Tips for Tipping on Cruise Ships
Tips. Gratuities. Service Charges. It's the cost of getting great service, but how much do you tip the waiter, butler and housekeeping personnel each day of your cruise vacation?When it comes to tipping on a cruise ship, the recommendations and requirements vary only slightly by cruise line. Norwegian cruise lines points out that guests are "not obliged to offer a gratuity for good service", but they do recommend tipping a service provider that's gone above and beyond the call of duty to meet your needs. Celebrity Cruise Lines takes a different approach to the cruise tipping process, automatically adding gratuities to all restaurant and stateroom services and encourages guests to add extra if they feel they received exceptional service.
Most cruise lines encourage passengers to tip for services per person, per day, but tips can be rolled into the service charge or fee you pay as part of your cruise package.
If you need a general idea of how much to tip each individual who serves you, here's a breakdown based on recommendations per person, per day from Celebrity Cruise Lines, Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean International:
Suite Attendant: keeps your room clean and orderly, orders supplies and amenities, provides you with towels and fresh linens as needed, works with housekeeping staff and handles laundry and room service deliveries
Recommended tip: $5.75
Stateroom Attendant: works with housekeeping staff, greets you and your traveling party upon arrival, replenishes room amenities and handles your laundry requests.
Recommended tip: $3.50
Waiter: serves you and your group at meal time, pours wine and beverages, makes recommendations for your meal, may deliver the meal
Recommended tip: $3.50 to $4.00
Assistant Waiter: helps the lead waiters take orders and deliver meals, refills water and beverages, attends to any requests during the meal
Recommended tip: $2.00 to $2.50
Head Waiter: oversees the work of waiters and assistant waiters to ensure guest satisfaction, handles comments or complaints
Recommended tip: $0.75
Dining Room Manager: oversees kitchen and wait staff operations, handles guest concerns, special requests or complaints, and manages banquets and large group functions
Recommended tip: $1.00
Butler: provides personal guest services to handle requests for amenities, towels, linens and other items during your cruise
Recommended tip: $3.50
Housekeeping Staff: keep the suite or stateroom clean and orderly, perform vacuuming and sweeping duties, make the beds, restock amenities and supplies, may perform turn down services
Recommended tip: $1.00 to $1.50
Porter: carries luggage and personal items safely to your suite or stateroom
Recommended tip: $1.25
And how do you pay your service providers? Most cruise lines will have envelopes for gratuities set aside for you on the last night of your cruise. You can pre-pay when booking the cruise with your travel agent, pay with cash at the end of the cruise, or just roll the fees into your onboard account so you can pay by credit card.
This post was contributed via Seed.com, AOL's new platform for freelance writers.
Recommended tip: $3.50
Waiter: serves you and your group at meal time, pours wine and beverages, makes recommendations for your meal, may deliver the meal
Recommended tip: $3.50 to $4.00
Assistant Waiter: helps the lead waiters take orders and deliver meals, refills water and beverages, attends to any requests during the meal
Recommended tip: $2.00 to $2.50
Head Waiter: oversees the work of waiters and assistant waiters to ensure guest satisfaction, handles comments or complaints
Recommended tip: $0.75
Dining Room Manager: oversees kitchen and wait staff operations, handles guest concerns, special requests or complaints, and manages banquets and large group functions
Recommended tip: $1.00
Butler: provides personal guest services to handle requests for amenities, towels, linens and other items during your cruise
Recommended tip: $3.50
Housekeeping Staff: keep the suite or stateroom clean and orderly, perform vacuuming and sweeping duties, make the beds, restock amenities and supplies, may perform turn down services
Recommended tip: $1.00 to $1.50
Porter: carries luggage and personal items safely to your suite or stateroom
Recommended tip: $1.25
And how do you pay your service providers? Most cruise lines will have envelopes for gratuities set aside for you on the last night of your cruise. You can pre-pay when booking the cruise with your travel agent, pay with cash at the end of the cruise, or just roll the fees into your onboard account so you can pay by credit card.
This post was contributed via Seed.com, AOL's new platform for freelance writers.
