Cruise Gratuities by Line, 2026 — And What They Actually Cost Your Family
A family of four booking a seven-night Carnival sailing will pay $476 in crew appreciation. It is not in the fare, it is not optional in any practical sense, and on a $599-per-person cruise it is a fifth of the ticket price again.
Every figure below was read off the cruise line's own page. Where a line publishes nothing, this article says so rather than borrowing a number from somewhere else — which matters more than it sounds, because one major line publishes nothing at all and one major tour operator contradicts itself.
What each line charges, per guest, per day
| Line | Standard | Suite | Family of 4, 7 nights | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norwegian | $20.00 | $25.00 (The Haven) | $560 | Called a service charge, not a gratuity. Charged only to guests aged 3 and over. |
| Royal Caribbean | $18.50 | $21.00 | $518 | Set November 2024 and unchanged since. |
| Princess | $18.00 | $20.00 | $504 | Three tiers — $19 in mini-suites, Cabanas and Reserve Collection. All raised about $1 in March 2026. |
| Carnival | $17.00 | $19.00 | $476 | Raised from $16.00 in April 2026 — its first increase in three years. |
| Disney | $16.00 | $27.25 (Concierge) | $448 | Charged for every guest, including infants and children. Concierge is the steepest suite rate at sea. |
| Viking Ocean | Viking publishes no figure. Its booking terms confirm gratuities are not included but state no amount. | See below. | ||
| AmaWaterways | €125 per guest for a 7-night cruise, plus €30 for the Cruise Manager | ≈ €620 | €145 on AmaMagna. Add €5 per day on land extensions. Not auto-charged — payable by card or cash. | |
The two details that cost the most and get noticed the least
Who counts as a guest. Disney charges $16 a night for every person in the stateroom, infants included. Norwegian charges only guests aged three and over. Two adults and two under-threes on a seven-night sailing pay $224 on Disney and $0 for the children on Norwegian — a difference produced entirely by a policy line neither brochure puts in front of you.
The suite jump is not proportional. Moving to a suite raises the nightly rate on every line, but Disney Concierge goes from $16 to $27.25 — a 70% increase, against roughly 12% on Carnival and 14% on Royal Caribbean. On a seven-night sailing for four that is $763 in gratuities alone.
Viking publishes nothing, and the sources disagree
Viking is the one major line we cannot give you a number for. Its own booking terms confirm that gratuities are not included in the cruise fare, and then stop — no rate. Its FAQ does not render a figure. Two credible 2026 trade sources disagree with each other: The Points Guy reports $20 per person per day, Travel Market Report reports $17.
On a ten-day Viking sailing for two, the gap between those two figures is $60. That is small money; the reason it is worth writing down is that we could not resolve it from Viking, and a number we cannot source is a number we will not print. If you are sailing Viking, ask for the rate in writing at booking.
The tour operators are worse, and one of them argues with itself
Cruise lines are, on the whole, good about this: five of the seven above publish an exact figure on their own site. Escorted tour operators mostly do not.
- Globus — publishes no per-day figure. Its terms confirm that gratuities for the Tour Director, driver and crew are excluded and discretionary, while tips for wait staff at included meals are covered. It calculates a per-person rate for each itinerary and shows it at booking.
- Insight Vacations — publishes no figure either. Baggage handling and hotel meal-staff tips are handled by the Travel Director, but tours outside the Americas do not include gratuities for Local Hosts and Local Specialists.
- Avalon Waterways — no figure. Its wording is identical to Globus's, which is unsurprising: same parent company, so that is one legal department, not two independent confirmations.
- Trafalgar — publishes a figure and also publishes the opposite. Its own tipping guide suggests $5–7 per day for the Travel Director and $3–5 for the driver. Its own FAQ says: "Your porterage, tips and gratuities are included as part of your tour price." Both are Trafalgar pages. They cannot both be describing the same money.
The likely reconciliation is that the FAQ means porterage and hotel staff, while the guide means end-of-tour tipping of the Director and driver. But Trafalgar never says that, so it is an inference, not their statement. On a twelve-day tour for two, the difference between "included" and "$8–12 per person per day" is roughly $200–290.
What to do about it
- Ask for the daily rate, per person, in writing, before you pay a deposit. On a cruise it is published and takes seconds to confirm. On a tour it may not be, and that is exactly when you want it on paper.
- Ask what age the charge starts at. The answer is worth hundreds to a family with small children, and it varies by line.
- Consider pre-paying. Rates change between booking and sailing, and every published rate we track has moved in the same direction. Pre-paying fixes it.
- If you are quoted "gratuities included", ask whose. On most tours some tips are included and the ones for the people you spend two weeks with are not.
Where these numbers live
We keep every figure in this article in a dated record and re-check it weekly, because a rate that drifts is worse than no rate at all. The current set, with the source link and verification date for each, is on the Travel Fee Index. To see what gratuities add to a specific trip alongside taxes, airfare and transfers, the trip cost calculator runs them against your party and your nights — and will tell you whether a quote you already have is complete.
Or just ask us. Getting the daily rate in writing before you commit is a two-minute job, and it is the kind of thing that should not be left until you are aboard.