Do you Prepay gratuities at the beginning or the end or how do you tip?

[audcc77]

18 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

Have twice as much cleaning to do

Sorry but I disagree.  There is still only 1 bathroom and a bed or 3 to make up.   It’s more work but only marginally more work than a regular balcony.  The more people in the cabin, the more tips.  Carnival 

 charges more tips per person for suites because they can.  
 

We’ve stayed in several penthouse or grand suites or whatever they’re called.  I’ve also cleaned hotels so I know of what I speak.  
 

A balcony of messy people takes more time than a suite with clean people.  

[Thad409]

3 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

Recommended daily gratuity rates are the same fleetwide.

👍Thanks

[audcc77]

I never prepay tips. Reason being is if I cancel, or if Carnival goes belly up, then I have less skin in the game.  
 

I have 4 cruises set for 2024 and prepaid tips on none of them despite the grats going up on April 1.  
 

I’m not going to sweat the grats increase.  I also don’t understand the “get it out of the way so I don’t have to worry about it” mindset.  
 

I don’t “worry” about it.  

At all.  
 

I figure if you’re going on a cruise to begin with, you must have disposable income to pay some kind of grats before exiting the ship, whether it be auto grats or cash or Visa gift cards.  

[sanmarcosman]

16 minutes ago, audcc77 said:

I don’t “worry” about it.  

At all.  

Neither do I but I do agree with the member who said if more people prepay there's less chance people will remove tips that are posted during the cruise. I think this is especially true of people new to cruising. They buy all the frills offered on board and then sticker shock hits when the bill arrives. 

[kinaida]

50 minutes ago, audcc77 said:

Sorry but I disagree.  There is still only 1 bathroom and a bed or 3 to make up.   It’s more work but only marginally more work than a regular balcony.  The more people in the cabin, the more tips.  Carnival 

 charges more tips per person for suites because they can.  
 

We’ve stayed in several penthouse or grand suites or whatever they’re called.  I’ve also cleaned hotels so I know of what I speak.  
 

A balcony of messy people takes more time than a suite with clean people.  

I don't think it's twice as much cleaning, but our suite has 2 bathrooms, for what it's worth.

[mz-s]

44 minutes ago, audcc77 said:

I never prepay tips. Reason being is if I cancel, or if Carnival goes belly up, then I have less skin in the game.  
 

I have 4 cruises set for 2024 and prepaid tips on none of them despite the grats going up on April 1.  
 

I’m not going to sweat the grats increase.  I also don’t understand the “get it out of the way so I don’t have to worry about it” mindset.  
 

I don’t “worry” about it.  

At all.  
 

I figure if you’re going on a cruise to begin with, you must have disposable income to pay some kind of grats before exiting the ship, whether it be auto grats or cash or Visa gift cards.  

 

Auto grats for a family of 4 on a 5 day cruise will be $320 after this upcoming increase in a few days. That's a lot of money. I can totally see why people would worry about that and want to make sure it's accounted for.

[Host Carolyn]

Prepaying and how tips are distributed have  been discussed, debated and argued over ad nauseum on this board.  Opinions are fine, arguing will get this closed. OP has a good group of answers

 

 

 

[sparks1093]

6 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

Auto grats for a family of 4 on a 5 day cruise will be $320 after this upcoming increase in a few days. That's a lot of money. I can totally see why people would worry about that and want to make sure it's accounted for.

Which is still less than what they would pay in resort fees for the same week and very likely less than what they would pay if they stayed in a hotel and ate at sit down restaurants for the same time period. Sticker shock can be real, but one offsets that by keeping things in perspective.

[mz-s]

5 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

Which is still less than what they would pay in resort fees for the same week and very likely less than what they would pay if they stayed in a hotel and ate at sit down restaurants for the same time period. Sticker shock can be real, but one offsets that by keeping things in perspective.

 

The difference of course is resort fees are shown when booking. Gratuities are not disclosed anywhere in the booking process, and could change (several times in fact as we've seen) until they actually post to your onboard account.

[Florings]

We always prepay.  To me, it's like part of the fare, so I'd just as soon have it done before we go.   Then I usually tip our steward when we board because I request a few things right up front.   Then finally tip at the end - additional to the steward and MDR waitstaff.

[pe4all]

2 hours ago, audcc77 said:

I never prepay tips. Reason being is if I cancel, or if Carnival goes belly up, then I have less skin in the game.  

If you cancel you get your grats refunded.  We always prepay as soon as we book as dh doesn't like getting a credit card bill after the cruise is completed.  Kinda takes the shine off the vacation.

Edited March 30, 2023 by pe4all

[Thad409]

Don't get me wrong I'm not frugal and I believe that everybody on the ship works hard for the most part. And there are the ones behind the scenes that you never see. But I agree we have stayed in balconies before with three of us and the suite I believe is only 65 more square feet of cleaning area for the same amount of people 

 

As  I stated before I always wait until the end and pay my gratuities. And I bring cash to tip the room Stewart and my dining room waitstaff.

