Jump to content

Prepaid gratuities question


Recommended Posts

Good morning! My husband and I are on the fence about prepaid gratuities. We have watched many videos that prepaying is a very popular choice.We have also heard from friends that they cancel gratuities and pay crew as they go. We typically leave at least 20% tips for services and I'm wondering if we end up prepaying if that actually hurts crew overall. Looking for opinions please!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pre-paying is about convenience, but if you'd rather tip those same people in cash (and it sounds like at an even higher rate) and will tip the wait room staff (waiter, assistant waiter, head waiter) and stateroom attendant, you're absolutely more than welcome to do that.

When I've tipped someone more than the standard rate, what I'll do is still pre-pay gratuities just to have that base rate and then tip on top of it (instead of in lieu of it)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With the included gratuities, you either pay in advance or pay at the end of your cruise.  If you pay at the end, you can see them added daily when you look at your account via the app or the in cabin TV.   You’ll settle up at the end of your cruise either with the card on file or I guess you could pay cash at guest services. 
 

We choose to pay at the end of our cruises, but everyone is different.  It works for us, and that’s all that matters. 
 

We would never cancel the automatic gratuities, and we do give cash tips the last day for outstanding service….although after 30+ years in retail, we would have to have had some absolutely horrible service to not give some extra cash tip to our waiters, cabin steward, etc.   ymmv 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, 1sttimecruiserhere said:

Good morning! My husband and I are on the fence about prepaid gratuities. We have watched many videos that prepaying is a very popular choice.We have also heard from friends that they cancel gratuities and pay crew as they go. We typically leave at least 20% tips for services and I'm wondering if we end up prepaying if that actually hurts crew overall. Looking for opinions please!!

I prefer to prepay the gratuities.  This is the minimum amount I would ever tip as it is shared amongst a lot of crewmembers who are serving you on your trip.

If I get good service, I will typically tip extra in cash.  I usually tip my waiter/assistant waiter and cabin attendant - mainly because I have always had good service!  If service was just OK, I may leave the prepaid tips alone.  If service were bad, I would still not reduce the prepaid tips, but instead complain to the appropriate supervisor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We always do the pre-paid gratuities and still tip our stateroom attendant, and special bartenders, and our dining room staff extra. The pre-paid gratuities are part of a house pool that get shared, so I hate when people say they cancel that and just tip who they want as they go. Coming from the service industry, I can understand where the house pool goes and a lot of it tips out people that help keep the entire experience amazing- that you DON'T interact with or see on a daily basis. So can you cancel that and tip as you go, yes, but it is so small- only around $100 a person for the whole cruise so I would recommend just paying that ahead and then bringing cash and some envelopes for people you connect with who give you extra top notch service. Just my opinion, but I think when people make your experience special- it is a great thing to show them extra appreciation- that is a HARD job.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, Matt said:

Pre-paying is about convenience, but if you'd rather tip those same people in cash (and it sounds like at an even higher rate) and will tip the wait room staff (waiter, assistant waiter, head waiter) and stateroom attendant, you're absolutely more than welcome to do that.

When I've tipped someone more than the standard rate, what I'll do is still pre-pay gratuities just to have that base rate and then tip on top of it (instead of in lieu of it)

I have understood tipping the waiter and assistant waiter as they are the ones actually serving us.  The head waiter is a different story. I not opposed to it but I have rarely had interaction with one, at least that I am aware of.  What are they doing behind the scenes we should be aware of?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@1sttimecruiserhere  Welcome to the Royal Caribbean Blog Forum!

Some thoughts (Googling will find you many many opinions):

  • Auto-Charged gratuities (usually 18%) should always be paid, but you can negotiate (fight) with Customer Service to pay as you go.
  • We usually do not pre-pay gratuities, but doing so will lock in your price.  This only cost us once when the price went up, but depending on how you look at it, we gave the crew the new proper rate by letting Royal charge our account the new daily rate.
  • Yes, we pay more now than when we started cruising - before auto-pay gratuities.  In fact we tip about as much as we used to in addition to the ~$30 a day we auto-pay - probably what the cruise lines were hoping for.
  • We always tip extra to the room steward, head waiter, waiter, assistant waiter, and bartenders (depending on service quality).
  • We usually end up with OBC ($325 on the Ovation last week) which covers our gratuities and the T-Shirt sales. 🙂
  • Something new on Ovation last week for us anyway.  The last 3 days of gratuities were charged 3 days before the departure date so that accounts could settle.  We were OK with that as it makes no difference to us.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, 1sttimecruiserhere said:

Good morning! My husband and I are on the fence about prepaid gratuities. We have watched many videos that prepaying is a very popular choice.We have also heard from friends that they cancel gratuities and pay crew as they go. We typically leave at least 20% tips for services and I'm wondering if we end up prepaying if that actually hurts crew overall. Looking for opinions please!!

