When Should You Not Tip on a Cruise?

There are a handful of times when, yes, you should tip on a cruise. You can tip your room steward or butler (even while it’s not required, many cruisers say making this kind gesture leads to better overall service).

You can tip your bartender if gratuity is not already included in your drink bill. However, are there times when you should actually not tip on a cruise? Yes — here are 15 situations where tipping is unnecessary.

1. Don’t Tip When Gratuities Are Already Added Onto Your Bill

There are many times on a cruise ship when your gratuities are just bundled into the cost of your overall bill.

This helps make it easy for you to pay your bill while ensuring you’re also tipping the people who’re taking care of you, and simultaneously also nudging the people who normally wouldn’t tip to do so. It’s better for both cruisers and crew members.

However, since this isn’t often the way it’s done on shore, in restaurants or bars, you may forget this fact and start to leave behind a cash tip at the bar or as you leave your restaurant table.

Before you do so, stop, look at your bill, and make sure gratuity isn’t already included. You’ll find that most cruise lines automatically include gratuities when you’re buying a drink at a bar or dining at one of the cruise ship’s specialty restaurants.

For example, on Carnival Cruise Line, an 18% service charge is just automatically added to your beverage purchases, as well as to reservation fees at certain restaurants.

Gratuities may also already be added onto your spa receipts. So, if you might normally tip 20% after getting a spa treatment at a spa on land, just be sure you check that receipt before doing so on your cruise.

2. Don’t Tip if You’re on a Luxury, All-Inclusive Cruise Line

Along these lines, if you’re on a luxury, all-inclusive cruise line, chances are very likely that absolutely all gratuities are included in the cost of your cruise fare and it’s entirely not expected that you would tip certain members of the crew, even if you might tip those individuals on a “normal” cruise line.

For example, when sailing on Silversea, the cruise line specifically notes, when laying out its all-inclusive policy, that cruisers shouldn’t worry about tipping their butlers or other staff, as not worrying about tipping is one of the things that makes the Silversea experience even more relaxing and special.

3. Don’t Tip the Crew Management and Higher-Ups

You really appreciate everything that the cruise director does to make your trip all the more special. And you really appreciate the fact that your captain ferried you to all of your destinations safely and on time.

Read Also: How Much Does a Cruise Director Make?

However, don’t tip these individuals. They’re not really in the roles where tipping is seen as permissible, and the gesture may be frowned upon. After all, after getting off a flight, you wouldn’t try to tip your airline captain, would you?

4. Don’t Tip the Maintenance Personnel

Likewise, don’t feel as if you need to tip the maintenance personnel, if you see them working in the cruise ship or if they come to your cabin specifically to fix something. These workers aren’t really in the service industry in the same way your bartender or waiter might be, so there’s no need to tip.

5. Don’t Tip the Kids Club Staff

You also don’t need to feel as if you should tip the kids club staff, either. While tipping a babysitter on land is pretty par for the course, the kids club fees are included in your basic cruise fare. The service is all covered and you don’t have to feel like you need to pay a penny more than you are, already.

6. Don’t Tip for Free Activities

Going with this theme, if you’re enjoying the free activities aboard your ship — say, climbing on the rock-climbing wall or trying your skills on the surfing simulator — you don’t need to tip the attendants watching over these activities.

They’re paid to be there to keep you safe and manage lines and equipment, but the costs of these activities are in your cruise fare. Tipping is unnecessary.

7. Don’t Tip if You Purchased a Certain Cruise Package

While not all cruise lines are all-inclusive, like Viking Cruises, some do offer all-inclusive (or, rather, more-inclusive) cruise packages that include your gratuities costs within the package. If you purchase one of these packages, that means you won’t need to pay gratuities throughout the ship, like some other cruisers might.

These packages are available on cruise lines such as Princess Cruises. Princess Cruises offers Plus and Premier Cruise Packages that include not just your gratuities but a bevy of other extras.

For example, the Princess Premier package is $90 per day per guest, and it covers the cost of all your gratuities, WiFi for four devices per guest, unlimited beverages, unlimited specialty meals and casual meals, unlimited professional photos, unlimited premium desserts, unlimited room service, free delivery of items elsewhere on the ship, unlimited fitness classes and reserved theater seating.

8. Don’t Tip for Extra, One-off Services

While cruise cabin stewards and butlers are some of the members of the crew that you’re most likely to tip, you don’t have to worry about tipping them every time they complete an extra one-off service or fulfill a request.

For example, say you’ve run out of towels in your cabin and you need some more. You don’t have to anticipate offering up a tip just because your steward brought you a few more towels.

Likewise, if you ask your butler to bring you a bucket of ice for a bottle of Champagne every night, you don’t have to tip them every single night for this courtesy.

