Prepaid tips

[ablemonay]

Are you able to prepay your tips on Msc? Traveling on Divina on March 8, 2014

[Beamafar]

I'm travelling on Preziosa in May. The gratuities are included in the price of the package my travel agent has put together. It'll be my 5th MSC cruise and it's the 1st time I've had to prepay so I'm not sure what way it'll work. Maybe it'll be in a voucher to be submitted when settling the final bill. I'd prefer to pay the tips at the end of the cruise as it goes towards onboard spend which, in turn, gets converted into club card points so am hoping that the voucher will appear as a payment. They obviously have a system to accept prepayments so check it out with your TA.

[MSC Cruises USA]

Are you able to prepay your tips on Msc? Traveling on Divina on March 8, 2014

 

For your convenience MSC Cruises will automatically add a daily Hotel Service Charge to your shipboard account, based on your chosen itinerary and the number of days for which the services are actually provided. The Hotel Service charge serves to ensure we maintain the highest quality standards of service to our guests. The daily amounts below have been calculated with this in mind and cannot be modified. However, should you wish to remove any of the daily Hotel Service Charge in the unlikely event that you do not receive satisfactory service, you may do so by contacting the Guest Relations Manager on board. MSC Cruises does not recommend tipping individual members of staff.

 

The Hotel Service Charges for the Caribbean are:

 

Adults (Over 18): $ 12 US Dollars per day

Child (Under 18): $ 6 US Dollars per day

Child (Under 3): No Service charge applied

[alexkrn46]

I would rather prepaid the service charge before going on the ship.

[legion3]

I would rather prepaid the service charge before going on the ship.

 

 

Yep, like to pre-pay as well, one last thing to deal with onboard. As it is it seems my OBC is already spent this way. :rolleyes:

[MotownVoice]

The nice thing is that you can begin with the assumption that the labor is already being paid a fair wage. So you don't have to feel guilted in to tipping something extra because they'll starve to death like the horror stories you hear people tell on other cruise lines.

 

When you slip a little something extra to your steward, or a bar keep ... it's really extra.

[Skier52]

I would rather prepaid the service charge before going on the ship.

If you prepay you lose out on getting points for the MSC Club. as paying daily the service charge counts towards the points system, The cost for 2 people for 7 nights is $168 which is well on he way to a point so another $32 and you have 8 points for the cruise as a minimum (7 nights + 1 for spending). So it's very easy to get to Silver in 2 cruise (22 points, $600 additional spend per cruise) and Gold in 4 cruises. (43 points). These then give you decent discounts on further cruises. (8% for Silver and 10% for Gold)

 

Under your method it'll probably take 5 cruises to get to Gold

 

If you have prebudgetted by thinking about prepaying then that is easy to transfer that amount to the final bill, it's only those who have not prebudgetted that will have a shock.

Edited January 22, 2014 by Skier52