On most cruise lines, of course, gratuities are expected and encouraged. Within this category, gratuities may be paid directly to ship employees in cash, or automatically charged to the passenger's onboard account.   Some cruise lines will allow the prepaying of gratuities so passengers will not have to worry about this at the end of their cruise.

The traditional and most common tipping procedure is to hand cash gratuities to the service staff on the last full day or evening of the cruise. For longer itineraries, tipping on a weekly basis may be the norm. Gratuities are placed in envelopes provided in each stateroom or at the front desk on the ship. The cruise lines that follow this tipping procedure are Celebrity, Clipper, Costa, Cruise West, Crystal, Majestic America, Disney, MSC, Peter Deilmann, Royal Caribbean, Uniworld, Viking River Cruises and Windjammer.

Passengers on most of these lines are encouraged to tip their cabin steward and dining room waiter $3.50 per passenger, per day, and their assistant waiter/busboy should be tipped $2.00 per passenger, per day. (Suggested guidelines are higher for Crystal and Majestic America and lower for MSC and Costa's European cruises.) On most ships, tip the maitre d' or dining room captain about $5 to $10 (total) only if you ask for special favors or tableside service. It is customary to tip bartenders and wine stewards 15%, and many cruise lines automatically add this gratuity to the bar or beverage bill. Gratuities for special services such as spa treatments are left to the discretion of the guest, but 15% is considered typical.

The growth of freestyle dining and alternative restaurants has put pressure on this system. Because passengers dine when and where they wish and do not return night-after-night to the same table, many rightfully resist handing a week's worth of tips to the waiter and assistant waiter they happen to end up with on the last night of the cruise. That's why some cruise lines are opting to automatically charge tips to shipboard accounts and divide the total among all dining room personnel and cabin stewards.

These lines include Carnival, Norwegian, and Princess ($10 per passenger, per day). On the Caronia, Cunard automatically charges £5 per passenger, per day. On the Queen Elizabeth 2 and the Queen Mary 2, Cunard will automatically charge $13 to $15 per passenger, per day depending on cabin category. If a passenger feels that the amount automatically charged to his or her account should be adjusted higher or lower based on the service received, these lines will make that adjustment when the bill is settled at the end of the cruise. These amounts do not cover tips for bartenders and wine stewards, which are generally 15% added to the beverage bill.

A few cruise lines specifically state that gratuities are included in the cruise fare and are neither expected nor encouraged. Orient, Regent, Seabourn and Silversea fall into this category. Even on these lines, many passengers still tip for outstanding service or special favors.

Does any one tipping policy tend to encourage better service than the others?

Some will disagree, but I have not seen a correlation between tipping policy and service level. While many, many things affect service levels, the brochure rate per day of the cruise is probably the single best predictor of service - the higher the price, the better the service.

By knowing the cruise line's tipping policy prior to boarding, the only thing that you will have to worry about at the end of your cruise is returning to reality.

Info courtesy of vacationstogo.com