If you don’t have a drink package, they’ll add the price of each drink plus the service fee to your onboard tab. You can prepay your Crew Appreciation service charges on a Holland America cruise. Once your cruise is booked, log onto the website with your booking details and you can find the option to add the gratuities and pay them in advance.
How to Adjust the Cruise Ship Gratuities / Tip Amount
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. On all cruise lines, additional gratuities may be added at your discretion.
How much are gratuities on a cruise? Increasingly, more and more. - USA TODAY
How much are gratuities on a cruise? Increasingly, more and more..
Posted: Mon, 13 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
How Much Do Cruise Gratuities Cost?
Know the gratuity amounts before you go and avoid last-minute surprises, long queues for cash and empty-pocket embarrassment. Roughly speaking, you can expect to pay anywhere from $11.50 – $20.00 per passenger per day for onboard gratuities. As mentioned, cruise lines automatically add gratuities to your onboard account. However, for the majority of mass market cruise lines the gratuities are extra charges on the price of your cruise. These can be a surprise to some people, especially first-time passengers. On the cruise line side, that money gets cut up to be distributed.
Gratuities aren’t always clear
All trick, no treat: Royal Caribbean quietly raises automatic gratuity charges - The Points Guy
All trick, no treat: Royal Caribbean quietly raises automatic gratuity charges.
Posted: Tue, 31 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
You’re sure to stand in line for some time with a whole lot of other guests who have questions about their account (not the way you want to spend the end of your trip). Also, if you pre-pay your gratuities, and should the cruise line raise the cruise tip amount before you sail, you are “grandfathered-in” at the previous lower rate. Savvy cruisers know that gratuities begin before you board your ship. If you plan to drop off your larger pieces of luggage, be prepared to give the portside luggage handler a $2- $5 tip per bag. If you are in a suite or aboard a luxury cruise, you may have a butler assigned to your room. Since they typically have more duties to meet, a good guideline, is a supplementary tip of $3 to $5 per night, per person.
Why is tipping on a cruise even a thing?
They are often expressed as the rate for a single person (despite having to pay for double occupancy) and don’t include port fees or taxes. Having to add in gratuity costs to these advertised rates could make them less attractive to potential cruisers. For lines that do have them, service and gratuity charges are touted as a convenient alternative to the practice of cash tipping on cruise ships — something that once was common.
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. If a cruise line offers free prepaid gratuities, it means that your gratuities are included in the special deal and don’t need to be paid by you. You’ll still have to pay any additional service charges for drinks or dining reservations though.
Preparing for Tipping on Your First Cruise
Cruise gratuities are, on average, between $11.50 and $20 per passenger, per day. The gratuity charge is often automatically added to your onboard account each day of sailing. Mainstream cruise lines try to make it less stressful by incorporating an automatic daily gratuity, while luxury lines include them in the base cruise fare. So with two people sailing a seven-day cruise where the gratuity amount is $16 per person, per day, they will see a total charge of $224. This amount can be prepaid, meaning that you elect to pay it when you purchase your cruise. If you want to forego that option, then you can wait and pay it on the ship.
It may be a good option if you think it will help with budgeting and are confident in the service. It’s customary to tip at the end of your cruise, either by leaving cash in an envelope in your room or adding it to your bill. However, if someone goes above and beyond during your trip (such as a particularly helpful stateroom steward), feel free to give them extra.
A Closer Look at Cruise Gratuities
For most large lines, cruise gratuities are part of the line items charges along with other “extras” you bought along the way. Welcome to the Ultimate Cruise Tipping Guide, where we answer all your questions about cruise gratuities. 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.
This blog helps over a million people to plan their cruises each month. If you’ve booked a cruise after this announcement is made, you’d have to pay the new rate. On the first river cruise with Emerald I felt no pressure to tip – it was never mentioned. Below are examples from 6 of the largest American cruise lines. As cruises are largely cashless it isn’t easy to tip somebody who, for example, had just given you a massage in the same way as you might on land. This does leave members of the crew who work behind the scenes without tips though – Staff such as chefs and the people who work in the laundry.
These are usually calculated on a per person/per day (or night) basis by the cruise lines. Amounts vary by cruise line but typically range from $14.50 to $25 per person per day, depending on the stateroom category. Automatic gratuities are usually added to your onboard account and these fees can vary depending on the cruise line, the length of your trip, and the type of cabin you choose. 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.
It’s common for passengers to be unaware of the daily gratuity charge. It’s safe to say they are surprised when they see their onboard account balance at the end of the cruise. Compared to the price of your cruise as a whole, the extra charge is unlikely to make a big difference financially. That means you can have the cost all taken care of before you sail without experiencing a huge hit to your pocketbook.
No comments:
Post a Comment