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Royal Caribbean sends four cruise ships to Alaska each season, and each ship varies from one another. Although ships in the same class, such as Quantum of the Seas and Ovation of the Seas, share similarities, they still offer varied dining venues, entertainment, and decor. In Seattle, for instance, you’ll want to research the best way to get from the airport to your hotel, and from your hotel to the cruise port.
Guide to Royal Caribbean gratuities
If you can’t afford $ per day then that’s OK, as you shouldn’t leave your cruise with financial worries. Royal Genies are pretty special – they look after suite guests in the Royal Caribbean Star Class and undertake a lot of tasks to make your whole cruise feel special. If you booked your Royal Caribbean cruise with a travel agent, you just need to contact them and ask for gratuities to be added to your reservation. Drop us an anchor below to share your thoughts on the increasing prices of gratuities across the cruise industry.
What Happens If The Gratuity Rates Increase After I’ve Pre-Paid? Do I Need To Pay The Difference?
When booking a hotel in Seattle or Vancouver (or Anchorage/Seward for one-way itineraries), you will want to book a hotel in a convenient location. In Sitka, for instance, you can enjoy a leisurely walk through the Sitka National Historic Park, which comes at no extra cost and is within walking distance from the town center. Likewise, you could take a shuttle bus to Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau for $45 roundtrip, which is much cheaper than excursions booked through the cruise line. The last thing you want to happen is have your dream excursion sell out, leaving you scrambling to find other plans. Plus, excursions tend to only get more expensive over time, so booking early helps you lock in a lower price. Whether you’re confused about what to pack or overwhelmed with the dozens of shore excursion offerings, the planning process can quickly seem more stressful than enjoyable.
How Much to Tip Shore Excursion Guides
This means that if you’re a family of three with two adults and a baby, you’ll pay the same amount in gratuities as a group of three adults. If you decide that you'd like to prepay them, there are a couple of ways to go about doing so. First, you can simply add them to your reservation directly from the website when you book. If you happen to forget or had not made up your mind when you booked, you can call Royal Caribbean before your cruise. Finally, those using a travel agent will have to let them know, and they'll take care of it for it.
Piano bar regulars know that a cash tip will increase the chances of the pianist choosing and performing your song request. For instance, in recent years, Norwegian often ran Free at Sea promotions that included free crew tips in addition to free shipboard Wi-Fi and a free drinks package. The line hasn't been doing that as much lately, but these offers often come back at times when brands need to drum up more business. That said, the total number of lines with a service fee has been shrinking over the years. Many smaller and higher-end cruise operators are folding tips and gratuities into their base fares.
She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises. Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays. If you don’t have a lot of money available when you come to pay for your cruise, then don’t worry about paying the gratuities right away. Waiting until the end of your cruise will give you a few more paydays to save up the money. It’s not a great idea to link a debit card to your cruise account because Royal Caribbean will place a ‘hold’ on some of the money. Likewise, carrying large amounts of cash isn’t recommended for safety reasons.
Celebrity Cruises removes gratuities from inclusive package and makes changes to Retreat - Royal Caribbean Blog
Celebrity Cruises removes gratuities from inclusive package and makes changes to Retreat.
Posted: Wed, 30 Aug 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
How Much to Tip Cruise Ship Officers
Royal Caribbean last updated its per day gratuities on November 11, 2023. The current amount is $18 USD per person, per day for those staying in non-suite staterooms and Junior Suites. Prepaying gratuities is also smart if you're booking a cruise far in advance, as Royal Caribbean does increase the rate every so often. If you've already paid them, you are grandfathered in, so you won't be subject to the new rate. Personally, I love to prepay my gratuities, regardless of which line I'm sailing with.
Paying in advance also locks in the current gratuity rate in case it were to increase. It’s not uncommon for cruise lines to increase daily gratuity by $1 or $2 every few years. If you prepay gratuities and the price increases before your cruise, you won’t have to pay the new daily rate. Daily tips are added to each guest's SeaPass card (shipboard account) automatically. The only exception is for passengers with prepaid gratuities (they won't be charged daily).
You don’t have to book your excursions through Royal Caribbean
The daily gratuities is in addition to the 18% gratuity automatically added to all beverages, mini bar items, and spa & salon purchases. If you add cash to your account during the cruise, it will go towards your whole account in general, not just towards gratuities specifically. If, for some highly unlikely reason, you don’t find that the service on your cruise was anywhere close to satisfactory, you are able to remove the automatic gratuities from your account. To do that, you can visit Guest Services on the ship all the way up until the last morning of the cruise. You can also visit Guest Services to change the amount of gratuities you pay. The daily amount is the same for all guests in a stateroom regardless of their age, from babies all the way to adults.
It’s unlikely you will meet every crew member onboard who would otherwise receive a percentage of gratuities. Although details on how gratuities are allocated are not shared with the public, it’s likely Royal Caribbean has a pool of gratuities that is split amongst the crew members. Bringing small bills is recommended on a cruise, as it allows you to tip crew members easily throughout the sailing. Having $1 and $5 bills handy is helpful when you want to give a bartender a small tip with your drink or tip a porter for handling your baggage on embarkation day.
Although this may seem high for infants, keep in mind that crew members do a lot of extra work for them, such as setting up travel cots, pureeing food, and cleaning up after mealtimes. Tipping is not necessary in kids' clubs (as kids' counselors are usually considered part of the better-compensated entertainment staff rather than the tip-dependent service staff). For a half-day shore excursion, give the guide $2, or $4 to $5 for a full-day excursion. If you are in a suite or aboard a luxury cruise, you may have a butler assigned to your room. Since they typically have more duties to meet, a good guideline, is a supplementary tip of $3 to $5 per night, per person. Gratuities on a Royal Caribbean cruise are priced per day, but the amount owed depends on your stateroom category.
The bags are then delivered and checked onto your flight on disembarkation morning, meaning you won’t see your bags again until you arrive at your home airport. Dreading transporting your luggage from the cruise terminal to the airport check-in desk? Royal Caribbean and the Port of Seattle offer a luggage valet service, which allows you to bypass standard airport check-in. As your ship sails away from each port of call in Alaska, you will be rewarded with stunning views of the Inside Passage, and you won’t want to miss sailaway each evening. However, sailaway times often overlap with the early dining time, meaning you’ll miss these scenic sailings if you're in the Main Dining Room. When packing for an Alaska cruise, we recommend bringing a pair of sneakers that are water resistant.
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