Prepay gratuities or not?!

[taglovestocruise]

Wow, not 1 of you uses a TA that gives pre paid gratuities as a perk. 3 of our last 4 cruises have had pre paid tips as a added perk. One of the online TA'S we use now also gives a limited trip insurance policy as well. 

[grandgeezer]

I never prepay. If I happen to get obc from the cruise line, it comes out of there. If not, it gets charged to my credit card and I don't have to pay that for over a month, depending on timing. Any obc I get from my travel agent is always refundable and that goes home with me via credit card debit. We are really low maintenance and never ask for extras so there is no need to tip extra.

The cruise line tells me what the going rate is so I trust them to make sure their valued employees are taken care of financially.

[Cruiser_1977]

14 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Wow, not 1 of you uses a TA that gives pre paid gratuities as a perk. 3 of our last 4 cruises have had pre paid tips as a added perk. One of the online TA'S we use now also gives a limited trip insurance policy as well. 

I had this on my CCL cruise and have it on my Celebrity cruise.  Not through a TA though. It was part of whatever offer was running when I booked.

Edited July 16, 2019 by JennyB1977

[flamingos]

We pre-pay, then add as needed - and we use the generic tip envelopes for small tips to the untipped staff that have been helpful or kind to us during the cruise.  We've tipped the  cleaning woman in the public restrooms who always smiles, the guy who helped with deck chairs, the man who was cleaning the railings but stopped to help rearrange some unwieldy packages as were passing.  Just remember their names from their nametags!

 

[mickeygirl78]

I allow the daily tip charge to go to my account each day of the cruise.  Then I tip extra in cash to anyone I feel went above and beyond. 

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, taglovestocruise said:

Wow, not 1 of you uses a TA that gives pre paid gratuities as a perk. 3 of our last 4 cruises have had pre paid tips as a added perk. One of the online TA'S we use now also gives a limited trip insurance policy as well. 

In the UK our D+ balcony discount means Royal won't give us obc which is offered to people who sail in inside or outside cabins so I negotiate with my TA and get discount which covers our prepaid gratuities.

In a 7 night cruise I hand out up to $200 cash to DL waiters, specialty restaurant waiters and to our cabin steward.

[soremekun]

These tipping threads aren't the same without @Thorben-Hendrik

[Giorgi-one]

8 hours ago, George C said:

We do not prepay they will add tip daily to your bill, but I also miss the old days on tipping, we also tip extra at the end with a envelope. 

I can definitely tell you the wait staff does not miss the old days.  A number of waiters told us that people would not come to the dining room on the last night to avoid tipping.  We always tip extra to the wait staff and room steward!

[John Reid]

9 hours ago, cruiselover19811981 said:

Last time we sailed with Royal, we had the old school "envelope" system. Our past few cruises on NCL were all the prepaid gratuity system. So what do most of you do? I am tempted to prepay and get it over with on one hand, but then don't want to give the cruise line my money ahead of time on the other hand. Thoughts?

I don't think your question is being interpreted the same way by everyone. I don't ever "prepay." I don't make any payments long before they are do. If something goes awry in advance, the money is still in my pocket. If you don't act at all, the gratuities are placed on your shipboard account on a daily basis. Envelopes and hand-overs are a personal choice in addition to the gratuities. As far as "getting them out of the way so I don't have to worry about it later," It's the same amount of money and it just goes on your credit card for most people.

[karena1]

Always prepay unless I have OBC to take care of them.  Then we leave extra in cash for those we want to give more to.  

[karena1]

11 minutes ago, Giorgi-one said:

I can definitely tell you the wait staff does not miss the old days.  A number of waiters told us that people would not come to the dining room on the last night to avoid tipping.  We always tip extra to the wait staff and room steward!

Our pool bar servers told us they think it is awesome that even at Diamond Plus we still get the package.  Then they know Exactly what there tips will be.

 

Back in the day, if we did not go to the dining room the last night, we went there the night before to make sure our waiters got the extra tips.

 

[taglovestocruise]

58 minutes ago, soremekun said:

These tipping threads aren't the same without @Thorben-Hendrik

Like the terminator, He Will Be Back.  

