Why Cruise Tipping Confuses First-Time Cruisers
Figuring out how much you should tip on a cruise isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. Many lines handle it automatically through daily gratuities, but service charges on drinks, spa treatments, and specialty dining can still leave you second-guessing. Have the understanding of what is included in your cruise fare before continuing on to the topic of pre-paid gratuities.
How Much Should You Tip on a Cruise?
Most cruise lines add daily gratuities to your onboard account. These usually cover your room steward, dining staff, and behind-the-scenes service teams. You can usually prepay them or pay them onboard. You can also remove these and pay cash to the people that you feel make your experience much more enjoyable. This is a major debate in the cruise industry but it is a option that people should be aware of especially a first time cruiser.
⚓ First-Time Cruiser Series
This article is part of my First-Time Cruiser Questions Answered series. Start with the full guide before diving deeper into the hot topic of tipping.
Read the Full First-Time Cruiser Guide
What Are Automatic Cruise Gratuities?
How Daily Gratuities Work
Most cruise lines automatically add a daily gratuity to your onboard account, typically charged per person, per day. The daily amount varies by line and sometimes by cabin category. Suite guests, for example, often pay a higher rate than those in standard staterooms.
Who Gets the Tips?
This fee is set by the cruise line and gets distributed among the crew members who support your experience behind the scenes: cabin stewards, dining room staff, and other hotel-side employees.
Can You Prepay Gratuities?
Yes you can prepay when booking or by having your travel advisor get it all setup. Working with a trusted advisor can also mean free pre-paid gratuities. Cruise lines offer promotions which these are included and monitoring your pricing and offer codes can sometimes lead to free gratuities.
When You May Tip Extra
Room Steward
This is probably the second person I tip when on a ship. First is the bartender as I wait for my room to be ready, then it is the room steward, who will be my goto for anything I need while i Am on the cruise. We usually tip our steward a $100USD right when we meet him. We explain what we like and don’t like and start the week on a good foot with our steward.
Bartenders and Servers
Many drinks already include a service charge. Especially when you purchase drink packages or things like Free at Sea. However, we also bring a bunch of small loose bills for those servers and bartenders that are always remembering your drink and your face.
Porters at the Cruise Terminal
If you use this service, I think it is fair to say you throw them a few bucks per bag. They take your bags from your transportation and make sure it gets on the ship. So a little can go a long way and avoid lost luggage! However, you may also want to walk righ ton the ship with your bags which is completely OK as well.
Shore Excursion Guides
Another debatable topic. If you enjoyed the tour and they made it a educational, exciting or entertaining experience than absolutely show them some love with a tip. If you felt like they were just going through the motions, don’t bother.
Where Service Charges May Already Be Added
Drink Packages
Most drink packages already have the gratuities built into the pricing model. So when you purchase you are done. You will see you drink receipt with the drink, a built in tip and a $0 balance as all is already paid for.
Side Note:
Virgin Voyages does not offer a “drink package” they offer a bar tab. Which in a sense you pre-pay your tab before sailing. I am not sure how the tipping works on this so please keep that in mind.
Specialty Dining
When booking your specialty dining your tip is already included in the dining fare. You do not need to add anything extra to this unless you feel your service was well worth it.
Spa Services
Spa bills often include an added gratuity or service fee. ANother option we do not use on cruises so i cannot speak for this in detail. Looking at packages, for multiple cruise lines, it looks to me that tips are included,
Cruise Tipping Comparison Table
| Situation | Usually Automatic | Extra Tip Optional? |
|---|---|---|
| Room steward | Yes | Yes |
| Main dining staff | Yes | Yes |
| Bartenders | Often service charge added | Yes |
| Specialty dining | Sometimes | Yes |
| Spa | Often service charge added | Yes |
| Porters | No | Yes |
| Shore excursion guides | No | Yes |
Common Mistakes With Cruise Tipping
Forgetting to Budget for Gratuities
Daily gratuities can increase the total trip cost. If you did not pre-pay please make sure you budget for them to be on your statement at the end of the cruise. First time cruisers can sometimes be caught off guard with a bill of $300 at the end of the cruise.
Double-Tipping Without Realizing It
Check whether a service charge has already been added. It is entirely fine to tip more but make sure you understand the big picture. No need to double tip if you do not feel it necessary.
Removing Tips Without Understanding Who They Support
Automatic gratuities usually support more than one person. They include back of house staff, dining room staff and others you may not even know about. So this is why this is such a debate. People take off their pre-paids and tip cash to those only that help them, others leave the pre-paid and let the cruise line handle the payouts and others like us who leave the pre-paid and still tip those folks that make our trip that much better.
Advisor Tip: Prepay Gratuities When Possible
If you want fewer surprise charges onboard, prepay gratuities before sailing. It makes your final onboard bill easier to manage. It gives you the sense of one and done. You walk on the ship knowing what you are all paid up on and can walk off with a $0 balance. This is why we do this. Occasionally we may splurge for an extra specialty dining or something like that but knowing that’s our only bill is a relief.
⚓ First-Time Cruiser Series
This article is part of my First-Time Cruiser Questions Answered series. Start with the full guide before diving deeper into the hot topic of tipping.
Read the Full First-Time Cruiser Guide
