Post Last Modified – February 13, 2021
A Closer Look At Tipping & Prepaid Gratuities On A Cruise Vacation
I would like to touch on the subject of Tipping On A Cruise Vacation, and the importance of including gratuities into your holiday budget. Unfortunately, this is a most often ignored subject when planning that fabulous family cruise vacation.
Gratuities are important and definitely something you should be prepared for and should include in your holiday budget. When booking a cruise, for some reason many people just assume that gratuities for staff are included in the overall cruise price.
This assumption is Incorrect
Staff work very hard and rely on gratuities to help support themselves and their families back at home.
First, take a quick look at this informative video from my favorite leading Travel Expert on basic tipping guidelines to follow most anywhere.
Tips On Tipping From Peter Greenberg – YouTube Video
Include Tips In Your Cruise Vacation Budget
Our Cruise Holiday on the Carnival Valor
I always made sure to include cruise gratuities when saving for those all inclusive cruise specials our family have enjoyed in past years. Of the few cruises my family and I have taken in past years, the service has always been exceptional, on all the major cruise lines that we have had the pleasure of taking.
” Tipping is not includedwith the majority of cruise lines and you should be prepared to pay a certain amount per day per person while on your cruise.”
The staff work very hard to ensure top quality service, and deserve to be rewarded for this. Just as you would tip a waiter or waitress for good service in a restaurant, would it not seem appropriate to offer the same gratitude to those serving you while on board ship during your holiday?
Tipping & Prepaid Gratuities On Cruises
Definition of Gratuity:
[gruh-too-i-tee, -tyoo-]
noun, plural gratuities.
1. a gift of money, over and above payment due for service, as to a waiter or bellhop; tip.
2. something given without claim or demand. (dictionary.com)
Things To Know About Tipping On Your Cruise
For most of the major cruise lines, your cruise gratuities are normally added to your shipboard account. It’s convenient and can be charged to your credit card, without having to worry about having cash available for tipping at the end of your holiday.
Take a look at Carnival Cruise Lines for an example, on their own tipping policies. These guidelines are pretty standard for most of the other major cruise lines out there. Type in the search word “tipping” for more complete information.
Update 2020
Standard Staterooms: $13.99 USD per person, per day. This daily amount is designed to cover your …
Daily In – Cabin services;
Dining services performed by waiters and bus staff;
All other on board services performed by shipsstaff.
When you experience the exceptional service first hand, the cost is minimal per guest for all that is included and for what you are receiving.
Outstanding Service in the Dining Rooms
When you consider all the meals you may be served in one day while on your cruise, your cabin serviced throughout the day, cleaned and set for you nightly, the continuous work staff perform 24/7 to ensure cleanliness throughout the entire ship and so on.
When you take all this in to factor for just one day, the cost per person as a reward for their hard work is minimal.
With our experiences with staff while on our cruise vacations, finding service as good as what you receive on these fabulous cruise ships, would be pretty hard to match most anywhere else!
Gratuities Are Very Important For Cruise Ship Staff
The information that I have gathered from ships employees and others, show wages to be minimal for service staff. As a result, they do rely heavily on cruise tips as part of their overall income.
This is much the same for service employees most anywhere in the world, working for minimum wage. This especially true for staff on board coming from foreign and less fortunate countries.
These gratuities do help support their families back home in a huge way!
If for any reason you are not happy with any staff service, immediately contact the front desk on board ship and they will offer assistance right away.
Should you not wish to have your cruise tips automatically charged, you must contact the pursuers office once you get on board ship.
Staff do their utmost best to keep you happy at all times. As well, if you have received exceptional service worthy of reporting, do take the time and fill out a customer survey card. Better yet, make a note of that person and the service received, and leave it at the front desk on board ship.
This gesture is extremely helpful for the employee and they can eventually be rewarded with staff promotions and/or salary increases down the road. The result of their hard work and having being recognized as one offering exceptional customer service.
For more detailed information and feedback on cruise tips, have a look at one of my favorite cruse websites known as Cruise Critic .
Their site is chocked full of very useful and reliable cruise holiday information and is definitely worth checking out.
Tipping Policies Will Vary With Each Individual Cruise Line
Dining Room Staff Preparing for Dinner
I suggest you check with your selected cruise line for their own cruise tip policies prior to departure. This will avoid any confusion and stress while on your cruise.
If you and your family have not taken a family cruise vacation yet, I strongly suggest you consider this option for your next holiday. There are some wonderful cruise specials just waiting for you to take advantage of!
Today, many cruise lines offer amazing incentives to have you book your cruise with them. An example and one that we recently took advantage of on our last South Pacific Cruise,was including Free Paid Gratuities just for booking with them.
This means that your gratuities have been included in your overall purchase price. For a couple traveling on a 14 night cruise at about $14 USD per person per day, that was a great savings!
So shop around, look for those great deals and don’t forget to include gratuities when planning your next holiday!
Update June 2020
Unfortunately with world faced with dealing with this Covid-19 Corona Virus pandemic, things have certainly come to a stand still with travel. Let’s hope this will pass very quickly and we can all get on with our lives as usual, with all travel, tours and attractions open once again!
On a positive note and for those who love to travel, there will most certainly be some amazing travel deals surfacing in the not too distant future. So, get ready to pack your bags and to take advantage of the type of travel that you love!
Update February 2021 – Pandemic
I received this email from my Professional Cruise Consultant a short while ago regarding cruise vacation bookings. Below, is what he had to say about cruise lines taking bookings for upcoming cruises.
Right now all cruise lines have a Peace of Mind or Risk-Free policies where you are able to cancel even after the final payment date and receive a credit or refund.”
For those of you thinking when to book for a cruise down the road, this may be a good time to do so and risk free as well. For more detailed information, I’ve included a link to an article listing tentative reopening dates for your convenience. This post is updated on a weekly basis.
⚓ Cruise Lines Reopening Dates
Safe and Healthy Travels!
✨ Did You Know
“Cruise Ship Regular Service Staff Typically Share A Cabin Below With 2 to 4 Other Staff Members Equipped With Bunk Beds.”
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🛳 Royal Caribbean South Pacific Cruise – Review
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📭 Finding The Best Cruise Deals – Helpful Tips
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