Is Tipping The Most Controversial Thing About A Cruise?

Who , how and why do we tip people to reward good service ? Some people will say ” nobody tips me, so why should I tip anyone else ” and that is true, but I think the majority of us will tip for excellent service in certain instances.

I always leave something at the hairdressers, not for Daniel who cuts my hair, he earns enough anyway, but for the others who do the other bits and pieces like washing my hair and sweeping the floor. I also tip taxi drivers, not  the grumpy ones who drive like maniacs though and, of course, waiters who give good service.

Good service though, Is the whole point! How can you know if the service is going to be good before you`ve had it ? The answer of course is you can`t so how  can you possibly tip anyone – especially before you go on your cruise?

Being British our attitude to tipping is very different to the Americans who tip 15% or so whatever the service – good or awful. I have friends who ate in a restaurant in New York a little while ago and the service was dreadful, they left leaving no tip and were chased up the road by an irate waiter ! I have Italian friends who say the Italians rarely tip, the Spanish have a similar attitude as well.

Most cruise lines are owned by US companies, and their trend is becoming more and more to try and get clients to pre pay gratuities before they cruise. The exceptions to this are Fred Olsen and other smaller companies. Even P&O add around £ 3.75 per person per day to your on board account but you can have this removed at reception, I think P&O would have a riot on their hands if they introduced a compulsory tipping policy !

River cruises and 6 star lines, such as Silversea, Regent Azamara, include gratuities in their prices as do Thomson ( not 6 star by any means ! ) . This takes away any need to add any extra unless of course you want to and I`m sure many people do. They also no doubt pay their staff more so everyone is happy, clients and crew, and service should be superb.

The standards of service on all cruise lines are excellent in 99% of cases, but I do think that some clients who don`t add pre paid gratutites to their booking before travel, with say Royal Caribbean, probably think that they will still have to tip individual staff members on board , even though they have paid up front. Some people simply don`t want to tip and use this as an excuse to remove the optional gratuity charge. On many of the Nile Cruises I worked on for Thomson, where the service and guides were more than excellent, lots of clients didn`t tip at all.

Would it then be a good idea for all lines to include  the gratuities in the cost of the cruise ? I think it would but obviously prices would go up a bit. A lot of cruise lines are moving closer to being All Inclusive and so it would make sense to add the gratuities into the price. Client would soon get used to it and it really wouldn’t make that much difference to  the initial cost of the cruise, if Thomson can do it anyone can !

Mind you its always worth giving your cabin steward  a little extra – on Oceana ours turned up every night with ice and lemon for our gin & tonic without being asked !