The onboard price of this package varies from $63 to $89 a day, plus an 18% gratuity. On NCL, passengers who dont want to pay autograts need to file a claim for reimbursement after the cruise. The bar service personnel still gets their 15% tips from each bar sale. For many cruises that operate in the Australian market where tipping isnt part of the culture, automatic gratuities arent added on to passenger bills. Please let me know in the comments below. Who else should you tip on a cruise ship? Grand Suite and above cabin categories pay USD 18,50 pp per day gratuities. Please note that gratuities are charged in US dollars for Caribbean, US and Canada cruises. A former flight attendant, she now prefers cruise ships over airplanes and spends several months each year cruising and exploring cruise ports. If you want to give an additional tip to your cabin steward (or two), Im sure its very appreciated. And if the problem still remains unsolved - then adjust the tips. There are 2 adults and 1 child in the room, if this. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account. Related: Cruise Line. But I also feel like people will think Im rude for not doing so in reality tho, they are already being tipped 18%. ~ janet If you could use cruise packing lists, to-do checklists, shore excursion forms and more, youll love the Life Well Cruised Ultimate Cruise Planner. Originally formed in 1988 by the Chandris Group in Greece, Celebrity Cruises was acquired by Royal Caribbean Group in 1997. Note that paying in cash does not necessarily circumvent the pooling system -- attendants are officially required to turn in any cash gratuities to put toward the pool. While you pay daily gratuities before your cruise ($16 per person, per day in most staterooms), many cruisers like to give something extra. With your support, we can create more exciting content and share with everyone! Its unlikely to do any good by this point. On most cruise lines that collect automatic gratuities, youre able to remove or adjust the charges by visiting the passenger services desk. Some cruise lines employ a sommelier or wine steward in the main dining rooms, who isnt included in the tipping pool. Cruises in Europe, World cruises and those departing from a non-US Caribbean port charge 10 Euros per person, per day. I was very surprised. The one excursion we had a fifty dollar bill and three ones at the end of the (short) trip. And just like with the Carnival case, this will reflect directly on the ship's serving staff (cabin stewards, Room Service, and Main Dining Room wait staff, as well as kitchen, entertainment, passenger services and other hotel personnel). What to Expect: Tipping Crew Members on a Cruise. Royal Caribbean charges a gratuity of $16.00 per person, per day. Im so glad youre here! Tipping is not required, however, customarily some people do choose to tip anywhere from $1 - $5 per order. Ill explain everything you need to know about cruise gratuitiesfrom who you should tip, how much you should tip, and who you should never tip on a cruise ship. Most cruisers tip anywhere from $2-$10 per person (or the equivalent in the local currency) to the tour guide, and hand a couple of dollars to the driver. The cruise where fun means everything. Price: $14.50 per person/day in standard cabins, $17.50 per person/day in suites, and 18% on beverages and spa and salon services. UK lines such as Fred. Our Hawaiian cruise in April will be the first weve been on in 15 years, so, obviously, things have changed a lot. Life Well Cruised Ultimate Cruise Planner, YouTube at Life Well Cruised (Vlogs and cruise tips). Tips are either covered by the autogratuities or theres a service fee tacked on, so you dont need to tip again. frequentfloaters.com - That Guy. Hi Alex, thanks so much for your lovely comment. You can post now and register later. Hi All, I just wanted to share something with new cruisers (and old if they do not know this). Royal Caribbean Royal Caribbean charges a $7.95 service fee and room service is available 24-hours a day. Why taking a weekend cruise is a great escape, 11 of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean, How to get to Royal Caribbean's cruise terminals and how much parking will cost, Top 16 things on a Royal Caribbean cruise everyone needs to do at least once. You might want to reward your cabin steward, favorite bartender or MDR server, or any other crew member you think did a great job. As I am sure you are aware each cruiser will have gratuities & tips added to their SeaPass account every day (unless you have paid these in advance with your booking). If you have a special in-room dining experience, like Ultimate Balcony Dining on Princess (which I highly recommend, by the way), its a nice