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It may be a good option if you think it will help with budgeting and are confident in the service. Tipping can impact the quality of service you receive on a cruise ship and support hard-working crew members who rely heavily on tips for fair compensation and often support their families back home. Reviewing your cruise line’s tipping policy before boarding is essential, as guidelines vary on how much is expected daily for cruise gratuities. If you want to give extra appreciation for exceptional service, cash tips are appreciated and can be delivered directly to a waiter, porter, or stateroom steward. That said, the total number of lines with a service fee has been shrinking over the years.
Alternative Services
Gratuities that are included for free as part of a booking promotion are also not eligible to be reduced or refunded for credit. These cruise lines also add gratuities as a percentage—ranging from 15 to 20 percent—to most specialty dining, bar, and spa charges; those amounts cannot be adjusted. If you don’t know what to expect, tipping on cruise ships can be confusing and a bit daunting. Know the gratuity amounts before you go and avoid last-minute surprises, long queues for cash and empty-pocket embarrassment.
Royal Caribbean raises automatic gratuity rate, beginning in November - Royal Caribbean Blog
Royal Caribbean raises automatic gratuity rate, beginning in November.
Posted: Tue, 31 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
How Much to Tip Cruise Ship Officers
Still, some people do leave a little extra for crew members who go above and beyond. Others tip their room service or waitstaff at their favorite bar, either early in the cruise in the hope of getting better service or at the end to thank them for enhancing the vacation experience. How much to tip extra on a cruise is entirely up to you because it is in no way required. If you leave the service charge on your room bill, you are not expected to leave additional cruise tips for your room attendant or waiters. Some people also like to pay their service charges in advance for budgeting purposes. It'll be one less thing on your final bill at the end of the cruise.
Who to Tip on a Cruise Ship
Baggage handlers at embarkation port – It’s customary to tip a little to a baggage handler, especially at American ports. However, some passengers will insist that $5 per bag is more appropriate. I generally tip a minimum of $5 if I have a couple of bags, but on a transatlantic cruise where I might have 5 or 6 bags, I’ll definitely tip extra. This gets even more complicated on cruises where you can choose your own dining time like on Norwegian Cruise Lines with their freestyle dining. You may never encounter the same server twice, so tipping becomes more difficult. It’s considered poor form to tip the ship’s professional sailing members, such as the cruise director, executive chef, and captain.
18 Disney Cruise Tips 2024 — Disney Cruise Secrets - Reader's Digest
18 Disney Cruise Tips 2024 — Disney Cruise Secrets.
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How Much Should You Budget for Cruise Gratuities?
However, many passengers still like to tip a few dollars with a drink or specialty restaurant dinner to show their appreciation. In addition, when you reserve specialty restaurants, dining packages, drink packages, and spa services on Royal Caribbean’s Cruise Planner website, the gratuity will be added upon checkout. Technically, you can visit Guest Services once onboard your cruise ship and opt to remove gratuities from your account. Some passengers like to do this in order to give tips to crew members directly whenever they see fit. Prepaying gratuities means you can include the current daily gratuity rate in your cost of the cruise when booking. When paying for your cruise, the daily gratuity will be added into the overall cost, and you will not owe any gratuities once the cruise begins.
The second option is to allow the charge to be added each day to your onboard account. All expenses accrued (and not included in the price of your trip) will be due at the end of the voyage. For most large lines, cruise gratuities are part of the line items charges along with other “extras” you bought along the way.
Here’s a list of cruise lines that include gratuities:
They will still go out of their way to make your cruise comfortable and enjoyable. When you book your cruise, the gratuity amount is usually disclosed in full for your trip, with an option to prepay the amount with your cruise fare. We break down situations when passengers might or might not remove automatic gratuities. Wine ordered with meals will generally have a 15% service charge automatically applied. If the service has been exceptional, consider a tip of $10 to $15 at the end of your cruise.
Some cruise lines automatically charge gratuities to your onboard account or add it to your cruise fare, while others leave it to your discretion. An exception is Costa Cruises, which considers the service charge integral to the cruise fare, and does not allow adjustments. Should you wish to adjust NCL's service charges, you must contact the onboard reception desk. A 20% gratuity is added to bar bills, specialty and entertainment dining, and spa services.
Should you tip in the specialty dining restaurants?
Are you curious about a particular cruise line's tipping policy -- how much you'll pay and whether tips are automatically added to your onboard account? Do you want to brush up on your tipping etiquette, learning when it's appropriate to reward a particular crew member who's gone above and beyond for you? Or perhaps you've been underwhelmed by the service and need to find the least awkward way of reducing your tip from the standard amount. You're likely interact with your cabin attendant the most during your cruise.
Passengers say that the best benefit to using this method of payment is sticker shock avoidance. While it may not sound like much money when quoted as a per person/per day cost, seeing the total on your final onboard bill can feel expensive. For example, European and luxury cruise lines are more likely to factor gratuities into the overall cost of the fare, so they won’t charge you daily gratuities. These include Azamara, Crystal, P&O Cruises, Ponant, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Seabourn, Silversea, and Virgin Voyages.
If you opt for a specialty restaurant, the tip isn’t usually included. It’s customary to tip the waiters generously at specialty restaurants. We like to keep a few dollars handy for this purpose as we board our cruise ship. Read the full automatic gratuity policy at the Royal Caribbean website. Always make sure to review everything that’s included in the package—and what’s not—so you won’t get any unpleasant surprises. Yup—and the range of your gratuity total depends on the stateroom category you’re staying in, too.
These can be a surprise to some people, especially first-time passengers. For some cruise lines (usually luxury lines), gratuities actually are included in the fare — you don’t pay anything extra apart from your cruise fare. The gratuities go to staff that provide passenger-facing services. That means people like the room steward who cleans your cabin and the dining staff. What follows are suggested out-of-pocket tip amounts for your cruise for excellent service. Note that there are also gratuities applied automatically and separately to some optional onboard services, like drinks at the bar or spa and salon services.
Most mainstream cruise lines pay cruise workers a low base wage. As such, on nearly all big-ship lines -- like Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian -- crewmembers are dependent upon the generosity of travelers for a good portion of their income. The cruise lines' rationale for this compensation model -- whether or not you agree with it -- is that tips help incentivize higher service standards.
Generally speaking, mainstream, U.S.-based cruise lines automatically add gratuities of about $14 to $15 per person, per day, to your onboard bill. These tips are divided among the dining staff (waiters, assistant waiters and head waiters) and housekeeping staff (such as cabin attendants). P&O Cruises Australia does not automatically add gratuities onto passengers' accounts or spa or bar bills. Cruisers can leave tips for crew members who offer outstanding service by handing cash directly to the crew members they want to thank.
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