Cody Mathess Posted January 3, 2023 Report Share Posted January 3, 2023 If i prepay gratuities, will that charge cover all gratuities that will be gathered while on the ship? :ie getting a drink from the bar, will there be an extra gratuity charge for that if i prepay? thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshleyDillo Posted January 3, 2023 Report Share Posted January 3, 2023 Prepaid gratuities only covers the daily service charge ($16 for non-suites, $18.50 for suites). Any drinks or dining you purchase onboard will be subject to the 18% service charge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody Mathess Posted January 3, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2023 Thank you! cruisellama and AshleyDillo 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brando95 Posted January 3, 2023 Report Share Posted January 3, 2023 To add to the above, your pre-paid gratuities only go towards your room steward and dining room staff. The bar staff doesn't see those daily gratuities. If you want an all-inclusive feel the best way would be to buy the drink package in the cruise planner pre-cruise when you find a price you like and then you don't have to think about it. If you don't feel like you drink enough to make a pacakge worth it, then any drink you buy ala carte will be the amount on the menu plus 18%. One big advantage to pre-paying gratuities is that you're grand-fathered in if those daily rates go up later. If you book your cruise today for a sail date 2 years from now and pre-pay your gratuities those will stay what you paid today while anyone booking after the increase will pay the new amount per day. By the time you've made final payment those are all taken care of and paid for. brdjnr and Cody Mathess 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnK6404 Posted January 3, 2023 Report Share Posted January 3, 2023 Welcome @Cody Mathess! Piggybacking on what @Brando95 just stated... there is no discount when pre-paying your gratuities. It's more of a personal budgeting strategy (not seeing that gratuity charge each day on your ship account for each guest may make you feel better!). However, as just mentioned, there is a slight chance the daily gratuity rate increases over time before you set sail (not that frequently). Just something to consider. brdjnr and Cody Mathess 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChessE4 Posted January 3, 2023 Report Share Posted January 3, 2023 It is possible that when you prepay gratuities, the total value of the cruise crosses a threshold that raises your travel insurance. That happened to me once. We still typically prepay gratuities, but if our TA forgets to add it, we just pay on the ship. It gives us something to do with our on-board credit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Traveling Mike Posted January 4, 2023 Report Share Posted January 4, 2023 I have started pre-paying gratuities for two reasons. 1. It makes me feel better about my budget and at the end of the cruise I do not have a large charge on my CC. 2. I am booking 2 and 3 years out and it is protecting me against large increases in pre-paid gratuities. The pre-paid gratuities cover a large range of people; more than I thought before. I watched a video that the ship person talked about it going to people that clean room, wait on you at food venues, people that bus your tables at eating venues and other jobs. If you purchase a drink package, they add on a gratuity. If you purchase a drink, they will add a gratuity on the price of the drink. Now who is not covered with the gratuities above are when you get free drinks because you are a Diamond member of above. It also covers the minimum gratuity and does not cover staff going out of their way for you. It is like everyplace you go out. Some people earn the minimum tip and other earn as much as I can afford to give them. FireFishII 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoobCruise Posted January 4, 2023 Report Share Posted January 4, 2023 Once your cruise is paid for and final payment has been made (without pre-paying gratuities) can you pay them before you sail? I am not seeing the option to pay them in the "plan my cruise" section of the website. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted January 4, 2023 Report Share Posted January 4, 2023 15 minutes ago, NoobCruise said: Once your cruise is paid for and final payment has been made (without pre-paying gratuities) can you pay them before you sail? I am not seeing the option to pay them in the "plan my cruise" section of the website. Yes, you can still pay them but you will have to call Royal (or have your Travel Agent do so, if you used one). There is no way to pay them online or through the Cruise Planner (that I am aware of). NoobCruise 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PL8SWPR Posted January 5, 2023 Report Share Posted January 5, 2023 On 1/3/2023 at 6:18 PM, ChessE4 said: It is possible that when you prepay gratuities, the total value of the cruise crosses a threshold that raises your travel insurance. That happened to me once. We still typically prepay gratuities, but if our TA forgets to add it, we just pay on the ship. It gives us something to do with our on-board credit. You can still go with the lower number for travel