flirtallya

Well firstly, I'm not a troll, whatever that is!! My husband has booked our first cruise for my 50th birthday which I will celebrate on the ship. So I understand what you are staying about the many dollar bills but this is what I do when I stay in all-inclusive hotels. Yes, so I know I will see the same person over and over again and that may not be the case on a cruise. I accept that its easier not to complicate things but I would never have divided it up the way you did.

I'm green and I don't know how it works, that's the only reason I am asking and because I saw that article he made me think twice about the whole gratuity thing. BUT first of all I got it wrong because I thought we may have paid for it in advance. The reason for this is because I read that we can pay the gratuities up front to get it at the original rate before the increase on April 1st.

Thanks anyway for your reply and taking the time.

I saw this article about price increases for daily gratuities:

http://us.blastingnews.com/showbiz-tv/2017/03/norwegian-cruise-line-increases-their-gratuity-prices-001556793.html

Norwegian decides to increase their prices.

This increase will be effective on April 1, and the Norwegian Sky will have a bigger increase than other ships. Right now, they cost $13.50 per person, per day. The new prices will be adjusted to $13.99, a 3.6% increase on all ships except the Sky.

Daily gratuities for standard cabins on the Sky are rising to $18.99, a 41% increase. The gratuities for suites are $21.99 for the Sky and $16.99 for the rest of the fleet, up from $15.50 currently.

Now one thing that the Norwegian Sky does have is an open bar, so people do feel like they are getting that when they pay a bit extra for the trip. If you made your booking on Norweign already, you can pre-pay your gratuities and have them at the old rate. That is one option that will help you to save a bit of money. There are ways to get around spending this if you want to do it.

One other thing you can do is once you get home from a Norwegian Cruise, you can call and change your gratuities. You are able to make them lower or higher. A lot of people do this based on the service they received on the trip.

Other cruise lines such as Carnival let you do it on the ship by contacting customer service. A lot of people feel like you should have this option as well on Norwegian, but that would make it easier to change it.

Are you shocked to hear that Norwegian Cruise Lines has decided to up their gratuities? Do yo think that this was the right decision? This could make some people think twice about going on a Norwegian Cruise and do something else for vacation instead, but you never know. Sound off in the comments section below on your thoughts.

Thanks!!

Hi there, I'm going on my first cruise in January with NCL Getaway. I have a problem paying up front for service that I haven't even had, a bit like when a restaurant automatically charges you gratuities and you have an issue with the service or food. I'm not saying I anticipate an issue but I want to give generously to the servers who serve me personally especially if its a regular server at a bar or a favorite restaurant on the ship. Is this unreasonable? Can I opt out of paying this fee in advance? Thanks