Royal Caribbean Announces Gratuity Increase From 1st November

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Royal Caribbean is increasing gratuity prices from 1st November, adding $0.50 per guest per day to each category.

Royal Caribbean Bartender

This means that guests in a regular stateroom will pay $18.50 per person, per day, up from $18.

And anyone staying in a Suite will now pay $21 per person, per day, up from $20.50.

While this may seem like a small increase, it comes just a year after the last increase of $2 across all categories, which followed another $1.50 increase in 2022.

This means that guests are now paying around 25% more than they were two years ago for gratuities.

However, anyone who books their cruise before 1st November 2024 and pre-pays their gratuities before the end of 31st October 2024 will secure them at the current rates, not the increased prices, regardless of the sailing date.

Automatic gratuities – right or wrong?

Automatic gratuities remain a controversial topic. Some guests understand that they help to reward the hard-working crew, including those behind the scenes who might not normally receive tips from guests.

Other guests prefer to give tips manually, where they feel they have received good service. And of course, tipping culture varies around the world too.

Automatic gratuities, including these with Royal Caribbean, are not mandatory. They are added to guests’ accounts, but guests can remove them if they really want to.

It’s not recommended, because unfortunately a lot of crew rely on the tips for their pay. Even if a guest receives bad service, it’s not fair to punish the rest of the crew.

The increased charges don’t impact the gratuity automatically added to drinks purchases (18%) and spa and salon treatments (20%).

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Jenni Fielding is the founder of Cruise Mummy. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises. Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays.

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