Thinking about prepaying your Carnival cruise gratuities? You’re not alone. It’s one of the hottest debated topics in cruise forums – and for good reason. With Carnival’s famously low fares, every dollar counts, and savvy cruisers are always looking for the smartest way to handle tipping.
So, should you lock in your gratuities upfront or wait until you’re onboard? The answer isn’t one-size-fits-all.
In this guide, I’ll break down when it actually makes sense to prepay – and when it might not – so you can cruise smarter and keep more cash in your pocket.
Understanding Prepaid Gratuities On Carnival
Prepaid gratuities are when your tips for your cruise ship’s crew are paid in advance. All Carnival guests are asked to pay gratuities, and you can either prepay before you sail or wait until your cruise is finished and then settle the bill.
A lot of people prefer to pay their gratuities up front, but some others choose not to. It’s entirely up to you, but there may be some benefits to both approaches, depending on your particular booking.
How Prepaid Gratuities Work
Your gratuities for a Carnival cruise are calculated automatically, based on a set fee per day. Therefore, the total fee can be calculated as soon as you book your cruise, and you can prepay it either as you are booking your cruise or at any time in the lead-up to your sailing date.
When you’re making a booking, you’re able to pay for your gratuities at the same time as paying off your cruise fare if you want to. Otherwise, as soon as you have a booking, you’ll be able to log onto the Carnival website to manage it.
And from here, you’ll be able to prepay your gratuities if you wish, as well as book other options in advance, such as a WiFi package or a drink package.
If you book your cruise with a travel agent, you can also speak to them to ask them to add your prepaid gratuities onto your booking.
If you don’t prepay your gratuities, then they’ll be added to your Sail & Sign account on the second-to-last day of your cruise. If you’re not happy with the service you’ve received, then you could, theoretically, have the gratuities removed from your account.
But to do this, you need to speak to Guest Services before you disembark. Once you’ve left the ship, your account is considered final, and you need to pay it off.
It’s also not recommended to take gratuities off your cruise account. They go a long way to topping up the salaries of the crew onboard, including a lot of people behind the scenes.
Even if you tip cash to the person who made your burrito, what about the guy at the back cooking the meat? Surely he should get a tip too? Removing gratuities affects the people that you don’t have contact with as much as the ones that you do.
How Much Carnival’s Prepaid Gratuities Are
The standard gratuity charges are $16 per person, per day for standard staterooms and $18 per person, per day for those staying in suites.
Gratuities apply to all guests aged two and over, so yes, if you’re cruising with your family, you will be expected to pay gratuities for your children, too, if they’re two or older.
They’re also added to your account regardless of whether you choose open-seating dining, or only eat in the buffet – it’s all standard.
Carnival tends to increase the prices of gratuities every year. Before 1st April 2022, the gratuity costs were $14.50 and $16.50. This means it can be cheaper to prepay your gratuities if you’re booking far in advance.
If you booked a cruise and prepaid your gratuities, and then there was a price increase before you sailed, you wouldn’t be asked to pay the difference.
It’s also worth noting that prepaying your gratuities doesn’t stop you from automatically being charged for gratuities on other purchases you make onboard – specifically for drinks, some room service orders and speciality dining bookings.
These are all automatically added with a fee of 18%. Prepaying your daily gratuities doesn’t get you out of paying those extra charges.
You Don’t Have To Prepay Your Gratuities On Carnival
You are, of course, entitled to wait until the gratuities are added to your account during your cruise, and then pay them off when you clear your account.
Carnival won’t push for you to prepay your gratuities – to the cruise line, it doesn’t really make a difference. In fact, it may be to their benefit if you choose not to, depending on any onboard credit offers you might have.
What Happens If You Don’t Prepay Gratuities On Carnival
If you don’t prepay your gratuities for your Carnival cruise, they will be added to your account on the second-to-last day of your sailing, while you are onboard. Your registered debit or credit card will then be used to clear your account on disembarkation day.
