Pre-pay gratuities?

[Workingtotravel14]

Any suggestions about pre-paying for the gratuities? Debating doing it, or just waiting until we are on the ship. Thanks

[LHT28]

personal choice

 

You can pay them now or pay them later unless you decide to remove them

[Langley Cruisers]

Well, it's the same amount either way of course, so no real reason either way (in my opinion). However, some people have on board credit (OBC) to use, and this can go toward the gratuities/service charge/hotel charge (whatever your line calls it).

 

EDITED to add: Leaving the auto-gratuity in place on board or pre-paying them ensures that everyone who is included in it is paid. IF you remove them and pay cash, it's very easy to miss someone and then they receive nothing from you when they would have initially. The crew counts on our tips as part of their salary.

[zqvol]

We prepay them simply to minimize the bill after the cruise.

[leaveitallbehind]

If we have an OBC we wait and have them charged daily on board to have the OBC cover them. If we don't have any OBC we typically prepay them.

[donaldsc]

The only reason that I can see to prepay gratuities ahead of time is that you feel that currency exchange rates are in your favor now.

 

DON

[SantaFeFan]

The only reason that I can see to prepay gratuities ahead of time is that you feel that currency exchange rates are in your favor now.

 

DON

 

We prepay to get as much of the expense taken care of before we even get on the ship. That way the end of cruise balance owned is not as large. If we have a lot of OBC, we won't, but for us it's the convenience of having as much of the cost of the cruise paid off before we leave rather than having to pay it off a few weeks after it's over. It's no different than paying the full cruise fare before the cruise. It's just a part of the complete cost, and we prefer to get out of the way sooner than later.

 

The exchange rate has zero to do with it since the cruise lines we patronize use the same currency as our home currency.

[zqvol]

OP - Be aware that some lines (NCL comes to mind) will not allow OBC to be used for daily service charges, so the point that someone made above about using your on board credit for gratuities may not be applicable.

[SRF]

Another point, I did pre-pay last cruise, as I had a 0% interest, 18 month deal on the credit card used to charge the cruise.

[paul929207]

It is a personal decision. If you want to go ahead. If not, don't do it.

[leaveitallbehind]

OP - Be aware that some lines (NCL comes to mind) will not allow OBC to be used for daily service charges, so the point that someone made above about using your on board credit for gratuities may not be applicable.

 

Good point - and I was referring to our experience with RCI and Celebrity, which don't place spending restrictions on their OBC's.

[momto2js]

If your trip is not happening soon, you may want to prepay. If the line decides to 8ncrease the rate, you are locked in to the prepaid price.

[margeecruiser]

We used to prepay all the time. Then, last year we pre-paid and the daily rate was added again on the ship. We got it settled, but it took 2months to get our money back. Now we just pay at the end. Makes our on-board account higher but that’s not a problem. Always a shock but we monitor it as we go.

 

Margee

 

 

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[teknoge3k]

We just factor in gratuities as part of the cruise fare and pay them when we pay our cruise. That way they're paid, it's done and behind us and we don't have to worry about it. I like to prepay as much as possible.

[puppycanducruise]

We sometimes buy OBC if our dollar might fall in value against the US dollar. (because the cruises we sail on use the US dollar as the currency on the ship).