Latest news with #gratuities
The Independent
4 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
What you should know about tipping on cruises
Cruise fares often do not include tips, known as gratuities or "crew appreciation," which are instead often added daily, per passenger and can significantly increase the overall cost. Daily gratuity rates vary by cruise line and cabin type, typically ranging from $16 (£12) to $20 (£15) per day for standard cabins and up to $27 (£20) per day for suites. While not compulsory, these tips are expected to reward various crew members, including those not directly seen by passengers. Some cruise lines, particularly British-focused ones like P&O Cruises and Marella, include gratuities in the initial fare, while others, such as Royal Caribbean, add them daily. Passengers can request to remove or reduce automatic gratuities at guest services, though this can be an awkward process, and additional tips can be given for exceptional service.
The Independent
4 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
How to avoid shock bills of up to £105 per person on your next cruise
It may come as a surprise to some guests, but the cruise fare itself isn't always the only cost when hitting the high seas – and some passengers could be in for a nasty surprise at the end of their sailing when they see charges added for tips. Many cruise lines add extra fees known as tips, gratuities or 'crew appreciation' to the daily charges for each passenger and it can vary depending on the cruise line and the type of cabin you are staying in. Cruise gratuities among the biggest brands can range from $16 (£12) per day to $20 (£15) for those in standard cabins and up to $27 (£20) per day for suites. That could add up to an extra $560 (£421) for a family of four on a week-long cruise in a standard cabin or $140 (£105) per person and unless you check in advance or keep an eye on your changes throughout the sailing, you could be lumbered with an unexpected bill at the end of your voyage. Beyond the standard tips and gratuities, there may also be service charges or the option to pay extra tips when ordering drinks at the bar. This can push up the overall cost of your cruise holiday so it is important to be aware of the tipping policy of the brand you are sailing with. You can usually find out the daily gratuities on a cruise line's website. Alternatively, some cruise lines may include tips and gratuities in the fare, leaving it up to you whether to pay more to individual crew members if you feel you have had extra special service. This may also push up the price though so it is still worth comparing options that include and exclude tips. Here is what you need to know about tips and gratuities on a cruise. Are you supposed to tip on a cruise? Paying tips and gratuities on a cruise ship is not compulsory, but it is expected. The idea is to ensure crew members are rewarded for serving you during your cruise and it can cover everyone from waiters and room stewards to the staff that you don't see such as people working in the laundry room. Dave Mills, chief commercial officer at online travel agent Iglu, told The Independent: 'Helpfully, all cruise lines have a clear policy about tipping, so you are sure about what is expected before you set off. 'Many fares have tips included in the fare to keep things simple. Some lines have 'no tipping required' as their policy. On board of course you can tip personally, if you have particularly enjoyed a treatment in the spa for example or service at dinner.' How do tips and gratuities work on a cruise? If tips aren't included in the cruise fare there will be a daily rate that is automatically added to your bill. You can usually keep track of this if there is a cruise app or check your bill with guest services. British-focused lines such as P&O Cruises and Marella include tips in their fares, while American brands such as Royal Caribbean and Princess add tips each day. The figure can depend on the cruise line and also where you are sailing. MSC Cruises includes tips in its bookings made through its UK and European websites and travel agents but those booking from the US have an automatic hotel charge added. Cruise blogger Emma Le Teace, co-founder of The Cruise Globe route tracking app, said her favourite approach is to have tips included. She said: 'Tipping above this isn't expected or necessary. It is of course always appreciated and many guests do like to leave a tip at the end of the cruise for their housekeeping or wait staff.' Mills added: 'The cruise lines have many different strategies around tipping, and before booking, it's easiest to connect with a travel agent like Iglu Cruise, who can present all the different options and assist in helping a cruiser find the best holiday for them, with the most appealing tips arrangements. 'Though seemingly a small thing, holidaymakers have very different approaches to what they wish to do to reward the staff.' Can you remove tips and gratuities? It is possible to remove or reduce the amount of tips you pay but it involves awkward conversations. To do this, you will need to visit guest services during your sailing and ask for tips to be removed or to set your own amount. This can often be done at any point of your sailing before you disembark. There may be a feeling of guilt as you wait at guest services and ask for the charges to be removed, but there is also an argument that cruise lines should pay their staff more. Tristan Roebuck-Trull, who presents the Cruise Buoys YouTube channel with his husband Justin, said: 'Cruise lines should pay the staff a decent living wage rather than have them relying on tips. 