gesture to add an extra cash tip for the servers who brought your meals up and made your dinner a special experience. How Much Does a Caribbean Cruise Cost? Hi All, Im Ilana. For example, Royal Caribbean (www.royalcaribbean.com) recently increased its tip recommendations and now suggests $3.75 per day for your main waiter, $5 per day for the cabin housekeeping staff, $2.15 per day for the assistant waiter, and $0.75 per day for the head waiter. Do you tip above and beyond the automatic gratuities? Both beautiful cruise options! So they follow this model with many of their crew members who perform services for passengers. Automatic gratuities cover just about every tipped crew member on the ship. Those can range from about $15 to upwards of $20 for each . Instead, passengers can tipor notat their own discretion. Do you need to tip at the spa on a cruise? Im Carrie Ann, the writer behind Should Be Cruising. Im an avid cruiser and have been giving out insider tips for more than 10 years! Here are some daily automatic gratuity costs for several popular ocean cruise lines in USD (prices accurate as of summer 2021): Unlike with the deals you can get for prepaying for drink packages and some other add-ons, you wont get a discount for prepaying your automatic gratuities. The one excursion we had a fifty dollar bill and three ones at the end of the (short) trip. They pay their crew (usually recruited from countries with limited economic opportunities) per contract, not by the hour. Often cruise lines provide additional envelopes to tuck a little extra cash at the end of the cruise just for this purpose. We usually do the prepaid tipping and also give some extra at the end of our cruises. Luxury cruise lines have a higher upfront cost than most popular cruise lines, however theyll often include many valuable extras. We like to prepay gratuities when we make our final payment for our cruise, but this is optional. As it is with most cruise shipping companies, RCI's tourists can remove the daily gratuity but know that these tips are for all the housekeeping and dining staff. Tips on Cruise Ship Tipping - Who and How Much to Tip! If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. Before that, in 2015 RCI upped its gratuities from USD 12 to USD 12,95 (standard cabins) and from USD 14,25 to USD 15,95 (suites). Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. So glad this was helpful. Or do you remove them altogether? Youll want to factor in the cruise line gratuity charge, sometimes called on board service charges (Norwegian Cruise Line). Started in 2010, Royal Caribbean Blog offers daily coverage of news and information related to the Royal Caribbean cruise line along with other relevant topics of cruising, such as entertainment, news, photo updates and more. With all of your meals and the fun activities on the ship, easily accessible and planned, you won't have to do much work once you are on vacation. Can You Refuse to Pay Gratuities on a Cruise? Also, if free gratuities are an amenity, youre not expected to go beyond it unless someone goes way beyond whats normally expected. Celebrity Cruises is Royal Caribbean's sister brand that provides a slightly more upscale, refined experience onboard. Since most cruise passengers follow the tipping guidelines, that amounts to an increase $13.30 . Cruises in Europe are charged in Euros. How much shouldwe tip? Some cruise lines allow you to use your cruise card to deposit money in the casino. April 16, 2019 in Royal Caribbean Dining. I was even more surprised that it was a Disney cruise, where they are used to kids, and generally have a good reputation for service. Cruise lines usually add a service charge, usually 15-18%, to all beverages that arent complimentary. But honestly, theyd prefer cash over a gift basketno matter how yummy your treats are! If you feel you would like to give more that is fine and I am sure they will appreciate anything you decide to tip beyond the daily gratuity. Technically your are not obliged to tip any more than the daily gratuities that have been charged to your room. Royal Caribbean Cruises Tipping Policy As of September 7th, 2022, the automatic service gratuity of $16.00 USD per person, per day for guests in non-suites staterooms, or $18.50 USD per person, per day for guests in Suites, will be applied to each guest's SeaPass account on a daily basis. While each cruise line is different, many include alcoholic drinks, soda and specialty coffee, gratuities, specialty dining and some shore excursions. All ships have at least one ATM onboard, which is usually located in the Royal Promenade or Centrum. Your glowing review can help a hardworking crew member earn a promotion or raise. If mainstream cruise lines decided to abolish