Here is a fantastic article by Jane Archer Of The Daily Telegraph regarding tipping on Cruises. It is a couple of years old but remains relevant and extremely interesting:
http://www.cruisedealsonline.co.uk/Sit by reception on any cruise ship with British passengers at the start of any holiday and watch as one by one they come by, asking for the gratuities to be removed from the their account.
OK, that’s an exaggeration but the issue of gratuities is guaranteed to get British cruisers hot under the collar. It’s not just because they are mean, although some no doubt simply do resent paying tips, but a cultural thing. Americans hand out dollar bill tips to people for opening a car door for them or serving a drink in a bar; the British wouldn’t dream of it.
Cultural or not, gratuities have always been a headache for cruise lines as first they have to justify them and then find ways to make sure people pay them. Royal Caribbean has admitted crew were unhappy working on Independence of the Seas cruises from the UK as the mainly British passengers didn’t pay their tips).
The obvious answer is to include them in the price, but none of the middle market companies will go down that route as they will look expensive against their middle-market competitors.
Instead, Royal Caribbean, and also Celebrity Cruises, Carnival Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line, allow you to pre-pay your gratuities; on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises you have to pre-pay anyway if you want to enjoy flexible evening dining.
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Pre-paying is more convenient as you don’t have to break into your holiday spending money, and cruise lines like it because they know you have paid, but as you are giving the gratuity before you have even cruised, you should see it as an extra charge rather than a tip rewarding good service (especially as the chances are slim of getting back prepaid gratuities because you’re unhappy with the service).
It’s all a long way from the traditional cash-in-envelopes method of the past, which gave way to vouchers in envelopes. This has the benefit of allowing folk to put the tip on their end-of-cruise account but kept the personal touch. But that is one of the things the British don’t like, so it changed again, to automatic gratuities and no envelopes. Now even P&O Cruises and Fred Olsen, which held out for the old way for a long time, simply put a per person per night charge to every passenger’s cruise account.
However, the tip remains optional on all cruise lines bar Costa Cruises (it adds a mandatory service charge to your onboard account) but it just takes a brave person to ask reception to take it off. They have heard the words “I want to pay them personally” too many times before.
Some lines will send you a letter asking you to rethink your decision if you ask reception to take the gratuities off. Worse, as US passengers on a back-of-ship tour on a Carnival Cruise Lines’ vessel discovered a few of years ago, a list of people who have removed their gratuities is posted in crew areas so they know who you are. The Americans nicknamed it the spit-list.
The amount you are advised to tip varies enormously between cruise lines, with the likes of P&O Cruises and Fred Olsen Cruise Lines recommending a moderate £3.10 and £4 per person per night respectively (but the P&O charge is going up in March and April) and Oceania Cruises topping the chart by adding $14.50 (£9.14) a night to all shipboard accounts, or a whopping $20.50 (£13) if you are in a suite.
Ultra-luxury cruise lines such as Silverseas and Regent Seven Seas, since April 2012, Crystal Cruises, include gratuities in the cruise price. British cruise lines including Noble Caledonia, Saga Cruises, Thomson Cruises and Swan Hellenic, recognising that tipping is not something the British are comfortable with, likewise package gratuities into the cruise fare.
A handful of river cruise lines – notably Scenic Tours, Avalon Waterways and Tauck – include gratuities in the price. AmaWaterways suggests.
http://www.cruisedealsonline.co.uk/http://www.cruisedealsonline.co.uk/
http://www.cruisedealsonline.co.uk/http://www.cruisedealsonline.co.uk/
How the cruise lines compare
| Cruise line | Suggested tip for adults (per night) |
|---|---|
| Carnival Cruise Lines | £7.30 |
| Celebrity Cruises | £7.30 (£7.60 for AquaClass and Concierge Class cabins; £9.50 for suites) |
| Costa Cruises | £6 in Europe; £7 for Caribbean cruises |
| Cunard | Britannia category cabins £7; Grills category suites £8.25 (increasing to £7.30 and £8.60 from April 2013) |
| Cruise & Maritime Voyages | £5; £4 (over 16 nights) |
| Disney Cruise Line | £23 (3 nights); £30.50 (4 nights); £53.40 (7 nights) |
| Fred Olsen | £4 |
| Holland America | £7.30; £7.60 for suites |
| MSC Cruises | £6 (8 nights in Europe); £5.15 (over 9 nights in Europe) |
| Noble Caledonia | Included on Island Sky and Caledonia Sky. Varies depending on cruise line for other cruises booked through Noble Caledonia |
| Norwegian Cruise Line | £7.60 |
| Oceania Cruises | £9.20; £13 suites with butler |
| P&O Cruises | £3.10 (increasing to £3.50 From March 28 to April 24) |
| Princess Cruises | £7.30; £7.60 for mini suites and suites |
| Royal Caribbean | £7.40; £8.80 (Grand Suite or above) |
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