Cruise lines are always changing their prices here and there, but a new price increase from Norwegian Cruise Line has a lot of people upset. They have decided that it was time to increase their gratuities and cruise fans aren't thrilled about a price increase. This is coming right after Royal Caribbean announced that they would be charging for all Room Service except for the complimentary breakfast.
Norwegian decides to increase their prices.
This increase will be effective on April 1, and the Norwegian Sky will have a bigger increase than other ships.
Right now, they cost $13.50 per person, per day. The new prices will be adjusted to $13.99, a 3.6% increase on all ships except the Sky. Daily gratuities for standard cabins on the Sky are rising to $18.99, a 41% increase. The gratuities for suites are $21.99 for the Sky and $16.99 for the rest of the fleet, up from $15.50 currently.
Now one thing that the Norwegian Sky does have is an open bar, so people do feel like they are getting that when they pay a bit extra for the trip. If you made your booking on Norweign already, you can pre-pay your gratuities and have them at the old rate. That is one option that will help you to save a bit of money. There are ways to get around spending this if you want to do it.
One other thing you can do is once you get home from a Norwegian Cruise, you can call and change your gratuities. You are able to make them lower or higher. A lot of people do this based on the service they received on the trip. Other cruise lines such as Carnival let you do it on the ship by contacting customer service. A lot of people feel like you should have this option as well on Norwegian, but that would make it easier to change it.
Are you shocked to hear that Norwegian Cruise Lines has decided to up their gratuities? Do yo think that this was the right decision? This could make some people think twice about going on a Norwegian Cruise and do something else for vacation instead, but you never know. Sound off in the comments section below on your thoughts.
