Wastin’ away again in Margaritaville, with a more expensive bill? That’s right!
As of February 1st, 2025, Margaritaville at Sea (formerly the Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line) has updated its gratuity guidelines, imposing a $2 per person per night increase regardless of the accommodation.
Previously, the gratuity was set at $18 per person per night for stateroom guests, and $22 per person per night for guests staying in Suites.
The gratuity now has increased to $20 per person per night for stateroom guests, reflecting an 11% increase in costs.
Those guests staying in Suites will now pay $24 per person per night, reflecting a 9% increase in costs.
Margaritaville at Sea does allow you to pre-pay for gratuity. If you have already booked your cruise and you have not already pre-paid gratuity, additional gratuity costs were added to all Margaritaville at Sea effective February 1st.
Consider always prepaying for gratuity at the time of booking your cruise to lock in the best rate!
If you do not pay in advance, gratuities will be automatically added to your stateroom account during your voyage, so expect an extra bill at the end!
What this also means is that if there are any gratuity increases, such as the one just implemented before your cruise, that is the rate you will be paying even if you booked your cruise when there were lower gratuity rates in place.
To put this into perspective, let’s say a 4-person group of friends go on a Margaritaville at Sea cruise for 3 nights staying in two Suites. At the previous rate, they would have paid $264 in gratuity, but at the new one they will pay $288.
So you can see that even a $2 increase, it can start to add up on your bill. But wait, there’s more! These changes to gratuity will also affect some additional services.
Also included in the update by Margaritaville at Sea on February 1st, service charges have increased to 20%, another 11% increase in costs.
This particular service charge applies to all specialty dining, bars, drinks packages, and St. Somewhere Spa & Salon tabs.
This is not the first time the Margaritaville at Sea has adjusted its gratuity, doing so most recently in 2024. This previous increase raised stateroom gratuity by 20% and Suites by 10%.
The upside for guests planning to stay in staterooms is that the recent gratuity percentage increase is in the single digits this year! Yay?
The best thing for passengers to do in the wake of these gratuity increases is to be mindful of their spending at any services and to budget to make sure they can cover the required gratuity owed at the end of their voyage.
What other Cruise Lines Have Recently Raised Gratuities?
Margaritaville at Sea is not the only cruise line that has raised gratuity costs recently. On November 1st, 2024, Royal Caribbean increased its gratuity cost by $0.50 a day.
“For standard inventory, new gratuity guidelines will nominally increase from $18 to $18.50 per guest per day, while Suites will change from $20.50 to $21.00 per guest per day,” Royal Caribbean stated.
Royal Caribbean has previously updated its gratuity guidelines several times since 2022, increasing its gratuity cost by nearly 25%.
The good news is if you book with Royal Caribbean and pay for gratuity in advance, you will pay whatever the current rate is locked in at so you don’t need to be worried about potential gratuity rate increases affecting the cost of your voyage.
Disney Cruise Line also updated its gratuity rates recently. As of January 22, 2025, the new rates are $16 per person per day for a standard room, and $27.25 per person per day for Concierge’s level staterooms and suites.
Previously, the rates were $14.50 per person per day for a standard room and $23.50 per person per day for Concierge’s-level staterooms and suites. This means that standard rooms saw an increase of 10% and luxury accommodations saw an increase of 14%.
Disney Cruise Lines allows you to pay for gratuity in advance, allowing you to not worry about potential gratuity rate increases ahead of your cruise.
All of this is not unusual, as cruise lines raise prices periodically over time to reflect the increase in all prices.
