Perk Score 4/100
Perk Score 8/100
“When the economy wobbles, cruises outperform other travel categories because all-in pricing — one fare covering cabin, meals, and entertainment — makes budgeting predictable. During the 2008–09 recession, cruise passenger volumes actually grew year-over-year even as hotel and airline revenues fell. In 2026, with airfares up nearly 15% year-over-year and hotel rates holding at post-pandemic highs, per-night cruise pricing is unusually competitive.”
— If the Economy Tanks, the Smartest Trip You Can Book Is a Cruise
The word "free" is doing a lot of work in cruise marketing right now.
"Free gratuities." "Free drinks." "Free Wi-Fi." Cruise lines love adding things to the free column because it feels like a deal. And sometimes it is. But "free gratuities" specifically deserves a close look — because whether gratuities are genuinely included in your fare or bundled into a promotional price at a higher base rate matters quite a bit when you're comparing actual costs.
Here's what the data actually shows.
Ten cruise lines include gratuities in the base fare: Azamara, Explora Journeys, HX (Hurtigruten Expeditions), Oceania Cruises, Ponant, Regent Seven Seas, Scenic, Seabourn, Silversea, and Swan Hellenic. The remaining 21 lines charge daily service fees ranging from $14 to $25 per person — on top of the cruise fare. "Free gratuities" promotions from mainstream lines typically fold the cost into the fare rather than eliminating it.
Source: GoCruiseTravel.com — GoCruiseTravel's analysis of 31 cruise lines
Ten cruise lines bake gratuities into the fare. All of them skew toward the premium, luxury, or expedition end of the market.
Fully all-inclusive (gratuities included alongside drinks and more): Regent Seven Seas, Silversea, Seabourn, Azamara, Explora Journeys, Ponant, Scenic, Swan Hellenic.
Gratuities included, drinks partial or not included: Oceania Cruises (gratuities yes, drinks not included by default), HX Hurtigruten Expeditions (gratuities yes, beer and wine at meals included).
The practical effect: if you book Regent Seven Seas, you will not pay a daily service charge for cabin stewards, waitstaff, or bar staff. On a 14-night sailing for two people, that's roughly $700–980 that simply won't appear on your final bill — the same amount you'd pay extra on any mainstream line.
at $25–35/person/day, the typical daily service charge range across mainstream mass-market cruise lines
Source: GoCruiseTravel.com
The major mainstream lines — Royal Caribbean, Carnival, MSC, Norwegian, Princess, Disney, Celebrity, Holland America, Cunard — do not include gratuities in the base fare.
What they charge daily, per person:
Several expedition lines also charge separately: Lindblad ($25/day), Albatros, Aurora Expeditions (~$15/day), Poseidon Expeditions, Quark Expeditions.
You can prepay on most lines, or let the charges accumulate on your shipboard account. Either way, they're not optional. The terminology shifts — "service charges," "daily gratuities," "hotel service fees" — but the math doesn't.
Norwegian Cruise Line's "Free at Sea" promotion is the most prominent example of promotional cruise marketing that sounds like gratuity inclusion but isn't.
NCL's standard Free at Sea gives passengers a choice of five perks: unlimited open bar, specialty dining, Wi-Fi minutes, shore excursion credit, or a 3rd/4th guest discount. Gratuities are not among them. If you specifically want gratuities covered, that requires the paid upgrade — Free at Sea Plus, at $49.99 per person per day — which does waive the daily service charge.
So "free gratuities" with NCL has a cost. It's packaged as a premium add-on, not a deal.
Here's the thing: cruise lines price their promotional fares knowing passengers will select perks. Whether it's Free at Sea or any other wave-season promo, the base fare on a promotional sailing is typically higher than the equivalent non-promotional sailing on the same ship, same dates. The extras are prepaid, not free.
