Cruise ship gratuities are a common practice on every cruise, with tips being distributed among room stewards, dining staff, and other customer-facing positions. These gratuities are not only for passengers but also for crew members, including those on Princess, who charges a daily gratuity fee. There are two options for paying gratuities on Royal Caribbean cruises: prepaying gratuities or waiting to pay them once onboard.
Cruise ships are cashless, with all purchases automatically added to the onboard account. The money collected from service charges is passed to the shipboard crew, who are responsible for distributing it. Most large ship cruise lines, such as Celebrity Cruises, Holland America, Princess, and Royal Caribbean, add daily gratuity fees directly to the onboard account throughout the cruise.
A 20% gratuity is automatically added to all pre-cruise and onboard spa and salon purchases. Gratuities may be modified in the guest’s sole discretion. Most tips are cashless, so guests can sign the receipt and add their tip amount on the line provided. Shoreside porters are not part of the cruise line.
In recent years, gratuities are set daily amounts paid by each passenger, with charges added automatically to the onboard account each day. Auto gratuities are split among the crew, with some receiving more than others due to the auto gratuity. A guest pays gratuities for the nights onboard, regardless of where the ship goes, and the crew gets paid from those gratuities.
📹 What We Didn’t Know About Cruise Ship Gratuities..
If you’ve ever wondered about where cruise ship gratuities go & if crew members really get them, this video is for you. While not a …
📹 How Tipping Works on Cruise Ships |Cruise Gratuity 101
One of the most Controversial and Widely Debated Topics on Planet Earth is Tipping or Gratuity within the Hospitality Industry.
I’m old enough now and fortunate enough to be able to tip well; so when I cruise (Princess & Carnival), I always leave the 15% intact and still carry cash just for tipping. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a cruise-ship employee give me bad service; they’re phenomenal. They work so hard and seem so grateful for any tips; I always feel pampered when I take cruises; great trips!
After a few cruises, I found it well worth it to not only give you auto gratuity but I also give the cabin steward about $5 a day and the bartenders about $1 per drink. They appreciate it greatly and will at the bar will jump over others to help you, LOL. I also leave a modest tip at a specialty restaurant comped or pre-paid that has had a tip pre-added, maybe $10. I’m sure someone will say I’m cheap below, pretty sure 99% do less. Diamond Jim can save their reply.
I am astonished at how businesses have managed to convince customers to pay part of their labor costs and make those self same customers feel guilty being annoyed by it. Cruise lines, restaurants, whatever. Charge us the price you want for your service. Labor should not get angry at customers for management’s parsimony. But they do and it is deflection that lessens a customer’s enjoyment. As in many things Japan is superior to us in this. The first cruise line that removes the aggravation of tipping in all its forms and just pays it workers out of its fares, (the way its supposed to without guilt, aggravation and the con) will go to the top of my cruising options.
This is a very hot topic and a very much debated topic. I think you said it best. Give what you can afford. I have always preferred to add cash to every drink tab. I prepay my gratuities but I am still “old school”. We hand out envelopes at the end of each cruise with a thank you note and cash to all the usual players and then some. We just plan it as part of our cruise. At the end of the day, the cruise costs a good bit but a few hundred more in tips, isn’t going to break our bank and it makes for a better experience for us. I am not saying it is right for everyone, it is just right for us.
The easy way to say it (although it may be different on lines besides Carnival, Celebrity or RCL) When you do the auto tip thing,the money is split between everyone that served you including kitchen and laundry people. They used to post what percentage of the auto tip went to each department. The money that you HAND to your steward and/or diningroom server, they person you hand it to gets to keep the entire thing.
Everyone on a cruise deserves a tip. Many times the things people complain about have nothing to do with the staff. Take care of them because they are good people and they are making your stay a memorable one. I pre-pay my tips prior to the cruise, but on top I usually tip the room attendant an additional $10 -$20 per day. I also tip the bartenders $5 per drink and the dining staff. It is a pleasure to acknowledge their hard work.
