Disney Cruise Line Raises Pre-Paid Gratuity Recommendations for 2025 Sailings

9 days ago in "Disney Cruise Line"

Posted: Wednesday January 22, 2025 1:07pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney Cruise Line has updated its recommended pre-paid gratuity amounts, effective for all sailings.

Disney Cruise Line Increases Suggested Gratuities

New Gratuity Recommendations

Standard Staterooms: The new recommended gratuity is $16.00 per night per stateroom guest, up from the previous $14.50. This applies to all guests, including infants and children. It covers crew members such as:

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

Concierge Staterooms and Suites: For those in Concierge accommodations, the gratuity has risen to $27.25 per night per stateroom guest, up from the previous $23.50. This includes gratuities for additional staff, such as:

Assistant stateroom host
Concierge Lounge team, in addition to the roles listed for standard staterooms.

Pre-Paid Gratuities Process

Guests can pre-pay these gratuities online by visiting My Reservations in your Disney account and following the steps for Pre-Paid Gratuities. If you booked through a travel agent, contact them to apply this payment.

If you didn’t pre-pay before boarding, Disney will automatically charge the recommended gratuity amount to your onboard account. Should you wish to adjust or remove the gratuity after boarding, visit Guest Services for assistance.

Gratuities Not Included

The following gratuities are not covered by the pre-paid gratuities:

Extras on rotational dining meals (e.g., alcoholic beverages)
Dining at adult-only locations (Remy, Palo, Palo Steakhouse, Enchanté by Chef Arnaud Lallement)
Food and beverages purchased in shops or outdoor eateries
Room service
Port Adventures
Senses Spa & Salon
Any additional services

An 18% gratuity is automatically added to bar, beverage, wine, deck service tabs, and spa services. All gratuities are charged to the onboard account.

Discuss on the Forums

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HauntedPirate19 hours ago

And they don’t really give you a place to express opinions. And the survey MUST be completed on your last day, which may include: a port stop; dinner; a show; packing to have your bags ready and outside your stateroom by 10:30pm. Give me a survey where I can A) Do it within a week of disembarking, and B) Allows me to voice opinions in free text boxes of 5000 characters per category (cruise/value/staff/amentites/ports/et al).

Andrew C21 hours ago

You know what annoys me the most...the dang surveys from ALL the cruise lines, and the fact that if you don't give a perfect score, it hurts the staff. It isn't a real survey then.

HauntedPirate21 hours ago

Which basically proves my point. In days of yore, Disney would have give a notice - "For sailings beginning on xx-xx-xx, gratuities will increase to $--/person/night". But since show has been long since thrown out the door as something they care about, it's just more of the usual bend-over-and-take-it approach graciously given to us under Bob.

cjkeating22 hours ago

I am not aware of notice being given in the past.

Phonedave1 day ago

I have done this myself. I made extensive complaints about my room once on a DCL cruise. It was not the fault of anybody on the ship. I still tipped generously. They all did their best to do what they could.

HauntedPirate1 day ago

So this change was effective immediately and there was no communication from DCL around it. Bad show, but that stopped mattering to them years ago.

jme7 days ago

I think I'd find myself at guest services filing a complaint if service was so poor I felt I needed to remove a tip. In fact, once I had a particularly bad experience at Palo, and I did file a complaint and we ended up having our meal comped. I still left a tip though

TheGenXer7 days ago

Like with all things I’m sure there are exceptions. And I would absolutely remove the tip if service was poor.

Ayla8 days ago

Or you are a seriously horrible human. We went on a river cruise last summer and tipped an additional $400 above our pre-paid gratuities...and they deserved every single dime (and then some!).