In what is becoming a disturbingly regular occurrence, another cruise line is raising its daily gratuity rate. And if history has taught us anything, it’s that when one line makes this move, the others will soon follow.
Norwegian’s New Daily Gratuity
Effective
April 1, 2018, Norwegian Cruise Line will be making what they call a “nominal”
adjustment to the daily service charge each passenger pays. The new rates will
be as follows:
On the
majority of ships within the fleet, the charge for all
cabin
categories except for suites and The Haven will go from $13.99 per day to
$14.50 per person, per day.
On the
majority of ships within the Norwegian fleet, the charge for guests staying in
suites or The Haven will go from $16.99 per person, per day to $17.50 per
person, per day.
On the
Norwegian Sky and Norwegian Sun all-inclusives, the charge for all cabin
categories except suites will go from $18.99 per person per day to $19.99 per
person per day.
On the
Norwegian Sky and Norwegian Sun all-inclusives, the charge for guests staying
in suites will go from $21.99 per person, per day to $22.99 per person, per
day.
“Norwegian’s
discretionary daily service charge makes it easy for guests to provide
gratuities to the onboard staff dedicated to delivery superior guest service
throughout the cruise,” the line said in making this announcement.
When The
Rate Was Last Increased
It was
almost this exact same time last year that rates were last increased across
Norwegian’s fleet. At that time, the gratuity fee for standard cabins across
most of the fleet went from $13.50 per person per day to $13.99 per person per
day.
Cruise lines refer to the charge as
“discretionary” because they generally do allow passengers the option of
removing the tips by paying a visit to guest services. But in the past, the
common response to hikes in the daily gratuities is to wonder why cruise lines
don’t simply fold this charge into the total cost of the cruise to avoid the
inevitable ruffled feathers each time an increase is announced.
