OBC and gratuities paid on ship?

[tallnthensome]

I have $500 OBC for a cruise in August. Can I simply walk up to guest relations and have them use that OBC to cover my family's gratuities for the trip, let's say the first day I board? 

[vwrestler171]

Or don't do anything and it will automatically happen.

[seaman11]

You will start the cruise -250 each on your accounts. And your tips and charges will be added daily . So you wont owe anything till  Spending and tips go over $250 each.  You wont have to do anything.   If you spend less than that ,then simply go to the casino and take out $ and charge it to your set sail card. 

[Elaine5715]

12 minutes ago, seaman11 said:

You will start the cruise -250 each on your accounts. And your tips and charges will be added daily . So you wont owe anything till  Spending and tips go over $250 each.  You wont have to do anything.   If you spend less than that ,then simply go to the casino and take out $ and charge it to your set sail card. 

Grats come out as one lump sum a couple days in.  Other charges are immediate

[tallnthensome]

What about my two daughters gratuities ? Will they come off of one of our credits as well? .....or just one lump sum as well? 

[Elaine5715]

6 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

What about my two daughters gratuities ? Will they come off of one of our credits as well? .....or just one lump sum as well? 

Their gratuities will be charged to whatever account you set up for their onboard expenses.  I always have one account or my stateroom so all the OBC and charges came out of that for both of us.

[seaman11]

50 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

Grats come out as one lump sum a couple days in.  Other charges are immediate

Not on my last carnival one in  August, they charged per day at the and of the day.  

[Elaine5715]

55 minutes ago, seaman11 said:

Not on my last carnival one in  August, they charged per day at the and of the day.  

Highly unusually

 

[cruiserbrianj]

In November, I asked on embark day if I could go ahead and use my OBC to pay for the gratuities (just so we could get it taken care of) and I was told that once you're on the ship it'll just come out towards the end of the cruise (which it did). Hope this helps.

[groundloop]

I have ALWAYS had gratuities show up on my account on the last night of the cruise.  And to the OP, you don't need to do anything, it'll automatically be charged and any OBC you have will be applied.  It'd just be a good idea to use the Carnival Hub app every now and then to check your account.

Edited February 5, 2022 by groundloop

[May1cruiser]

I have always noticed they appear the last day of the cruise. Like others have said, if you group all charges to one account, you have nothing to do. I agree on monitoring charges on hub app. Avoid surprises. 

[Knights on the Beach]

I was curious so I just pulled up our last two sail & sign bills for our last two Carnival cruises.  On our 4 day Magic cruise in August, the gratuities were added in lump sum amounts at 2:03 pm on the third day.  On our 7 day Mardi Gras cruise, they were added at 2:04 pm on day 6.  So in each case, it was the next to the last day.

 

Incidentally, we were on a 3 day Royal Caribbean cruise last year and the gratuities were all charged on day 2, but were 3 different line items for each of us.

[ray98]

Should be automatic as long as everyone in your group is connected to your folio for payment.