Cruise gratuities are an automatic daily service charge — roughly $17 to $25 per person, per day on a mainstream line — added to your onboard account and pooled to pay the dining and housekeeping crew, including the people you never see. They are not part of the headline fare, and most first-timers under-budget them: for a couple on a week-long cruise that's around $250, and for a family of four it's well over $500.
You can usually adjust or remove them at Guest Services on a mainstream line — but our honest take, below, is that you generally shouldn't. This guide, part of our New to Cruising guide, breaks down what every major line charges, gives you a calculator for your exact trip, and explains the gotchas no brochure mentions.
What cruise gratuities actually pay for
A "gratuity" on a cruise isn't a tip in the restaurant sense — it's a standardized daily service charge the line adds to your account on your behalf and then distributes to the crew. The pool is wider than most passengers assume. It rewards your waiter and assistant waiter in the main dining room, your cabin steward who services your room twice a day, and a long list of behind-the-scenes staff — the galley cooks, dishwashers, laundry, and buffet crew — who keep the ship running but never appear on your folio.
That pooling is the whole point, and it's why the "I'll just tip in cash instead" instinct misfires: hand your steward $40 directly and the dozens of unseen crew in the shared pool get nothing. The auto-gratuity exists precisely so that tips reach people a passenger has no way to tip in person. If you're decoding the rest of the onboard vocabulary as you go, our cruise glossary defines the lingo in plain English.
What each cruise line charges
This is where an honest, current table beats a vague summary. Daily gratuity rates have crept up across the industry, and most lines now charge a higher rate for suites than for standard cabins. The figures below are the current standard per-person, per-day rates on each line's North American sailings — lines review and raise these periodically, so treat them as a close planning estimate and confirm the exact number when you book.
| Cruise line | Standard cabin (per person / day) |
Suite / upper tier | How it's applied | Can you adjust it? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Caribbean | $18.50 | $21.00 (suites) | Auto-added daily; prepay option | Yes, at Guest Services |
| Carnival | $17.00 | $19.00 (suites) | Auto-added daily; prepay option | Yes, at Guest Services |
| Norwegian (NCL) | $20.00 | $25.00 (The Haven) | Daily "service charge"; prepay option | Yes, via a request form |
| Princess | $18.00 | $19–$20 (suites) | Daily "crew appreciation" | Yes, at Guest Services |
| Celebrity | $18.00 | $19–$23 (Aqua/Retreat) | Auto-added daily; prepay option | Yes, at Guest Relations |
| MSC | $17.00 | $23.00 (Yacht Club) | Varies by fare tier & region | Limited; region-dependent |
| Holland America | $18.00 | $20.00 (suites) | Daily "crew appreciation" | Yes, at Guest Services |
| Disney | ~$16.00 (suggested) | ~$27 (concierge) | Suggested, not auto-charged by default | Yes, fully discretionary |
Standard per-person, per-day rates on North American itineraries. Policies vary by line — see, for example, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian for current specifics. Luxury lines aren't listed because they bundle gratuities into the fare.
Two patterns are worth pulling out. First, the headline-fare bargains — Carnival and MSC — sit at the low end of the gratuity scale too, while Norwegian's per-day charge is the steepest of the mainstream lines. Second, the luxury tier (Regent Seven Seas, Silversea, and similar) doesn't appear here at all because gratuities are simply built into their fares — part of what makes them a genuine all-inclusive cruise. If gratuity policy is a factor in your decision, weigh it while choosing a cruise line.
Calculate your gratuities
Plug in your line, cabin type, party size, and length and you'll get the total automatic gratuity for your sailing — the number to add to the fare before you decide whether a cruise fits your budget. (Want the whole picture? See how much a cruise actually costs, where gratuities are one line item among several.)
Estimated automatic gratuities
Pick a cruise line to see your total.
Should you remove the auto-gratuity? Our honest take
This is the question that fuels endless online arguments, and most articles dodge it. We won't. On most mainstream lines you have the option, so the real question is whether you should — and that depends on your reason.
- You simply find the charge annoying or didn't budget for it. (That's a planning problem, not a service one — and the crew shouldn't absorb it.)
- You'd otherwise tip "the people who served me" in cash. The pool reaches staff you can't.
- You want the simplest, most defensible default. Leaving it in place is what the overwhelming majority of cruisers do.
- You had a genuine, documented service failure that the line couldn't fix during the cruise.
- You come from a country where the fare is expected to cover staff pay, and you've chosen a line that includes gratuities instead.
- You're prepaying or budgeting differently — not avoiding paying, just paying another way.
