Carnival Now Requires Gratuities to be Prepaid With Good To Go Promo

[CruiseLoverFromNorCal]

When I booked with the Good to Go promo, it forced me to prepay the gratuities. There was no way to opt out. Anyone else notice this? I prefer to tip individual workers in cash. 

[firefly333]

Probably why carnival is doing another promo like this. Too many opt out. There was one before, but was still cheaper overall. Since I never opt out if I get this offer it's very good for me.

 

Just looked and no such offer darn. I wou,d like some better offers like the last one like that. Best I see I could do is in August a 8 day on dream in a 1A for 650. I'm ready for some better cabins or I'll keep passing.

Edited March 8, 2022 by firefly333

[pe4all]

Were the gratuities prepaid, or included with your fare?  We just returned from a "good to go" offer, and our pvp made it very clear that the grats were included in the fare, which I guess is kind of the same as prepaid.  The fare was so low and reasonable it made no difference to us.  And I still tipped my steward and others on top of that for good service.

[Aplmac]

I've always had to pre-pay gratuities. No problem.

It's only money. And I'm not even rich.

But the poor workers deserve to get a little extra.

 

Pay your gratuities. Consider it part of the cost of your cruise.
It won't kill you.

 

[Fla Mike]

3 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Too many opt out... Since I never opt out if I get this offer it's very good for me.

 

Was speaking to my PVP about the very same thing, too many people opting out.

 

I just booked us on a cruise on the Freedom for May, not sure of the promo, but it was basically free, and as the OP stated the  gratuities were to be prepaid.

 

I'm good with that, I always pre pay them anyway, it is one less thing I have to worry about, and we always tip extra.

 

As we spoke and without them saying it outright,  it became obvious that there is concern at the corporate level that these give-away rates will attract the crowd that will run to the Guest Service desk to have the grats removed once they hit their account.

 

I have to agree, we have all seen that line at GS, the staff works to hard to get stiffed.

 

If you are that person, who actually does like to tip at the end in cash... great!

That is the way it was back in the day, and IMHO, should still be...but...too many are just plain old stiffing the staff these days.

[cmukid87]

You pay them either way.  Prepay now (required with this rate) or billed to your S&S account.  

 

Some of those rates were too good to pass up!

[mz-s]

And now we are getting tipping threads again. It's good to see that Cruise Critic is getting back to normal. Hopefully soon we'll get another "shorts in MDR" thread.

[Virga]

This is a little bit of a bummer for me, since I keep booking offers with OBC and covid credits.  Not a huge deal, we always pay the suggested and tip extra as we go, but I would prefer to be able to use my OBC for all of it.

[tm_aw_love]

They are probably just trying to prevent people from taking these 'almost free' cruises then stiffing the staff on the gratuities on top of it. 

People have been saying for years that Carnival should just include gratuities in the fare, this is just basically their way of doing that.

[tm_aw_love]

40 minutes ago, cmukid87 said:

You pay them either way.  Prepay now (required with this rate) or billed to your S&S account.  

 

Some of those rates were too good to pass up!

The problem is that people book these free or almost free cruises, opt to pay gratuities later, then remove them once onboard. 

Most of them claim dozens of different excuses as to why they do it, but that seems to be the reality. 

 

[Denverdonkeys]

6 hours ago, CruiseLoverFromNorCal said:

When I booked with the Good to Go promo, it forced me to prepay the gratuities. There was no way to opt out. Anyone else notice this? I prefer to tip individual workers in cash. 

a lot of cruise workers get paid from the tip pool that you never interact with, but that support those that you do. pulling your tips off is a slap in the face to those unseen workers.

[Denverdonkeys]

11 minutes ago, Virga said:

This is a little bit of a bummer for me, since I keep booking offers with OBC and covid credits.  Not a huge deal, we always pay the suggested and tip extra as we go, but I would prefer to be able to use my OBC for all of it.

the side benefit that the cruise lines have is that now you will feel like you need to spend more to use that OBC, rather than using it for the grats. I agree though, I also like to use my OBC for that purpose.

[Lee Cruiser]

6 hours ago, CruiseLoverFromNorCal said:

I prefer to tip individual workers in cash. 

The problem with doing that is that someone always gets left out.  We prepay our tips and then tip extra to people like our room steward.

[csm5986142]

5 hours ago, pe4all said:

We just returned from a "good to go" offer, and our pvp made it very clear that the grats were included in the fare, which I guess is kind of the same as prepaid.  The fare was so low and reasonable it made no difference to us.  And I still tipped my steward and others on top of that for good service.