'We also are not fans of removing the auto gratuities, as there are so many crew members and staff you may not interact with directly that help to make your cruise the amazing experience it is and by removing them and only tipping certain crew while they may indeed deserve recognition this unfairly penalises the many 'unseen' crew.' Which cruise lines don't charge gratuities? Technically, all cruise lines charge gratuities but in some cases the money is included in the cruise fare. Plenty of popular cruise brands such as Virgin Voyages, P&O Cruises and Marella include gratuities in the cruise fare. It is still worth comparing prices with cruise lines on similar routes that don't include tips so you have an idea of how much extra you are really paying. Others such as Princess provide an option to either pay for your tips upfront when booking or to just have them added to your bill. If you are feeling generous or are really impressed with the service you have received, passengers do also have the option to add extra tips regardless of whether gratuities are included or not. Tristan added: 'We have on occasion provided additional tips to a crew member individually, who have truly stood out for providing and going the extra mile. 'This is often our cabin steward or bar staff who know that perfect drink and always greet you with a smile and make you feel individual often when dealing with thousands of passengers a day.'
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Yahoo
Carnival Cruise Line explains how tips get divided
Carnival Cruise Line explains how tips get divided originally appeared on Come Cruise With Me. Tips, sometimes called gratuities, may be the single most controversial thing on cruise ships. Most cruise lines have two types of tipping. First, there are the daily included are added to your bill each day and are split between various workers. The cruise lines don't tell you exactly how those tips get split, but they do assure you that every dollar you pay goes to an employee. In most cases, passengers can remove the daily gratuities. Sometimes they do that if they are not happy with certain aspects of service. That's generally considered pretty unfair, because some of those tips go to behind-the-scenes workers who did nothing wrong. You may not love your waiter or your room steward, but the guy cleaning your dishes or washing your sheets and towels still deserves to be tipped. The second type of tip is the more traditional one. That's when you hand someone money after receiving good service. It has always been somewhat unclear what happens to those tips and whether they go into a pool or somehow get shared. Carnival Cruise Line Brand Ambassador John Heald took a break from answering questions about his cruise line's loyalty program, and shared some insight as to where your tips go. . A passenger recently shared an actual tipping dilemma with Heald on his Facebook page. Hello John. I have a question about gratuities. We always prepay our gratuities. We also always have 'your time' dining. We like to give EXTRA gratuities to our dining staff (and our cabin attendants and bar staff and many others we feel deserve the extra recognition). My question is, since our dining servers change with each meal (versus having the same wait staff on early or late dining), and since we often eat breakfast or brunch in the dining room, is it appropriate to leave the additional cash tip for the waiter on the table at the end of each meal? Or is there a more appropriate way to show our extra appreciation for the service they've provided? In his answer, Heald shared some information that many cruisers have had questions about. "Thank you for being so gracious and kind to the crew. In answer to your question, if you are on 'your time' dining, the prepaid gratuities are split between all of the waiters who work at 'your time' dining," he wrote. The brand ambassador also shared what happens with any extra tips made directly to service staff members. "Any extra you give any crew member in cash is kept entirely by them 100%," he added. Heald was also gracious and made it clear that tips are not required and are appreciated. "Thank you, I hope that helps explain and at the end of the day, you have to decide who to give an extra gratuity to and whoever it is, I know how appreciative they are. Thank you for your generosity, and if I can ever do anything for you, please let me know," he a separate post, Heald asked his followers if they ever tip people outside of those workers you normally associate with getting tips. "I would like to ask if outside of the people that the gratuity automatically goes to, your cabin attendant, dining room, staff, and those that serve on Lido and behind the scenes there, have you ever tipped another crew member?" he wrote. Heald made it clear that this was not a requirement. "Now I'm not suggesting that you have to. I'm just interested, as indeed I'm sure others [are], if you have perhaps tipped the maitre d, perhaps a wonderful charismatic staff member