Gratuity rates from Cruise Hive

Cruise Hive put together an updated list of gratuity rates and policies on the major cruise lines. They also remind you that you should not use tips as a penalty or to show your frustration. The cruise staff depends on those tips and are often not in control of the major issues and problems on board.

Princess raises gratuity fees

Once again a major cruise company announced a plan to raise their fees. Starting in 2016, Princess will charge a gratuity fee of $12.95 per person, per day. Passengers staying in a suite will be charged $13.50. As with their current policy, Princess will allow passengers to remove or lower their fee while on board.

Raising fees and essentially mandating certain tip rates, is ultimately a bait and switch. The cruise lines want to keep preaching value, yet keep adding these backend costs that are not reflected in the sale price.

Fortunately there is growing movement on the upscale lines to remove all tipping. We hope that catches on with the mid-tier and lower-tier lines as well. There are other ways to incent the ship staff without tipping. Right now it is just a tool for cruise lines to nickel and dime customers and skim off of their employees' wages.

What Royal Caribbean's increased tipping means for you

This week Royal Caribbean announced a change in their tipping rates. Starting June 1, the daily rate per guest will rise to $12.95 in standard accommodations, and $15.95 per guest in suites. If you prepay before June 1, you can still use the current rates of $12 and $14.25 per day (respectively).

The company explained this was to reward their excellent staff and that all tips are pooled. While this seems noble on the Royal Caribbean's part, Cruise Law News isn't buying it. Jim Walker explains that a portion of all pre-paid gratuities bypasses the crew altogether and goes directly into Royal Caribbean's bottom line.

All of this is part of the changing cruise industry and experience. As the customer base becomes more global and diverse, more passengers hail from countries where tipping is not common. Also people carry less cash and want to "charge" more, so offering pre-paid gratuities or gratuities that are added to the overall bill is a convenience factor for many. Our suggestion is that if you think a automatic gratuity is unfair (either in cost or how it is pooled), then opt out and pay directly. This can be done through most purser's offices and the crew members can then decide how they want to pool the cash you gave them directly. Regardless of how you handle Royal Caribbean's and other cruise company policies, just remember to take care of the people who take care of you.