insurance. If you don't board the ship, I'm assuming those get refunded. Even if they don't, the jump in travel insurance probably wouldn't be worth it to insure that small difference. I usually round down when purchasing travel insurance if I am near a cost threshold. I'm getting insurance more for the other benefits anyway as we typically don't book cruise fares that cost several thousand dollars. ChessE4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAYNO Posted January 5, 2023 Report Share Posted January 5, 2023 I have no problem with gratuities. But, I will say it's getting a little confusing. I very recently cancelled a Refreshment beverage package, and reordered it at the most recent discounted price. Sounds good, and saved me 40-bucks. But... When I received the new invoice, yes the price was reduced, but then another gratuity was added that made the overall price higher than the original price of the package before I cancelled it. I pay pre-paid gratuities, I am charged daily gratuities, I pay certain employees extra at the end of the cruise, and I pay now the automatic drink-package gratuities, plus I give a server a tip with every drink. I know it's easy to say forget the personal tip, as I already paid them automatically, but then they don't get anything for good service. They just get the same automatic gratuity everybody else gets. I'm not suggesting or advocating a solution, but it's now to the point I'd rather hand pay every tip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshleyDillo Posted January 5, 2023 Report Share Posted January 5, 2023 2 hours ago, PL8SWPR said: You can still go with the lower number for travel insurance. If you don't board the ship, I'm assuming those get refunded. Even if they don't, the jump in travel insurance probably wouldn't be worth it to insure that small difference. I usually round down when purchasing travel insurance if I am near a cost threshold. I'm getting insurance more for the other benefits anyway as we typically don't book cruise fares that cost several thousand dollars. They will get refunded if you don't sail. Absolutely no reason to insure that amount. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike n Ky Posted January 5, 2023 Report Share Posted January 5, 2023 When you prepay where do you see that on your booking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted January 5, 2023 Report Share Posted January 5, 2023 22 minutes ago, Mike n Ky said: When you prepay where do you see that on your booking? It appears on your cruise invoice. Mike n Ky 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike n Ky Posted January 5, 2023 Report Share Posted January 5, 2023 29 minutes ago, twangster said: It appears on your cruise invoice. TYVM!! Now I am curious as to whether they will be added to my onboard account. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted January 5, 2023 Report Share Posted January 5, 2023 5 hours ago, Mike n Ky said: TYVM!! Now I am curious as to whether they will be added to my onboard account. LOL I've never had an issue but I bring a copy of the invoice just in case. WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChessE4 Posted January 5, 2023 Report Share Posted January 5, 2023 12 hours ago, WAYNO said: I have no problem with gratuities. But, I will say it's getting a little confusing. I very recently cancelled a Refreshment beverage package for two, and reordered it at the most recent discounted price. Sounds good, and saved me 40-bucks. But... When I received the new invoice, yes the price was reduced, but then another gratuity was added that made the overall price higher than the original price of the package before I cancelled it. I pay automatic gratuities, I pay certain employees extra at the end of the cruise, I pay now the automatic drink gratuities, plus I give a server a tip with every drink. I know it's easy to say forget the tip, as I already paid them automatically, but then they don't get anything for good service. They just get the automatic gratuity. I'm not suggesting or advocating a solution, but it's now to the point I'd rather hand pay every tip. I noticed there was a VAT increase to our VOOM price on a Med sailing. The tax wiped out the discount. Was your beverage package for Europe? WAYNO and WAAAYTOOO 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAYNO Posted January 5, 2023 Report Share Posted January 5, 2023 5 hours ago, ChessE4 said: I noticed there was a VAT increase to our VOOM price on a Med sailing. The tax wiped out the discount. Was your beverage package for Europe? Nope, this was from Miami. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonR Posted January 5, 2023 Report Share Posted January 5, 2023 My wife and I have always done Prepaid, just gets it out of the way and one less thing to think about. On one of my cruises I noticed I was being charged daily, went to guest services and they removed it even though I did not have my invoice with me. When I went searching and brought it up later in my e-mail sure enough I had it there as prepaid. Over all it was no problem and the lady at Guest Services was super nice. We also tip cash onboard, our room attendants and dinning room servers have almost always gone above and beyond and we like to thank them in this way. the cash tips are budgeted as part of our spending money for our vacation. WAYNO and Xaa 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samcanadian Posted January 12, 2023 Report Share Posted January 12, 2023 We went on an RC cruise about 4 years ago and we were able to remove the auto gratuities once we were on board the ship, since we decided to tip each employee individually. Is this option available anymore, or are you stuck paying the pre-determined gratuities every day? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ampurp85 Posted January 12, 2023 Report Share Posted January 12, 2023 14 minutes ago, samcanadian said: We went on an RC cruise about 4 years ago and we were able to remove the auto gratuities once we were on board the ship, since we decided to tip each employee individually. Is this option available anymore, or are you stuck paying the pre-determined gratuities every day? Yes, this is still an option, you can do this at guest services. samcanadian 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggie M Posted January 12, 2023 Report Share Posted January 12, 2023 I think you can go to Guest Services still and do this. We usually bring cash and put it in the envelopes that the Guest Services desk provides and give it to our head/assistant waiters and Stateroom Attendant on the last night. We do this in addition to the pre-paid gratuities as kind of a 'bonus' for great service. But I would imagine you could just do the lump so of your choosing at the end of your cruise too without the auto-paid gratuities - we just haven't tried it yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samcanadian Posted January 12, 2023 Report Share Posted January 12, 2023 24 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said: Yes, this is still an option, you can do this at guest services. 21 minutes ago, Maggie M said: I think you can go to Guest Services still and do this. We usually bring cash and put it in the envelopes that the Guest Services desk provides and give it to our head/assistant waiters and Stateroom Attendant on the last night. We do this in addition to the pre-paid gratuities as kind of a 'bonus' for great service. But I would imagine you could just do the lump so of your choosing at the end of your cruise too without the auto-paid gratuities - we just haven't tried it yet! Thank you! I also found it on the Royal Caribbean site regarding the Gratuities As of September 7th, 2022, the automatic service gratuity of $16.00 USD per person, per day for guests in non-suites staterooms, or $18.50 USD per person, per day for guests in Suites, will be applied to each guest’s SeaPass account on a daily basis. The gratuity applies to individual guests of all ages and stateroom categories. As a way to reward our crew members for their outstanding service, gratuities are shared among dining, bar & culinary services staff, stateroom attendants and other hotel services teams who work behind the scenes to enhance the cruise experience. In the unlikely event that a guest onboard being charged the daily automatic gratuity does not receive satisfactory service, the guest may request to modify the daily amount at their discretion by visiting Guest Services onboard and will be able to do so until the morning of their departure. Guests who have pre-paid their gratuity will not see a daily charge during their cruise. The automatic daily gratuity is based on customary industry standards. Applying this charge automatically helps streamline the recognition process for the crew members that work to enhance your cruise. We hope you find the gratuity to be an accurate reflection of your satisfaction and thank you for your generous recognition of our staff. A 18% gratuity is automatically added to all beverages, mini bar items, and spa & salon purchases. Guests can pre-pay gratuities by calling 866-562-7625 or logging into www.royalcaribbean.com before* their sailing. For guests booked through travel advisors, their advisor may add pre-paid gratuities to the guests' booking prior to sailing*. If gratuities are not prepaid prior to sailing, they will be automatically added to the guests’ folios once onboard. *Pre-paid gratuities can be added to an individual reservation at any time outside of 48 hours of the sail date. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jp1 Posted January 12, 2023 Report Share Posted January 12, 2023 Interesting thread. I just checked to see if I had prepaid gratuity (I hadn't) and learned that they "Vacation Protection Plan" to both passengers. Seems redundant since I also purchased a separate trip insurance policy to cover the whole vacation. Bummer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheeler825 Posted January 12, 2023 Report Share Posted January 12, 2023 Very interesting thread. Does anyone know if the $16 per day automatic is charged for children as well, or just adults? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedNoodles Posted January 12, 2023 Report Share Posted January 12, 2023 3 hours ago, Wheeler825 said: Very interesting thread. Does anyone know if the $16 per day automatic is charged for children as well, or just adults? For everyone in the stateroom regardless of age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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