[George C]

52 minutes ago, Giorgi-one said:

I can definitely tell you the wait staff does not miss the old days.  A number of waiters told us that people would not come to the dining room on the last night to avoid tipping.  We always tip extra to the wait staff and room steward!

I am sure you are correct. Some people try to remove auto tips , we are normally pretty generous on tipping , always tipped cruised every year since 1970’s

[time4u2go]

52 minutes ago, John Reid said:

I don't think your question is being interpreted the same way by everyone. I don't ever "prepay." I don't make any payments long before they are do. If something goes awry in advance, the money is still in my pocket. If you don't act at all, the gratuities are placed on your shipboard account on a daily basis. Envelopes and hand-overs are a personal choice in addition to the gratuities. As far as "getting them out of the way so I don't have to worry about it later," It's the same amount of money and it just goes on your credit card for most people.

I agree.  We don't pre-pay, but we do post-pay.

[RobinCruiser]

10 hours ago, LilBlackDress said:

I prepay it and then I tip those I feel went above and beyond... 

I don't want a bill when I end my vacation 

 

This is exactly what we do too! Get it all over with ahead of time and then give an extra tip to those who really deserve it. 

[George C]

1 minute ago, time4u2go said:

I agree.  We don't pre-pay, but we do post-pay.

I don’t understand prepay , I want to hold on to my money as long as possible, then we pay off credit card when we get it . 

[Sailor Taylor]

23 minutes ago, George C said:

I don’t understand prepay , I want to hold on to my money as long as possible, then we pay off credit card when we get it . 

I don't have a preference either way but I also don't understand not wanting a bill at the end of the cruise.  Unless you have zero spending on board you will still get a credit card bill anyway and will still go through the same trouble to pay that credit card bill.  Does it matter you pay it later instead of earlier? 

 

 

Edited July 16, 2019 by Sailor Taylor

[cruiselover19811981]

No...you are all right in your own way. I see pros & cons of both prepay & postpay. Just wasn't sure on protocol with RCCL as of lately. Prepaying not new to me, since last 2 years we sailed NCL & had prepaid to lock in lower price as others mentioned. But I see value either way...preference & what each is comfortable with.

Edited July 16, 2019 by cruiselover19811981

[Guest maddycat]

9 hours ago, BensonFan711 said:

I prepaid on NCL, but I don't with Royal, and here's why.  On NCL, if I prepaid, it didn't change the cost of my travel insurance (don't ask why....I honestly don't know).  On Royal, I have to pay more for insurance because the booking has a higher dollar value.  You're going to pay the same amount whether you do it early or at the end of the cruise, but check your insurance before making a decision (assuming you purchased travel insurance) because it could change your costs there.

We always buy third party travel insurance through the trip insurance store.  The insurance is calculated on the non-refundable costs of the cruise.  So, taxes, fees and port expenses and travel insurance are not included when calculating the cost of the cruise.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

3 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

Like the terminator, He Will Be Back.  

 🙄😇

Edited July 17, 2019 by Thorben-Hendrik

[Thorben-Hendrik]

Just now, Thorben-Hendrik said:

🙄😇

 

Edited July 17, 2019 by Thorben-Hendrik

[Thorben-Hendrik]

2 hours ago, George C said:

Some people try to remove auto tips

They are totally optional!

Easy peasy no questions asked! 🤘

15 minutes can save you hundreds! 👍 🤑😜

Edited July 17, 2019 by Thorben-Hendrik

[springfire]

We never prepay our tips!   No advantage for us in that so we just tip at the end of the cruise.

[George C]

35 minutes ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

They are totally optional!

Easy peasy no questions asked! 🤘

15 minutes can save you hundreds! 👍 🤑😜

Problem is rccl should either not allow tips to be removed or better yet just include price in fare , people removing tips should be forced to inform staff that on day 1 😁😁😁

[Thorben-Hendrik]

4 hours ago, George C said:

people removing tips should be forced to inform staff that on day 1

No useful pupose in that.....exellent service is marketed by the cruise line and anything else will get the staff into trouble....🤔

Anyway as of now - removing gratuities is just part of their business plan....👍