I've done thirteen cruises, and I still run into people who reach the last day thinking gratuities were "optional." They're not. Let's clear up once and for all how this actually works, how much it costs by cruise line, and why the system is set up the way it is.

It depends on how you book. Within the club, we usually carry them prepaid — included in the price of the package. But both systems exist: either they're included upfront, or they're charged automatically to your onboard account every day, calculated by number of guests and number of nights.

What almost nobody tells you is that most travel agencies don't include them in the cruise fare. Gratuities are mandatory — they're part of the terms you accept when you book, the same way you accept the rules of a theme park when you buy a ticket — but a lot of people don't know that, and get a surprise on the last day when they check their final onboard bill.

Because the system is designed to be fair to the whole crew, not just the people you personally interact with. You only deal directly with your cabin steward or whoever serves you at the restaurant or bar, but behind the scenes there are cooks, laundry staff, mechanics... a lot of people who make your week possible and that you never see. Pooling the tip centrally is an incentive for that entire team, not just the visible face of it.

That said, some people also give something in person — the most common move is leaving an envelope with an extra tip for the cabin steward on the first night, to make sure you get good service the rest of the week. I've done it occasionally, leaving the envelope in the cabin with a thank-you note before we left — not as a rule, but as a gesture when the service has been especially good.

Here it's not the cabin category that changes things, it's the cruise line (within each line, there can be a difference between a standard cabin and a suite). With current figures, here's where things stand for the club's cruise lines:

More and more cruise lines are simply building gratuities into the fare — for me, by far, that's the best option.

Technically yes, and I've seen people refuse to pay them. But keep in mind: that's covered by the terms of the cruise you accepted when you booked. It's like buying a ticket to a theme park — I worked in that industry for years — and accepting its terms: you can complain all you want afterward, but if it was already in the rules, there isn't much to argue. In places like Spain we're not used to a tipping culture, but that doesn't mean the cruise doesn't have gratuities built into its terms.

Thinking they're optional. We come from a culture, especially in Spain and parts of Latin America, where tipping isn't the norm, and that habit gets carried over to the cruise by mistake. But cruise gratuities are mandatory, not optional — they're a real part of the price of your trip, even if nobody tells you that upfront. If you also want to give more, great, but always count gratuities as part of your cruise budget, not as an extra that may or may not show up.

My advice is simple: always, always, always choose a package that already includes gratuities — it's exactly one of the things we look for in the club, and many of our packages include them precisely to avoid surprises. And if your booking doesn't include them, prepay them when you make the booking, before you board. That way, once you're actually cruising, you don't have to worry about an extra charge showing up or not.

Working on a cruise ship is exhausting — long shifts, six to eight months straight living and working in the same place, with barely any time off. But it's also worth understanding why so many people choose that job: their housing and food are covered, so what they earn is essentially take-home pay. For a lot of people from countries like Indonesia or Honduras, a ship salary — even the lowest ones, around $1,200-1,500 net per month — can equal several months, or even years, of pay back home. That's why gratuities aren't a whim of the cruise line: they're a real, important part of that crew's income.

Do you usually give an extra tip on top of the automatic one, or do you prefer to have everything prepaid before you board? Subscribe and get every new post straight to your inbox.