When you book a cruise with Carnival or Royal Caribbean (RCL) -), you get charged daily for mandatory gratuities that aren't actually mandatory.
If you prepay your gratuities, you agree to pay a daily fee per person in your cabin. That amount is split among your room steward, the main-dining-room waiters and some behind-the-scenes service personnel. If you opt to pay your gratuities on board, your ship account will be charged each day.
Some people go to Guest Services and remove the daily gratuities. That decision is technically allowed, but it penalizes people who work hard to take care of you.
Related: Carnival Cruise Line shares important warning for passengers
Mandatory gratuities, however, are not the only opportunity to tip on a Carnival Cruise Line (CCL) -) or Royal Caribbean ship. Many passengers directly tip bartenders, room stewards and waiters for good service.
In a bar, for example, tipping a dollar or two for each drink generally helps bartenders notice you when the room gets crowded. Service on cruise ships is rarely less than excellent, but at busier times the customer who tips often gets a little more attention than the one who doesn't.
Some cruise passengers have created a tipping tradition that has become a bit controversial, and Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald recently addressed that issue on his Facebook page.
Image source: Carnival Cruise Line.
Carnival addresses key tipping issue
Cruise passengers observe many traditions. Things like hiding rubber ducks for other passengers to find are unique to cruises but have become quite common.
Tipping $2 bills has also quietly become a quirky thing on cruise ships. The practice requires passengers to take the extra step of acquiring $2 bills, a not exactly common denomination. Some passengers are even unclear as to whether the bills are legal tender.
Heald recently fielded a question about people who tip with $2 bills.
"NO JOHN $2 bills are not legal in the United States if they are old ones. Old ones have some value to collectors but not to the crew. Some cruisers will tell you how much the servers LOVE $2 bills. They do not. They should be given 2 single dollar bills. Are you really that much of ding-dong? Fact check before answering," an unnamed poster shared with the brand ambassador.
Heald responded but did not fully answer the question.
"The crew do like them, they appreciate so much any tip you give. But if they are not legal tender as this lady has written then please let me know," he wrote.
Yes, $2 bills are legal U.S. tender
While you rarely see $2 bills in normal circulation, they are fully legal. All of them.
"While the note is less common, $2 bills are still being printed (108.3 million entered circulation in 2022) and count as legal tender. You can even pick them up at a bank, though it’ll likely only feature the design that took to the presses in 1976," WFLA reported.
"Old ones," as the poster called them, remain legal tender and, in some cases, are actually valued at more than $2 because of their scarcity.
Heald's post got an astounding 3,300 comments, with just about all of them pointing out the original poster's mistake.
"They are perfectly legal. Some people think they aren’t because most people don’t use them, they save them," Sue Blackmon wrote.
Not every response was equally kind.
"I love people that are passionate, even if they’re arguing on the side of ignorance," Lisa Park added.
Tipping on cruise ships remains a personal choice, The crew will still provide top-notch service if you don't tip, but here and there offering up a dollar — or even more — to favored waiters or your room steward recognizes the people taking care of you for their hard work.
(And for the record, here's the last word on $2 bills from the U.S. Treasury: "All U.S. currency remains legal tender, regardless of when it was issued.")
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