Should you prepay gratuities for a Royal Caribbean cruise?

Table Of Content

• Royal Caribbean Tipping Policy
• Advantages of gratuities on Royal Caribbean Cruises
• Tipping on a cruise ship: The big picture
• Hone your photography skills prior to sailing
• Included cruise tips as a booking perk
• Research low-cost things to do in port if you’re on a budget
• (NEW) Royal Caribbean gratuities 2023 tipping policy
• Culinary Adventures You’ll Never Forget

Tipping on a cruise does not have to be complicated, but you need to understand the big picture to budget for your vacation appropriately. Read on to learn all about cruise ship tipping culture and how much you'll need to tip on your next cruise, based on which cruise line you're sailing. In addition, when you reserve specialty restaurants, dining packages, drink packages, and spa services on Royal Caribbean’s Cruise Planner website, the gratuity will be added upon checkout. Guests in non-suite staterooms (including Junior Suites) pay $18 USD per person, per day for gratuities. An envelope will be delivered to your stateroom for any extra (optional) tips. You can pick up more envelopes at Guest Services if there are additional crew members you would like to tip.

Royal Caribbean Tipping Policy

Royal Caribbean adds $2 to daily gratuity charge - Travel Weekly

Royal Caribbean adds $2 to daily gratuity charge.

Posted: Mon, 13 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

This means that if you're traveling with an infant, they, too, will be subject to the full gratuity amount for the duration of the sailing. The latest increase was in 2018 when gratuities went up by $1 per person, per day. If you prepay your gratuities, you’ll only ever have to pay the lower rate. When you check in, you’ll be asked if you wish to set up the account with a credit card or debit card. If you do, Royal Caribbean will automatically charge your card at the end of your cruise. If you don’t, then you’ll need to settle the account with a credit, debit card or with cash before you disembark at the end of your cruise.

Advantages of gratuities on Royal Caribbean Cruises

If your cruise is a one-way itinerary that starts or ends in Seward, Alaska, transportation logistics require more pre-planning. The closest major airport to Seward is Anchorage, which is over two hours away by car. Due to this, you might want to consider taking a Royal Caribbean shuttle or the train from Seward to Anchorage, which must be scheduled in advance. In addition to airfare, you’ll also want to figure out transportation logistics on land, which can vary from one embarkation city to another. When scheduling your return flights, don’t book a flight too early on disembarkation day. Of course, you’ll want to look at the terms and conditions of each tour operator before booking.

Tipping on a cruise ship: The big picture

Our expert team is dedicated to helping you plan the ultimate cruise vacation, so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the journey. Pre-paying locks in the rate at the time of payment, protecting you from any future rate hikes during your cruise. If you pre-pay gratuities and the rates increase afterwards, you typically won’t need to pay the difference. While salaries vary, gratuities often constitute a significant portion of the staff’s total earnings, ensuring they are fairly compensated for their dedicated service. For off-ship excursions organized through Royal Caribbean, gratuities are not typically included in the excursion price.

Hone your photography skills prior to sailing

That depends on where you’re going, what your nationality is, and whether you’re a minor or an adult. Check with your travel advisor or government authority to determine what travel documents you’ll need for each port of call. Then make sure you bring those documents and have them ready with you when you board the ship. If you don’t have the proper documents, you won’t be allowed to board the vessel and you won’t be eligible for a refund of your cruise fare. Keep in mind that Royal Caribbean automatically adds an 18 percent gratuity to all beverage purchases on the ship. In addition, there’s a 20 percent gratuity added for all spa and salon services.

Royal Caribbean regularly has promotions to encourage people to book cruises. At check-in, you can either link your account to a credit or debit card or choose to settle the account with a card or cash before disembarking. While there isn’t a precise breakdown of how these gratuities are distributed among the crew members, the covered services include the main dining room, specialty restaurants, and buffet staff, among others. The gratuity rates on Royal Caribbean cruises apply to guests of all ages, including children and infants. Room service stewards should be tipped on the spot, as should non-cruise workers like in-port baggage handlers or tour operators on shore excursions. A 18% gratuity is automatically added to all beverages and mini bar items.

