SUPER ALASKA CRUISE
P. Tipping on a Cruise
Tipping is one of the most confusing things on a cruise ship to the first time passenger. Like waiters in restaurants in many parts of the US, the salaries paid by cruise ships to waiters, busboys, cabin stewards/esses, bar tenders, room service personnel, and wine stewards are minimal. These persons rely on tips for a living. All tip recommendations are in US dollars. Don’t think you can be a cheapskate by tipping in Canadian dollars or other worthless currency. If you tip in currency other than US dollars, take into account that the crewmember may be charged a poor exchange rate and/or a high transaction fee, and may have to expend considerable effort on his/her limited time off the ship in port to change the tip back into US dollars.
In my stateroom, at the beginning of the cruise, there was a card with recommended tip (per passenger) amounts for waiters, busboys and stewards/esses. The amounts recommended for the wait staff (waiters and busboys combined) seemed a little low, appropriate for a $33 meal. The tips applied to 3 multi course meals/day which would cost me probably about $50-60 per person in an equivalent fine restaurant. (Note: the recommended (inadequate) amounts for NCL were about 50 cents a day higher than for the Princess Line (more inadequate).) On the night before the last day of the cruise, tipping envelopes are left in your stateroom. I gave more than the recommended amount to these persons (steward/ess on the last afternoon and the water on the last supper) (especially the waiter and the busboy) because the reccomended amounts were too low and I had exceptional service.
The room service personnel also rely on tips and an envelope is provided for them. Tips for bar tenders and I think wine stewards (including beer and soda service) are included in the purchase price of these items, so additional tipping is not necessary. Tipping of the ship officers and the entertainment staff is not done. Also, for some excursions tipping is optional.
We were also told that tips for some non-American passengers were included in fares. I am not sure how this works (but would guess that the tip amounts included are inadequate for exceptional service), nor am I familiar with how tipping for non-tipping lines (like Holland America), or NCL’s Free-Style cruising will work.
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