Cruising Basics: Tipping on a Ship
Whom to Tip and How Much to Tip on a Mediterranean Cruise
How much should you tip your waiter? Which waiter should you tip? Should you tip the maitre d' on a cruise ship? The guides on a shore excursion? The Activities Director?
These are the most often asked questions in travel. While some Mediterranian cruise lines may have different policies, the majority still pay their service crew (those people you meet directly) only the barest minimum and expect them to make a living from tips.
A lot of travelers disagree with this policy, but we have to live with it – and with ourselves if we fail to observe it.
The usual scale for tips on a ship is:
- Waiter: $3 per passenger per day
- Assistant waiter: $2 per passenger per day
- Cabin housekeeping: $3 per passenger per day
- Bartender: 10-15% of the bill at the end of the cruise (this may be added automatically, so be sure to check the bill)
- Maitre d’: $5-10 per service, if special request is made
- Independent shore excursion guides: $2-3 per passenger
Performers are in a gray area, but if you danced or sang around the piano every evening, a $10-20 tip to the musicians would be appropriate. Spa personnel are tipped just as you would in a land-based spa, about $15% of the treatment cost. Ship officers and the Activities Director are not tipped.
When to tip varies with the length of the cruise. For cruises of 10 days or shorter, give the tip directly to the person at the last time you will see them; for dining room staff this will normally be at breakfast on debarkation day. On longer cruises you can tip by the week. Independent shore guides should be tipped as you leave the bus, since they will be different in each port.
Ships vary, with some suggesting that you leave one combined tip to be divided among the whole staff. Most leave it to you to tip each individually. You will find envelopes in your room or at the purser’s desk.
A few cruise lines – Seabourn, Seven Seas, and Windstar among them in the Mediterranean -- have decided to pay their staff a living wage and discourage on-board tipping, and some lines add a fixed amount to your bill at the end of the cruise, dividing it among the staff.
While tips add to the cost of your cruise, it’s important to remember that most service employees are paid very little, so tips are their main source of income. We may not like the system, but it’s the way it works, and to “forget” to tip staff members who have done their job is cheating them out of their regular income. That said, if a crewmember is rude or outright incompetent, you should not tip or you should tip less. The choice is still yours to make, and there is no reason to reward a job badly done. You should also be sure to mention it on your comments form at the end of the cruise.
