Questions..Check In, Photo pkg, Gratuities

[IzzyAslan]

Good morning!
I am hoping that someone can help clarify some of these, because when I utilized the Live Chat feature on DCL site, her answers were different than I thought they would be based on what I have read on the forum.
1. Photo unlimited pkg. I asked her if I purchase before the cruise, could I obtain refund during the cruise if we aren't happy w/ the photos ..as long as we don't download any. She told me no. I would need to cancel before the cruise.
2. Gratuities. We want to pay in cash directly to crew members involved. She said my options were to prepay or have the $16 pp charged to our folio each night and that we can, however, pay any additional amounts in cash.
3. Online CheckIn. I am worried that because we cannot see on dcl app that we have paid in full..we used Costco to book..and the app shows 'contact your travel agent', that maybe DCL doesn't know we paid in full, so when it comes time to checking, that we may not be able to if an error had been made in communicating the pymt . I just wanted the dcl agent to tell me she could see it there. She said I need to contact travel agent.

Thank you to anyone who can give me advice or their recent experiences. I appreciate it.

 

[Goofy1932]

1. Photo unlimited pkg. I asked her if I purchase before the cruise, could I obtain refund during the cruise if we aren't happy w/ the photos ..as long as we don't download any. She told me no. I would need to cancel before the cruise.
You cannot cancel after your cruise begins. You have to cancel before your cruise.

2. Gratuities. We want to pay in cash directly to crew members involved. She said my options were to prepay or have the $16 pp charged to our folio each night and that we can, however, pay any additional amounts in cash.
You're going to be charged the automatic gratuities either before or after your trip but it will be charged. They will give you envelopes on your last day in order to put extra tips in those envelopes to give to the individuals on those envelopes if you wish.

3. Online CheckIn. I am worried that because we cannot see on dcl app that we have paid in full..we used Costco to book..and the app shows 'contact your travel agent', that maybe DCL doesn't know we paid in full, so when it comes time to checking, that we may not be able to if an error had been made in communicating the pymt . I just wanted the dcl agent to tell me she could see it there. She said I need to contact travel agent.
You have to have your entire trip paid off before your check in date anyway. Contact Costco to make sure that it has been paid in full. It will not allow you to do an online check in with a trip that has not been paid in full. I believe that if it has not been paid in full by your check in date it's going to cancel your trip anyway. Get with Costco to find out if your trip has been paid in full. They should have sent you an email.

 

[Girl of the South]

I thought you could “adjust” the gratuities. Go to Guest Services and have them reduced or even removed, if you wanted to pay in cash or were unhappy with the service WHICH I hope no one ever does.

 

[DynamicDisneyDuo]

Good morning!
I am hoping that someone can help clarify some of these, because when I utilized the Live Chat feature on DCL site, her answers were different than I thought they would be based on what I have read on the forum.
1. Photo unlimited pkg. I asked her if I purchase before the cruise, could I obtain refund during the cruise if we aren't happy w/ the photos ..as long as we don't download any. She told me no. I would need to cancel before the cruise.

Unless this has changed, you should be able to cancel up until the last night of the cruise.

2. Gratuities. We want to pay in cash directly to crew members involved. She said my options were to prepay or have the $16 pp charged to our folio each night and that we can, however, pay any additional amounts in cash.

Unless this has changed, you can go to Guest Services and have the automatic gratuities removed if you want to do all cash.

Yes, I'm hedging here because I haven't had to deal with these lately nor do I recall any recent discussion about it here and things could have changed.

 

[lanejudy]

1. Last I knew you could cancel photo packages before the last day of the cruise as long as nothing was downloaded.

2. They will charge the gratuities to your stateroom account but you can go to Guest Services to have it removed. Then put cash in the envelopes. Alternatively, pay the cash at Guest Services and the CM will get a slip notifying how much.

3. You cannot see any payment info because you booked through a TA (Costco). Check with them to confirm it is paid if you didn’t receive an email confirmation on your final payment.

 

[Doingitagain]

If paying through travel agent, if you are paid in full you see a green checkmark on the website, not app (edited to add this) and "We Can't Wait to See You!" instead of "Complete Your Reservation". So if you see the green checkmark you are ok for online checkin,

 

[Dug720]

As others have said, you *can* go to Guest Services to have the gratuities removed, BUT keep in mind that can reflect badly on your servers and stateroom attendant because the assumption is that those are removed because something was wrong. They will be questioned by their superiors as to what happened to cause gratuities to be removed.

I don't know how it works with cash on DCL, but I know on most other lines, they are required to turn in cash tips which are held until it is checked if automatic gratuities were left intact or removed - if left intact, the cash is returned to them, but if removed, the cash is put into a pool to be distributed among all that the autogratuities cover. As well as dealing with questions about service that resulted in autogratuities being removed.

It would be better to take the cash to Guest Services on the first day to cover the automatic amounts, then you can add any cash you would like to the envelopes at the end of the cruise.

 

[awrites]

If paying through travel agent, if you are paid in full you see a green checkmark and "We Can't Wait to See You!" instead of "Complete Your Reservation". So if you see the green checkmark you are ok for online checkin,

To add to this, we paid via travel agent and on the app we never saw the green checkmark. The green checkmark appeared only on the full website when I signed in there. But we were able to book activities via the app as normal. I’d suggest checking the full website and if that has the green checkmark, all should be well.

 

[dreamer17555]

1. Photo unlimited pkg- yes you can cancel until the last night IF you have not downloaded even a single photo.


2. Gratuities- Much of the crew prefers onboard credit vs cash these days. It used to be cash was king but it is easy now to use a money transfer service like Venmo for them to send money home.

Also I am going to be blunt- most of the time when people say I want to remove tips to pay in cash they are either 1) not going to tip at all or 2.) tip less than the prepaid amount. Saying this to guest services will have them concerned about the quality of service you received and those crew will likely be checked in with by a leader. Removing the prepaid tips does not in anyway benefit the crew.

If you are only bringing cash, put it on your onboard account and leave the auto gratuities as is (or add more cash to the envelope beyond the prepaid amount)



3. Online CheckIn- Part of this is what happens when you use someone like Costco to book. It is not a dedicated TA who can email you back quickly and double check. Check that you are paid in full with Costco agent and if so when checking the website there will be a green check mark.

 

[CM Dad]

 

[Disneypeach]

I use Costco for most of my cruises. Log in to Costco and you’ll be able to see the financial status of your cruise. See below for link. Login selection is top right.

https://www.costcotravel.com/?utm_source=Costco.com&utm_medium=ViewMore