Just because you pay a daily gratuity and get charged an automatic 18% gratuity on everything from drinks to specialty dining does not mean you should not tip in addition to that. The challenge is that it's very hard to know who should be tipped because they're not part of the tip pools and when to tip extra.
Many passengers get onboard and don't ever add an extra tip. That's actually fully okay, as room stewards, waiters, and bartenders generally don't expect anything extra. They appreciate it and will gladly accept your tip, but it's not required.
Related: Royal Caribbean makes its new beverage policy very clear
Sometimes, it's hard to know who to tip. Tipping a waiter or bartender in a bar or venue you visit often is obvious, and doing that basically guarantees you'll never wait for a drink.
But do you tip at Guest Services? What about when you get a hand-pay in the casino? Do you tip the concierge in the suite or Crown Lounge?
It's tricky, but there are few better people to share when to tip and how much to tip than Royal Caribbean Blog founder Matt Hochberg. In the video below, Hochberg, whose blog is not affiliated with the cruise line, shares his tipping advice after decades of experience on Royal Caribbean ships.
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How much to tip on Royal Caribbean ships
Transcript:
How much should you actually tip on a cruise? And how much do I actually tip when I go on a Royal Caribbean cruise? I'm sharing it all up next.
Hey everyone. It's Matt from Royal Caribbeanblog.com. And when you go on a cruise, there are certain nuances you should be aware of, including gratuities.
And for a lot of people, there's a certain level of uncomfortableness about gratuities because I think people might be unsure of what's expected, what they should do, what they could do, what's good, what's bad. And basically just not being either way over generous or completely slighting somebody.
So today, I wanted to highlight who you should be tipping on a cruise and how much I tip.
Now, it's really important to remember that, in general, gratuities are really based on the service you receive. And to that effect, in a lot of cases, you may feel obliged to tip more or less, depending on the services rendered. I'm not the arbiter of what you should or shouldn't do.
And I'm not your dad. I can't tell you what to do. I'm simply here to share my own experience, and you can take it for what it is first and foremost.
I always prepay my gratuities before the cruise begins. Royal Caribbean charges a daily gratuity for all of its passengers. You have the choice of prepaying it before your cruise begins or paying it once you get on board.
Once you're onboard, the ship it's just a daily fee on your SeaPass account, and I prefer to prepay it simply to be able to lock in the price and not have to worry about a larger bill at the end of the sailing. These gratuities are shared among the dining bar and culinary teams, their attendants, and the hotel service team.
Royal Caribbean crew members work really hard on their multi-month contracts in which they're away from their families, and gratuities are a way to reward them for their amazing service, whether you prepay or wait for the gratuities to hit your seat pass count on board the ship, they're distributed for you automatically.
You don't have to do anything on your own. So, with that in mind, I prepaid my gratuities.
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That's not all the tipping on a Royal Caribbean cruise
Here's everybody I tip on a Royal Caribbean cruise and about how much starting with the porters, when you begin or end your cruise, they are available to take your luggage on board or off the ship as it were.
And, in either case, I usually tip them probably about five to $10 total. A lot of people use the $1-2 per bag model, and that works, but I just feel like in this day and age, just like five bucks, 10 bucks, it really depends, quite frankly, how much luggage I have. Like if I'm solo on a cruise or if I'm with my, just my wife or with my kids, but probably somewhere in the ballpark with five to $10 once on board the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, I'm probably going to get a drink.
And when I order a drink, I always tip them $1 per drink. Now, if you have a Royal Caribbean drink package that does include gratuities as well, but I just tip them an extra dollar because I find that by giving them even just that little amount more, I tend to get probably better service. Maybe they just stand out and I just feel better about the whole situation.
Also keeping in mind that if you're using your Diamond drinks, those don't include gratuities. There've been crew members who have shared that those daily drink vouchers that top-tier crowd and anchor members receive don't actually include gratuity as the drink package does. So all of them will reason to add that extra dollar there.
Next up are specialty restaurants. And when I go to a specialty restaurant, I think I almost always just tip $20 like for every meal I go to. I don't know where I came up with that number or how I justify it, but I just go to a specialty restaurant.
Even if I have a dining package, I'll give them an extra $20, and that just makes me feel like that's sufficient for that.
If you're ordering something from room service, I always give them about a couple extra dollars. Like I wrote $5 down with a question mark.
I probably have tipped them less, like maybe $2. It's really more of what I have in my pocket, but I feel like $2-5 is probably more than generous for, in a lot of cases, when I order something from room service, the person bringing it like turns around and leaves before I can even like give it to them. I have to like, stop. I'm like, Hey, here you go. But in any case, about $2-5 for room service.
For my stateroom attendant, after the cruise ends, of course, I have the prepaid gratuities, and I'll tip them an extra hundred dollars. It also depends on whether I have one or two cabins. As many of you know, one of my favorite strategies for traveling with family is to book two cabins, one for me and my wife and one for our kids.
This allows us to get more space and an extra bathroom, which is so important and separation from our kids. In my opinion, I feel like a hundred dollars extra is more than generous for what they're offering, but it also depends on how helpful or over the top the stateroom attendant was. They're always helpful.
It's just like, how much more beyond that did they do? As an example, there was a cruise on Majesty of the Seas. One time where my statement attendant was actually folding all my dirty laundry that deserves a little bit extra. And there was another situation in which we were on Utopia of the Seas recently, and we were staying in a balcony cabin and our attendant just decided to start servicing our room twice.
As you know, when you're not in a suite, you only get your stateroom serviced once a day. But our superintendent really hit it off with us. It was just really nice and outgoing.