I have been cruising for 20 years and I have never heard of guests gifting a Gift Basket??? So ridiculous. Anyway, I love requesting an envelope to fill with cash on the last night of the cruise. I usually work my waiter and head waiter so I always take great care of them. Same goes for my steward, they get a great tip to. I also usually go to the same bartenders each time and I usually tip them daily. Pre-paid gratuities is not for me because I want to directly bless those who blessed me 👍
I believe the pre or post paid gratuities should be included in the fare as it is in Australia and New Zealand. I also tip with cash, especially to the cabin steward and the laundry staff as well as the room service crew. We don’t have a tipping culture in Australia and this sometimes leads to poor service, however, I always tip for exceptional service. I also tip taxi drivers if they are quick, efficient and smooth driving even though in all circumstances tipping is not expected.
Best cruise article on tipping. Well done. I always pull the auto gratuities and tip in cash directly to the crew members who provide exceptional service. (Except for drink tips as those I find easier to just go with the auto tip added on a transactional basis). I believe sincerely that if you take the cash assigned to the room staff and hand it directly to the room steward he or she will be much better off getting it directly in hand rather than having it pass through the cruise line before filtering to them.
I tip the people as i go I like to know the money i give goes to the people that deserve it. I do not like the mandatory tip I suppose to give at the end. And the last cruise i went i i refused and they said they call the cops and i sat down and said do it. They let me go. I tip really good. And i tip people that do for me i dont do laundry i dont eat in the restaurants, i stay on the deck pretty much the whole cruise. I dont even do offshore stuff. I like to sit and do nothing by the pool. So i tip the bartender i tip the cooks and i tip my room staff and the guys at night that clean the ship. Thats all.
There are bloggers who suggest gifts. I’ve seen people give room stewards silly stuff that would only junk up their small space. A nice post-it note with kind words like Thank you attached to CASH so they know that’s for them will suffice and be an actual benefit. I overtip bc I do anytime dinning. Albeit, the autotip is likely tracked to give to the server but I feel better leaving something bc it’s never the same person serving my dinner. I like the prepaid gratuities bc there are crappy people who would never leave a tip but expect the royal treatment bc they are self appointed extra special. Every guest is special in a cruise ship. Everyone paid for their cruise. Above all, treat cruise staff with kindness and respect. Don’t be a selfish jerk and dole out $ money bc you “made them perform” that’s manipulation and abusive. Tips from crappy people never make up for being treated poorly.
We have been on thirteen Carnival cruises. We have always paid the pre-paid gratuities. Then every crew member that we deal with on a daily basis, we give additional tips. For instance…upon meeting our cabin Stewart, we give them a ten dollar tip. Then at the end of the cruise, we leave a ten, twenty or thirty dollar additional tip depending on the service. The main dining room staff we give an envelope on the last day of the cruise. The team leader will get $20-30 tip, the helpers $10-20 depending on quality of service. Beverage servers on the Lido deck get $5 at start of cruise, then additional tips besides what is on the bill with each drink. Carnival does give you a breakdown of where your pre-paid gratuities are distributed.
Thanks for the information, my husband and I have big arguments about this, he hates tipping, and according to him, I over do it! In the UK, we don’t tip as much, unless we have exceptional service, as service charges are added onto the bill automatically. I also think wages in the UK are better. Anyway, on a cruise, we now pay for it upfront (and hope that it’s distributed fairly), then we give our waitress and cabin steward a bit extra.
