Royal Caribbean does not provide guidelines about how much to tip beyond the daily gratuities added to each passenger's fare.
The cruise line explained that piece of its gratuity policy (cruise lines seem never to use the word "tip") on its website.
Guests who choose not to prepay gratuities at the time of booking will have a service gratuity automatically applied to their respective SeaPass account on a daily basis, in the amounts shown below:*
$21.00 per guest, per day will be applied to guests sailing on any suite; and
$18.50 per guest, per day will be applied to guests sailing on all other stateroom categories.
Gratuities collected are distributed to crew members, including dining, bar and culinary services staff, stateroom attendants, hotel services teams as well as others onboard who work to enhance the overall cruise experience.
Passengers can lower or remove the daily gratuity by going to Guest Services on board. Royal Caribbean also charges an 18% gratuity on pretty much everything sold on board or before your cruise.
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That includes excursions, beverages and upgraded dining but not Internet packages.
The cruise line does not say much about how those gratuities and the daily gratuities are handed out, but it did recently share a statement on the subject at the request of Come Cruise With Me, saying that "all collected gratuities go to crew members."
That's comforting to know, but it's also somewhat vague. Many passengers like to tip even more when they're on board. That can include room stewards, main dining room waitstaff, and bartenders.
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Image source: Dan Kline/Come Cruise With Me
Royal Caribbean passenger asks how much to tip
In a Royal Caribbean Reddit group, Calm-Consequence-243 asked a question about tipping.
"I go and cruise often and I used to room with my parents but I’ve started taking my partner and we room together the last few years," they wrote. "My parents used to do the tipping but since I’m in my own room, me and my partner split the tip.
"For a 7-8 day cruise, we leave the room attendant $100, my waiter - $100 and assistant waiter $75 (all cash). My parents said I was tipping too much but talking to others, they said I wasn’t tipping enough. I don’t remove the daily gratuity."
The issue of too much or not enough brought a lot of comments.
Yoshi-Mochi shared that they tip less.
"Damn, I do $20 for our room attendant, then tip our main waiter $30 and their assistant $20. I'm not doing [main dining room] every night, though," they wrote.
Special situations can also lead to special tips.
"We tip room service breakfast $5, room steward $10 per day, $10-20 in specialty restaurants at each meal. Tip $10 for laundry delivery. It's just two of us in our room now and we keep it very clean," Bowie2018 posted.
"We tipped $100 to the room steward on the spot when our son got norovirus, and he destroyed his bathroom and bedding. Everything was like it never happened when we came back from medical. i still doubt that was enough of a tip."
There's no real rule on tips
"I haven't seen it mentioned, but you should tip based on your generosity and ability. No tip is too large or small," Mister_Mouse said.
Many people said they tip extra only when someone goes above and beyond what they consider normal service.
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"Just depends on how much they wow me. We always prepay gratuities and tip cash for service as it’s warranted," posted Cruise-With-Brian.
Many people were sympathetic to how hard the crew works.
"I do $100 for the waiter and $100 for the assistant waiter. $100 for the room attendant and if they do something special or I put in a request I'll tip them a $20 at that time of the event as well," added DJBird09.
"I've worked in the hospitality industry, it [can] be brutal so I try to make their lives as easy as possible and tip as much as I can afford."
There's no set rule and the crew will still serve you well if you don't tip extra.
Dan's note: On a short (3-to-4 night) cruise, I usually tip my room steward an extra $20 and I'll tip at least that if I have any special requests at the time of the request. I generally eat only in specialty dining restaurants and almost always tip an added $10 (as I'm usually eating by myself). For longer cruises, I'll tip the room steward twice as much but give part of the tip early.
Usually, if there's a pool bar that I know I will use each day, like the Solarium Bar on Royal Caribbean, I will tip $20 on my first drink because I rarely will have my wallet with me at the bar. If I end up having a waiter or waiters I end up seeing often, I'll walk back up with more cash later in the cruise.
In general, at night I'm usually in a small music venue (the Pub on Royal Caribbean and the Ensemble Lounge or Eden depending upon the Celebrity ship) or the casino. At whatever music venue I call home, I'll tip at least $5 on my first drink or two and follow the same policy in the casino.
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After that I'll switch to $1 or $2. For roving casino servers, I usually tip $1 each time, unless I'm lacking small bills, when I might tip $5 or even $10 and hope that person takes care of me all night. If I happen to be winning, tips get raised accordingly.
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