Automatic gratuities on cruises is a fairly common trend nowadays. It’s an added convenience to guests so there’s one less thing to worry about during your cruise. It also serves as a “job well done” to the dining staff and your stateroom attendant for their hard work and personalized service. Disney Cruise Line created their own process for guests when it comes to automatic gratuities on your cruise.
Who gets automatic gratuities?
On Disney Cruise Line, automatic gratuities are given to these four roles on your cruise:
- Stateroom Host/Hostess – The cast member who cleans and straightens your party’s stateroom(s) during the duration of your cruise.
- Head Server – The cast member who oversees the servers. Think of them like a server supervisor, if you will.
- Main Server – The cast member who handles your food orders.
- Assistant Server – The cast member who handles your drink orders and assists the main server where needed.
How much is automatic gratuities?
The total dollar amount of your automatic gratuities varies depending on the duration of your cruise. Naturally, if you sail a 3-night cruise, your automatic gratuities will be less compared to a 7-night cruise.
The simple formula is $14.50 x (number of guests on the reservation) x (number of nights of the cruise).
On a 4-night cruise, we paid $58 total in automatic gratuities. This was broken down as follows:
- Stateroom Host/Hostess – $19.00
- Head Server – $5.00
- Main Server – $19.00
- Assistant Server – $15.00
Keep in mind, this was the total amount, not a daily amount. We paid $58 in total and the above are the amounts that were distributed from that $58. Also keep in mind, this amount is based on one person in one room. If you have 3 people in one stateroom, then multiply $58 x 3.
How does this automatic gratuities thing work?
Disney Cruise Line makes this process simple! One the last day of your cruise, a letter and 4 envelopes will magically appear in your stateroom.
Here is the front:
Here is the back:
The backside of letter! Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Also please pardon the obvious wear and tear of the above letter. It doesn’t travel well.
And here are the four envelopes:
The letter is perforated, so you can easily seperate each role individually, fold it, and place it into it’s respective envelope. Then, during dinner of your last evening you may personally hand the envelope to the appropriate cast member. You can hand the stateroom attendant their envelope whenever you see them that evening.
What if I want to tip more?
You’re very generous, and the cast members do appreciate your generosity! Should you decide to tip an additional amount, you have two options!
If you have cash (US dollars preferred), you can simply slip the additional amount into the envelope before you hand it to them.
If you don’t have cash, you can go to Guest Services to have additional amounts added to your automatic gratuities, which will then be charged to your stateroom account. A new letter can be printed with slips to place into the corresponding envelopes.
In our experience, giving a cash tip has been the easier or the two methods. The line at Guest Services can be quite long on the last day of the cruise as guests who don’t have a credit card on file need to settle their bill at the Guest Services desk on the last day of the cruise.
Do I have to hand out these envelopes?
Good news for those of us who may find this process slightly awkward and uncomfortable: you don’t have to do it! The handing of the envelope is more of a formality than a necessity. Those four cast members will still receive your automatic gratuity whether you hand them an envelope or not, so it’s completely up to you!
So if you’re just tipping the amount listed in the letter, you don’t have to hand out any envelopes. If you’re tipping an additional amount, you should probably hand out the envelopes.
Easy, right?
That’s automatic gratuities on Disney Cruise Line explained in a nutshell! Hopefully this was easy to understand and follow along with. Disney Cruise Line tries to make this process easy and uncomplicated so there’s no guesswork as to who you have to tip, how much you have to tip, and when you need to hand out these tips.
And of course, don’t forget to tip your bartenders!
Disney Rover 