MSC wave goodbye to Gratuities

Great news, MSC have just announced that they are scrapping gratuities! So from today 25th June 2019 the cruise line will be including the daily service charges as part of the cruise fare for any new bookings.

Now i think this is great news, as for me i prefer it all to be included and it is one less thing to worry about later, yes we will still be paying for gratuities as they are adding it in to the cruise fare and the staff do deserve their tips. However i no some will disagree with this as as a lot of people prefer to opt out of pre paid gratuities and then like to tip whom and when they want to.

I think which ever way the cruise lines do it, not everyone will be happy, if they include them people do not agree and if they don’t include them then people are not happy with the amount, however if they did remove them altogether and allowed people to pay who and when they liked then this would lead i think to some people not paying at all which i do not think is fair. It’s all just a matter of opinion.

It seems that they are following suit from P&O who last year announced that from May this year the gratuities would also be included in the fare. Will even more other cruise lines do the same in time? Who knows? There is so much competition out there now, they all need to compete somehow.

For clients that have already booked with MSC before today, normal booking conditions will apply and the gratuities will be applied to the invoice on board.

What is your thoughts on this? I would love to hear, do you pre pay tips? Or would you like them included in the cost of your cruise?