Just Cruises Plus

Effective March 1^st, Royal Caribbean will begin adding tips to your ship board account.  Each day, you will see a $12 per person charge on your account.  All of the other cruise lines have been automatically adding tip for several years so Royal Caribbean is playing catch up here.  You are able to change the amount of the gratuities by visiting guest relations while on board.

What We Like About It

First, it insures that the staff are rewarded for good service.  Second, you don’t need to bring as much cash.

What We Don’t Like

We just returned from a Royal Caribbean cruise (before automatic tips).  We requested that the gratuities be added to our account.  When we did this on previous cruises, Royal Caribbean gave us a “chit” to place in envelopes which we gave to the appropriate staff.  Now they give you nothing except the envelopes which they say are for additional tips.

Frankly, I resent that.   When I asked why they didn’t provide “chits” for the envelopes, they said that it is to save paper.  I notice that they are not worried about paper when they are urging folks to go to the spa or bingo or the shoptalks, all moneymakers for them.  Royal Caribbean raised their recommended tip a whopping 23% since 2010 so you should not feel compelled to give additional tips.