Mainstream Cruise Line
Carnival Gratuities
The daily gratuity rate, the bar service charge, and how to prepay or adjust tips on aCarnival cruise in 2026, verified against the official policy.
Quick answer
Carnival adds $17 per guest per day in automatic gratuities, rising to $19 in suites. You can prepay them before you sail, and adjust or remove them at guest services on board.
Daily gratuity rate
Standard stateroom
$17per guest / day
Suite
$19per guest / day
Carnival's recommended gratuities are $17.00 per person per day for standard staterooms and $19.00 for suites, charged to every guest except children under 2 and regardless of dining choice. A separate 20% service charge is added to bar and beverage purchases, specialty dining fees, and some main dining upsells.
Bar service charge
20%on drinks
Carnival adds 20% automatically to bar and beverage purchases, on top of the daily gratuity.
Prepaying and adjusting
- Can prepay before sailing
- Yes
- Can adjust or remove on board
- Yes
Prepay when booking, on carnival.com up to two days before sailing, or through a travel agent. If not prepaid, the daily amount posts to your Sail & Sign account during the cruise. You may adjust gratuities at Guest Services while on board; once you disembark, the posted amount is final.
Frequently asked questions
How much are gratuities on a Carnival cruise?
Can I remove or adjust gratuities on Carnival?
Can I prepay gratuities on Carnival?
Does Carnival add a gratuity to drinks?
More on Carnival
Gratuities on other cruise lines
Travel data researcher and publisher
Caden Sorenson runs Travel Vient, an independent travel research site built on a verified database of airline baggage rules, airport connection times, cruise line policies, and eSIM plans. He built the verification pipeline behind it: every figure is read from the airline, airport, cruise line, or government page that publishes it, stored with that source link and the sentence it came from, and re-checked on a schedule. He is a senior staff engineer with 15+ years building software, a Computer Science graduate of Utah State University, and based in Logan, Utah.
Figures on this page were read from the official source they link to and show the date they were last checked.
Sources
Facts, costs, and travel details in this guide were verified against the following sources. See our research methodology for how we vet and update data.
- Carnival: Helpaccessed 2026-07-08
Cruise lines change gratuity rates without notice. Confirm with the line before you sail.