I am glad I watched this and your previous article on tipping. I always tip as I was a service worker in my early days and needed tips on top of my base. It made the difference. I see some parents wanting to take the tip off of their child. This I don’t understand. Don’t they eat on the cruise and sleep in the serviced room? Do they not attend kids clubs or the kids areas of the ship? I say that because I knew a cheap parent that refused to pay the tip for her 13 year old. I was upset when she told me she got a cruise line to remove his gratuity off their final bill. ( we no longer speak)
Thanks! Very helpful. We leave the auto gratuity as-is because everyone does such a good job, but we also do cash tips especially for room steward. I can’t imagine wanting a basket, myself, so I give them what I would want – $$$! BTW didn’t they find the Heart of The Ocean necklace in like 1999 on the Britney Spears ‘Oops I Did It Again’ article? LoL
HEY Shiplife! Very interesting and informative article. After discovering your articles from last year the other day, I’m glad to see that you’re still pumping out content. I’ve never been on a cruise, but this is something I’ll keep in mind if we ever do a Disney cruise in the future. So- this is extra and I’ll have to scroll through your articles- but does anyone ever ask you about the environmental impact of cruise ships? I could see that being a very controversial article. 🤔
I will always tip as I go, instead of waiting until the end and this includes the room steward daily, so I’m not stressed at the end, especially now that their pay has been cut back. I know they bust their hump trying their hardest and I know it must be difficult to be super smiley and happy for every shift for however long their contract lasts.
I totally disagree with tipping. I worked for 50 years and NEVER got a tip. We get paid a wage for doing our jobs and should take pride in doing a good job. I feel these cruise lines use fix rates of tipping to keep their wages low, so as to make their holiday cost LOOK lower than they are once tipping is included
I understand your point of view about gratuities because you worked in different division that has nothing to do with tipping system. As someone who works and relies on gratuity I can tell that yes removing gratuity will tremendously affect our income. They do distribute gratuities among us. I personally don’t really expect much from additional tips, I care more about gratuities.
I have not booked another cruise yet after 3 bookings and 3 cancellations this past year. but I usually leave the auto on and tip people on the side. for the room steward I usually leave at least 40 each room or more depending on how much $$$ I leave behind in the casino. I have both of my covid shots finally and can’t wait to cruise again. but probably won’t book another cruise until the cruise lines have a few cruises under their belts.
that was great…back in 90’s carnival didn’t have automatic tipping & my family of 3 went & nite before we were given a white plain envelope for tipping, for 3 day cruise I put in $20 and envelope was returned so I thought how rude so kept the money that’s all the cash I had left and my husband had no cash left maybe $3-4 …otherwise we do auto tipping and if service is exceptional which at times it is, I’ve handed extra $20 cash to them …they do work very hard
One of the big issues with tipping yourself is it goes to front of house crew not to those who are behind the scenes (eg the kitchen hands, cleaners for the public areas etc). I understand that the ship gratuities are split with those crew as well. Personally I would prefer to pay the ship gratuity and then add small tips as I go when dining etc.
I never trusted that “automatic gratuity”. Since these companies with foreign flags, really have no blockers or protections for workers. I wonder how much % they can take. I remember reading once that a company was actively sucking a big cut of the tips to booster profit numbers of the cruise company itself and deliver it as bonuses to executives.. was it MSC or PRINCESS? I do not remember but it was like 8 to 10 years ago.
I personally think that they should just roll the rate of auto gratuities into the base fare like in Europe, but that would increase the fares about $100 per person for a seven day cruise. You aren’t going to see that in the Big Three value lines anytime soon. Better to hide it till the end from a marketing standpoint.
OK….My question is we plan to go with cruise line gratuities but would it be special to give a gift basket of things they could use, like shampoo, body wash, scrubbie, toothpaste, toothbrush, chocolate? First cruise…I see where the room steward, since he or she is with you for the entire cruise works extra hard to make sure your cruise is extra special? I’m just not sure being a newbie, where we should tip extra? Would love your input! 🙂
I normally go with both keeping the tips on with the bill and tipping the cabin steward in addition. I normally go on NCL and so you have a different waiter every time you go to the dining room I’ve not gotten in the habit of tipping except in the specialty dining area where I think that’s the main way they get paid. I personally think it is really rude to remove the automatic gratuities since there’s no way you would be able to know who are is losing from that. I don’t think it should be an option to remove them either.
