Disney Cruises makes a significant onboard pricing change

An artist's rendering of the Disney Adventure at sea. Lead DBK.

Technically, daily gratuities are optional on Disney Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and other cruise lines that have highly recommended daily tips.

Passengers don't have to pay them, but if they want to remove them or lower them, they have to make a visit to guest services. That's often not a pleasant experience as lines are usually long and few people like spending their vacations standing in line.

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Some people feel that the cruise lines are simply passing off the responsibility for paying their crew properly to their passengers. If daily gratuities were mandatory or part of the cruise fare, then the cruise lines would have to advertise higher fares.

Doing it as an automatic charge that's not technically mandatory allows the cruise lines to have lower fares. And, while you can remove your daily gratuities few people do as it's seen as a slap in the face to the people taking care of you.

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Every major cruise line that uses this system has increased their daily, per-person gratuity rates. Royal Caribbean just did it for the second time in 12 months, but the increase was just $0.50 in each category.

"$21 per guest, per day will be applied to guests sailing on any suite and $18.50 per guest, per day will be applied to guests sailing on all other stateroom categories," the cruise line shared on its website.

Disney Cruise Line has raised one gratuity rate, but it's a much bigger increase.

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Disney hikes a key gratuity rate

Disney Cruises explains its gratuity policy on its website:

"It is customary to give gratuities in recognition of exceptional service, which you’ll receive in abundance aboard the ship. We recommend a gratuity amount of $14.50 USD per night, per stateroom guest, including infants and children," the cruise line shared.

Those gratuities can be prepaid or charged to your ship account daily. In either case, the cruise line considers them "pre-paid" as long as a passenger does not opt out

Pre-paid gratuities are distributed to the crew members who take care of passengers in the following roles:

• Dining room server
• Dining room assistant server
• Dining room head server
• Stateroom host

"Guests staying in Concierge Staterooms and Suites are recommended a gratuity amount of $23.50 USD per night, per stateroom guest. This includes gratuity for the assistant stateroom host, who services the Concierge accommodations, and the Concierge Lounge team, in addition to the positions listed above," the cruise line added.

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That's up from a previous rate of $15.50 per day, a somewhat shocking increase.

Disney passengers could opt to pay a lower rate or opt out of the gratuities altogether. This increase would add $224 to the bill for a family of four on a 7-day sailing.

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