Cruise Line Gratuities Prices are Going up Again
Princess Cruises is raising their daily gratuity amounts.
Cruise ship tipping seems to be in the news a lot lately. Last January, Princess raised the price of their daily gratuities to $12.95 per person per day. Just announced, beginning December 15, 2016, guests aboard any Princess Cruises ship will pay a wee bit more for gratuities.
New gratuity amounts
Princess states on their website that a “discretionary gratuity….will be automatically added to your shipboard account on a daily basis.”
Suite guests: $15.50 per person per day
Mini-suites and Club Class guests: $14.50 per person per day
Interior, oceanview and balcony guests: $13.50 per person per day
Also stated on their website, the gratuity can be pre-paid online via your Cruise Personalizer. Guests may call Princess at 1-855-500-7690 and reference Special Services item number 0591. Pre-payment is available up to 2 days prior to departure.
The daily gratuity charge only covers waitstaff, stateroom stewards, buffet stewards, and housekeeping staff across the fleet. Princess Cruises (and all of the other mainstream cruise lines) add a 15% gratuity to bar charges, dining room wine accounts, and spa services to share among the beverage staff, their support staff and spa personnel.
Don’t forget to tip your casino dealers and youth staff as they do not share in these gratuities.
Even Steven
This new increase for Princess keeps their prices in the same ballpark as Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises and Norwegian. The only mainstream cruise without a recent cruise line gratuity hike is Carnival Cruise Lines, still at $12.95 per person per day.
Because instead of paying wages for crew they grab all the money for themselves. Some crew get 2-300/ month wage and if there is no tip they work for nothing. Thats how head office people end up with big fat checks.