Celebrity Cruises offers the cleanest illustration of this pattern. They ran "Always Included" pricing — bundling gratuities, drinks, and Wi-Fi — until October 2023. Then Celebrity redesigned the package, removed gratuities, and kept the name. It's now called "All Included." The gratuity inclusion didn't make it into the rebrand.
Celebrity renamed their fare tier "All Included." Gratuities are no longer in it.
The test for any promotional deal: pull a clean quote without the promo applied, or compare to a non-promotional sailing on different dates. If the base fare with the deal is materially higher, you're already paying for those gratuities in the rate. Call it a convenience, not a saving.
Viking Ocean Cruises is the most common source of confusion in this space and worth calling out directly.
Viking is expensive. Their itineraries are premium-quality. They include Wi-Fi, beer and wine at meals, a shore excursion at every port, and specialty dining. They do not include gratuities.
On a 15-night Viking sailing for two, that's roughly $450 in gratuities that won't appear in any marketing material — and that most passengers only discover when they read the fine print or get their final statement.
Viking doesn't prominently display a daily gratuity rate the way most lines do. It runs $17/person/day, typically communicated post-booking or visible only in the fine print of the final booking confirmation. For a 15-night sailing for two, that's $510 appearing quietly at checkout.
The comparison that matters: Azamara operates premium itineraries at a similar price point and includes gratuities in the fare. When you're deciding between Viking and Azamara, the Viking fare needs $17/person/day added before the numbers are comparable.
When comparing Viking to Azamara or Oceania, add $17/person/day to Viking's quoted fare before you run the numbers. The itinerary quality may be worth the premium — but compare the actual totals.
The right way to evaluate any cruise deal — gratuities or otherwise — is to calculate the total per-person-per-day cost, fully loaded.
Start with the cruise fare. Add: daily gratuities (if not included), drinks package or per-drink estimate, Wi-Fi (if not included), specialty dining (if you'll use it), and flight costs.
This is exactly the comparison GoCruiseTravel.com is built for — you can filter sailings by what's included in the fare across all 31 cruise lines, so you see the full cost picture before you start doing mental math. The perk inclusions (Wi-Fi, drinks, gratuities, excursions) are listed per cruise line so you can calculate true out-of-pocket.
A sailing listed at $799 that adds $255 in gratuities ($17/day × 15 nights) and $400 in a drinks package is a $1,454 sailing. A sailing listed at $1,100 with gratuities and drinks already included is $1,100. The first fare looked cheaper by $300. It wasn't.
For mainstream-accessible cruising with gratuities genuinely included, Oceania Cruises offers the best entry point: mid-size ships, strong itineraries, fares that don't require a luxury budget. For full all-inclusive with nothing extra on the bill, Regent Seven Seas is the most comprehensive option on the market. In either case, compare GoCruiseTravel.com's per-night totals with perk filters applied before you book.
Ten lines: Azamara, Explora Journeys, HX (Hurtigruten Expeditions), Oceania Cruises, Ponant, Regent Seven Seas, Scenic, Seabourn, Silversea, and Swan Hellenic. All skew toward premium, luxury, or expedition cruising.
Carnival charges ~$16–17/person/day (suites $20–23). Royal Caribbean ~$18–20/day. Norwegian ~$20/day. Celebrity ~$18/day. Holland America ~$18–20/day. Princess ~$16–18/day. Disney ~$14–16/day. MSC ~$17–20/day.
Not exactly. NCL builds promotional fare prices knowing passengers will select the gratuities perk. The base fare on a Free at Sea sailing is typically higher than a non-promotional equivalent, so the gratuities are effectively prepaid in the fare.
No. Despite being a premium line that includes Wi-Fi, beer and wine at meals, and shore excursions, Viking charges $17/person/day in gratuities separately. Always add this when comparing Viking to Azamara or Oceania.
On most lines, pre-paid daily gratuities can technically be adjusted at guest services, though lines discourage it. The amounts go directly to crew — they are not pooled back to the cruise line. Prepaying before sailing usually locks in current rates.
