Gratuities, How much, who and when???

Booking a cruise is 1 thing, and great but quite often even the most experience cruiser will ask about gratuities.

Do I have to pay it?

How much is it?

Do I pay before or after the cruise?

Does booking a cruise for you depend on the tipping policy and if so where can you go to find out all your questions?

If you follow this link it will take you to our extensive and updated list of gratuities by cruise line. Not only will you find out all the cost but it also converts it into Sterling for you.

http://goo.gl/Ny0F6o 

This has to be the best form of tipping though.

And whilst you are on this link why not look at the drinks prices for the cruise lines, another common question. You can view this info by clicking on this link. http://goo.gl/XIDDKX

Or click this link to see what drink packages are offered by the cruise lines. http://goo.gl/bm3KNt

Gratuities is very much an American culture that I have found in recent times to becoming quite excepted by us Brits when cruising but for families it does have it’s drawbacks.

For example, If you day an Royal Caribbean cruise for 14 nights you can expect to pay approximately £108pp which is ok for a couple, but then add on your 2 young children and £108pp becomes £432 per family. A lot of money that could go towards doing other fun things on the cruise.

But then with Royal Caribbean you may want to do anytime dining, if so then you have to pay the gratuities at the time of booking for all those in the cabin, regardless of age.

These gratuities go to the crew throughout the ship and is appreciated more than you might realise and therefore you may not want to ‘not’ pay gratuities. So what are your options?

Me personally, I would take my gratuities off my on board account and pay certain individuals that I come into regular contact with, the cabin steward, my dining waiter and perhaps a regular bar man. I know as a father of a large family paying £108pp is not affordable.

By taking a look at these links and doing a little research you could find yourself saving quite a bit of money.