Sparky 166

[sparky166]

Is it beneficial to pay for gratuities up front prior to the cruise.?

[smokeybandit]

Not really. Just a personal preference if you want to pay now vs. later

[Ozark_Kid]

We have done it both ways.  No benefit unless you have OBC that will cover it.  Some just want to pay for it ahead of time so they owe nothing for the cruise later.

[ticketsunlimited]

Makes for reading your daily expenses on your TV easier as well

[CruisinNole]

Not too long ago, there was going to be an increase of price of gratuities so we went ahead and paid ahead of time. Can't remember if it was Royal or Celebrity. 

[GTO-Girl]

We like to pay upfront just to have them out of the way.  One less thing to have to pay once onboard….😎😎

[poocher]

We pay up front to have it out of the way.  But I really posted to say that you should not put your username as the title of your post.  No one knows what your question/comment is.  Title it with a brief description of what you want to know/say.  For example - “Prepaid Gratuities”

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, sparky166 said:

Is it beneficial to pay for gratuities up front prior to the cruise.?

As mentioned in post #5, when grats go up, like it did a couple of months ago, you have some time to prepay the older/lower rate to lock that in.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Biker19

[smokeybandit]

1 minute ago, Biker19 said:

As mentioned in post #4, when grats go up, like it did a couple of months ago, you have some time to prepay the older/lower rate to lock that in.

But since that just happened, it likely won't happen for 4-5 more years.

[sparky166]

Years ago gratuities or Tips as we in the UK call them were at the discretion of the cruisers or customers.We always gave tips based on the level of service by placing them in the preverbial envelope place on our pillow on the last night of the cuise and we always tipped well. Now we are told by the cruise companies that you WILL give our staff what we tell you to give. In the UK our service staff are paid a living wage, they do not depend on tips but they do still recieve a tip if the service is good. I think the cruise companies if they are not careful are going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

[Merion_Mom]

On 11/25/2022 at 4:12 PM, poocher said:

We pay up front to have it out of the way.  But I really posted to say that you should not put your username as the title of your post.  No one knows what your question/comment is.  Title it with a brief description of what you want to know/say.  For example - “Prepaid Gratuities”

 

I am 99.362% sure that the programming of Cruise Critic does this when the poster does not type anything into the title line.

[teddie]

37 minutes ago, sparky166 said:

Years ago gratuities or Tips as we in the UK call them were at the discretion of the cruisers or customers.We always gave tips based on the level of service by placing them in the preverbial envelope place on our pillow on the last night of the cuise and we always tipped well. Now we are told by the cruise companies that you WILL give our staff what we tell you to give. In the UK our service staff are paid a living wage, they do not depend on tips but they do still recieve a tip if the service is good. I think the cruise companies if they are not careful are going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

 

We mostly call them tips here too in the US 🙂

 

Gone are the days of discretion, and sadly, I fear for all the staff who would likely get ZERO if it wasn't enforced.  Very true that the living wage just doesn't happen for most wait staff/service people in the US...but that's the way it is and will likely stay for the foreseeable future. 

 

teddie

 

 

Edited November 26, 2022 by teddie
added info

[CanadaRob]

i like prepaying, pay in CAD prior to getting on ship and facing USD-its the same with the conversion, but its nice to have it done and converted for me prior to actually having my vacation,