On cruises, what does it mean when they say : tips are "automatic"?

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Lew

Tips are automatically added to your shipboard account.
All the cruise lines I have been on are cashless.
When you join the ship, you get a card which serves as your Boarding Pass / Room Key and shipboard account card. You can register a credit card that will have everything that you purchase while on board the ship, charged to the card when you leave the ship or you can arrange to pay cash, which means that you will have to settle your shipboard account before you disembark on the last day. I believe that you may have to deposit some money with the ship on your first day if you prefer this method.
You do not have to tip the staff each day, all tipping is usually done on the last night.
If you prefer not to have it added automatically to your account you will need to go to the pursers desk and ask to have it removed.

Julie T

On Carnival, they charge on on-board account for the tips the moment you step on-board.

If you set up a credit card account, the amount is billed to your credit card.

If you set up a cash account, you have to deposit more than $70 in cash in order to be able to charge while on board.

On RC, they still give you tip envelopes. You can use the envelopes to leave cash or ask the purser to add the tips to your account. If you charge your tips, RC does not allow you to adjust the tip amount up or down.

All gratuties are extended at the end of the cruise in one lump sum.

Zef H

Some lines will automatically bill your tips to your on board account. For example, Norwegian has Freestyle Dining, which means you usually do not have the same wait staff night after night, as you do with a set dining time and table. For this reason Norwegian automatically charges your tips to your on board account.

In for other cruise lines billing your tips to your on board account is optional. Your on board account can be set up with either a credit card or cash.

Also, almost all cruise lines automatically add a 15% tip to drink orders.

As I noted above, your on board account can be set up with either a credit card or cash. You are then given your room key which doubles as your on board charge card. You cannot use a personal credit card (Visa, Mastercard ...) or cash on board the ship. You charge all on board purchases to your on board account.

I always us a credit card to set up my on board account and then charge my tips to my on board account, so that I don't have to carry around the extra cash.

Either way you always give out the tips for your wait staff and cabin steward at the end of the cruise. This is true whether you are giving your tips to the wait staff and cabin steward in cash or a voucher, which represents the tips charged to your on board account. These tips are given out at the evening of the last day.

However, the people who bring you your drinks get their tips from each drink order. These people do not collect additional tips at the end of the cruise.

sgvilla96

If you don't have a credit card they have a pre-paid card that they offer when you arrive on the ship everytime you buy something you use that card and the tip is deducted from there as well. It's actually better that they take the tip because sometimes it is less than what you would actually leave if you had cash instead

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