Cruise Ship Gratuities!

So everyone who has cruised before will know that the majority of cruise lines will ask you to pay gratuities (onboard tips) either before getting on the cruise or when you are boarding your cruise. Not all cruise lines have the same policy in how these can be paid for as follows.

• Some cruise lines give you the option to pre-pay these gratuities before boarding the ship such as Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises and MSC just to name a few.
• Whereas some other cruise lines like Cruise and Maritime, Cunard, Fred Olsen and Princess Cruises will add the gratuities to your onboard account the day you board the ship.
• Some cruise lines include the gratuities free such as Norwegian Cruise lines, Marella and soon to be P&O from May 2019.

When speaking to customers the majority know that these gratuities are not compulsory and are at your own discretion. However, some customers do not know this and I always give them the choice where possible if they wish to add them. Or they will automatically be added to their onboard account the day they board. I will also advise that the gratuities can be removed from their onboard account as long as they ask for them to be taken off earlier in the cruise rather than leaving it to the last day, as some cruise lines can be very questionable as to why they left it so late.

In my experience, when I have had my gratuities removed from my onboard account it then gives me the choice to tip staff directly by the service I feel needs rewarding. Don’t get me wrong, all the staff onboard work very hard to uphold the reputation of the cruise line and ship. However, you can tell the staff that goes that extra mile to help customers achieve the best experience they possibly can.

So by prepaying your gratuities, or allowing your gratuities to stay on your onboard account – where does this go? The general procedure is that the gratuities that have been charged to your onboard account or prepaid would be split between all staff members on the ship, and is split between job roles and positions. So you know that the gratuities that you have paid are going to all staff members onboard.

However, it seems over the last few years more customers are opting to have the gratuities removed and tipping at their own discretion directly to staff members who make their experience onboard that much better!

So P&O Cruises have been nominated the best for gratuities and here is what they say. What do you think? Do you agree?