Cruise guest slammed as they make controversial choice not to pay staff tips | Cruise | Travel
Many cruise lines offer passengers the option of pre-paying their tips so they don’t need to think about tipping the staff while they’re away.
The package is often an optional extra which guests can choose to purchase before or during their cruise.
A Reddit user ‘pokemonprofessor121’ wrote: “My mum is doing back to back cruises, about 14 in total. To save money, she didn’t do the prepaid gratuities.
“I was talking to her and she claims ‘she’ll keep some ones and fives for great service’. This is absolute b******. Can she get away with this?”
While some people felt it was important to pay the included gratuity, others thought the woman had a good point.
‘Arieser22’ wrote: “I don’t agree with tipping everyone. If they have a customer facing job, like a waiter, and go above and beyond, then sure, I’d love to tip for that.
“But to tip the person washing my dishes or washing my sheets? How are they going above and beyond? They should just get paid by their employer.”
Tips made through the gratuity package are usually shared between all the staff, whatever their role onboard.
Another commenter said: “The cruise lines are entirely responsible for this as they need to charge the complete fare upfront and not have optional things that are actually mandatory added in later.
“Tips and gratuities should not be a thing on a ship at all. The entire fare shouldn’t be charged, and the service people paid like anyone else.”
Guests can opt to remove the gratuity package and choose to tip staff themselves but it might be hard to cover all the staff.
Another guest said: “I would gladly pay more for them to just pay their crew more and not hassle me for tips.”
Extra charges are very common on cruise ships and guests may have to pay for a drinks package or for specialty dining.
It’s important to look at all the charges before booking a cruise as it may turn out to be much more expensive than expected.