 

I totally agree.  I think gratuities should be required (one way or the other) on all of these ultra-low fare cruises. 

[cruisingguy007]

2 hours ago, tm_aw_love said:

They are probably just trying to prevent people from taking these 'almost free' cruises then stiffing the staff on the gratuities on top of it. 

People have been saying for years that Carnival should just include gratuities in the fare, this is just basically their way of doing that.

 

A better solution could also be to add a few lines of code into the algorithms that prohibit these low offers for past guests who have removed their tips. They know who is/isn't doing it. It's a quiet solution that will naturally work itself out. The cheapskates will pay higher fares or not sail. Win-win either way. I think there is some legal barrier to making them mandatory and still calling them gratuities, maybe call them service fees or some other term that passes legal muster and works for tax purposes also. They want to keep the fare appearance low and minimal tax hit also. Every other passenger who pays is subsidizing the cheapskates and allowing them to take advantage of what is essentially, welfare cruising. I also noticed that it tends to be the more problematic passengers that line up to do this (obnoxious, loud drunken, fighting, rule breaking etc). Less knuckleheads is another side benefit to weeding these folks out.          

[tm_aw_love]

19 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

A better solution could also be to add a few lines of code into the algorithms that prohibit these low offers for past guests who have removed their tips. They know who is/isn't doing it. It's a quiet solution that will naturally work itself out. The cheapskates will pay higher fares or not sail. Win-win either way. I think there is some legal barrier to making them mandatory and still calling them gratuities, maybe call them service fees or some other term that passes legal muster and works for tax purposes also. They want to keep the fare appearance low and minimal tax hit also. Every other passenger who pays is subsidizing the cheapskates and allowing them to take advantage of what is essentially, welfare cruising. I also noticed that it tends to be the more problematic passengers that line up to do this (obnoxious, loud drunken, fighting, rule breaking etc). Less knuckleheads is another side benefit to weeding these folks out.          

No arguments here. They clearly wouldn't have implemented this if it weren't an issue.

[famof4togo]

I agree!  Leave the pre-paid in place and add cash to individuals as you see fit.

[Stick93]

56 minutes ago, famof4togo said:

I agree!  Leave the pre-paid in place and add cash to individuals as you see fit.

Can we add to this that if you have a package you don't need a paper receipt to sign for every drink?

[Joe817]

Well, I just searched and searched for the "Good To Go Offer", and it's nowhere to be found for me. It sounded interesting though. 

[famof4togo]

11 minutes ago, Stick93 said:

Can we add to this that if you have a package you don't need a paper receipt to sign for every drink?

of course, you can always just add tip if you have Cheers to the receipt...I literally just got back from the bank with my $100 in $1's and $100 in $5's so I am set for our tips for our trip!

Edited March 8, 2022 by famof4togo

[Stick93]

If you do something to entertain me or pour something a bit heavier I will give you an extra tip but throwing a paper in my face means sorry I paid already -

No other cruise line gives you a paper receipt to sign with every drink 

[csm5986142]

Sorry, I forgot to answer your original question.

We currently have a "Good to Go" offer and I just did a mock booking, and yes, I'm finding the same thing you did - it's not possible to uncheck the box for prepaid gratuities.   

[wikoffclan]

11 hours ago, CruiseLoverFromNorCal said:

When I booked with the Good to Go promo, it forced me to prepay the gratuities. There was no way to opt out. Anyone else notice this? I prefer to tip individual workers in cash. 

 

Just got off a Valor cruise booked with the Good to GO rate with pre-paid gratuities. Was surprised to find on the third day that Gratuities had been added to my Account. I went to the Customer Service Desk and explained that I had already pre-paid them at the time I booked the cruise about 4 weeks before. He could not see on my account that the gratuities had been pre-paid, but was very gracious while removing them from my account.

Just  be aware and check your onboard account periodically.

[cheer25mom]

1 hour ago, famof4togo said:

of course, you can always just add tip if you have Cheers to the receipt...I literally just got back from the bank with my $100 in $1's and $100 in $5's so I am set for our tips for our trip!

So you tip in cash if you have cheers? It appears from reading here that you don't get a receipt when you order a drink on the cheers package? Is there a way to tip with cheers and have it added to the room folio? 

[cheer25mom]

1 hour ago, Stick93 said:

If you do something to entertain me or pour something a bit heavier I will give you an extra tip but throwing a paper in my face means sorry I paid already -

No other cruise line gives you a paper receipt to sign with every drink 

I had to sign for every drink I ordered on every Disney cruise I have been on.