Tipping on a Cruise Ship The Ultimate Guide to Cruise Gratuities

Table Of Content

• Personalize Your Tip-Giving Experience
• Who to Tip on a Cruise Ship
• Worth It? Complete Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) Drink Package Guide
• The Essential Guide to Cruise Ship Tipping: What You Need to Know
• Do you need to tip at the spa on a cruise?
• How Many Golf Courses Are Available in Rome for Costa Cruises Guests?
• Tipping on a cruise: What to know about cruise ship gratuities
• What are the per-day service fees for Carnival Cruises?

The recommended amount is £5 per passenger, per day, to be divided equally between the cabin stewards and waiters. This amount is automatically added to passengers' onboard accounts toward the end of the cruise, but it can be adjusted at reception at any point during the sailing. If you don’t decide to prepay the tips, then the amount is automatically charged to your onboard account each day. When it comes time to settle your final bill at the end of the cruise, you’ll have the gratuity charges to pay as well. Most contemporary and premium cruise lines will automatically charge a daily gratuity to each passenger’s account for the crew’s service.

Personalize Your Tip-Giving Experience

Generally, the total adds up to about $50-$75 for a 7-day cruise in addition to the prepaid gratuities. Other cruisers, often people who remember cruising before autogratuities, prefer tipping crew in cash. They might feel that it gives them more control over tipping, rewarding the crew based on their level of service. Others just prefer the face-to-face experience of handing over a cash tip. For many cruises that operate in the Australian market where tipping isn’t part of the culture, automatic gratuities aren’t added on to passenger bills.

Who to Tip on a Cruise Ship

This is a convenient option for cruise passengers that don’t want to think about extra charges once onboard. We like to prepay gratuities when we make our final payment for our cruise, but this is optional. The most compelling comment I’ve heard regarding tipping crew members on a cruise was from a fellow passenger from the UK. She simply stated that everyone’s economic situations are different. Conversely, an American passenger will normally budget extra money for their cruise to accommodate additional gratuities while on board. As previously noted, spa and salon staff members get a portion of the automatic service charge added to your stateroom bill for these treatments.

Worth It? Complete Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) Drink Package Guide

Once reviewed and approved with guest services, payment is completed with a credit card before you depart the ship on the final day. Some cruise ship spas, like those on NCL and Royal Caribbean, add on a service fee or gratuity, usually about 18%. Check your bill after your services to see if your tip is already included. If not, 15-20% of the bill (excluding any products that you buy) is customary. Automatic gratuities, also called autogratuities or autograts, is the cruise term for the system most cruise lines now use to simplify tipping for passengers. The first is to pre-pay cruise gratuities when you book your reservation.

The Essential Guide to Cruise Ship Tipping: What You Need to Know

If you want to pay extra, we suggest simply handing cash directly to the people you want to recognize for their service. This happens regularly for passengers feeling generous or thankful for the staff’s work during their trip. In fact, your cruise line might leave a few envelopes in your room exactly for this purpose. When tipping in the cruise line spa, it’s important to remember that a standard gratuity fee is often automatically added to your bill each day. For instance, an added gratuity of 18 to 20 percent will be included if you purchase a massage or salon service. Gratuities or a service charge are added onto some onboard services.

I want to share everything I've learned and hope to make your next cruise vacation as enjoyable as possible. As for the question, I use this as a guideline regardless of the cruise length actually. With gratuities already being added to the cruise, and they are ever-increasing, I’ve become more selective on how I choose to tip extra. If our room steward goes out of their way for anything, I’ll tip extra… and if they frequently go out of their way, I’ll possibly leave an extra $75 regardless of the cruise length.

This can only be done on the ship prior to the end of the cruise since all funds will have been distributed to the crew after that point. You may also want to create a hybrid method by combining the basic options. For example, you can pre-pay and supplement with cash to those crew members who are above-and-beyond in their service skills. Here's everything you need to know about cruise gratuities, with an ultimate guide covering how it all works. If you are cruising to the Greek Isles in the fall, a summer wardrobe won’t do. Temperatures are much cooler, so I took that into account for the actual Greek Isles cruise capsule wardrobe I wore on our recent trip.

