The major family-friendly cruise lines, aside from Walt Disney's cruise brand, generally sell their cruises a la carte.
You pay a basic fare that gives you a cabin, access to some free dining rooms, pools and entertainment, and all the basics, but mostly none of the bells and whistles.
A basic cruise fare generally does not include alcoholic beverages or even soda, juice, and coffee beyond a basic cup. For those, passengers can pay as they go or book a drink package.
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They will also pay extra for internet, specialty dining, and shore excursions. Exactly how each extra is packaged can vary a lot among the cruise lines. Royal Caribbean's (RCL) namesake brand, for example, sells an unlimited Ultimate dining package on many sailings, while its Celebrity line offers meal packages but nothing unlimited.
Carnival Cruise Line (CCL), Royal Caribbean, MSC, and Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) all handle drink packages differently. Carnival's Cheers package has a 15-alcoholic-drink limit while Royal Caribbean's Deluxe Beverage Package is truly unlimited (as long as you stay relatively sober).
MSC, Celebrity, and Norwegian all have a variety of drink packages, and the three brands also offer all-included packages, which bundle drinks and WiFi.
Carnival, MSC, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean -- both in its namesake and Celebrity brands -- handle added gratuities the same way.
Everyone pays an added fee per passenger, per day that as a gratuity to service personnel. Those staffers generally include room attendants, servers in the free dining venues, and some service people who operate behind the scenes.
You can prepay these gratuities before your cruise or have them added to your bill each day, but they're generally considered mandatory.
Now, Celebrity Cruises is raising its gratuities for the second time in a year, and traditionally that has opened the door for other cruise lines to do the same.
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Celebrity Increases Its Mandatory Gratuities
Technically, mandatory gratuities are not mandatory at all. You can go to guest services in most cases (there are exceptions) and ask to reduce or remove them. Some people do this and instead directly tip the service providers who wait on them.
The problem with this latter method is that the gratuity pool does not get split only among the workers you see out front. Removing or reducing mandatory gratuities punishes hard-working people behind the scenes. It is, however, in most cases permitted.
Effective July 11, the automatic gratuity rate for all stateroom categories on all Celebrity ships will increase, according to a report from Royal Caribbean Blog, which is not affiliated with the cruise line. The new rates are:
- $18 per person, per day for inside, oceanview, and veranda (balcony) staterooms, increasing almost 2.9% from $17.50.
- $18.50 per person, per day for Concierge Class and AquaClass staterooms, increasing 2.8% from $18.
- $23 per person, per day for guests of The Retreat, increasing 9.5% from $21.
The new rates will apply to all new bookings, regardless of sail date. This marks Celebrity's second gratuity increase this year; the previous increase was a significantly bigger jump across all categories.
Generally, once one cruise brand raises gratuity rates, the others follow within a few months. That's not a hard-and-fast rule, but it usually happens.
Cruise Line Gratuities Are Controversial
Mandatory (more or less) gratuities help onboard workers receive fairer wages for their services. In many ways, the model works as it does in most U.S. restaurants, where workers get a low wage but make up the difference in tips.
The practice is questioned on various cruise-message and social-media boards every time the broad topic of the daily-added tips comes up.
Some argue that the cruise lines should raise cruise fares and pay higher wages. Select restaurants in the U.S. have adopted this method, but it's easy to see why the cruise lines would fight it.
Paying higher wages locks in costs in a way that does not allow for variable crowds. Restaurants can adjust staffing on a slow night. Cruise lines cannot do this.
In addition, paying better wages and charging higher basic fares might lead to fewer bookings. Many people book cruises based on the basic prices and worry about the extra fees later. Showing the true price might cause some people to simply not book.