tipping and pay all crew members a reasonable rate per hour, they would have to significantly raise the cost of cruise fares. I had prepaid my gratuities, and I assumed the porter was a cruise line employee, so I didnt tip him. Most of the biggest cruise lines automatically add some type of service or gratuity fee onto passenger bills. The premium cruise line's fleet of 15 ships sail around the world, from the Galapagos to the Caribbean. Just for comparison, by the old RCCL tipping guidelines, the Royal Caribbean suggested tips/gratuities were a total of USD 11,65 per day per passenger (respectively USD 13,90 for suite passengers) and also guests could pay onboard either in cash or via their shipboard account. Cruise line employees are extremely hard working, I agree, and they go above and beyond so often. cost cruise much does caribbean royal excursions treatments fees consider drinks spa government While most people know it for being a cruise destination, shadowing the coastline to see the glaciers, there is so much Some guests may bring $200 extra for gratuities whereas others may bring $50. Credit: whmuc.blogspot.com. Some cruise ship spas, like those on NCL and Royal Caribbean, add on a service fee or gratuity, usually about 18%. The COST Series: Cruise Ship TIPPING | Who to tip on a cruise and how much | Royal Caribbean Tipping The Weekend Cruiser 8.96K subscribers Subscribe 588 Share 10K views 8 months ago. Near the end of your cruise, youll probably receive some comment cards in your stateroom that you can use to leave feedback about a member of the crew. There is a lot to know before you even step foot on a Royal Caribbean Cruise. ROYAL CARIBBEAN BIGGEST SHIP. The time when youll need the most cash on a cruise vacation is when youre in port. The cruise industry has worked this way for a long time, although the automatic gratuities are only the last few years. Can you remove or adjust autogratuities on a cruise? For guests staying in Grand Suites and above, the fee is $18.50 per person, per day. Heres a video which answers many questions that you may have about cruise gratuities and tipping on a cruise ship. Gave them US 5 each three nights and US 10 each last night. (Learn more about when and when not to pay auto-gratuities.). I believe since these are pooled between everybody, additional tipping should only be done if you feel somebody has gone above and beyond. How much you tip on cruise excursions is entirely up to you, but a suggested starting price is $3 per person for a half-day tour and $6 per person for a full-day tour for the guide and $1 to $2 for the bus driver. Before Your Royal Caribbean Cruise . I think its pretty bad when thats the only night they make their presence be known. How Much Should You Budget for Cruise Gratuities? If not, 15-20% of the bill (excluding any products that you buy) is customary. Some cruisers swear by tipping at the beginning of the cruise to ensure excellent service. Should you tip extra on a cruise? You cannot paste images directly. A kind word or a drawing costs nothing and is always appreciated. I choose to add the gratuities ahead, just to get them out of the way. Beyond leaving a cash tip for your cabin steward, or favorite server or bartender, some other small gestures will go a long way. What do you think about cruise line gratuities and service onboard? Between January 2, 2018, and Sept 7, 2022, RCI's daily (per passenger) crew gratuities were US$14,50 (standard staterooms) and US$17,50 (Grand Suites+). What else can you do to show the crew your appreciation? We had the my time diningsame waiter and assistant every night. Tips are of course a personal decision. Our Stateroom Attendant on cruise #5 was fabulous, and I showed my appreciation by leaving him (thanks Mahbob!) The worst thing you can do is wait until you are home from your cruise to address it. Olsen Cruise Lines and Cruise & Maritime Voyages charge substantially less -- 7 per person per day; while Marella, Saga and P&O Cruises now include tips (MSC Cruises also includes tips for its UK-based ship, Preziosa). Follow me on Facebook at Life Well Cruised, Follow me onYouTube at Life Well Cruised (Vlogs and cruise tips), Follow me on Pinterest at Life Well Cruised, Follow me on Instagram at Life Well Cruised. Additionally, shouldbecruising.com participates in various other affiliate programs, and we sometimes receive a commission from purchases made through our links. Thats up to you! They have the insider tips to match so that you can make the most of everything that'll be at your fingertips. Though cruise lines usually state up front that tipping is still at the discretion of the passenger, keep in mind: As with most employees in the service industry (at least in the