who your children took a real shine to? Perhaps somebody that impressed you and was always so polite and fun with you?" he added. Many Carnival passengers shared that they have."I consider the auto gratuities part of the cruise fare. I then tip the folks that go above and beyond," Rachel Harrington wrote. Shawn Caccia shared a list of people he and his wife tip. "We do it all the time. My wife often tips the bathroom attendants at whatever bar/club area bathroom that she favors, and I always tip the young men who clean up in the smoking area. Not to mention the coffee shop people and the pizza makers. They all work very hard and contribute to our fun," he posted. Sirrom Anna shared another hard-working group that some people tip as well as some other tipping scenarios. "We've tipped Camp Ocean staff big because they were so great with my kids. There was a trip that we didn't even see our room steward other than the first day, so we didn't tip him. Bartenders got an extra tip, so we don't have to wait the 5 min. between a drink. Barista got tipped as well, and suddenly we didn't have to wait 5 min. between buying a coffee and Gatorade," he wrote. (The Arena Group will earn a commission if you book a cruise.) , or email Amy Post at or call or text her at 386-383-2472. This story was originally reported by Come Cruise With Me on Jun 24, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Carnival Cruise Line answers controversial tipping question
Carnival Cruise Line answers controversial tipping question originally appeared on Come Cruise With Me. Carnival Cruise Line Brand Ambassador John Heald is once again combating the cruise rumor mill. In a recent Facebook video for his more than 600,000 followers, the beloved brand ambassador explained that over the last few weeks he's received hundreds of questions and complaints related to a social media post from an alleged crew member who worked for another cruise the crew member shared online led to an outcry among cruisers about cruise lines' tip distribution policies. Heald did not want to reveal which cruise line the crew member worked for, but he detailed what the crew member posted. According to Heald, the crew member stated that 'the cruise line that he or she works for will take a large percentage of the gratuities that are automatically left for the crew members to use to pay other crew members, or for whatever the cruise line decides to do with it.' Heald pointed out that he didn't know if that statement was true and he didn't want to judge, comment on, or speculate about it. He did, however, want to clarify how Carnival Cruise Line's automatic gratuities are distributed after many disgruntled passengers wrote to him angrily assuming that Carnival follows a similar tip distribution procedure.'The gratuity that you give our crew stays with them,' Heald emphasized. To provide transparency, Heald went on to explain just how Carnival Cruise Line divvies up the automatic gratuities that most passengers choose to prepay for their cruise. 'The majority of your gratuity of the suggested daily amount is shared equally between the lady or gentleman who cleans your cabin and the lady or gentleman who serves you in the dining room,' Heald explained. He also noted that stateroom attendants and dining room servers may share those tips with their assistants. Additionally, a smaller portion of passengers' prepaid gratuities goes to crew who serve, clean, and work behind the scenes on the Lido brand ambassador also explained that if passengers choose "Your Time" dining, which means they aren't served by the same dining room service team each night of their cruise like they are with traditional dining, their prepaid gratuities are shared between all Your Time dining servers. 'If you give a waiter in Your Time dining cash, it is kept completely by that waiter; otherwise it is pooled, as they say,' Heald noted. 'It's the same with the bartenders,' he added. 'If you write a gratuity on the receipt, or if, for example, you've got the Cheers program, that gratuity is shared equally between all the bartenders on the ship. If you hand a bartender a cash gratuity it is kept completely 100% by he or she that has served you.''If you give a crew member a gratuity in cash — if you give them the same amount as the suggested amount in cash or any extra in cash — then that is kept 100% by that crew member,' Heald explained. 'Again, he or she may give a portion of that to their direct assistant or the assistants in the dining room.' Heald assured passengers that Carnival Cruise Line does not require its crew members to turn in cash gratuities they are given; 100% of those cash gratuities are kept by the crew. More Carnival cruise news:The brand ambassador also made a point to thank Carnival cruisers for how well they take care of Carnival crew members with their tips, and reminded them of one very important thing. 'Please don't believe everything you read on the internet — it is so important — and before you come racing across to accuse us of something, just ask me civilly and I will give you the honest and a civil answer back,' Heald promised. (The Arena Group will earn a commission if you book a cruise.) , or email Amy Post at or call or text her at 386-383-2472. This story was originally reported by Come Cruise With Me on May 26, 2025, where it first appeared.