Tipping on a cruise: What to know about cruise ship gratuities

Tipping on a cruise might be the most discussed and debated topic among both novice and seasoned cruisers. It doesn't help that tipping etiquette and different cruise line policies on the practice can be baffling. Whether you're wondering how much to tip a cruise porter or the waiter on a cruise ship, there is a lot of gray area. That's why Cruise Critic's experts have broken down when to tip, how much to tip and whom to tip. Read on for our tips on tipping, so you won't be lost at sea when it comes time to show your appreciation for the cruise crew.

Royal Caribbean raises key fee (and passengers don't like it) - TheStreet

Royal Caribbean raises key fee (and passengers don't like it).

Posted: Wed, 01 Nov 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

The bartenders here are true artists, skillfully mixing ingredients to create drinks that are not only visually stunning but also bursting with flavor. This is a bar experience unlike any other, where you can truly indulge in mixology magic while surrounded by the breathtaking beauty of the ocean. With a lifelong fascination for exploring new horizons, Alfons discovered his love for the ocean and cruising at a young age. Also, there are certain cruise lines that do not allow cancellation or alteration of this expense.

On NCL, passengers who don’t want to pay autograts need to file a claim for reimbursement after the cruise. For example, on my recent cruise, a daily gratuity charge was automatically added to my onboard account. However, separate tipping for exceptional service is always appreciated.

Norwegian suggests that passengers who use concierge or butler service provide a gratuity "commensurate with the services rendered." Daily service charges are not the only cruise tips you will pay on board. Many cruise lines will tack an automatic gratuity charge onto the bill for extra-fee drinks, restaurant meals and spa treatments. Norwegian Cruise Line charges a daily service fee of $15.50 per person, per day for guests in standard cabins and $18.50 per person per day for guests in suites and The Haven. But nowadays, many large lines are both cash-free and have automated tipping as part of the daily dues, meaning passengers no longer need to carry around a wad of bills.

Having $1 and $5 bills handy is helpful when you want to give a bartender a small tip with your drink or tip a porter for handling your baggage on embarkation day. You can prepay gratuities at any time up to 48 hours before your sail date. If you booked with a travel agent, contact your travel agent and they can add gratuities to your booking.

Tipping on a cruise does not have to be complicated, but you need to understand the big picture to budget for your vacation appropriately. Read on to learn all about cruise ship tipping culture and how much you'll need to tip on your next cruise, based on which cruise line you're sailing. What do you think about cruise line gratuities and service onboard? Virgin Voyages does a lot of things differently than it’s mainstream peers. One of these differences is that cruise gratuities are included. I'm a global nomad at heart, and the dedicated editor behind CruiseGear.

Now, with automatic gratuities, the process is much simpler and you don’t need to carry all that cash. The cruise line assesses a daily fee and divides the money among the tipped crew. Costa Cruises offers a wide selection of golf courses for guests to enjoy. With the Birdie package, I will have access to three courses during my cruise. This package includes exclusive amenities such as priority disembarkation and embarkation, equipment storage and insurance, and a welcome kit in my cabin. I will also receive a snack basket, private transfers to and from the golf courses, and a golf kit.

In contrast, luxury cruise lines tend to take a more all-inclusive approach. “Do I need to tip on a cruise or pay service charges”, is a question that comes up often. Although gratuities aren’t mandatory, and in most cases you can go to guest services and have the amount adjusted, most cruise lines do tend to discourage it. You can do so by going to guest services and making the request.

So stateroom attendants, dining room and bar staff, and spa attendants are taken care of, but who else should be tipped separately? Onboard casino staff are not part of the larger tip pool, so passengers should tip as they play, in cash or chips. Many cruise lines also suggest tipping separately for room service deliveries, a few dollars per person. As most tips are cashless, just sign the receipt and add your tip amount on the line provided. And to note—shoreside porters are not cruise line employees, and many ports have signage indicating it is not necessary to tip them. But of course, that is the passenger's decision and a few bucks per bag is customary.