Royal Caribbean Gratuities Explained: How Tipping Works
Quick Take
Royal Caribbean adds a daily automatic gratuity to your account that covers your stateroom attendant, dining team, and behind-the-scenes crew. On top of that, an 18% service charge lands on drinks, specialty dining, spa treatments, and room service. You can prepay the daily amount before you sail or let it bill onboard, and a little extra cash for standout service is welcome but never required.
This charge is pooled and distributed across the crew who keep your cruise running. That includes your stateroom attendant, your waiter and assistant waiter in the main dining room, and a share for the wider hotel services team you may never see. Think of it as the shipboard version of a service charge at a resort.
One detail that catches families off guard is that the daily gratuity applies to every guest in the room, including children. A cabin with two adults and two kids pays four daily gratuities, not two. I always factor that into the quotes I send so nobody is startled later.
The 18% Service Charge on Drinks, Spa, and More
Separate from the daily amount, Royal Caribbean tacks an 18% gratuity onto certain purchases the moment you make them. This applies to individual drinks, the beverage packages, specialty dining, room service delivery, mini bar items, and spa or salon treatments.
The part that surprises people most is the drink package. If you buy a package before you sail, the 18% is already baked into the advertised price at checkout, so you are not charged again onboard for each pour. When you buy drinks one at a time, though, that 18% is added to every single order.
The same logic applies at the spa. A massage priced at $199 will show up as roughly $235 after the automatic 18% is added. I mention this to clients booking a spa day so the final number does not catch them mid-vacation.
Prepaying vs Paying Onboard
You have two ways to handle the daily gratuity. You can prepay it when you book or anytime before you sail, or you can let it bill automatically to your onboard account each day of the cruise. Both cover the exact same crew, so the choice comes down to how you like to budget.
I usually nudge clients toward prepaying. Locking in the amount ahead of time protects you if Royal Caribbean raises its daily rate before your sail date, and it keeps your onboard statement cleaner. It also spreads the cost out during your planning window instead of hitting all at once at the end.
If you would rather keep your cash flexible until you board, paying onboard works fine too. The charge simply posts each day to the card you registered at check-in, and you settle up at the end of the voyage.
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Can You Adjust or Remove Gratuities?
Royal Caribbean does allow guests to adjust or remove the daily automatic gratuity by visiting Guest Services onboard. It is your money, and the line will process a change if you request one. I want to be clear about how that works before anyone assumes it is a simple discount.
Removing the daily gratuity does not remove your obligation to the crew, it just moves the responsibility to you. The staff who serve you still worked, and the pooled system that pays them relies on those charges. If you strip it out, the expectation is that you tip those team members directly in cash instead.
In practice, I almost never see a reason to remove it. The daily amount is fair for the level of service, and keeping it in place means the right people get paid without you tracking down each crew member on debarkation morning. The 18% service charge on drinks and spa, by contrast, cannot be removed.
Extra Cash Tipping Norms
Beyond the automatic charges, extra cash is a personal call. Nothing is required, and no crew member will treat you differently for sticking with the standard gratuity. Plenty of guests do like to hand something extra to people who made the trip special.
When clients ask me what is customary, I point to a few spots. Room service delivery often gets a couple of dollars per drop, since the 18% delivery charge is modest. A stateroom attendant who nailed every request might get $20 to $40 in cash at the end of a week. A bartender you saw every night sometimes gets a few extra bucks slipped in over the course of the cruise.
None of this is a rule, and you should tip in whatever way feels right to you. I keep a small stack of ones and fives on hand for exactly these moments so I am not scrambling for cash later.
How to Budget for Gratuities
The cleanest way to plan is to treat the daily gratuity as part of your base cruise cost, not an afterthought. Multiply the daily rate by the number of guests in your room, then by the number of nights. A family of four in a standard room on a seven-night sailing is looking at roughly $500 to $530 in daily gratuities alone.
Then layer in the 18% wherever you plan to spend. If you are buying a drink package, remember the gratuity is already inside that price. If you are pay-as-you-go on drinks, pad your budget by roughly a fifth of your expected bar spend to cover the service charge.
Finally, set aside a little cash cushion, maybe $50 to $100 for a week, for the extra tips you might choose to give. Build all three pieces in from the start and your onboard statement will hold no surprises.
One habit that keeps my clients relaxed is checking their onboard account partway through the sailing. You can view it on the app or at a stateroom TV, and a quick glance confirms the daily gratuity and any service charges are tracking as expected. Catching a question early beats sorting it out in a debarkation-morning line.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is Royal Caribbean's daily gratuity?
It runs about $18 to $19 per guest, per day for standard staterooms and roughly $21 to $22 per guest, per day for suites. Rates do get adjusted over time, so confirm the current figure at booking.
Do kids pay gratuities too?
Yes. The daily automatic gratuity applies to every guest in the stateroom regardless of age, so a room with children pays the same per-person rate for each of them.
Is the 18% on drinks already included in the drink package?
Yes. When you buy a beverage package, the 18% gratuity is built into the advertised price, so you are not charged again per drink. Buying drinks individually adds the 18% each time.
Can I remove the daily gratuity?
You can adjust or remove it at Guest Services onboard. If you do, you are expected to tip the crew who served you directly in cash instead, since the charge funds their pay.
Should I prepay or pay onboard?
Either works. I lean toward prepaying because it locks in the rate and keeps your onboard bill tidy, but paying daily onboard is perfectly fine if you prefer flexibility.
Do I have to tip extra in cash?
No. Extra cash is optional and never expected. Many guests still choose to hand a little extra to a standout attendant, bartender, or server as a thank you.
Final Thoughts
Royal Caribbean's gratuity system looks like a lot of moving parts, but it boils down to two ideas. There is a flat daily charge that covers the core crew, and there is an 18% service charge on extras like drinks and spa. Know those two, and you know the whole picture.
My advice is to prepay the daily amount, remember the 18% is already inside your drink package, and carry a little cash for the people who go above and beyond. Do that and you will spend your cruise relaxing instead of doing math on your bar tab.
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