Remove Pre pay gratuity

How do I remove the prepay tips??? I did not want them prepaid. I have already fully paid balance and did not notice till afterwards the tips were still listed.

How do I remove the prepay tips??? I did not want them prepaid. I have already fully paid balance and did not notice till afterwards the tips were still listed.

Which cruise line :confused:

And how did you book? If thru a travel agent, I would be talking to the agent. Or, if thru the cruise line, I would be talking to them.

Seems the OP is booked on Carnival.

LuLu

Did you pre pay the tips or was it included in the booking by your TA or cruise line?

Did you choose set dining or MTD?

Did you choose set dining or MTD?

This is the key question.

This is posted in the Carnival thread too.

This is posted in the Carnival thread too.

That is good- that is the more appropriate place to post.

There are many variables here, none of which the OP chose to mention. I have been thinking about it since my first post on the thread. One that has been sticking with me is did the OP get some sort of package with pre-paid tips, perhaps a drink package, etc...It may be impossible to separate out the tips.

I am new here. Stop the teenage lol text talk. What does OP stand for. I am big boy I can handle some name calling.

Will also depend where you are sailing from.

I am new here. Stop the teenage lol text talk. What does OP stand for. I am big boy I can handle some name calling.

OP = Original or Opening Poster the person who started the thread.

DW = Dear Wife, you can probably work out DH DS and DD

CC = Credit Card or Cruise Critic

TA = Trans Atlantic or Travel Agent

There are hundreds just short hand

MDR = Main Dining Room

OBC = On Board Credit

I am new here. Stop the teenage lol text talk. What does OP stand for. I am big boy I can handle some name calling.

Robert, OP means "original poster" or the person who started the thread. In other words..... you. :) No one was calling you names; it's simply a message board short cut, if you will, and it is very commonly used here.

Thanks for the short hand tutorial. New to cruising and I and used to or prefer to tip the staff that actually gives the service to me or our group like at restaurants. We prefer over tipping the people that actually wait/service us vs. tipping based on their service but they have to split with other servers that never helped service us. I guess cruises are setup very different.

Being new, you might not realize the ins and outs of the tipping culture on cruises. It's really not like a restaurant in the sense that you're served by people who are not in the restaurant, such as all the servers in the buffet, or when it's open seating in the MDR for breakfast and lunch and you have different waiters. And, as others have asked, what type of dining did you select----traditional, where you're assigned a table and dining time, or My Time Dining, where you dine whenever you wish, and different tables every night and with different wait staff. If you're not doing traditional, it's best to keep your pre paid tips just as they are, because you'll have different waiters every night, and you don't leave tips on the table as you do in a land based restaurant.

Thanks for the short hand tutorial. New to cruising and I and used to or prefer to tip the staff that actually gives the service to me or our group like at restaurants. We prefer over tipping the people that actually wait/service us vs. tipping based on their service but they have to split with other servers that never helped service us. I guess cruises are setup very different.

Yes, VERY. Just leave the tips as is and everyone who has helped to service you (even if you did not see them) will be appropriately compensated.

You can bring some extra cash if there are a few individuals who you feel deserve extra. :)

We are doing the traditional early dining

With early traditional, you will see one set of waiters and assistant waiters at dinner. However, at breakfast and lunch in either the MDR (Main Dining Room) or buffet, you will see different staff every meal. In the case of the buffet there can be several each meal. Do you plan to carry cash to tip each of them every day?

We find that leaving on the autotip is so much simpler for us. It takes care of the Cabin steward, waiters and assistant waiters and the staff that helps them give you the great service. This includes the laundry personnel, cooks and dishwashers.

You would be wise to find out from Carnival is you do remove the tips (gratuities) that any monies you give to anyone on the ship can actually keep the money.

HAL has a different rule. If you remove the Hotel Service Charge, your name is passed along to the supervisors and they pass your name down to the people who work under them. Any extra monies given to anyone must be turned in and put into a pool.

That is why I mention that you need to find out what the rules are for Carnival.

Being new, you might not realize the ins and outs of the tipping culture on cruises. It's really not like a restaurant in the sense that you're served by people who are not in the restaurant, such as all the servers in the buffet, or when it's open seating in the MDR for breakfast and lunch and you have different waiters. And, as others have asked, what type of dining did you select----traditional, where you're assigned a table and dining time, or My Time Dining, where you dine whenever you wish, and different tables every night and with different wait staff. If you're not doing traditional, it's best to keep your pre paid tips just as they are, because you'll have different waiters every night, and you don't leave tips on the table as you do in a land based restaurant.

With early traditional, you will see one set of waiters and assistant waiters at dinner. However, at breakfast and lunch in either the MDR (Main Dining Room) or buffet, you will see different staff every meal. In the case of the buffet there can be several each meal. Do you plan to carry cash to tip each of them every day?

 

We find that leaving on the autotip is so much simpler for us. It takes care of the Cabin steward, waiters and assistant waiters and the staff that helps them give you the great service. This includes the laundry personnel, cooks and dishwashers.

Excellent info here. Some lines will request the auto-gratuities be paid upfront if you're doing flexible dining, but not sure how Carnival is doing it now for either type (our last cruise on Carnival was in 2002 when everyone had traditional dining and passengers were to give out the tipping envelopes on the last day of the cruise). Since then, we've gone on Princess, which started the "daily hotel" fee that gets charged to one's folio == this was started when the cruise line started offering anytime dining (we preferred traditional).

Now, on many lines, the tipping is done automatically for you, which we find much more convenient than doing so the old way.

