Princess adds a daily charge per guest for the crew, called Crew Appreciation, and a separate 20% service charge on most things you buy on board. It’s $18 to $20 per person per day depending on the cabin, charged in US dollars.
Why You Can’t Find It
Search your onboard account or Manage Booking for gratuities or a service charge and you won’t find the daily one. It’s listed as Crew Appreciation, and that’s the charge people mean when they ask about Princess gratuities.
Princess describes it as a daily amount for each guest, added automatically, recognising crew across a range of departments. Many of those crew rotate between ships, which is why the money isn’t tied to the steward who looks after your cabin.
The Three Rates
The amount depends on the cabin you booked, and the gap between the tiers is small. The rates are set in US dollars, so what you pay in pounds moves with the exchange rate.
- $18.00 per guest, per day. All other stateroom types, which covers interior, oceanview and balcony cabins.
- $19.00 per guest, per day. Mini suites, cabanas and the Reserve Collection.
- $20.00 per guest, per day. Suites, the top rate, and $2 a day more than a standard cabin.
Every figure is charged for each person in the cabin, for every day of the voyage.
The Separate 20%
The second charge is a nonrefundable 20% service charge, added automatically to optional purchases.
It covers drinks, dining room and speciality dining, private group functions, and other optional products, services and amenities that aren’t included in the fare.
A speciality dinner listed at $40 comes to $48 once the service charge is added, so pricing anything on board at 120% gives a truer budget.
Where the Money Goes
Both charges go into one pool for the whole fleet, not to the individual serving you or even to your ship.
Princess distributes the pool through the year as compensation and bonuses to crew in the bar, dining, entertainment, housekeeping, guest services, galley and onboard revenue teams, so it reaches people you never meet as well as the ones who bring your dinner.
- The pool is taken net of credit card transaction fees.
- Spa service charges are the exception and are not pooled across the fleet.
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Changing the Amount
Crew Appreciation can be adjusted at your discretion at any point during the cruise, up to the moment you settle your onboard account before disembarking. After that, the payment is final and nonrefundable, and there’s no adjusting it once you’ve left the ship.
The discretion applies to the daily Crew Appreciation only. The 20% service charge on purchases is nonrefundable.
Princess says its onboard team can deal with concerns during the cruise, so raising a problem early gives it a chance to be fixed before the last day.
Paying It Upfront
Crew Appreciation can be prepaid through Manage Booking instead of building up daily on board. The daily rate is the same either way, so prepaying doesn’t save anything, but it takes a known cost off the final bill.
Fares That Bundle It In
Some fares include the Crew Appreciation and service charges in the price, which is the usual reason two people quote different figures for the same sailing. Princess Plus and Premier both include the daily Crew Appreciation.
Where a package covers them, the charges are bundled into the fare and nothing further is added to your onboard account for them. They’re nonrefundable from the point of purchase, except as part of a fare refund under the cancellation policy.
Whether your fare includes these charges depends on what you booked, and the booking confirmation says which.
What It Adds Up To
Neither charge appears in the headline fare, so it helps to add them up before booking.
The sum is the daily rate, times the nights, times the number of people, plus 20% on anything you already expect to buy on board. For a couple in a balcony cabin for a week, Crew Appreciation alone is $252, and that’s before the first drink or sea day lunch in a speciality restaurant.
Frequently Asked Questions
Princess calls it Crew Appreciation. It’s $18.00 per guest per day for standard cabins, $19.00 for mini suites, cabanas and the Reserve Collection, and $20.00 for suites, charged in US dollars.
It’s the daily charge other lines call gratuities. Princess adds it automatically to your onboard account for each guest, and it goes into a fleetwide pool for the crew.
Yes. A nonrefundable 20% service charge is added to optional purchases including drinks, dining room and speciality dining, and private group functions.
You have complete discretion to adjust it, at any point up to the moment you settle your onboard account before disembarking. After that the payment is final and nonrefundable.
Per person, for every day of the voyage. Two people in a standard cabin are charged $36 a day between them.
Yes, through Manage Booking. The daily rate is the same, but it comes off the onboard account.
There is a regional exemption. The charge does not apply to residents of Australia or New Zealand on voyages departing from those regions.
It is pooled across the fleet and distributed through the year as compensation and bonuses to bar, dining, entertainment, housekeeping, guest services, galley and onboard revenue crew. Spa service charges are not pooled fleetwide.
The daily Crew Appreciation and the 20% on purchases are separate, and only the first can be adjusted on board.
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