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Do you feel guilty about not offering gratuities on an all-inclusive cruise ship? I also empty my water glass at least 5 times at dinner (love the ship water!) and the assistant was there every time to fill it up. I don't drink soda or iced tea unless it is decaf (and the iced tea tastes terrible to me).
How Much to Tip the Maitre D and Head Waiters on a Cruise
Tipping on Royal Caribbean Cruises is straightforward – astandard daily rate is charged for all guests (no matter the age). You canmodify the amount until the morning you get off the ship. But it still adds an automatic gratuity to your shipboard account (which can be changed onboard). Expect a 15% service charge for bar and wine purchases plus salon services. While tipping on Cunard is slightly less expensive than on most other cruises, Cunard also automatically bills you for gratuities. AmaWaterways offers cruises on the Mekong River in South East Asia.
Carnival Cruises
As previously noted, spa and salon staff members get a portion of the automatic service charge added to your stateroom bill for these treatments. You are free, however, to tip staff members extra if you’re especially impressed with their work. Carnival’s daily gratuities are $13.99 per person, per day for guests in standard cabins. The average daily gratuity on a cruise is $14-15 USD per person – approximately $30 per day, per couple in a cabin. A couple should budget about $200 in gratuities for a 7 day cruise. Most cruise lines charge for children as well, although there are some exceptions for very young children on select cruise lines.
Do I need to tip for onboard spa and salon treatments?
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The daily Crew Appreciation charge is $16.00 per guest per day on Holland America for non-suite stateroom guests and $17.50 per guest per day for suite guests. Celebrity also has an all-inclusive program called “All Included rate” (formerly Always Included) where these fees are part of the rate. You’ll have an option at booking to go the all, or nearly all-inclusive rate or select a cruise-only booking where the above automatic tips are added. A 20% gratuity will be added to all beverages, mini bar purchases, and beverage packages. For the complete service charge information with NCL, see the Norwegian Cruise automatic service charge rates & information.
The Importance of Understanding Tipping Policies
If you get one of these packages for free as a booking perk, as with Norwegian Cruise Line's Free at Sea promotion, you might still be required to pay the gratuities on the free perk. Butlers tend to be offered on luxury cruise lines, and many of those – including Regent Seven Seas and Silversea – have tips already included, which are designed to cover the butler. As a rough guide, most cruise lines tend to charge around $15 per person per day for gratuities. If you book a suite, expect the cost to be closer to $20 per person per day. But you should be aware that for many cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, NCL and Carnival, the crewmembers rely on the tips that passengers are expected to pay. People only tend to remove them if they’ve had terrible service, and even on those rare occasions, most passengers still pay them.
Cruise Tipping in Alaska
In addition, Norwegian Cruise Line charges an automatic service charge. A 15% service charge is automatically added for bar purchases. However, if you don’t want the daily gratuity charge added automatically, you can visit reception and sign a form to waive these charges (or change the suggested amount). For cruises out of Barbados, gratuities are charged in advance and automatically added to the cost of your cruise when you book. We’ve put together the protocol for cruise tipping around the world, along with a breakdown of how much 18 of the most popular cruise lines charge for cruise gratuities.
Should you tip a room steward / cabin attendant?
When cruising, understanding your automated gratuities and what they mean for crew members is key to respecting cruise tipping etiquette. Remember, these are standard amounts; you might consider increasing the tip for exceptional service or if you are traveling with small kids that may require additional attention. When planning your cruise vacation, understanding your cruise line's tipping policy is essential to ensure you budget appropriately and reward service staff adequately.
These start at $18 per person per day for Junior Suite passengers (and categories below that). Tips on Royal Caribbean rise to $20.50 per person per day for passengers in Grand Suites and above. The daily gratuities are applied to all passengers, regardless of age. There is no need to tip the captain, cruise director or entertainment staff.
To help remove some of the guesswork, many cruise lines now automatically apply recommended “crew appreciation” amounts to your stateroom account. The fact is, the tips that crew get from passengers make up a good part of their wage. Crew members work really hard and make the difference between an ok and a memorable cruise vacation. Since this is the current pay structure for most major cruise lines, removing tips really affects the cruise line workers.
But you might feel equally awkward travelling on a cruise where you know that tipping a little extra is the done thing, and so you might want to take some extra money with you for tips. Don’t tip more than you’re comfortable doing though – you don’t want to stress yourself out budgeting for tips when you have covered the gratuities already. If you’re travelling from the UK, you’ll know that tipping isn’t always something that we’re used to.
However, if we’re on a cruise where we literally just have a beer here and there or a glass of wine on occasion, we’re less likely to tip much extra if any at all. 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. And, of course, the cruise companies are all too happy to keep their cruises' prices down by passing off salary costs as added gratuities tacked on to your bill.
These automatic gratuities or ‘service charges’ are split, in theory, among all service staff on the ship as well as behind-the-scenes staff. For your average cruise, expect to spend $15 per passenger per DAY. For a family of 4 on a seven-day vacation, this adds up to an extra $420 to the vacation cost.
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