Being from the uk, tipping that much per day just seems a hell of alot to me really, fair enough thats how its done in America, but when you take into consideration how much more we are charged for the cruises over here to over there and the fact we cant reprice, dont think we should be obliged to do that, the same cruise was $2000 cheaper if you booked it in America, than booking it in the uk, which is stupid
Nice article. For those of us who wish to give additional, targeted tips beyond the auto-grats, it sounds like cash transfer from guest hand to crew hand is best. Does that sound right? What of our cabin steward? Do we put the cash in an envelope in our cabin and tell him/her where it will be? Thank you for all your help!
We always leave the auto gratuities on. I just figure that is is part of the overall price of the cruise. We also always get a drink package, which includes tips, but since we always hang at the same the se general bars, those people get extra on the last day. Same with room steward, and wait staff. We usually do club class, so we have the same people each night, and that makes it easy. We also always top in specialty dining venues, and the hostess. Dang. We spend more for topping than excursions lol. JK. For is, it is just all part of the vacation, and is anticipated before we ever leave the house. We also give little things, such as candy filled Christmas stockings, when applicable. 🤗
I am an Australian so tipping is not part of our culture, (in fact taxi drivers often used to round fares down to avoid getting smaller change). However my partner and I virtually always leave a tip when dining, using taxis, Ubers etc. These tips are pretty small, but appreciated. We have booked a cruise with tips included in the fare. Do think the same approach is okay on a cruise ship – just leaving a small tip when we have gone to a restaurant etc, and leaving something bigger when we really want to show appreciation?
In terms of tips the big dogs on the ship used to be the Room stewards, waiters, dining captains/matr’d, All service oriented positions where promptness and service skills make a difference to the guest, Rewarding the lazy and indifferent as well as more driven staffers is obviously not a good long term plan.
We’ve always had such great service, so I have no problem pre paying our gratuities. However, I also like to give the cabin steward $20 on embarkation day and then possibly more on on the last day because they take such good care of us and I feel that they deserve it! I HAVE been guilty of leaving a bag of Tide laundry pods for the steward because I was told that they have to do their own laundry and that detergent is expensive for them to buy in port. Maybe you can shed some light on whether the laundry issue really is a thing??
I’m completely against tipping,cruise lines should be more professional,customers pay an arm and leg as it is but that’s still not enough and what’s worse is they force you to do it,every day they keep telling everyone to tip It would be different if staff went out of their way to help you and your trying to return the favor etc but all there doing is their job nothing more and you want more money for it lol..it’s the whole industry thats the problem..give staff a better wage period
When I stay at a hotel, I sometimes leave something in addition to tips for housekeeping. Usually candy like a pack of M&Ms. Is this something that would be appreciated for the stateroom hosts or dining servers? I know you talked about gift baskets, but I’m not talking about huge presents I’m talking about one thing of candy. 🤷🏼♀️ Just a thought.
No prepaid tips for us. A top us a reflection of my gratitude for service provided me. I do t tip because of anyone others expectations . I tip for performance. On embarkation, when the steward comes round to introduce themselves, etc, he/she will be given a crisp $20 bill as we then let her know our specific needs for the voyage such as fresh bucket of ice every day without me asking. We are not hard to please but sailing is one of this trips I plan to be cared for so if my steward does that for me, there will be much more from where that first 20 came from . That’s why we prime the pump the first day
Great vid thanks J. You will probably be aware we don’t really tip here in the UK unless service was outstanding. All restaurants etc. pay their staff a decent wage. One problem with the auto gratuity is that i my experience it’s difficult to change mid voyage. We had one staff member who didn’t seem to pull his weight so wanted to reduce the tip but this wasn’t possible. I think word got to him though because he suddenly improved. I guess to some people if you know tips are coming regardless you don’t feel you need to make effort.
The dirty little secret about charged gratuities is that the crew members do not get gratuity over and above their contracted pay rate. It is a component there in. Example: crew member’s contract pay is 1200 bi weekly. Charged gratuities collected for the two week period are divided by number of crew members. So let’s say for example the per crew member gratuity amount is $200. That is paid to the crew member and the balance of $1000 is made up from actual payroll. So what you are paying is not a gratuity, but a payroll surcharge. The crew member does not get any additional money which is what a gratuity is supposed to be. The crew members go along with as it is explained to them this policy is how the cruise line can increase their pay but in reality, is very dishonest.