If you do want to tip your steward or butler, just do it at the beginning or end of your cruise. No need to tip every time they help you out.

9. Don’t Tip the Performers

Cruise ships are filled with talented performers, from those who take to the theater stage to comics to magicians to musicians that fill the public spaces with lively tunes. You usually don’t have to worry about tipping these individuals, though.

The only time this might not be the case, and when tips might be welcome, is if there’s a very visible and apparent tip jar sitting out near live performers. In that case, go ahead and drop a few bills in — but don’t worry about bringing a stack of cash along with you, every time you go to a show.

10. Don’t Tip at the Coffee Shop

Many ships have coffee shops, either a small, cruise line-specific café or a Starbucks outpost, for example, which is what you’ll find on many Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line ships.

However, while you’re probably accustomed to dropping a few bucks into the tip jar when you pick up your mocha latte every day at your neighborhood Starbucks, there’s no need on the cruise ship.

In fact, these coffee shops probably don’t even have a tip jar out. Just look at your receipt and you’ll likely see that any gratuity expected is already in the cost of your coffee, just as the gratuity is added into your final total at specialty restaurants and at bars.

11. Don’t Tip the Medical Team

Like cruise ship officers, the medical team is just someone you shouldn’t tip, even if you’re grateful for their care. You wouldn’t tip your doctor at home, wouldn’t you?

When it doubt, it’s usually smart to just think of whether or not you’d tip this individual on land. If the answer is a clear “no,” don’t worry about tipping.

12. Don’t Tip the Security Team

Likewise, don’t tip the security team on the cruise ship. These are folks who are not in the service industry and are paid accordingly. Don’t worry about tipping them.

13. Don’t Tip on Tipless Cruise Lines

Beyond cruise lines like Silversea, which are luxury, all-inclusive cruise lines that do not require tipping, there are also some cruise lines that have just chosen to go tipless — regardless of how “luxury” they are or not. This is the case on cruise lines like Azamara and Virgin Voyages.

Virgin Voyages, for example, is considered “almost all inclusive,” and no gratuities are necessary, as they’re factored into the cost of your cruise. Same goes for dining at 20-plus restaurants, WiFi and fitness classes.

Azamara is very similar, with food, entertainment and basic drinks, as well as daily gratuities, already factored into your cruise fare. There’s no gratuity necessary for housekeeping, dining or bar staff. The one rare instance where Azamara hasn’t forgone tips is at the spa.

14. Don’t Tip the Guest Services Team

You may need to visit the guest services team at some point during your cruise to get help with your cruise account, reservations or some other admin need. These folks are there to help you out and your overall cruise fare helps pay their wages. These are not crew members that you would need to tip.

15. Don’t Tip if you Truly Had an Issue with the Service

Lastly, there is one instance where you might not just forgo actively tipping during the course of your cruise, but you might actually also dispute the automatic gratuities that are charged to your cruise account near the end of your cruise: if you were truly dissatisfied with the service received.

Do be wary of doing this, though. Before you visit guest services and ask to remove the automatic gratuities from your charge, think. Was the poor service truly poor?

Was it consistent throughout the duration of your cruise or a one-off incident? Was the poor service the fault of a crew member or just poor circumstances? Can you provide several specific examples of the poor service?

Valid examples might include outright rude behavior, or an outright failure to perform services such as cleaning your cabin.

Regardless of why you might be dissatisfied, though, before opting to not tip at all, speak with guest services and see if there’s anything else they can do to try to remedy the situation.

A Note of Caution

Of course, there are always exceptions to the rules.

The best way to have a clear idea of whether or not you should tip in certain situations is to consider (a) if the person you’re considering tipping works in a service industry and they’re the type of worker you’d typically tip onshore, and (b) whether or not gratuities are already included in your bill. If the answer to (a) is “yes” and the answer to (b) is “no,” then you’re probably safe to tip.

However, while tipping is often very appreciated by a cruise ship’s hardworking crew members, never force a tip on a crew member, if it looks like your gesture is making them uncomfortable or awkward.

Additionally, many cruise lines include a daily gratuity fee, per person, per day, in the overall cost of your cruise. This fee is usually charged at the end of your cruise.

Read Also: How Much Do Cruise Ship Workers Make?

If this is the case on your cruise — if you’re sailing major cruise lines like, for example, Carnival Cruise Line or Royal Caribbean, it is — then don’t feel burdened to tip crew members like your room steward further.

That’s exactly what this fee is for! While you can tip extra if you want, in some cases, it’s not necessary and no one will think less of you for not doing so. What they will think less of you for, on the other hand?

Removing that daily gratuity fee from your bill at the end of the cruise. While it technically can be done if you talk to guest services, it’s not seen as very polite and usually should not be done unless you experienced specifically poor service.