In addition to the other posts, keep in mind that prepaying gratuities when you book locks in the existing rate.  Gratuities are increased periodically, perhaps a $1/day/person.  This is usually not a big deal, but the other factor is travel insurance.  When you prepay gratuities and purchase travel insurance for the full amount of your cruise, you may increase your premium slightly.  That happened to us once on a trip to Europe.   To avoid that, and preserve convenience, you can pay for travel insurance early (to cover preexisting conditions) and then add prepaid gratuities later.

As others have mentioned, we tip a little extra at the end of the cruise in the envelopes provided by Guest Services for that purpose.  We do this because we are extremely pleased with the service we receive.  We also do this because the amount allocated for dining staff presumes the cost of food is only about $46 per person per day; we know that what we eat and drink (complimentary) is significantly more than that. (When nonsuite rooms were $13.50 per day, $5.20 was allocated to the Stateroom Attendant and $8.30 to the dining staff, with an imputed rate of 18%.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/6/2022 at 9:37 AM, Toby said:

I have understood tipping the waiter and assistant waiter as they are the ones actually serving us.  The head waiter is a different story. I not opposed to it but I have rarely had interaction with one, at least that I am aware of.  What are they doing behind the scenes we should be aware of?

On the Ovation last week our head waiter helped us a lot.  We had a group of 8.  One is vegan and he took her custom (not off the app vegan menu) order for each following day - whatever she wanted and they could make.  One of us has pine-nut allergies.  He checked every menu the night before for her allergies.  One of us required Gluten Free and he took care of that too each night.  And lastly my wife had surgery the previous week for a blockage.  He got whatever soup she wanted (that was all she was eating).  He earned our money last week!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, YOLO said:

On the Ovation last week our head waiter helped us a lot.  We had a group of 8.  One is vegan and he took her custom (not off the app vegan menu) order for each following day - whatever she wanted and they could make.  One of us has pine-nut allergies.  He checked every menu the night before for her allergies.  One of us required Gluten Free and he took care of that too each night.  And lastly my wife had surgery the previous week for a blockage.  He got he whatever soup she wanted (that was all she was eating).  He earned our money last week!

We are "generic diners" who have no specific dietary needs or have a large group requesting being seated together.  We most likely never employ the services of the head waiter unless we had an issue?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, Toby said:

We are "generic diners" who have no specific dietary needs or have a large group requesting being seated together.  We most likely never employ the services of the head waiter unless we had an issue?

That was us - years ago when we were younger... 🙂

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, Toby said:

We are "generic diners" who have no specific dietary needs or have a large group requesting being seated together.  We most likely never employ the services of the head waiter unless we had an issue?

Other than a brief encounter when the head waiter sometimes small talks with random tables, no, you wouldn't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only time we’ve ever had longer than a couple minute interaction with a head waiter was when we were on Adventure out Nassau last year and we were literally the only people in the dining room section.   We got to know the head waiter, along with our waiters extremely well. 
 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had @Sharlapay for mine ahead of time for our July sailing. We then tip on top of that as the service is usually outstanding. Last sailing on the Mariner was a bit rough so I left our room steward a cabin so clean he didn't have to practically lift a finger BUT the prepaid gratuity was all I felt was earned. First time EVER we didn't give extra. The snafu in the MDR when we arrived and someone else was dining at our assigned table (specially requested off in a quiet corner it was day 4) We still gave our hard working servers extra gratuity but the head waiter received nothing extra either. Our servers were so upset they kept coming over to our table across the restaurant to make sure we were okay! I felt strongly that their hard work not be reflected in a lost gratuity  because someone clearly palmed the head waiter some extra $$ for our table. 