And we just noticed he started servicing our room twice a day. And I asked him, I was like, what are you doing? And he was like, you guys are so nice. I just decided to service your room twice a day.
Tipping in other Royal Caribbean situations
So obviously, he got a bigger gratuity in that situation, but what about if I'm staying in one of the Star-class cabins with the Royal Genie? This was probably the most difficult number to figure out because when I just did my very first Star-class cabin, I wanted to know how much.
Should you tip your Genie? Technically Royal Caribbean says gratuities are included with Star class, but in researching it and talking to other people who have done Star class, the amount of money people tip the Genie is really all over the place. I've heard like minimal amounts.
I've heard thousands of dollars, but the number I've settled on, and I tip every single time, is $100 per day. I think it's pretty darn generous for what they offer. And I really think it recognizes the services rendered in many cases, well above and beyond what they should be doing for what it's worth.
I think it's a good number because I've had some of the same Genies over again, and they certainly haven't slighted me on the second or third time. So I don't think they felt like I undertipped them by any means.
If I'm renting a cabana at Perfect Day at CocoCay or Labadee, which is one of my favorite upgrades.
If you're on a private Island like that, I usually tip the cabana attendant about a hundred dollars just total. And that pretty much doesn't matter if I'm going with just my family or we're sharing the cabin with other people. It's a good solid number.
Now, there was a situation in which we had a cabana over at Thrill Water Park on a Perfect Day at CocoCay. And that cabana tenant, I don't know, I was having a bad day. Just barely showed up really didn't do a whole lot.
And so I dialed that number back considerably, probably down to like 50 or even 20 bucks. I don't remember how bad it got, but we certainly didn't give that person a hundred dollars in general. I feel like the cabana attendant really is a matter of how much you're using them.
Like, are you ordering drinks every 10 minutes or are they coming over a lot? Are you asking a lot? It's kind of a gut check. So this a hundred dollar number is not always the case, but it's probably where I start from. And obviously, if they render great service and that's what they get.
And if it's like not so much or we're barely there or don't really use it, maybe I'll dial that number back a little bit, but it just kind of a gut call at the time.
Another really hard number to figure out is tipping a shore excursion host. So when you're doing a shore excursion, you're either doing a group shore excursion, like you booked a Royal Caribbean and you're there with other strangers on their same tour, or you're doing a private tour.
So, I really thought about this. How much do I tip the group tour attendant? It depends on the tour. And so I'm going to give you a caveat that this isn't always my number, but I'm just putting it out there.
If it's a group tour, I'll probably tip them $20 at the end of the tour, especially if I felt they were pretty helpful or knowledgeable. If I'm doing a private tour, almost always I give them more than that. And also that depends on like how many people are involved in the private tour.
Sometimes if you're doing like a private van driver, you know, a hundred dollars is a good number. But if you're doing a situation in which you have other people on there, maybe you're going on a catamaran, and there's like the captain and a first mate, then I'll probably split the gratuity up, maybe 50 each. It kind of depends on services rendered.
This is the issue with situations with like a shore excursion attendant, cabana attendant is like, there's just a certain variable miss to it of you're not sure ahead of time, how helpful, amazing, or resourceful they're going to be. So don't feel like these numbers need to be like locked in and this is the end all be all. Sometimes you just have to kind of go with it and see where it goes.
And at the end of the day, make a decision at the end of that tour.
Next up is the Vitality Spa. And when my wife and I go to the spa on board, you have to keep in mind there is an automatic gratuity assessed with all the costs that are there, whether you prepay it before the cruise or simply book it on board, they're going to charge you automatic like 18%.
So there's that to start with. So we usually give them like an extra 20 bucks, I think per service. It really depends on, I think if we're doing a couple's massage or my wife, just goes on her own, but $20 seems like a fair amount for, you know, an hour's work and keeping in mind that there's already an automatic gratuity on that.
And then lastly, there's the main dining room wait staff. So as I mentioned earlier, the main dining room waits up is covered by your automatic gratuity. And this is another, like, it really depends on the person.
So I wrote down here $20 each, but sometimes more. So there are two main dining room waiters. You're gonna have your main waiter and your assistant waiter.
And it really, again, depends on the rapport you have. I've had cruises in which we've been in the main dining room, and the waitstaff are like our best friends. They're so helpful.
They're friendly. They're outgoing. They do magic tricks for the kids and other cruisers.
The main dining room waitstaff are the waiters who take our food order. They're certainly civil and very nice and pleasant to be with, but we don't have really like the rapport. We don't be like, Hey, it's so-and-so.
And you know, that kind of stuff. I think ultimately the main dining rooms have us about the services that you get from them. Do they remember your orders? Are they very attentive? When your beer gets low, do they refill it quickly? Or do you need to hunt them down? If my kid just wants pizza, do they go over to Sorrento's and get it for them? Little things like that add up to maybe necessitating a higher number.
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So that's what I tip everybody on a Royal Caribbean cruise. Again, my numbers are just my numbers. And I'm not sitting here to tell you that you should or shouldn't tip the same amount that I'm doing, but I feel like a lot of people just simply want to know what others do and make their own decisions based on that.
I certainly hope this helps you figure out how much tip people on a Royal Caribbean cruise. And if you're feeling brave enough, let me know in the comments below your own tipping strategies and thoughts on it. If you found this video helpful, hit the like button, subscribe to our channel, and turn on notifications.
That way YouTube lets you know we have a brand new video to share. This has been Matt from RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com and we'll talk again real soon.
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This story was originally published January 4, 2025 at 9:00 AM