U.S.), most of the wages cruise employees make come from these tips. Princess: $14.50 per person, per day ($15.50 for mini-suite guests and $16.50 for suite guests). Your personal data will be processed and information from your device (cookies, unique identifiers, and other device data) may be stored by, accessed by and shared with third party vendors, or used specifically by this site or app. 1. They cheerfully attend to your requests, tidying your home away from home from the moment you leave in the morning to the last turn-down before bed. Tipping on a cruise ship: The big picture. In this post, weve gone over how tipping works on a cruise. What I can say, on a personal level, is that we have found that the majority of cabin stewards, waiters, assistant waiters and ship staff have given us amazing service. Lets just say from the expression on the drivers face that he was not happy with that amount. Cruises from Europe and Australia will still use the US dollar as the official onboard currency, but you should make purchases in port with the destinations local currency. Royal Caribbean's VOOM service has two different levels of service with two different prices. As a cruise passenger, you want to be aware and set your budget expectations to include these amounts for the cruise ship staff. New York state residents who wish to purchase the product may visit https://travelcruisecare.com to enroll directly with . if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[336,280],'shouldbecruising_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_8',602,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-shouldbecruising_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0');With the autograt system, many crew members who rarely received tips before now get a sharelike the laundry or kitchen staff on some cruise lines. Disclaimer: I may receive a small commission when you make a purchase from a link on this site, at no added charge to you. You cant choose how much each crew member gets. raahc and lovecruising!!! What you cant do is adjust or remove automatic gratuities for a specific crew member. They did a really good job and I would like to tip them. The only exception is for passengers with prepaid gratuities (they won't be charged daily). You may also like: 26 Hidden Cruise Fees You Should Know About. Started in 2010, Royal Caribbean Blog offers daily coverage of news and information related to the Royal Caribbean cruise line along with other relevant topics of cruising, such as entertainment, news, photo updates and more. Afrikaans; Alemannisch; ; ; Azrbaycanca; ; Banjar; ; () We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. When you book your cruise, youll be charged your cruise fare, port fees and taxes. One notable exception is Norwegian Cruise Line. cruise. Not only will it improve your cruise experience, but youre also allowing the cruise ship staff the opportunity to make things right. A cruise only rate may be available on select cruises, which would not include gratuities. If youre sailing from the United States to the Caribbean, US dollars are widely accepted in popular cruise ports. I generally tip extra, mostly because I come from a customer service back round and know how hard these people work, compared to their pay. Let me know in the comments below! Celebrity Cruises now includes daily gratuities in its Always Included cruise fare. For more info, please read myDisclosure Policy. The amount is the only thing that tends to vary on service levels. Whether you cruise multiple times per year or you're new to cruising, the goal of Royal Caribbean Blog is for it to bea useful resource for keeping up to date with what's new and exciting with Royal Caribbean. Even though cruise gratuities technically arent mandatory, they are customary on most mainstream cruise lines. The cruise line assesses a daily fee and divides the money among the tipped crew. However, if you prefer to pay off your account and daily gratuities in cash, you can do so by going to guest services. The cruise line makes no recommendation for tipping room service. Here is a list of the daily gratuity charges by major cruise lines for 2021-22. Most cruise lines allow guests to remove automatic gratuities. What Is The Average Amount of Cash to Bring on a Cruise? I do think its a very personal choice, but we can talk about this in a future video for sure! Typical extra tips may be $15-20 per passenger for a seven-day cruise paid to the cabin steward for exceptional work, or an extra $10-20 per passenger to a waiter who offered spectacular dining. There are instances of passengers who prefer not to tip, usually either because they disagree with tipping on principle or they've experienced unsatisfactory service.