Can I adjust tips paid with Carnival gift card?

[Miasun]

I want to prepay the gratuities with carnival gift cards. If I prepay can I request a refund IF needed? Since I'm prepaying with gift cards will they give me back a gift card? I've already read the moral lectures on tipping vs not. Thank you.

[crooooze]

Yes, you can pre-pay with gift cards. We do it all the time. You can request a refund and you will receive it via a new gift card.

[coevan]

you can also apply the gift card to OBC

[Stick93]

I have no care In the world what people do with their tips - with that said I ask two things 

 

Why if you want to adjust your tips would you prepay?? Bring your gift cards and put them on you account in the ship or is that not allowed. 

 

Second if you prepay your tips isn’t that a way of saying no matter what the service is like or the experience we have I am prepaying the tips/service fee no matter what happens?? 

 

I did learn something interesting on my last cruise that the tips you give subsidize the staff along all the ships and not just your ship. So they pool the tips for all 25 carnival ships together . Just interesting! 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 23, 2019 by Stick93

[bingomamma19]

2 hours ago, Miasun said:

I want to prepay the gratuities with carnival gift cards. If I prepay can I request a refund IF needed? Since I'm prepaying with gift cards will they give me back a gift card? I've already read the moral lectures on tipping vs not. Thank you.

I would not pre pay if you may want to adjust your tips.   Just put the gift cards on your account when you board and you can adjust the tips as necessary during your cruise

[DramaQueen22]

4 hours ago, Stick93 said:

I did learn something interesting on my last cruise that the tips you give subsidize the staff along all the ships and not just your ship. So they pool the tips for all 25 carnival ships together . Just interesting! 

 

 

 

 

I am fairly certain that John Heald has said multiple times that there is no tip pool.  Not on individual ships, nor across the fleet.  A percentage  of your gratuities DO go to others who are more "behind the scenes" in housekeeping and dining.  

[coevan]

4 hours ago, Stick93 said:

I did learn something interesting on my last cruise that the tips you give subsidize the staff along all the ships and not just your ship. So they pool the tips for all 25 carnival ships together .

 

 

 

I believe you learned something wrong. 

[Stick93]

I believe we all don’t really know and from the way it seams JH is just about always telling the people the honest truth about everything - wink wink.

 

Tips/service charges are a hot topic and people do whatever they feel because the cruise lines don’t make it mandatory. On this form everyone pays them or claims to pay other wise you get roasted but I am sure on the other forms there are other points of view. 

 

I pay them them and I doesn’t care what the next person does - but i Think everything people say has a bit of truth and bit of falseness. 

 

I think everyone enjoys the cruise the same whatever they feel they want to do. 

[riffatsea]

It is really a ridiculous idea to think that tips on one ship are pooled with the whole fleet!!

I can't even imagine how that would be done! Each ship is a separate entity.

Where in the world did you get the information that there is a fleetwide pool???

If you talk to the staff on the ship and get to know them you will see that they count on the tips that we give them and know who takes them off and who leaves them on!

[coevan]

We have talked to many bartenders on many ships. We have become friends on FB. They keep their tips. We always tip cash $1 per drink, they know who we are by name. 

[mdsgu]

You can always adjust your auto-gratuities. The better question is, should you?

[crooooze]

The OP asked two questions:

 

   “If I prepay can I request a refund IF needed?” YES

   “Since I'm prepaying with gift cards will they give me back a gift card?” YES

 

Let’s just leave it at that.

[maryred]

Actual I beg to differ, at least on the method of refund if the auto-grats are adjusted down. Once on board any prepaid expense for the cruise if cancelled or a price adjustment is requested will be issued as OBC. If the auto-grats are prepaid by GC and cancelled prior to sailing then it will be returned via the same method of original payment, in this case a new GC issued 7-21 days after the cancelation..

[2wheelin]

1 hour ago, maryred said:

Actual I beg to differ, at least on the method of refund if the auto-grats are adjusted down. Once on board any prepaid expense for the cruise if cancelled or a price adjustment is requested will be issued as OBC. If the auto-grats are prepaid by GC and cancelled prior to sailing then it will be returned via the same method of original payment, in this case a new GC issued 7-21 days after the cancelation..

I agree with this post. I have paid for shore excursions by gift card and then had to cancel on board and the method of refund was OBC.

[Miasun]

Thanks, these answers about the OBC make sense.  If we end up with any extra left on our account it will come back as a gift card or I think it can be donated? (to St. Jude?).  

The one thing about the last tip increase, was that a very small portion went to a fund to help support crew during emergencies.  Maybe that is what is referred to, "I did learn something interesting on my last cruise that the tips you give subsidize the staff along all the ships and not just your ship. So they pool the tips for all 25 carnival ships together . Just interesting!"  What is also interesting about the fund contribution is that it seems unfair of John and Carnival to continue to say that ALL the tips go to the people working for you.