Small indulgences taken steadily throughout your trip can make the travel experience feel like more of a break from the ordinary. This is a relatively easy question when referring to a job, but not always when you need to factor in children's school schedules. It usually makes sense to first plan trips around school holidays before you try to schedule your own time off from work. Some schools have stricter absence policies than others, so you'll want to check the regulations before you book flights and a sailing. The people that tend to use the Royal Genie to organise parties in their suite are the ones that tend to lean more into tipping higher amounts, which makes sense. Suite parties are pretty hard to coordinate – there’s a lot of food to bring in, decorations to potentially add and the drinks services too.

For example, Norwegian offers a complimentary Open Bar drinks package for travelers who book its Free at Sea promotion. That means two people sharing a room on a seven-night cruise would pay $308 in tips for an otherwise free drinks package — on top of their daily service charge fees. As we said above, automatic tips ensure fairness to all staff, but also save yourself the headache of having to crunch numbers and track down numerous crewmembers on the final evening of your cruise.

Culinary Adventures You’ll Never Forget

According to the line’s website, they’re divided among dining, bar, and culinary service staff; stateroom attendants; and other hotel services teams. Some of these crew members are those you’ll interact with face-to-face, such as bartenders and your cabin steward. Others are working behind the scenes, such as various culinary and hotel service crew members. In some cases, however, it doesn't make sense to prepay your gratuities, like if you have a substantial amount of onboard credit, as it will be applied toward your final balance at the end of the cruise. Note that Royal Caribbean doesn't accept cash on the ship as a form of payment, so you will have to use your SeaPass card for everything. Other mainstream cruise lines, like Carnival, have an age in which gratuities start applying to guests; this isn't the case with Royal Caribbean.

Moreover, I like boarding my cruise knowing that the majority of everything has been taken care of in advance. If $18.00 were getting added to my onboard account each day, I probably wouldn't feel the same way. In fact, I'd most likely be less inclined to spend money on cruise add-ons like drinks, Wi-Fi, etc. If you are traveling internationally, you will want to bring the local currency, such as euros or Australian dollars. Each passenger is charged a daily amount, and the total is then divided between hardworking crew members onboard, including cabin stewards, those in dining and culinary services, the Guest Services team, and more.

With MyTime dining you will sit at a different table each night and be served by different crew members. If you wish to reward one or two crew members in particular, you could pay the standard gratuity fee and also hand cash to any crew members who you feel are particularly deserving. If you book a cruise with free gratuities, it means that Royal Caribbean will pay the gratuities to the staff members for you, so you don’t need to worry about paying them.

Should you choose to, for a seven-night cruise, consider tipping about $2 to $3 per person, per day. For lines that do have them, service and gratuity charges are touted as a convenient alternative to the practice of cash tipping on cruise ships — something that once was common. How much to tip on a cruise is a question that trips up many first-timers.

If you elect not to pay gratuities in advance, a daily charge will appear on your SeaPass account every day of the cruise. If you are on a 3-night cruise, for example, and don’t pay gratuities in advance, you will see a $16 (or $18.50) charge on your account each day of the sailing. Fortunately, after nearly a dozen Alaska cruises, our staff are well versed in the ins and outs of cruising to Alaska. From booking your pre-cruise hotel to utilizing Seattle’s stress-free luggage service, here are our top 24 tips for an Alaska cruise this year. For those who prioritize adventure in their lives, no amount of exploration is enough. Others want to be able to hit the road — or the open sea — without depleting days they need for family holidays such as Thanksgiving.

We highly recommend that all guests travel with a passport valid for at least six months beyond the completion of your travel. It’ll also enable you to fly from the United States to meet your ship in a foreign port if you happen to miss your scheduled port of embarkation for whatever reason. If you booked directly with Royal Caribbean, you can either call Royal Caribbean or log onto their website and access your account to prepay gratuities. In addition, prepaying gratuities locks in the current gratuity rate, even if the rate were to go up later.

If you're after a coveted window seat, a nice tip to the maitre d' on day one can help ensure that they never fails to have that table waiting. For any additional tipping, the general rule of thumb is cash on the last day of the cruise (with exceptions, of course). Don't wait till the morning of disembarkation, though, when everybody is in a frenzied transition mode and it might be difficult to locate the staffer you're seeking. Similarly, if you're on a higher-end ship that lists gratuities as being included in the fare, that means just what it says.