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Not sure whether you should prepay your gratuities before your cruise or wait until you’re on the ship? It’s a common question.
Paying early offers some benefits. But it also means more money out of your pocket. At the same time, it can seem strange to pay gratuities before you’ve actually received service.
My opinion, I’m a fan of prepaying gratuities and in a moment, I’ll share exactly why. But there are some very good reasons on both sides of this issue.
Here is what you need to know.
Let’s start with two questions first timers might have. What are gratuities and why do I have to pay them?
If you are a first-time cruiser, then the entire concept of gratuities may be a mystery. It used to be that when you took a cruise you were left with these envelopes in your cabin toward the end of the trip. You’d put in cash money to give the crew members that provided service during the trip.
These days things are done automatically. It’s much easier. Cruise lines charge each passenger a set of daily fees, usually around $15 per person per day, that is then distributed to the staff.
This money is given to people like the room steward who cleans your cabin every day, as well as the dining and the wait staffs.
Now the timing of this charge can be strange as most of us are used to paying a tip after the service is received and adjusting it based on the level of service.
In addition, the gratuity charges are on top of your cruise fare instead of being included automatically in the price.
Based on these two factors, gratuity charges can be a surprise to people that haven’t cruised before.
Now, some cruise lines are moving toward having the charge simply included in the cruise fare but many of the major cruise lines still have the charge as extra.
Now as mentioned, instead of the old days, the process is now done automatically based on a set daily rate. This amount can be prepaid, meaning you elect to pay it when you purchase your cruise. If you want to forego that option then you can pay it once on the ship with your onboard account.
If you choose not to pre-pay, either a daily amount will be charged to your account or it will be tacked on in full at the end of the cruise. When it’s time to settle the bill, the gratuity charge is paid for with the credit card on file.
So, with the option of prepaying gratuities or paying them later, what are the benefits of paying early?
The biggest reason is simply getting that charge out of the way. By paying the charge at the same time you pay for your cruise, it’s one less cost that will hit your onboard account while you are sailing.
Compared to the price of your cruise as a whole, the extra charge is unlikely to make a big difference financially. That means you can have the charge all taken care of before you sail without experiencing a huge hit to your pocketbook.
It’s also nice not to have a couple of extra hundred dollars to pay at the end of your cruise when settling your onboard account.
So what about the drawbacks of pre-paying?
The biggest issue would have to do with your view about paying a tip for service before you’ve even received that service. For many people, this just feels backwards. After all, what if you’ve already paid the gratuities and you get lousy service? In that case you can go to guest services and explain the situation and get it remedied.
As well, some people like to hang on to their cash for as long as possible. If you prepay the tip charges when you buy the cruise, you are essentially giving the cruise line more of your money to hold, potentially months in advance of your trip.
Will the staff treat you differently if you don’t prepay the gratuities? Having sailed both paying the charges before sailing and paying them once on the ship, I can say that I’ve seen absolutely ZERO difference in the service level on the cruise.
The bottom line, in general I opt to pre-pay gratuities on a cruise simply because I like not having to worry about them creating a higher bill once on the ship. That said there’s no harm in opting the weight as the gratuities will be charged automatically once on the ship. It all comes down to personal preference.
Happy cruising!
CruisesforSingles.net is dedicated to providing quality information on the subject of Cruises for Singles and in particular various other cruise ideas for customers and merchants online.
Cruises for Singles
Not sure whether you should prepay your gratuities before your cruise or wait until you’re on the ship? It’s a common question.
Paying early offers some benefits. But it also means more money out of your pocket. At the same time, it can seem strange to pay gratuities before you’ve actually received service.
My opinion, I’m a fan of prepaying gratuities and in a moment, I’ll share exactly why. But there are some very good reasons on both sides of this issue.
Here is what you need to know.
Let’s start with two questions first timers might have. What are gratuities and why do I have to pay them?
If you are a first-time cruiser, then the entire concept of gratuities may be a mystery. It used to be that when you took a cruise you were left with these envelopes in your cabin toward the end of the trip. You’d put in cash money to give the crew members that provided service during the trip.
These days things are done automatically. It’s much easier. Cruise lines charge each passenger a set of daily fees, usually around $15 per person per day, that is then distributed to the staff.
This money is given to people like the room steward who cleans your cabin every day, as well as the dining and the wait staffs.
Now the timing of this charge can be strange as most of us are used to paying a tip after the service is received and adjusting it based on the level of service.
In addition, the gratuity charges are on top of your cruise fare instead of being included automatically in the price.
Based on these two factors, gratuity charges can be a surprise to people that haven’t cruised before.
Now, some cruise lines are moving toward having the charge simply included in the cruise fare but many of the major cruise lines still have the charge as extra.
Now as mentioned, instead of the old days, the process is now done automatically based on a set daily rate. This amount can be prepaid, meaning you elect to pay it when you purchase your cruise. If you want to forego that option then you can pay it once on the ship with your onboard account.
If you choose not to pre-pay, either a daily amount will be charged to your account or it will be tacked on in full at the end of the cruise. When it’s time to settle the bill, the gratuity charge is paid for with the credit card on file.
So, with the option of prepaying gratuities or paying them later, what are the benefits of paying early?
The biggest reason is simply getting that charge out of the way. By paying the charge at the same time you pay for your cruise, it’s one less cost that will hit your onboard account while you are sailing.
Compared to the price of your cruise as a whole, the extra charge is unlikely to make a big difference financially. That means you can have the charge all taken care of before you sail without experiencing a huge hit to your pocketbook.
It’s also nice not to have a couple of extra hundred dollars to pay at the end of your cruise when settling your onboard account.
So what about the drawbacks of pre-paying?
The biggest issue would have to do with your view about paying a tip for service before you’ve even received that service. For many people, this just feels backwards. After all, what if you’ve already paid the gratuities and you get lousy service? In that case you can go to guest services and explain the situation and get it remedied.
As well, some people like to hang on to their cash for as long as possible. If you prepay the tip charges when you buy the cruise, you are essentially giving the cruise line more of your money to hold, potentially months in advance of your trip.
Will the staff treat you differently if you don’t prepay the gratuities? Having sailed both paying the charges before sailing and paying them once on the ship, I can say that I’ve seen absolutely ZERO difference in the service level on the cruise.
The bottom line, in general I opt to pre-pay gratuities on a cruise simply because I like not having to worry about them creating a higher bill once on the ship. That said there’s no harm in opting the weight as the gratuities will be charged automatically once on the ship. It all comes down to personal preference.
Happy cruising!
CruisesforSingles.net is dedicated to providing quality information on the subject of Cruises for Singles and in particular various other cruise ideas for customers and merchants online.
Cruises for Singles
CruisesforSingles.net is dedicated to providing quality information on the subject of Cruises for Singles and in particular various other cruise ideas for customers and merchants online.
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