Cruise Gratuities Explained: What You Pay and Why

Cruise gratuities are the most misunderstood line on the bill. They are not optional in the way tipping usually is, they are charged per person per night including children, and they are added automatically to your onboard account whether or not you were told about them when you booked.

What you will actually pay

On the major mainstream lines, expect roughly:

• $16 to $20 per person per night in a standard cabin
• $20 to $26 per person per night in a suite, since suites carry more crew
• An additional 18 to 20 percent added automatically to every bar bill, speciality restaurant and spa treatment

For two people on a seven-night cruise, that is $220 to $280 before anyone buys a drink. For a family of four it is $450 to $560. It is one of the largest single costs after the fare itself, and it is the one people most often fail to budget for.

Who the money goes to

The pooled gratuity is distributed among the crew you see and a great many you do not: cabin stewards, dining room and buffet staff, galley teams, laundry, and cleaning crews. On most lines it forms a substantial part of what those crew members actually earn, rather than a bonus on top of a full wage.

That is the important thing to understand before deciding to remove it.

Can you remove them?

On most lines, yes. You go to guest services and ask, usually in the last day or two, and the charge comes off your account.

Whether you should is a different question. Removing the automatic gratuity does not give you a discount from the cruise line, it reduces what the crew pool receives. Passengers who remove it in order to tip individually in cash are doing something defensible, as long as they actually do it. Passengers who remove it to save money are taking it from the people who cleaned their cabin.

Some lines have moved to calling it a “service charge” or folding it into the fare specifically to close this loop.

Lines that include it

The premium and luxury lines increasingly build gratuities into the fare, which makes their headline prices look worse and their real prices better. When comparing a mainstream fare with a premium one, add the gratuities to the mainstream side before deciding which is more expensive. Over a fortnight the gap closes more than most people expect.

Promotional fares on mainstream lines often bundle gratuities too, and that bundle is usually worth more than the free Wi-Fi offered alongside it.

Prepaying

Most lines let you prepay gratuities when you book. Two reasons to do it:

1. It locks the rate. Lines raise gratuity rates regularly, and prepaying at today’s rate protects you from an increase before you sail.
2. It moves the cost out of the holiday. A $280 charge paid months ago is psychologically very different from a $280 line on the bill you settle at disembarkation.

Tipping on top

Entirely optional and reasonably common for crew who went beyond the job: a cabin steward who sorted out a problem, a waiter who remembered something. Cash, at the end of the cruise, in an envelope. There is no expectation and no social penalty for not doing it.

What is not necessary is tipping twice for the same service. The 18 to 20 percent already added to your bar bill is a gratuity; adding more on the slip is generous rather than expected.

For how this fits the rest of the budget, see what a cruise actually costs.