed to the crew.

 

I have heard nothing directly from RCCL nor my travel agent about the increase.

[Clarea]

... How difficult is it to just have Customer Service adjust the daily gratuity rate back to what it was when we made our final payment, which was the old gratuity rate ...

Not hard at all. Guest Services has a form you can fill out to adjust gratuities.

[LMaxwell]

I've come to the conclusion that their communication is designed to be ambiguous and imprecise. It's just been happening too long for it not to be corporate policy.

 

Maybe they canned someone for it a while ago and the message just hasn't been received internally yet?

[Ourusualbeach]

Went to make my final payment yesterday (through my TA). First call from TA to RCCL was to make sure they had applied my BOA credit to the booking -15 min, second call was to process the charge - 20 mins. Third was to find out if I could downgrade the free spa package that came with Balconies to the dinner for two that came with OVs (18 mins). When I was told "No" I asked the TA to call back about upgrading to a W (suite) Guarentee, and hung up after my phone indicated I had been on the line with the TA for over an hour.

 

Maybe, if they weren't so plugged up with people trying to save $7.70 on a 7 day cruise for two, my TA would have gotten through. :rolleyes:

 

Thanks for incorrectly assuming what I was on the phone with Royal for.:rolleyes:

 

If you really want to know, I was changing cabin locations for my Adventure cruise. Yes at the same time I did lock in my gratuities but that was to take advantage of the exchange rate that Royal is currently offering Canadians as opposed to trying to save the $7.70

[nealstuber]

 

How difficult is it to just have Customer Service adjust the daily gratuity rate back to what it was when we made our final payment, which was the old gratuity rate. .

 

A lot more difficult than forgoing a Frozen Margatrita. Do that and you'd be ahead of their game.:rolleyes:

[Squirty27]

We chose to do pre paid. Have put down the deposit but not paid in full as our trip is not until August. Will ours increase?