You can remove the auto-tips on some lines, and then tip as you go along, but it's better just to go with the established cruising way. You don't have to carry around cash while on board for tipping the waitstaff. They all share in the tipping pool so even if one helped you at lunch, he/she is taken care of. If you do give cash to your cabin steward or waiter, they have to turn it in to their supervisor, and the list of those who have removed the tips is checked to see if your name is there. If so, that money will go into the tipping pool, so the worker ends up getting less. Plus, some cruise lines will give a crew member a ding.

Even if you're going to remove tips and then tip your wait staff directly, how are you planning on doing it? Even just for dinner, you will have your head waiter and two assistants. And then in a restaurant, you tip based on the amount of the meal. How much do you think the meal is worth? If we assume $25/per person for each meal, that would be $50 for a couple. That would be a tip of $7.50 each night. So, do you give each of your wait staff that $7.50 every night, or do you try to split it up? And how much do you give each of them? Like has been commented before, you don't just leave the tip on the table, you hand it to them directly. So then you'd need to try to find all three members of your wait staff...it would be a lot of hassle to do this. If you leave your tips alone, Carnival will make sure that the appropriate people get the tip that has been allocated to them. And if you try to figure out how much you should tip, what if you're actually giving them less than what they would get if you had left your automatic tips set up? You might think you're being generous when in reality you're not.

Even if you're going to remove tips and then tip your wait staff directly, how are you planning on doing it? Even just for dinner, you will have your head waiter and two assistants. And then in a restaurant, you tip based on the amount of the meal. How much do you think the meal is worth? If we assume $25/per person for each meal, that would be $50 for a couple. That would be a tip of $7.50 each night. So, do you give each of your wait staff that $7.50 every night, or do you try to split it up? And how much do you give each of them? Like has been commented before, you don't just leave the tip on the table, you hand it to them directly. So then you'd need to try to find all three members of your wait staff...it would be a lot of hassle to do this. If you leave your tips alone, Carnival will make sure that the appropriate people get the tip that has been allocated to them. And if you try to figure out how much you should tip, what if you're actually giving them less than what they would get if you had left your automatic tips set up? You might think you're being generous when in reality you're not.

Great points.

Even if you're going to remove tips and then tip your wait staff directly, how are you planning on doing it? Even just for dinner, you will have your head waiter and two assistants. And then in a restaurant, you tip based on the amount of the meal. How much do you think the meal is worth? If we assume $25/per person for each meal, that would be $50 for a couple. That would be a tip of $7.50 each night. So, do you give each of your wait staff that $7.50 every night, or do you try to split it up? And how much do you give each of them? Like has been commented before, you don't just leave the tip on the table, you hand it to them directly. So then you'd need to try to find all three members of your wait staff...it would be a lot of hassle to do this. If you leave your tips alone, Carnival will make sure that the appropriate people get the tip that has been allocated to them. And if you try to figure out how much you should tip, what if you're actually giving them less than what they would get if you had left your automatic tips set up? You might think you're being generous when in reality you're not.

Don't forget the room steward - that could be be $5 per day and they might have a assistant / help and that's additional money if you remove the auto tips. Its just cheaper to pay the DSC / gratuities of $12 per day than deal / figure out the with math of the additional staff members which might be $20-30 per day...

I am new to cruising...in fact I have not even been ON a cruise yet. that will change this summer when we take our first cruise on RI's Brillance of the Seas to St. Petersburg. As a new - and nervous - cruiser, I have read just about ANYTHING I can find on all things cruisng -- even the "scare" stories "six things to make you change your mind about going on that cruise!!!!! LOL -- anyway...recently i read an article about tipping on cruise lines and the author (and I APOLOGIZE -- I have been looking for that article and can not find it now!)made point I can relate to.

I currently live in Europe and have lived her for about two years now, but am American by birth. Tipping is a cultural thing. In th US...we tip - A LOT. Not so much in Europe. The article I read indicated that ONE of the reasons cruise lines went to obligatory tipping is because they have expanded the market outside the US -- more European vacationers are opting for a cruise. This meant fewer tips for the cruise staff. And let's face it, it should be no surprise to learn that the cruise lines do not pay very well for the vast majority of the ship's staff. Just like in a US resturant, a lower wage is offset by our tipping culture.

Another way to look at the tipping though, according to this article was that there are TWO types of tips on a cruise ship - the obligatory one - the one you pay for everyday (about $12 per person per day?) and then the discretionary tip. In europe, espeically in Italy, France, and now even in busier parts of London, it is standard to have what is called "sitting fee" added to the bill. In italy it sometimes called a cerperto. In London a sitting fee. It is a form of "obligatory" tip. The author of the article I read suggests that the gratuity fee charged by cruise lines is similiar to this "cerperto." And he even went so far as to suggest tipping above and beyond this for your room steward and waiters if using a standard dining program. If using flex or my time dining he suggest carrying envelopes with you on the ready.

In other words...it really is still not that simple to understand, but when I think of it as two separate tips, then I feel more comfortable tipping for the service I recived separatley from the obligatory tips that will appear on my bill.

And...if I am not happy at all, then I just prepare myself to ask/argue for them to be removed. I know I will learn a lot on my first cruise, and getting a handle on the tipping will probably NOT be one of them. :)

And...if I am not happy at all, then I just prepare myself to ask/argue for them to be removed. I know I will learn a lot on my first cruise, and getting a handle on the tipping will probably NOT be one of them. :)

If you're unhappy with the service, go to the passenger desk and tell them about that...but not to remove the auto-gratuities, but to get the matter resolved. For example, if you feel your cabin steward isn't taking care to clean your cabin everyday, the supervisor can have a talk with him/her. But remember to be reasonable -- that you share your cabin steward with others and that you share your waitstaff with other tables, so any request you make may not be handled in two seconds.