Our position: removing the auto-gratuity to save money is the wrong move. It's not a discretionary upsell like the photo package — it's the mechanism that pays the crew who made your trip work, and on most ships it's a meaningful slice of their take-home. If the daily charge genuinely doesn't fit your budget, the honest fix is to choose a cheaper sailing or a line that includes gratuities in the fare, not to sail and then claw the tips back at the end.
"Treat gratuities as a fixed part of the fare, not an optional extra. Budget the number up front and the whole question disappears."
The cleaner path is to prepay gratuities at booking when the line offers it. It locks in today's rate before the next increase, takes the sticker shock off your end-of-cruise folio, and removes the temptation to "deal with it later." Underestimating tips is, predictably, one of the most common first-time cruise mistakes.
The gratuity-on-extras gotcha
Here's the part that genuinely surprises people, because it's a second layer of gratuity on top of the daily one. Every drink, spa treatment, and specialty-restaurant charge carries its own automatic service charge — typically 18% to 20% — and unlike the daily gratuity, this one usually cannot be removed.
The most common trap is the drinks package. Buyers assume the advertised package price is all-in; it isn't. An 18–20% gratuity is added on top, so a "$80 per day" package really costs closer to $95. That surcharge is exactly why a cruise drink package isn't always worth it — run the math before you commit. The same surcharge applies to a single cocktail, a massage, or dinner at the steakhouse. None of it is covered by your daily gratuity, and your daily gratuity isn't covered by it — they're two entirely separate charges that first-timers routinely conflate.
One genuinely pleasant offset: if your booking came with onboard credit, it can absorb some of these service charges automatically — always check whether your fare or travel agent included any. Gratuities are also a frequent culprit in the gap between the brochure price and the final bill, which is the whole subject of what's actually included on a cruise.
Frequently asked questions
Can I refuse to pay cruise gratuities?
On most mainstream lines, yes — the automatic daily gratuity is a discretionary charge, and you can ask Guest Services to reduce or remove it before your account is finalized at the end of the cruise. It isn't a fee you're legally locked into. But removing it doesn't save the crew's wages so much as redistribute who pays them: the auto-gratuity is how tips reach the dining and housekeeping staff who served you, including the behind-the-scenes workers you never meet. A few lines and most luxury lines build the service charge into the fare, so there's nothing to remove. Separately, the 18–20% service charge added to drinks, spa treatments, and specialty dining is not adjustable.
How much are the gratuities for a 7 day cruise?
On a mainstream line, standard-cabin gratuities run roughly $17 to $20 per person, per day, so a 7-night cruise is about $119 to $140 per person — around $238 to $280 for a couple, or $476 to $560 for a family of four. Suites and premium suite tiers are higher, typically $20 to $25 per person per day. They're charged automatically to your onboard account, usually as a single daily line item, and are on top of the fare unless your booking specifically included or prepaid them. Use the calculator above for your exact line and party size.
Is it mandatory to give gratuity on a cruise?
It's automatic, but not strictly mandatory on most mainstream lines — the daily charge is added by default and can be adjusted at Guest Services if you have a genuine service issue. In practice, the vast majority of passengers leave it in place because it's how the tip pool reaches the crew. Luxury lines and some promotions fold gratuities into the fare, in which case there's nothing optional to manage. The fixed service charge on drinks, spa, and specialty restaurants, however, is mandatory and can't be removed.
Are gratuities included in the cruise fare?
Usually not on mainstream lines. The advertised fare covers your cabin, main dining, and standard entertainment, but daily gratuities are added separately to your onboard account or offered as a prepayment at booking. Luxury lines (such as Regent Seven Seas and Silversea) and certain promotional fares are the main exceptions, including gratuities in the price. Always confirm whether your fare is gratuities-included, gratuities-prepaid, or gratuities-added-daily before you sail — it changes your real per-day cost noticeably. See what's included on a cruise for the full breakdown.
Do I still pay gratuities if I have a drink package?
Yes — and this is the surprise that catches first-timers. Your daily gratuity covers dining and housekeeping; it has nothing to do with bar service. Drink packages almost always add an 18–20% gratuity on top of the package price, and individual drinks bought without a package carry the same surcharge per drink. So a drinks package doesn't "cover" your tips, and your daily auto-gratuity doesn't cover the bar — they're two separate charges. It's a key part of whether a drink package is worth it.
Should I tip extra in cash on top of the daily gratuity?
It's optional and entirely up to you. The automatic daily gratuity is designed to be complete on its own, so you're not under-tipping by leaving only that. Many cruisers do hand a little extra cash to a cabin steward or waiter who went above and beyond, or to the bartender or concierge they saw daily — a few dollars is plenty and is genuinely appreciated. If you remove the auto-gratuity and tip select crew in cash instead, be aware the behind-the-scenes staff in the shared pool then receive nothing.