Prepay gratuities/booked through costco

[dlin2011]

Paid off our cruise today! I asked about adding money to our on board account to cover gratuities and excursion. Travel agent acted very confused and said maybe when I do online check in it will let me? Can I not do this if I booked through Costco? Or was she confused? Or am I supposed to use certain verbiage?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Paid off our cruise today! I asked about adding money to our on board account to cover gratuities and excursion. Travel agent acted very confused and said maybe when I do online check in it will let me? Can I not do this if I booked through Costco? Or was she confused? Or am I supposed to use certain verbiage?

The TA must contact DCL and say that you want to pre-pay gratuities, then the price of the cruise (that you pay) will be increased to cover that. But on DCL's books it's an overpayment and becomes OBC that's applied to your account.

I don't think you can do it once the cruise has been paid off, though.

You can purchase onboard credit through the "Onboard Gifts" option on the DCL website (you can do that yourself). https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/gifts-and-amenities/link-reservation

 

[dlin2011]

You can purchase onboard credit through the "Onboard Gifts" option on the DCL website (you can do that yourself). https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/gifts-and-amenities/link-reservation

thanks! This must have been what she meant.

 

[rere101399]

You can add money to your onboard account up to 3 days before sailing. Even though you’re booked through Costco I find that easier to do by calling DCL

 

[monkeydawn]

My cruise was booked inside the PIF time. i was never not PIF. Later I called DCL about linking a couple of reservations, dietary issues and asked if I could prepay gratuities. She could do the first two but I had to call Costco to do the gratuities. So I called Costco, told the rep I wanted to prepay gratuities and add some funds to my onboard account (could not do this online at the time). She called DCL while I was on the line and gave my payment information. FWIW, I know some posters will say that you cant really prepay gratuities, you are only loading that amount to your account but when I was onboard it actually showed that I prepaid gratuities (and also had an OBC in the separate amount that I loaded on...all in one phone call though). This was in August of this year for a September cruise.

Also, if you get an agent that can do this you might not get an email stating you prepaid your gratuities, I only got one for my OBC. The rep warned me about this. I must have had a pretty good one.

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

Yes, you can prepay gratuities (& also add additional money to your onboard account if you like) via Costco. You can absolutely do it after paying in full. I have done it myself multiple times, most recently this month.

 

[kiford]

FWIW, I know some posters will say that you cant really prepay gratuities, you are only loading that amount to your account but when I was onboard it actually showed that I prepaid gratuities (and also had an OBC in the separate amount that I loaded on...all in one phone call though).

Some people think that by prepaying gratuities means that the staff get it at the beginning of the cruise. So it effectively sits as a credit on your account until it's paid at the end of the cruise although it may be earmarked for gratuities so that you don't make the mistake of spending it inadvertently. However, if you decided at any point to go to Guest Services and reduce the amounts, you'd get a refund to your account that would be a credit available for you to use. You still have the same options to raise or lower as someone who hasn't prepaid it. I never do it because I don't see why DCL should get my money in advance of when they need it especially since it's not their money but the staff's money. Plus we get the extra time to pay the credit card when we return and earn interest on the cash before it's due.

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

I never do it because I don't see why DCL should get my money in advance of when they need it especially since it's not their money but the staff's money. Plus we get the extra time to pay the credit card when we return and earn interest on the cash before it's due.

Different strokes. We like having gratuities prepaid because it's one less bill to have to pay at the end of the cruise. Gratuity amounts are so relatively small that any interest that we could have earned on them is minimal, so we don't care about that.

 

[monkeydawn]

I never do it because I don't see why DCL should get my money in advance of when they need it especially since it's not their money but the staff's money. Plus we get the extra time to pay the credit card when we return and earn interest on the cash before it's due.

I did it because my account was funded by my cabin mates Disney Visa so that we could get onboard benefits but I wanted to pay via my CC so that I could get my own points and not have to worry about carrying cash to pay my friend back.

That's probably a negligible amount of interest...$80 principle for 3 or 4 weeks. Pretty sure in my case the CB was a better deal for me. Depending on circumstances I guess it could be a better deal to wait to pay off but there are certainly instances where prepaying works better, either as a deal or convenience.