To Tip or not Tip. That is the question.

Today I wanted to talk about something that divides cruise line customers. Do you think you should tip?

With Britain’s biggest cruise line P&O scrapping tips all together as from next year do you think that more ships should follow suit? and do you think it should be incorporated in the price to make everything transparent.

Below is a list of cruise lines with the cheapest gratuities.

Costa $10 per person per day

Cruise and Maritime £7 per person per day.

Fred Olsen £5 per person per day

P&O, Norwegian cruise lines. (As long as you take the all inclusive package) and Marella include tips in their pricing and most of the 6 star cruise lines do the same.

Why is it that some of the cruise can offer Gratuities Free or from £5 per day when some can charge as much as $15 per day. The staff onboard aren’t doing any worse of a job. It just makes me think that some of this money isn’t all going to the staff on board and maybe it is going to the cruise lines profits. This is just speculation of course.

I went to New York a couple of years and tipping is pretty much compulsory. They even put on the bill how much would you like to tip. 18% 20% or 22%. For me personally I think tipping should be completely voluntary. I know they say it is however it would be massively frowned upon if you decided you didn’t want to tip. I am happy to tip if I have had good service and on the cruises I have been on and in New York most of the time I have. This isnt always the case though. Some cruise lines give you the choice to tip before you have even sailed. How can this even be an option? You wouldn’t go and get your haircut and send them a tip in the post 3 months previous. I think the fairest thing for cruise companies to do would include tipping in the price. That way you can see exactly how much you are spending without any hidden charges.

I would like to hear from you on this. What are you thoughts on tipping??