Does the cruise line keep the tips? TECHNICALLY, no they don’t. But i believe they really do. How? The cruise line has a base wage, say three dollars an hour, and a guaranteed minimum wage, say ten dollars an hour. When they distribute the tips they use that to bring up the wages. If the crew member makes less than the minimum the cruise line has to make up the difference. If they make the minimum or better then the cruise line keeps the money they would have put towards salary. So, they’re not keeping your tip they’re just keeping the money in the salary pool.
We leave auto tip on AND will give some cash at the end of our cruise to crew who are above and beyond. Usually the waitstaff and cabin steward get extra from us. We have remained in contact with so many wonderful crew members over the years. Carnival always has such a hard working and nice staff that are always willing to go out of their way to help with anything. People should ALWAYS reward this service with a generous gratuity.
Any tip being automatically added to your bill ia just smoke and mirrors. If you are running a business, you should not expect your customers to pay your employees. Tipping is optional based on exceptional service AFTER services have been rendered. Am I the only person that knows what is happening here?
NEVER TIP! You are paying for a service, it is not your responsibility if an employer underpays their staff. In the US the law is very clear on minimum wage, why should you be expected to make up the shortfall for an employer underpaying their staff. Employers fix your systems, and I’ll happily give your staff extra for good service. But I’m not paying for your illegal business practices. I work at a hospital system, can I expect a tip if my patient lives? What about if they die (well Johnny got good service, until his demise). These are, of course, stupid arguments. But they’re the same stupid arguments that business owners are using to underpay their staff. We need minimum wages applied across the board! Do I understand what I’m saying, a 10-15% price increase in restaurants, absolutely. But let’s give folks a living wage!
You say that tipping is designed so that the person giving the service will want to give the best service they can if they expect to receive a good tip. So, how is prepaid tipping achieving this? Also, if prepaid tipping is a fixed amount, what if I only use 20% of the available services? I don’t drink and, the majority of times, I prefer eating at the buffet where I serve myself. I wish there would be a prepaid option that would be based on only the services you use.
My dilemma is the before vs after issue. On the one hand, I like to tip beforehand – for example, handing the steward a nice tip when I first get onboard – under the thinking that if I take care of them right at the start and they see I’m caring and generous, they will render better service. In fact, TIPS often is said to stand for To Insure Prompt Service, which by definition means you give it beforehand. On the other hand, we always tip waitstaff at the end of a meal. The idea there is that they know if they do a good job they will get a nice tip at the end. Both ideas make sense. The downside is you could tip someone at the start of a cruise and they could turn out to be a jerk and you’re out your money. I’ve heard of this happening.
great topic. i always prepay my grats and also include cash where possible. on my favorite cruiseline, i have been told by more than one crewmember (mostly bar and wait staff) that they never see the individual tip you might add on at the bar (and yes, there is an auto gratuitity added in most cases, check your bill!) and so they prefer cash. i did ask the question…do you get the tip i include on the bill or is cash preferred. that said, i carry extra $5’s and $10’s for this purpose. we tip cash daily to our cabin steward as we have some extra requests such as we would like extra towels each day. my opinion is that if you can afford to cruise, you can afford to tip. don’t be a karen. lol. ps what is the male equivalent name of a karen?
the problem would come is, is all the tips going to the people. every person in the chain will just take some making what the person gets less. but you have more. by auto given it and the person knows there getting it why would they do more. There are not going to get a bigger auto tip amount. Also you have why should you have to tip at all they are there to do a job, they get wages for this job, so why when in a supermarket do we not tip a staff member who help us find an item. tip should be dropped and if a person at the end of there cruise wish to give money to some one then they do. auto tipping just means the wages can be set low as most of the wages is made up from the tip. A person is paid a wage to do a job, they should not expect to auto get a tip for doing this job.
