Carnival Cruise Line Explains Its New Tipping Policies

Carnival Cruise Line has a whole new tipping and gratuity system, and its passengers need to take heed.

Come Cruise With Me reports that major cruise lines typically include tipping in their employee remuneration packages. It functions similarly to American eateries in many aspects. However, it is not quite the same.

Carnival Cruise Line, for its part, recently described the operation of its daily tips to the outlet. Cruisers’ gratuities are split between “other members of the onboard team who work behind the scenes to enhance your overall cruise experience” and the crew members they interact with, such as stateroom attendants, dining staff, and culinary services personnel.

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“It is customary for our guests to extend gratuities to the shipboard staff in appreciation for their hard work and exceptional service,” Carnival Cruise Line said. “Applying this charge automatically streamlines the recognition process and ensures our crew will share in your generosity. To help you plan, we have provided the recommended on-board gratuities guidelines.”

The cruise line’s recommendation for tips is $16 per person, per day, for standard staterooms and $18 per person, per day, for suites. However, these tips aren’t mandatory, and according to the outlet, guests may be able to “remove them by going to the customer-service desk.” Passengers often do this and hand out tips themselves to workers they personally interact with. However, others argue that this approach overlooks service workers behind the scenes who contribute to guests’ experiences.

Carnival Cruise Line Also Announced Changes to 200 Sailings

Carnival Cruise Line recently announced modifications to departure times for nearly 200 sailings. TheStreet claims that these affect sailings on two specific ships in the company’s fleet, Carnival Pride and Carnival Spirit.

Currently, Carnival Pride sails from Baltimore, Maryland, and provides a variety of year-round itineraries. Carnival Spirit, Pride’s sister ship, however, leaves from Seattle, Washington, or Mobile, Alabama, depending on the season.

In both cases, Carnival announced that several sailings will now depart 30 minutes earlier than planned.

The more than 100 sailings that are affected on Carnival Pride include every seven-night cruise from December 2024 to April 2027. Instead of leaving Baltimore at 5 p.m., the ship will now leave at 4:30 p.m.

Around 100 Carnival Spirit cruises from December 2024 to March 2027 will also be impacted. Instead of setting sail at 4 p.m., they will now do so at 3:30 p.m. It’s unclear which sailings will be impacted because not all itineraries are made public that long in advance, but some — like the ship’s transatlantic journey in March 2025 — aren’t on the list.