Can you pre-pay gratuities with a Carnival gift card online?

[cruisingguy007]

Can you pre-pay gratuities with a Carnival gift card online or must I wait until embarkation and add the gift cards to my sign and sail? Can't seem to find a definitive answer from Carnival FAQ. 

[naxer]

So far I have been able to prepay gratuities with a Carnival gift card online. 

[N7786W Flyer]

5 hours ago, cruisingguy007 said:

Can you pre-pay gratuities with a Carnival gift card online or must I wait until embarkation and add the gift cards to my sign and sail? Can't seem to find a definitive answer from Carnival FAQ. 

 

You can indeed use the gift cards to pay your gratuities online before boarding.

 

From the opening page on Carnival's website, click on "Manage" at the top of the page, then choose "My Cruise".  On the next opening page, click on "Booking and Order Details" and then scroll down the page until you see "View Balance Details" (it's about 1/3 of the way down the page and should be near the "View Documents" icon) and click on that.

 

Next,  once the "Cruise Balance Details" page opens, you should be able to "Prepaid Gratuities" and have the ability there to add/remove them as you desire.  From there, you will be taken to a payment page where several payment options are available with gift cards being one of them.  Simply click on the gift card tab, enter the information requested, and you are done.

 

Note:  To the best of my knowledge, you can NOT pay for gratuities separately from the rest of the cruise if the cruise has a balance.  That is to say, if there is a balance owed on your cruise, the website will add the price of the gratuities to the balance owed on the cruise.  You can still use the gift cards to pay toward the balance, but the amount paid will be applied only to the balance owed as a single entity (cruise balance plus gratuity balance), not directly to the gratuities only.

 

Hope this makes sense...

 

Garnett

[cruisingguy007]

Thank you for the replies, very helpful! Didn't want to get stuck with a bunch of gift cards since I already paid for the trip portion. 

[Sparky2]

I've used the discounted Allstate Rewards GCs to pay for my last 5 or 6 cruises and gratuities, too.  Just ordered wine & wifi using GCs, too.  Love it cuz it's like getting 10% off everything.

[cruisingguy007]

5 minutes ago, Sparky2 said:

I've used the discounted Allstate Rewards GCs to pay for my last 5 or 6 cruises and gratuities, too.  Just ordered wine & wifi using GCs, too.  Love it cuz it's like getting 10% off everything.

I wish I would have known about them before booking. Could have saved $300 on my bookings. Oh well, at least I can still save $150 or so on gratuities and cheers packages. 

[Kadiem]

I only have the option of credit or PayPal when I try to prepay the tips. Is it because I used a travel agent?  I was able to add the cheers package online and pay with a gift card.

Edited November 9, 2019 by Kadiem
Spelling error

[n6uqqq]

46 minutes ago, Kadiem said:

I only have the option of credit or PayPal when I try to prepay the tips. Is it because I used a travel agent?  I was able to add the cheers package online and pay with a gift card.

Yes, but your travel agent should be able to get them applied by calling Carnival. I use Costco and they apply gift cards all the time for me.

[Sparky2]

2 hours ago, cruisingguy007 said:

I wish I would have known about them before booking. Could have saved $300 on my bookings. Oh well, at least I can still save $150 or so on gratuities and cheers packages. 

 

Have you joined Allstate Rewards to receive codes to be able to buy the discounted GCs.  AARP Rewards (didn't have to be a member) also had them, but they've changed their program and I'm not seeing those cards anymore.

 

I've saved a lot over the last 3 or 4 years being able to pay for cruise, etc. and save 10%.  I also will take a few  cards with me to apply for final balance before leaving the ship even tho' my credit card is linked for expenses.

[xitappers2bx]

 

So I was writing out a whole step by step thing, and it turns out, you can't actually use a gift card to prepay gratuities online.  You can use them to buy cruise cash though, which can be used to pay all onboard expenses.  So that might be an easier way? 

 

[N7786W Flyer]

21 hours ago, xitappers2bx said:

 

So I was writing out a whole step by step thing, and it turns out, you can't actually use a gift card to prepay gratuities online. 

 

 

What makes you say that?  I've used gift cards LOTS of times to pay for gratuities online. 

 

Not trying to be argumentative, just curious as to what roadblock you've run into in the past that would make you come to that conclusion.

 

Garnett

Edited November 10, 2019 by N7786W Flyer

[xitappers2bx]

7 minutes ago, N7786W Flyer said:

 

What makes you say that?  I've used gift cards LOTS of times to pay for gratuities online. 

 

Not trying to be argumentative, just curious as to what roadblock you've run into in the past that would make you come to that conclusion.

 

Garnett

I wish I had a good answer as to why, except that after I wrote out a step by step on how to do it, and then added a bunch of photos along the way, when it came time to pay, the only options are for credit cards and PayPal, there is no gift card place to put it in.  That's why I said that--see the attached photo 

[N7786W Flyer]

Wow...that's strange.  I've never run into that screen before, but then again, I've always paid for the gratuities as a part of the cruise total cost. 

 

Maybe that screen appears once the cruise is fully paid for and someone wants to go back in and pay for the grats separately? 

 

Garnett

[ricew001]

On 11/9/2019 at 9:09 PM, xitappers2bx said:

 

So I was writing out a whole step by step thing, and it turns out, you can't actually use a gift card to prepay gratuities online.  You can use them to buy cruise cash though, which can be used to pay all onboard expenses.  So that might be an easier way? 

 

I used a gift card to pre-pay my gratuities recently. Very recently - I leave on my cruise Thursday.

[ricew001]

If you can't find the option online then call Carnival. I'm sure they will help.

[LibratPDX]

On 11/10/2019 at 4:04 PM, xitappers2bx said:

I wish I had a good answer as to why, except that after I wrote out a step by step on how to do it, and then added a bunch of photos along the way, when it came time to pay, the only options are for credit cards and PayPal, there is no gift card place to put it in.  That's why I said that--see the attached photo 

Next time click on the lower right "Having trouble?" link!!  I always try to prepay my gratuities but when I use a travel agent they have to be part of the booking and I can't pay it separately on the website.  For everything else I've always seen an option for gift cards.