Hey, Jason. We’ve always had Automatic Gratuities turned on for Oceania & RCCL, and we usually always START a cruise by giving stews and waiters $50 on Embarkation day, to set a positive example on our part. But, what if you have ONE WORKER WHO JUST SUCKED (never had it ……. yet …… but it’s post-pandemic with crews from different areas of the globe) ???
NO, you are wrong. What cruise ships have done is make “tipping” a part of salary paid by passengers. A tip is given to one or more people who have given a person special service to one individual. Tipping is NOT part of a salary, which is what cruise lines are trying to achieve. I always tell my ship to turn off the auto-tip function, and I will decide who has given me special service and who gets how much of a tip. That is what tipping is: an individual reward for special service, NOT a salary!
We take a trip to the bank and get a couple hundred one dollar bills to tip drink staff and pool waiters along the way. We’re up to around 25 cruises and found the time we have a drink in hand is within a couple minutes when we walk into a room with a familiar waiter. We still do auto gratuity and tip additional to the room steward and special dinner waiters who’s service is above and beyond. Got a lecture from a Aussie last year on a Australia cruise who said we shouldn’t tip. I see his point but we still like to give extra as it’s not a lot in the whole scheme of things on a cruise we’re spending thousands on and I know it goes directly into their pocket. Hi Justin! I think we’re up to 50 thousand views!
Auto gratuity is amazing imo. It ensures the entire crew is tipped fairly for their service, not just those in forward facing positions. Is someone goes above and beyond and preforms a service that is unexpected (ex when my stateroom steward brings alcohol bought on land up to my room on the last night), I will always tip them individually as well.
what about folks form nations where tipping is very uncommon, often never done. hence why should you tip at all?, it just an extra expance, in effect you paying extra for a service you are aleady have paid for, why would you pay 15% to 20% more for a meal, when 100 for 2 peopel say is already at rip off prices.. fora godo meal. i get why they would charge that traped audance price,. but why woudl you willing spend even more cash?? that 14 *7 fora 7 day cruse, is a massive hiden cost.
As to auto tipping it’s a joke. $15.00 per day per person divided between your two room stewards, your two waiters, the maitre ‘d, the table captain come to about $2.00 per day. If you think that’s OK, then you are just plain cheap!! I always bring envelopes and on a seven-day cruise that envelope hold at least $100 per employee.
If you turn off the auto gratuity then the people working behind the scenes that the guests never see would get nothing at all, how could that ever be fair? Also I think it is bizarre how usually the mater d of the restaurant for example on carnival Cruise lines how people tip him I think they get a bizarre amount of money of tips including their senior salary they get how much money do they make per year would you estimate?
I don’t think it’s fair to suggest that ppl request to not have to pay gratuity like everyone else. Looking at those rates, how many ppl do you think give out that much or more in tips?? I pay my auto and tip those who give above service. Plus I write a staff review card. I’ve been told those cards are important also.
do u work on a cruise ship n do u know wat is the job of a waiter how they work how many hours they n all after this most of d guest don’t pay the gratuities they deserve. So if guest doesn’t pay their graturies properly then how their families will get money for living . So u plz don’t talk n tell others if u dnt know abt the job of waiters in d restaurant on a cruise ship ok plz
Anyone cheap enough to take gratuities off their bill shouldn’t be cruising! First 2 days into the cruise I observe the staff. Are they friendly, answering my questions, rolling eyes on me… Yes, even though I had a few cocktails I notice 😉. I tip between $2 and $5 per drink CASH. I don’t have to look for a server, they look for me! Same for our steward. Excellent service needs to be rewarded.
Sorry “J” but? I so wish that you re Gay (I know you’re not). Still…..OH!!! And just below MY comment here, “Kevin Jackson” says it best regarding tipping. On yet ANOTHER tack? I took my step-sister on an all-Gay charter once….she’s straight and was single at the time (now married). But there was a VERY hot crew-member (guest services) who was straight also….and well….he got his “tip”…….