Gratuities on Royal Caribbean: How tipping works

Gratuities on a Royal Caribbean cruise are part of the total vacation cost, but they can be confusion, especially for first-time cruisers.

As a cruise ship passenger, you’re expected to give tips to crew members during your voyage. Don’t worry, this isn’t as awkward or formal as it sounds, but understanding how these gratuities work and what they cover will be helpful.

Not only will you need to distribute gratuities, you also need to plan your cruise budget to account for them.

Royal Caribbean, like all major cruise lines, has a system in place to ensure that the hardworking staff members who enhance your vacation receive appropriate compensation. Gratuities are not included in the cruise fare (except for Australians), but they are compulsory.

We provide this guide to help you understand how gratuities work on the cruise, who receives them, how they are charged, and whether you can adjust them.

How much are gratuities on Royal Caribbean?

Royal Caribbean automatically adds a daily charge to each cruise passenger’s SeaPass account. 

Each day of your cruise, Royal Caribbean will automatically charge each person’s SeaPass account a gratuity.  It’s a way to recognize great service onboard that you get from crew members.

The daily gratuities cover these crew members:

• stateroom attendant
• head waiter
• waiter
• assistant waiter

As of November 11, 2023, the daily gratuity amount is $16.00 per guest, per day for those guests in standard accommodations.  Guests in suites will pay $20.50 per person, per day in gratuities.  The daily gratuity amount is the same for all passengers, regardless of age.

Instead of paying them onboard, guests have the choice to pre-pay their gratuities before their cruise to help split up the cost of their cruise vacation.

If you are a My Time Dining guest, you must prepay your gratuities.  

How to pre-pay gratuities

There are two good reasons to prepay gratuities. Some people prefer to have everything paid for before the cruise begins, so they don’t have to worry about a big bill at the end of the trip.

The second reason to prepay gratuities is that your price is locked in. If Royal Caribbean were to raise the daily gratuity rates before your sailing, you’d be grandfathered into the old rate.

Pre-paying gratuities is a simple process. If you booked directly with Royal Caribbean, you can pre-pay gratuities by calling 866-562-7625 or logging into Royal Caribbean’s website before the sailing.

If you booked with a travel agent, simply let the travel agent know your preference and they can take care of the arrangements.

There are other gratuities too

The daily gratuities only cover some crew members, and there you’ll need to tip on other purchases.

If this seems like “double dipping”, the reality is these tips are for crew members not covered by the daily gratuities.

Bartenders and drink waiters

If you order beverage onboard your Royal Caribbean cruise, such as soda, beer, or wine, you will be charged an automatic 18% gratuity when you receive the bill.

If you bought an unlimited drink package, gratuities for all drinks you order is included with the drink package purchase.  You’ll actually get charged a “service fee” when you buy the drink package to cover that.

The gratuity amount is for the service you receive from the wait staff to serve your drink.  The gratuity amount is added to what you purchase and indicated at the bottom of your receipt.

You can add an additional tip on the receipt if you wish. 

Specialty restaurants

The surcharge you pay to dine at a specialty restaurant aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise includes the tip.

There is no need to pay a tip on top of the surcharge amount, unless you would like to.

Spa

The Vitality Spa on Royal Caribbean ships will have gratuity added onto it as well.

Just like drinks, an 18% gratuity is automatically added.

You can tip more, if you like

If you want to tip above and beyond the automatic gratuity, you are always welcome to do so.

This is a discretionary tip, and it is up to you and not expected in all cases.  Even crew members who receive an automatic gratuity can receive additional gratuities if you feel it is warranted.

Some instances where a discretionary tip may be appropriate are for room service deliveries or luggage service by porters.

You can remove the gratuities, but you need to pay them

Royal Caribbean will automatically charge you for every night of the cruise but that does not mean you have to pay it if you are not satisfied with the service. 

You can go to Guest Services at any point in your cruise and have them reduced or removed from your account if you would prefer to tip a different amount.

The option to remove gratuities is a mechanism to rectify poor service, not a cost savings measure. Crew members work very hard every day of your cruise to make it a great vacation, so don’t stiff them in order to save money.

Why do I have to tip?

Cruise ship tipping is an old tradition that still hangs on, and it’s also a product of American tipping culture.

One benefit to keeping tipping in place is it incentives crew members to go above and beyond with their service. Even if they are a crew member that gets a tip automatically, the service they provide gets reflected in post-cruise surveys. Plus, many guests elect to tip on top of the base amount in the case of excellent service.

By having tips as an additional cost, it’s something that doesn’t drive up the base cruise fare, which helps advertise lower rates.

In fact, Royal Caribbean has said they won’t offer an all inclusive cruise fare that includes gratuities because their internal research shows a majority of customers don’t want all-in-one pricing.

Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Michael Bayley said, “We know from our research that we need to give everybody the choice to decide what they do or don’t want included in their vacation.”

“We feel like the pricing strategy that we have on the bundling, unbundling is the right path to go.”

The reality is gratuity on Royal Caribbean is an added fee you’re expected to pay. Perhaps in the future tips would be included with the cruise fare, but that has yet to change.