Cruising:
Tips For Royal Caribbean Cruises Are Required
Beginning March 1st, 2013 all new bookings on any and all Royal Caribbean cruises will require passengers to pre-pay the gratuities before sailing.
When you tip your server well, you're spreading goodwill and love.
The cruise line had kept to the previous way of tipping, allowing passengers choose the values that were given and not being required to be pre-paid.
They are now charging $12.00 for standard rooms and $14.25 for suites – per person, per day.
This also helps the staff , since often tips were not distributed correctly or passengers would not tip at all. This new policy will see the end of that, have a smoother more simplified service recognition process.
I have personally pre-paid my gratuities for years for several reasons, it helps budget the expense for my trip, I didn’t have to think about it while I’m on my cruise and I know each crew person will get their fair compensation.