Cruise Gratuities - Should You Prepay them? | Cruise Hacks 2020
Key Moments
Editorial Summary
The creator discusses the benefits of prepaying assigned gratuities before embarking on a cruise. He explains that these service charges are used to pay crew members, including those in food and beverage and cabin cleaning services. Prepaying can reduce stress by preventing unexpected large charges on the final shipboard bill, which can sometimes lead to delays in disembarking if the balance cannot be settled. The creator notes that most experienced cruisers in his community prefer to prepay to make their experience feel more all-inclusive. However, he identifies one exception where he might not prepay: when a passenger has significant onboard credit that can be applied toward these charges. He also touches upon the distinction between assigned gratuities and voluntary extra tipping for outstanding service. Ultimately, he suggests that while prepaying is a helpful way to manage a budget, the final decision on how to handle tips remains a personal choice for every traveler.
Written by TripBacon from this video's transcript.
Source: Our analysis of the creator's lived experience, based on what they said in this video.
Creator's Key Takeaways
the number one thing that you can do to make your cruise easier at least from a stress in your mind perspective is pay as much stuff as you can in advance
prepay your gratuities let me give you a few reasons why
the majority of cruisers prepay the gratuities so that they can get it out of the way
if you have onboard credit it's just going to deduct that from your total
Creator's Tips & Advice
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Topics Covered
Scale: 0–5 strips in half-step increments. 0 = “meh”, 5 = “bacon bliss”. Aggregated from creator-review sentiment, weighted by channel expertise.
About our Bacon Score methodologyVideo content sourced from the creator's original upload. Watch on YouTube