Carnival Cruise Line passengers share tipping habits

There has been an ongoing debate among cruisers when it comes to tipping for years. And to be clear, I’m not trying to take any sides here.

Carnival, like most other cruise lines, charges a standard gratuity rate to guests. Currently, the rate is $16 per person, per day in standard staterooms and $18 per person, per day for guests in suites. Guests can choose to prepay gratuities if they wish, or it will be posted to their Sail & Sign (onboard spending) account towards the end of the cruise.

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Guests can choose to adjust or remove these gratuities before they leave the ship (which can make for excessive lines at guest services on the final full day). And many passengers do, preferring to put money directly in the hands of those who helped make their vacation enjoyable. 

It’s worth noting, however, that these gratuities go to stateroom attendants and dining room servers, a significant portion goes to crew members who work in behind-the-scenes roles.

In a recent post, Carnival’s Brand Ambassador John Heald shared a photo of a stateroom, where a guest had left the phrase “Thanks Ketut (the stateroom attendant’s name)” spelled out in roughly $45 worth of $1 bills.

Under the photo, Heald wrote “This is a lovely thing to do as many of you agreed yesterday. Some think not. Regardless, thank you for all you do for the crew. However, you give it to them. They are truly grateful. Thoughts?”

Carnival passengers share their tipping habits

Within a few hours, Heald’s post received more than 500 comments. Many people applauded whoever left the tip in the photo, while others like to use simpler methods for tipping their stateroom attendant.

“I think this is wonderful! Would have made his day,” commented Jane Smyrnis. Others weren’t a fan, including Brian Marshall Gomez who said, “I like putting it in an envelope with a thank you note, just seems classier and not have to make our steward bend all over to collect the money.” And it’s worth pointing out that Gomez isn’t the only one who pointed out that it creates more work for the room attendant compared with simply handing them money.

Heald follower Bobbie McDowell said “We put $$ in a thank you card with a message. But whatever works for people is ok.” Similarly, Lisa Dethrow says, “I would rather just hand it to them with a sincere Thank You for treating us so well, we appreciated all you have done to make our stay the best possible.”

Others go beyond simply giving money. One unique tipping habit came from Donna Earl Lay, who said “We had a crew member tell us once that he really enjoyed receiving T-Shirts from our home states. So we have started (along with adding tips when we book) We give them $ when we get there and at the end we give them a gift bag with more $ and a t-shirt.”

There’s no perfect way to tip

The key takeaway is that cruisers show their appreciation of the crew in a variety of ways, and there’s no perfect method. And for many, the way they tip varies from cruise to cruise. For example, when I sail alone, 

I’m paying literally one-fourth of the gratuity that I’d pay when sailing with my family of four, although the stateroom attendant is doing nearly the same amount of work to clean the room. So, I tend to tip more in solo-sailing situations for this reason.

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The bottom line is that it’s nice to show your appreciation to the crew in the way that you feel best reflects how you enjoyed the cruise. This can simply mean prepaying the cruise line’s gratuity rate, putting money directly in the hands of deserving crew members, or some combination of tipping methods. 

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