As soon as you’ve left the ship, your cruise bill is considered final and so you can’t apply to have the gratuities removed or reduced. You can do this while you’re on the ship only.
Prepaying Your Gratuities On Carnival Could Work Out Cheaper
It can be cheaper to prepay your gratuities on a Carnival cruise, but only if you are booking a cruise far in advance. Once the cruise line has announced a price rise, you would be expected to pay the higher fee if you’ve not already paid for your gratuities. Otherwise, it costs the same to prepay or pay onboard.
Generally, there is no price difference when you’re paying gratuities on Carnival. Whether you prepay or pay on your Sail & Sign account, the cost will be the same.
But if you prepay before a price rise is announced, you’d get the gratuities at the cheaper rate.
To be clear, this only applies if you prepay before a price rise is announced.
Carnival tends to announce price rises for gratuities in April, so prepaying before then could help you secure a lower rate.
The Pros and Cons of Prepaying Gratuities on Carnival
For some people, it’s better to prepay gratuities, especially if you are booking your cruise far in advance or you want to control your cruise budget more. However, if you prepay, you can’t use onboard credit to pay for your gratuities – you have to pay for them using your debit or credit card.
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of prepaying Carnival gratuities…
Pros of Prepaying Gratuities
Here’s a list of the benefits of prepaying your gratuities:
1. It’s Easier to Budget
If you pay for your gratuities in advance, it makes it easier to plan how much you want to spend during your cruise.
It’s possible to enjoy a Carnival cruise without spending a penny onboard, especially if you also buy a drinks package.
But anything you can remove from your Sail & Sign account in advance just makes it easier to know how much you’re spending. Especially if you forget about the gratuities during the cruise, considering how they’re only added on the second-to-last day of your sailing, it’d be a nasty shock if you did.
2. One Less Thing To Think About
There is a lot to think about when you book a cruise, and if you can take away one thing to be paid for, then it just makes your cruise that little bit smoother.
You also don’t need to worry about whether the crew will be looked after – by prepaying your gratuities, you know you’ve paid your part towards their salaries. Job done.
As one cruiser said: “I’ve been on 19 cruises and have always pre-paid gratuities. It’s just less hassle. If the cabin steward goes beyond the call of duty I’ll give him/her an extra $20 at the end of the cruise.”
Suggested read: How Much Extra Do People Tip Cruise Staff?
3. It Might Save You Money
If Carnival raises the gratuity prices again as they do every year, then it could cost you another $1 to $1.50 per person, per day. That might not sound like a lot, but for a family of four on a 7-day cruise, that could be an extra $42.
Prepaying your tips avoids this uncertainty.
Cons of Prepaying Gratuities
And some reasons not to prepay your gratuities:
1. You’re Concerned About Poor Service
It’s rare, but sometimes people feel like they haven’t received the service they expect on their Carnival cruise.
And those people sometimes wish to remove gratuities. You can’t remove them for an individual person or team, so some people either remove them completely or reduce them.
It’s not great to do that, because Carnival’s staff rely on gratuities to make up their salary (they’re an American cruise company, so this isn’t completely unusual).
But if you’ve prepaid, you can’t then ask for a refund on your gratuities.
2. You Want To Use Onboard Credit
If you book a cruise with any onboard credit offers, that only gets added to your account as your cruise begins.
If you want to use that credit to pay towards your gratuities, you’ll need to pay on the ship. You can’t do it in advance.
If you plan on spending a lot onboard anyway, on drinks or speciality dining, you might prefer to prepay gratuities from your own money and save your credit for those charges.
Otherwise, you might save money by letting the credit cover your gratuities, at least partially. In fact, gratuities are one of the best ways to use any onboard credit that you have on a Carnival cruise.
Read more: 12 Ways to Use Your Carnival Onboard Credit Like a Pro
Final Word
In conclusion, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but if you’re not using onboard credit to cover your gratuities, it’s usually best to prepay them. It makes budgeting and planning easier, and it could save you money. But, if you plan to use onboard credit for your gratuities, don’t prepay them.
