Earlier this month, a caller to a BBC radio station programme about cruising raised the question of tipping on cruise ships.
He had booked a cruise with Royal Caribbean International and was led to believe that he could either pay £170 in tips at the time of booking or the amount would be added to his cruise account. He was never informed that the tip in this case was optional.
His call highlighted the upset that tipping creates – he thought he was simply being charged £170 more for the cruise – especially in the UK, where gratuities are not part of our culture.
Royal Caribbean vice-president and managing director UK and Ireland Robin Shaw admitted there are probably times when communications are not as good as they should be. “Our gratuities are optional and we don’t try to hide that. It comes down to training to ensure agents know the situation.”
The only exception is clients who have chosen Royal Caribbean’s new Mytime dining plan, which means they can eat in the dining room when and with whom they want, but have to pre-pay gratuities for the privilege.
Shaw said the cruiseline’s tipping policy is often reviewed, especially for the UK, as Britons are not keen on tipping. As an example, the 15% gratuity added to bar bills on Royal Caribbean ships has been included in the price on ex-UK cruises.
He said more than half of Royal Caribbean’s British passengers pre-pay gratuities or have them added to their final bill. “Passengers are increasingly pre-paying as it gets it out of the way,” he added.
Travel Weekly Cruise Club member Tracy McFall, who owns an Accessible Travel franchise in Bath, said tipping is an awkward situation for clients.
“There is suspicion among passengers that crew are only providing good service because of the tip, whereas good service should be part of the job. Then if passengers don’t leave anything, they are looked on as tight,” she said.
Unhappy clients
Another TW Cruise Club member, Holly Warner, owner of Holly-Days Travel Shop in Folkestone, said some clients new to cruising were unhappy about gratuities.
“When clients book we make them aware of the gratuities. It isn’t an issue with regular cruisers but first-timers are wary about it. It would be easier for us if all cruiselines included it in the price. But I realise it makes the cruise look more expensive,” she said.
One of the problems for agents and clients is that there is no standard tipping policy. Costa Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line, for instance, have a mandatory service charge for all passengers that is added to the cruise account and cannot be removed or changed. NCL passengers can opt to pre-pay the charge.
Costa UK managing director Marco Rosa said the fixed charge was brought in because unions were unhappy with the optional tipping system. “Each page in the brochure has a table that shows clearly the cost of the service charge so we are upfront about it.”
Although the charge is compulsory, Rosa said Costa did not want to include it in the cruise price as it would make the line uncompetitive. It would also be confusing for the trade as Costa does not pay commission on the charge.
Cruiselines at the three and six-star ends of the market – such as Ocean Village, Island Cruises, Silversea and Seabourn – include tips in the cruise price.
The former does this because its near-100% British client base does not want to tip, the latter because passengers pay well for the privilege of not having to think about money.
In-between these two extremes are the cruiselines that rely on passengers tipping crew voluntarily, mainly so they can pay staff less and keep the cost of cruises down.
But even here there is no one system. Some cruiselines provide envelopes at the end of the cruise so passengers can put cash inside and hand it personally to their waiter or cabin steward.
These are the two people whom it is customary to tip, but many cruiselines also suggest gratuities for the maitre d’, assistant waiter and butler, where appropriate.
Other lines automatically add a per person/per day gratuity to each cruise account – usually $10 – which can be removed or adjusted; P&O Cruises has a mix of envelope and automatic gratuity systems depending which dining plan passengers have opted for.
Anytime tips
Princess Cruises head of brand marketing Pieter van der Schee said tips started to be added to the cruise account when the company introduced ‘anytime dining’. Until then, passengers ate in one restaurant and had the same waiter every night so they knew who to tip.
Anytime dining allows passengers to eat in different restaurants each night, so they have different waiters during the cruise. Van der Schee said: “Passengers are concerned that the gratuity actually goes to the crew. Yes it does. It is shared between the staff giving the service.
“Crew are demotivated when passengers remove the gratuity as they feel there was something wrong with their service, but we would not like to think they give poorer service because they know they won’t get a tip.”
Van der Schee agreed that gratuities are a concern for first-time cruisers, but no more than other issues, such as how they board the ship and dress codes.
Wigan-based Personal Travel Advisor David Sixsmith, also a Travel Weekly Cruise Club member, said: “We always explain gratuities to first-time cruisers so they understand. But I wonder whether adding £30-£40 to the cost of the cruise and getting rid of tipping wouldn’t be a selling point.”
