Cruise lines work a lot like many restaurants, where tipped workers get paid a lower base wage. Instead of the major cruise lines charging you more and paying employees more, your up-front cruise fare is lower and "mandatory" daily tips per person are added on.
Crew members who work in service jobs -- think waiters, busboys, room attendants, and some behind-the-scenes positions -- get a salary along with a share of the tip pool.
Both Royal Caribbean (RCL) and Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) use the system, but it's not quite as straightforward as it seems.
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Both charge $16 per person per day for gratuities. Passengers staying in suites on Carnival ships pay $18 per person per day, while Royal Caribbean suite passengers pay $18.50.
For workers in the tip pool on both cruise lines' ships, the problem is that the so-called mandatory gratuities can be removed. Royal Caribbean explained how to do this on its website, and the process is the same on Carnival ships.
"In the unlikely event that a guest onboard being charged the daily automatic gratuity does not receive satisfactory service, the guest may request to modify the daily amount at their discretion by visiting Guest Services onboard and will be able to do so until the morning of their departure," the company writes.
Maybe you had the (very rare) bad waiter or room attendant who ignored your requests. You can adjust your tips down or even remove them altogether -- but when you do this, you're hurting more than the one unsatisfactory service provider. You will hurt a lot of workers.
Carnival's brand ambassador, John Heald, addressed the matter in a recent Facebook post.
Image source: Nora Tam/South China Morning Post via Getty
More on Carnival and Royal Caribbean's Tip Pool
Royal Caribbean's website explains which onboard workers share the daily gratuities.
"Gratuities are shared among dining, bar & culinary services staff, stateroom attendants, and other hotel-services teams who work behind the scenes to enhance the cruise experience," the company said.
Neither cruise line breaks out exactly which workers get how much of your daily tips. Heald explained how it works with "Your Time" dining, where passengers may have different waiters each night.
“Firstly the waiters on Your Time Dining all pool or share the tips together that are prepaid or charged to your sail and sign account. Any extra cash tips you give a waiter is kept by them and shared only with their assistant waiter who also served you directly,” he explained.
Heald also made very clear that crew members are not told when a passenger lowers or removes their daily gratuities:
“The crew are not ever shown a list of the specific cabins that may have removed gratuities, Now they will know by how much they receive compared to the number of tables they wait on or the number of cabins they clean but which cabins removed them, no, they are not shown a list."
Removing tips, or even lowering them, is very rare, he said.
Any money that a passenger hands to a specific worker is generally kept by that worker (unless they work directly with a partner as in the case of the waiter/assistant waiter scenario).
Where Else Do You Tip on Royal Caribbean and Carnival Ships?
If you buy a drink package on either cruise line, you pay an 18% gratuity that goes into the pool for all bar staff. The same applies when you buy an individual drink.
If, however, you hand a specific bartender an added tip, they either keep it or share it with their coworkers at that bar. (That policy varies based on the workers.)
In general, you can tip pretty much any service worker on the ship. For example, if you have an attentive deckhand at the pool who keeps the area around your chair dry, you can tip that person. It's most certainly not required, but it's generally very much appreciated.
In addition, there's one place on both Royal Caribbean and Carnival ships where many drinks served are free and don't come with an included gratuity: the casino.
Based on their casino status, qualified passengers on both cruise lines get free drinks at the casino bar. It's customary, but not required, to tip on those drinks because a mandatory gratuity has not been added.
