We booked a cruise and the small print says an extra $12 a day will be added to our bill to pay for tips - is this legal?

By Linda Mckay

Updated: 05:32 EDT, 30 January 2014

Can I ask for your advice please: is tipping on cruises compulsory?

My wife and I are now retired and look around for holiday offers, particularly cruises, and we were quite impressed with an offer with a company called Vacations to Go. We have been with them in the past, and they have been very good.

However, when we read the 'small print' for a cruise we liked we saw that it was expected to 'tip'  $12 per day per person.

Norwegian blue: Tips are charged as standard on the the Norwegian Spirit cruise liner.

The offer was on the Vacations To Go website, departing Barcelona this month for nine nights at £165 per person with Norwegian Cruise Lines aboard the Norwegian Spirit.

However, they stated $12 per day, per person would be 'automatically charged to your on-board account'. That would work out at approximately £147.50. That is nearly the cost of the cruise for one of us.

Is this lawful? And what would happen if we refused? AH via email.

Linda McKay of This is Money replies: The traditional rush to book a holiday comes almost as the last Christmas present is unwrapped.

Newspapers, TV ads and emails ping with holiday offers. Are they too good to miss, as you and your wife thought, or will there be a catch in the small print?

Could a tiny detail about tipping mean the cruise comes with hidden expense? A tip seems like such a simple thing – a little extra money given to someone who provides you with a service, with the amount of the tip reflecting the excellence of the service.

On cruise ships, however, tipping has become a complex topic.

Tipping has become more challenging as ships have introduced alternative restaurants and open seating in dining rooms, which means that passengers might not see the same waiters more than once or twice on the cruise. And, what about the crew members at the casual buffet, where many passengers now eat breakfast and lunch?

 

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To solve the question of who should be tipped, when and how much, some cruise lines now add ‘automatic’ tip charges to passenger’s onboard accounts. These automatic charges are usually $10 to $12 per person, per day.

Some cruise lines also add gratuities of 15 to 20 per cent to bar and alternative restaurant bills.

Others, usually high-end cruise lines, have ‘no tipping’ policies, with all payments for services rendered assumed to be covered in the price of the cruise.

But should you be able to ‘opt out’ and tip where you find good service. I asked consumer rights organisation Which? for guidance.

Which? replies: Holidaymakers should make sure that they are happy with all the terms and conditions before signing up as they could be held liable for breach of contract.

If you prefer having more control over what you give or if you prefer to personally hand over cash to your waiters and cabin stewards, you can go to the guest relations desk and request to opt out of the automatic gratuities system.

Envelopes could be provided for you to distribute your tips in cash and you can hand them over to your waiters on the cruise’s final dinner. For your cabin steward, leave the tips envelope in the cabin just before you disembark. Check with the customer services of the cruise line you have selected on this matter of policy.

Linda McKay adds: In the case of your cruise, you do not have to pay the tipping charge if you don't want to, but you will have to jump through a couple of hoops to get rid of it.

Norwegian Cruise Lines adds a fixed service charge of £7 per person per day to the holiday price in advance of the cruise 'for the guests’ convenience'.

You can opt out of this advance payment if you want, but only after your booking has been confirmed and you will have to call the company to do it. What's more, you can't cancel the charge less than two weeks before the departure date. If you want your money back in these circumstances, you will need to write to the company after you have returned home.

If you do manage to cancel that tipping charge, a different $12 per person per day charge will be added to your room bill on board - this is the charge you read about in the small print. If you do not want to pay, you can remove or adjust the charge by visiting the customer service desk on board.

It’s important to remember that many crew members rely on tips from cruise passengers to supplement their income. Though it's not mandatory to tip if you're not satisfied with service, crew members are generally hard workers who deserve to be fairly compensated.

A tip should be an optional payment. On ships that add automatic tips to your bill, you should be able to ask to have the charges reduced or removed. You can also reward exemplary service by handing a cash tip to any crew member at any time.

As cruise lines court an increasingly international passenger base, some operators are beginning to wonder if a one-size-fits-all service fee is the best option. In a groundbreaking move, P&O Cruises Australia announced recently that it would be ending its policy of automatically adding gratuities to passengers’ onboard accounts.

Royal Caribbean also recently noted that it may reevaluate its policy in order to account for the culturally based tipping differences between its US and European passengers.

For now, however, service charges on mainstream mega-ships are here to stay. When considering a cruise, add the cost of gratuities that will be charged to your shipboard account when you plan your budget.