 

But this time I decided to go ahead and prepay my gratuities for no other reason than I just wanted to.

 

On our past cruises on RC and CCL we've always had decent service other than one time on RC and at that time I did withhold gratuities due to an incident that happened with our room steward

[sparks1093]

1 hour ago, mz-s said:

 

The difference of course is resort fees are shown when booking. Gratuities are not disclosed anywhere in the booking process, and could change (several times in fact as we've seen) until they actually post to your onboard account.

The consumer has an obligation to educate themselves and every cruise line FAQ that I've read clearly outlines this issue.

[mmtska]

I pre-pay. It just adds on a few more dollars that I pay per month instead of paying $200+ at the end. 

[mz-s]

32 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

The consumer has an obligation to educate themselves and every cruise line FAQ that I've read clearly outlines this issue.

 

Regardless, resort fees are a completely different issue and I'm not really sure why you mentioned it. It's not a gratuity or anything like that.

[odyssyus]

15 hours ago, Tapi said:

"Tipping is definitely a personal matter, and there’s no right or wrong way of doing it as long as you fairly compensate the people who work hard to take care of you all week"

That is not a tip.

 

The company is responsible for 'fairly compensating'.  Tipping is for services rendered above and beyond the standard.  The standard is whatever the company is paying them to do.  Don't let these companies or the public (cruise critic) guilt you or gaslight you into saying it's anything but this.

 

You are right though, it is a personal matter, and no right way or wrong way.  Let us not confuse 'fair compensation' with tipping, however.

 

 

[sparks1093]

23 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

Regardless, resort fees are a completely different issue and I'm not really sure why you mentioned it. It's not a gratuity or anything like that.

It's a fee that needs to be paid and that's part of the problem with it- it's not defined exactly what it's for. I said exactly why I mentioned it- to provide prospective. If you don't think it's on point then you don't.

[kdr69]

you cant Prepay at the end.  Thats why its called Prepay. 😏

[Tapi]

18 minutes ago, odyssyus said:

That is not a tip.

Call it gratuities, tipping, service charge, or whatever the term “du jour” is. It’s always been standard practice in the cruise industry, since the days of leaving little envelopes in the cabin on the last day of the cruise, for passengers to compensate the service team for their services. 
 

If it were up to me, this charge would already be rolled into the cruise fare. One less thing to worry about and one less thing open for debate. But I know that a lot of people aren’t in agreement. I have two cruises coming up (P&O and Explora Journeys), and for both, gratuities are already built into the cruise fare. I couldn’t be happier about it. 

Edited March 30, 2023 by Tapi

[odyssyus]

5 minutes ago, Tapi said:

Call it gratuities, tipping, service charge, or whatever the term “du jour” is. It’s always been standard practice in the cruise industry, since the days of leaving little envelopes in the cabin on the last day of the cruise, for passengers to compensate the service team for their services. 
 

If it were up to me, this charge would already be rolled into the cruise fare. One less thing to worry about and one less thing to debate. But I know that a lot of people aren’t in agreement. For my next cruise (P&O), gratuities are already built into the cruise fare and I couldn’t be happier about it. 

Rolled into the cruise fare.  Winner!  Agree totally.

[Thad409]

34 minutes ago, Tapi said:

Call it gratuities, tipping, service charge, or whatever the term “du jour” is. It’s always been standard practice in the cruise industry, since the days of leaving little envelopes in the cabin on the last day of the cruise, for passengers to compensate the service team for their services. 
 

If it were up to me, this charge would already be rolled into the cruise fare. One less thing to worry about and one less thing open for debate. But I know that a lot of people aren’t in agreement. I have two cruises coming up (P&O and Explora Journeys), and for both, gratuities are already built into the cruise fare. I couldn’t be happier about it. 

I like that, rolled into cruise fair.

[Thad409]

 I assume and I may be wrong but the porters that carry your luggage in are different than the employees on the ship correct I always tip the porters usually  five dollars per bag that I'm bringing, not including our carry-ons of course

[Woody14]

4 hours ago, audcc77 said:

I never prepay tips. Reason being is if I cancel, or if Carnival goes belly up, then I have less skin in the game.  

I always select prepay when I book.   the reality is you don't actually prepay till you have to make final payment and my tip rate is locked in.  I can't see carnival going belly up between my final payment date and sail date without a lot of talk out there so not a lot of skin in the game per se

[audcc77]

4 hours ago, kinaida said:

I don't think it's twice as much cleaning, but our suite has 2 bathrooms, for what it's worth.

Really!?  I’ve never had 2 bathrooms.  Didn’t even know that was a thing.  

[kinaida]

1 minute ago, audcc77 said:

Really!?  I’ve never had 2 bathrooms.  Didn’t even know that was a thing.  

It's a full bath and a half bath in the Family Harbor Suite.