Ultimately, it’s your choice, and you might prefer to pay for them on the ship regardless. It’s just that most people tend to find it easier if they are paid off in advance.
How To Prepay Carnival Gratuities
You can prepay your Carnival cruise gratuities at the point of booking your cruise. If you’re booking with a travel agent, you should ask them to add gratuities to your booking.
If you choose not to prepay your gratuities at the time of booking, you can instead do it at any time during the build-up to your cruise.
Just head to the Carnival website and, at the top of the page, hover over ‘Manage’ and then select ‘My Booking’. Using your cruise details, you’ll be able to log in to see your booking, and in this menu, you’ll be able to add gratuities to your account.
Once that’s done, just navigate to the option to make a payment, and you can pay them off.
If you have any problems adding them to your account, you may need to call the cruise line. Some people have reported issues.
As one person on Cruise Critic said, “I remember this came up before. I think the issue may have been that you can’t add gratuities online once paid in full. However, you can call to pre-pay them. This was pre-COVID, though, and what I read here- not me personally.”
It might be that you’ve paid in full or that your gratuities are already included. If you have any problems prepaying gratuities, just call Carnival or your travel agent.
And if you’re wondering whether you can refuse to pay gratuities altogether, I have a guide on that here: Can You Refuse To Pay Gratuities?
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I really do not understand why I should be paying the same amount of pre-paid gratuities as the next guest if I buy a drinks package which already includes gratuities, and they don’t buy a drinks package and instead pay for drinks as they go. Doesn’t that mean that I am almost doubling up on payments of gratuities as I am paying for gratuities both through the drinks package and through the pre-paid gratuities? That makes no sense to me. I would expect to go to guest services before check out and require my gratuities payment to be reduced. From what I see elsewhere, if we don’t pre buy gratuities, and let the cost mount up during the cruise, we have the right to go to guest services before check out and ask for the gratuity sum to be removed or reduced?
Hi Clare. Let me try to clear up any confusion. There are ‘general gratuities’ that are for things like housekeeping, waiters, cleaners etc. Then there are gratuities that are added on to each drink for the bartender who makes the drink. Whether you have a package or not, you will pay a gratuity on each drink. The only difference is whether the gratuity is charged per drink or per day. Yes, some people do go to guest services and refuse to pay the gratuities. If you’re thinking of that, I recommend that you read this guide first: https://www.cruisemummy.co.uk/refuse-pay-gratuities-on-cruise/ So that you may fully understand the implications of not tipping the crew. I hope that helps. Jenni
carnival is NOT an American company. their ships are all registered in Panama and the Bahamas to avoid having to pay real wages and allowing them to run this ‘gratuity scam’.
We shouldn’t have to pay gratuities at all…why should the public top up the wages so the company can pay peanut wages that’s why I dont cruise
Hi Jenni
Loved your article on grats. Just another thought to add. Sometimes changing your pounds for dollars in advance of travel and paying for your onboard spend (including the grats.) in cash on your last cruise evening works out cheaper. All to often the exchange rates used on ships and credit cards is horrendously bad! Obviously this means you have to save up your dosh in advance but you can save a lot of money if the pound is strong against the dollar. We’re going on Sky Princess this year and they confirmed we can do this, but we have prepaid our grats. in pound sterling ( and it works out cheaper than using ship’s exchange rate) so it’s a win-win for us!
Hi Jenni
Loved your article on grats. Just another thought to add. Sometimes changing your pounds for dollars in advance of travel and paying for your onboard spend (including the grats.) in cash on your last cruise evening works out cheaper. All to often the exchange rates used on ships and credit cards is horrendously bad! Obviously this means you have to save up your dosh in advance but you can save a lot of money if the pound is strong against the dollar. We’re going on Sky Princess this year and they confirmed we can do this, but we have prepaid our grats. in pound sterling ( and it works out cheaper than using ship’s exchange rate) so it’s a w I -win for us!