Mainstream Cruise Line
MSC Gratuities
The daily gratuity rate, the bar service charge, and how to prepay or adjust tips on aMSC cruise in 2026, verified against the official policy.
Quick answer
MSC adds $17 per guest per day in automatic gratuities, rising to $23 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
$23per guest / day
MSC calls it a daily Hotel Service Charge, added automatically per person per day. On Caribbean, Alaska, and US sailings booked from May 2026 it is $17 per night for standard staterooms and $23 for MSC Yacht Club. Guests 2 and older pay the full rate. A separate 18% Bar Service Charge is added to bar purchases on North America itineraries (15% on European and other regions).
Bar service charge
18%on drinks
MSC adds 18% 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
The rate varies by region and cabin class, and Grand Voyages from Europe are priced natively in euros (from EUR 12, about $13, per adult). You can prepay by asking to add it to the cruise price at booking. The daily rate itself cannot be lowered, but the onboard Guest Relations Manager can remove charges if service was unsatisfactory. Bookings made before May 2026 kept the prior $16 standard / $20 Yacht Club rate.
Frequently asked questions
How much are gratuities on a MSC cruise?
Can I remove or adjust gratuities on MSC?
Can I prepay gratuities on MSC?
Does MSC add a gratuity to drinks?
More on MSC
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.
- MSC: Service chargesaccessed 2026-07-08
Cruise lines change gratuity rates without notice. Confirm with the line before you sail.