I never pre-paid gratuities before about 3 sailings ago & now I'm hooked. I like my on board account just being our extras for me it leaves me feeling great stepping off the ship as opposed to getting hit in the face with that last folio. batman punch GIF

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I get the OBC of $100 for being a shareholder and typically OBC from Next cruise from prebooking onboard.  I like to use the OBC to go towards my gratuities while onboard.  This way, if I have to cancel my cruise I don’t have extra $ tied up and to track in regards to refunds. Additionally I’ve repriced cruises where I’ve lost OBC that I had applied to purchased precruise and it seems to screw things up. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would always pay the prepaid gratuities amount because not only does it go to the MDR, but employees working at Windjammer and other food areas. You can always tip more, but picking people makes it potentially unfair to others serving you that you may not notice (but would if they were not there).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Audrey V. said:

I would always pay the prepaid gratuities amount because not only does it go to the MDR, but employees working at Windjammer and other food areas.

I think there is confusion between pre-paying gratuities (before you cruise) and pay as you go gratuities (during the cruise) on a day-by-day basis.  The 18% auto-pay gratuities are required by everyone, unless you argue against it.  And arguing against it is a whole other story and probably a whole different thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, YOLO said:

I think there is confusion between pre-paying gratuities (before you cruise) and pay as you go gratuities (during the cruise) on a day-by-day basis.  The 18% auto-pay gratuities are required by everyone, unless you argue against it.  And arguing against it is a whole other story and probably a whole different thread.

I'm a newbie so maybe I'm mixing it up, but to me it didn't seem like the prepaid gratuities were required at all. I was asked would I like to, I asked what's the best way, what's the benefits of prepay etc. And the person advised me there was no need to sign up to the prepaid gratuities at all if I'd rather pay on board.

 

A further question while on this topic. I did decide to go for the prepay option. But how will the person serving me know that I have already paid the tips? Or will the staff just not know who has paid tips at all so it seems to them like you are only tipping on the occasions when you are giving an extra on board tip in addition to the prepay?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe I’m wrong but I feel like there is some confusion here so….

The cruise line charges EVERYONE daily gratuities. This is currently $14.50 pp per day up to a Jr Suite and $17.50 for Grand Suite and above.

This amount is automatically charged hence the term Auto-gratuities.  You can pay this as part of your cruise fare (prepaid) or it will be charged daily to your on board account.  The amount is the same.  The difference is pay now or pay then.  Up to you which you’d prefer.  Personally I prepay.

Once on board, many people will ALSO give cash tips to crew members for good service typically wait staff, cabin stewards and bartenders.  This is over and above the auto-gratuities.

You are also able to decline the auto-gratuities by going to Guest Services and reducing or removing the amount from your on board account.  You may then tip personally in the manner you feel appropriate.  

Forgive me if this explanation is not necessary but I felt like some were getting lost in terminology.  😉

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/6/2022 at 5:50 AM, 1sttimecruiserhere said:

Good morning! My husband and I are on the fence about prepaid gratuities. We have watched many videos that prepaying is a very popular choice.We have also heard from friends that they cancel gratuities and pay crew as they go. We typically leave at least 20% tips for services and I'm wondering if we end up prepaying if that actually hurts crew overall. Looking for opinions please!!

Tipping 20% is great, however, on a cruise you are tipping 20% of what? Main Dining Room is complimentary, and the stateroom attendant gets a portion of the pre-paid gratuity. I don't know what percentage. One thing that pre-paid gratuities does is cover everyone that delivers service to you and you don't have to keep track of it. Without it, would you tip the head waiter, waiter and assistant waiter? I know that I would forget to cover the head waiter because I see that person less than the others, and the contribution they make is more behind the scenes. I like practice Matt's approach above and always give an honest review in the post cruise survey. I also find that I get really good service with eye contact, a smile and good manners...I would do it anyway, because interacting with the crew on board is one of the best parts of cruising, IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought that the pre-paid gratuities not only includes those crew that you see and interact with but it also includes those back-of-house people you don't see every day. 
I will always prepay and then add extra to those who went above and beyond in cash. 

I also thought that the gratuities cost is the same price regardless of if you pay before or after. 

🤷‍♀️ Either way I would never not tip. RC crew is the best. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Vacation Justin said:

We recently did our first cruise, I was totally confused by the gratuities. I still have no idea what prepaid gratuities are. At the end of the cruise they were on our bill.  And we tipped our favorite crew members some cash as well.

Prepaid gratuities are just what they sound like.  You pay them ahead of time, and they are not on your bill at the end of the cruise.  Many people just prefer to have everything paid off ahead of the cruise.  It's a matter of preference.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...