Pre Pay Gratuities

[FLOURTOWN]

Does Celebrity offer the service where the gratuities are charged to your

Seapass account? I know they offer the service on other cruise lines but

I wasn't sure about Celebrity.

 

 

 

Thank You

[Peteymil]

Yes, this service is available.

[shirljean]

Yes, this service is available.

 

I am also interested in this - how/when do you sign up for it. RCCL allows you to sign up online, when you do your pre-cruise thing.

[JanineM]

Same as on RCCL, you'll receive a questionnaire part way through the cruise. If you want to charge your gratuities to your account you'll receive vouchers and small envelopes for each person on your team.

 

You can hand the vouchers out on the last night or morning, and if you feel like spreading a bit more love around, then you can add some more cash $$$. If you don't hand out the vouchers they still get the gratuity.

[Johanna7]

Yes, they do and it is a great convenience as it saves having to carry so much cash, especially for a 14 day cruise. You may even get points on your credit card when you charge it to one that has that feature, or air miles. \

 

You can add extra, either on the slip itself which means that they add it on or you can slip in extra cash or hand the extra cash separately. The cruise line probably does not like the last option.

[bubbie617]

Johanna7 -

 

Why do you say that the cruise line does not like the last option? I'm not saying you're wrong, I just don't understand and would like to. Thanks for the explanation.

[raudacruise]

An alternative to prepaying is to have the tips charged to your shipboard account. They send out signups for this about 3 days before you get off with the "normal tip" rate. We do this and add extra cash if we felt the staff member had done a great job (more likely than not).

 

Don't need extra cash and the tip shows up with the rest on our credit card (which we get frequent flyer miles for) the next month.

[cougar]

So even if you put tip on ship board account you still have to go around and give the envelopes with coupons?

[KikiKruiser]

Yes. They give you marked envelopes, and vouchers that you put in each envelope to hand to your staff person. If anything it's a gesture to them that you are not ignoring their tips, and it also gives you a chance to add any extra amount and maybe write them a little note if you wish.:)

[jan6182]

First-timer here...

 

How will I locate all of these people on the last day of the cruise... just to give them envelopes?

 

Also, we are going with the pre-paid gratutities to be added at the end, but can I give out a few bucks throughout the cruise for good service?

 

Tipping seems confusing...!

[hajekfam]

First-timer here...

 

How will I locate all of these people on the last day of the cruise... just to give them envelopes?

 

Also, we are going with the pre-paid gratutities to be added at the end, but can I give out a few bucks throughout the cruise for good service?

 

Tipping seems confusing...!

 

You don't need to locate them. And the envelopes are not given on the last day - rather you give them out on the last night.

You will receive your envelopes in your cabin on the next to last full day. There is one for your cabin steward, asst. chief housekeeper, waiter, asst. waiter, asst maitre'd and if you have a suite- butler.

You leave your envelopes for the cabin steward, asst. chief housekeeper, and if in a suite - butler in your cabin when you leave for dinner - we usually leave it on the bed. You bring your envelopes for waiter, asst waiter, and asst maitre'd to dinner and give it to them at the end of dinner. Don't worry - the asst maitre'd will make it around to the table before you leave.

The only people that you need to track down will be anyone that you want to tip other than those that you receive envelopes for - such as a bar waiter who gave you extremely good service - you can usually find them where they served you.

[hajekfam]

Oops - double post

[flag fan]

Note that if you pre-pay your tips you cannot adjust them on board, you will need to give any extra tips out in cash. If you wait until you get on board, you can charge whatever tip you want to leave to your shipboard (Seapass) account.

[UtterCaro]

I booked through the cruise line, and have prepaid my tips. When I get the envelopes, will vouchers that I've tipped already be in them? (I fully intend to slip a little extra cash to crew who go above and beyond.)

 

I'll be so glad when I'm not a novice anymore -- and I suppose several helpful people on this site will heave sighs of relief, too. ;)

 

Caro

[Blue46]

Yes, you will still get the envelopes. We used this option the last time we cruised and it worked out real well.;)

[Kathie44]

On our Mercury cruise last month we pre-paid and got thank you notes, but no envelopes. The tips are posted to the staff accounts and we didn't have to give out vouchers in envelopes. This is the first time we've seen this, but friends said they did this on Summit in Sept. You now have the option of giving more than the recommended amount when you pre-pay.

[ninkb]

. . . we signed up for automatic gratuities just before the cruise ended. Specified on the signup sheet how much extra we wanted to tip . . . and did nothing else. Ignored the vouchers. Staff members already knew we had tipped and even thanked us for the extra.

 

It really is very easy . . . just relax and enjoy your cruise! Soon you won't be a newbie and you'll be tossing out info just like the rest of us!

 

:):):) ninkb

[UtterCaro]

Soon you won't be a newbie and you'll be tossing out info just like the rest of us!

 

:):):) ninkb

 

I've already been able to help some brand-new members. It's nice to feel capable of helping others when I haven't even been on my maiden voyage. :)

 

Caro

[Canuker]

Has anyone ever tipped a waiter or a taxi driver before they've received their service?

Seems to defeat the whole purpose of tipping:

 

1. It's discretionary

2. It's a reward for good service by identifiable people

3. If we weren't brainwashed into tipping cruise staff, who would have to pay them and what would happen to those advertised cruise prices? Are we and the cruise staff being hoodwinked by the cruise companies?

4. Imagine pre-paying tips to airline cabin crew.