Gratuities and Tipping on Royal Caribbean Demystified

Here at Cruises with Friends, we see a fair amount of confusion and a lot of questions when it comes to gratuities and tipping on Royal Caribbean ships. With this post, we’re going to explain Royal Caribbean’s gratuities policy and talk about when and why you might or might not want to tip or not tip.

What Is Royal Caribbean’s Policy on Tipping and Gratuities?

Below is Royal Caribbean’s Policy for the gratuities that each guest is charged per person, per day of a cruise:

• $20.50 per guest, per day will be applied to guests sailing on any suite; and
• $18.00 per guest, per day will be applied to guests sailing on all other stateroom categories.

Gratuities collected are distributed to crew members, including dining, bar and culinary services staff, stateroom attendants, hotel services teams as well as others onboard who work to enhance the overall cruise experience.

As of the date of this post, Royal Caribbean publishes the following breakdown of where/how these amounts are distributed:

Dining Services	Housekeeping	Hotel Services	Totals
$6.25	$3.20	$8.55	$18.00 Stateroom
$6.25	$3.70	$8.05	$18.00 Junior Suite
$6.25	$6.50	$7.75	$20.50 Suites

These gratuities can be prepaid when you book your cruise, and there are a few benefits to doing so. Paying upfront helps with budgeting and knowing upfront what the total cost of your vacation is going to be. Also, in the event Royal Caribbean increases the gratuities amount between the time you book and the time you sail, you will not pay the higher rates.

If not prepaid, each guest’s SeaPass account will have the per day gratuities amount added each day and charged to the prechosen payment method at the conclusion of the cruise.

Additionally, an 18% gratuity will be automatically added to all pre-cruise and onboard purchases of beverages and beverage packages, specialty dining and specialty dining packages, room service and mini bar purchases. A 20% gratuity will be automatically added to all pre-cruise and onboard spa and salon purchases.

This is an important part of Royal Caribbean’s gratuities policy to be aware of and to keep in mind during your cruise. Let’s say you decide to book a 5 night specialty dining package prior to boarding at a price of $219.99. When you go to check out, you will notice you are being charged an additional $39.59 (18%) for included gratuities. This works out to about $7.92 paid in tips by each guest per specialty restaurant meal. When you use your package and dine in a specialty restaurant, you will be presented with a “bill” at the end, requiring your signature, even though you’ve pre-paid for the meal, and there will be a line on the bill where you can add a tip. When deciding how much, if any, extra gratuity you want to add, keep two things in mind. First, you have already paid, in this instance, $7.92 per diner, but also that those who served you directly most likely do not receive all of that money.

While on this subject, when making your tipping decisions, it’s important to keep in mind that the perks Royal Caribbean’s Crown & Anchor members earn, such as free daily drinks, do not have prepaid tips associated with them. If you go to a bar onboard and ask for a drink that is included in a purchased drink package, you have already prepaid the tip on that drink, but if you ask for a drink that you’ve earned as a loyalty perk, no tip has been paid. Given this, we recommend you tip the bartender $1 or $2 dollars per drink when using your loyalty perks.

Schools of Thought

There are probably as many ideas on proper tipping as there are cruises through the Caribbean, and we’re going to discuss some of the thoughts we’ve heard most often from fellow cruisers.

Some cruisers are opposed to the idea of being charged a set amount and letting the cruise line distribute gratuities as they see fit. They don’t mind tipping but would rather put their tipping money directly into the hands of the crew members that serve them. While this is understandable, it seems important to note that there are many, many crew members who work behind the scenes and have no direct contact with guests, yet whose contribution is vital to the positive experience of cruising.

Some people, though they also are happy to tip directly to those who provide them with service, don’t like automatic gratuities because they feel the cruise line is asking them to subsidize crew salaries instead of paying their workers a fair wage. While overall we tend to agree that cruise lines should pay their workers and not pass this cost on to consumers in this manner, the fact remains that by withholding gratuities, the only people that are hurt are the crew members who really do work hard to make every moment of your cruise as enjoyable as possible. That being said, Royal Caribbean does offer a remedy for those who would like to put tip money directly into the hands of the specific cruise members who help them. Per their Policy:

Gratuities may be modified in the guest’s sole discretion by visiting the Guest Services desk onboard at any time prior to the morning of disembarkation.

Please note that the above policies are applicable to sailings booked from Royal Caribbean’s Unites States website. You can view the policy for the United Kingdom here: UK Gratuities, and the Policy for Australia here: Australian Gratuities.

Better Service Through Better Tipping?

We have heard from other cruisers that tipping individual crew members at the onset of your cruise may result in superior service from these members throughout the sailing. For instance, your cabin steward, who is responsible for the daily housekeeping of your stateroom, will usually go out of his or her way to meet you on embarkation day in order to learn your name and to ask if you have any special requirements or requests. We’ve been told that tipping this person up front may inspire them to go above and beyond in ways that may enhance your experience. Perhaps you will be able to get one of the limited number of egg crate type mattress pads for your bed, or requests for an extra table on your balcony will be quickly fulfilled. Another example might be that a reasonably generous tip to a bartender at your favorite ship watering hole may result in faster service when the bar is very busy or a more generous pour of wine with every order.

So Who Do I Tip and How Much?

After all of this, you may still be wondering, who exactly should I be tipping and how much is expected?

The short answer is that Royal Caribbean bakes gratuities into the price of your cruise by asking you to prepay them or pay them daily once onboard, so you do not need to tip anything extra if you do not wish to.

The long answer is that even though gratuities have already been paid, many cruisers do still tip many of the crew members that serve them on top of whatever share of prepaid gratuities those crew may receive. Below is a list of crew members that most cruisers tend to tip, along with the customary amount.

Crew Member	Range
Porters at Dock	$1 - $5 Per Bag
Cabin Steward	$10 - $100 Per Sailing
Main Dining Room Servers	Main Waiter: $10 - $50 Per Sailing
	Assistant Waiter: $5 - $40 Per Sailing
	Head Waiter: $5 - $15 Per Sailing
Specialty Restaurant Servers	Main Waiter: $5 - $25 Per Meal
	Assistant Waiter: $5 - $15 Per Meal
Bartenders	$1 - $3 Per Drink or Per Round
Spa Attendants	5% - 20% Per Service
Musicians	Leave however much you see fit in tip jars.
Concierge or Loyalty Ambassadors	$5 Per Service Performed or Per Sailing
Tour Drivers	$1 - $5 Per Trip
Tour Guide	$5 - $10 Per Trip

Conclusion

Gratuities are both controversial and personal, and they can add a significant amount to the price of your cruise. It’s a good idea to think about tipping before you set foot on deck so you can decide what feels right for you, what is in your means and plan your budget accordingly. Remember that most gratuities are included as part of the cost of goods and services and you should not feel obligated to tip more. If you feel that crew members have served you well and added to your overall cruise experience, they will appreciate an extra tip!

We hope you’ve found this guide informative and helpful. If you have any questions or feedback, we’d love to hear from you.

Interested in more information about cruising? Please check out our other blog posts at Blog | Cruises With Friends

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