Mainstream Cruise Line
Norwegian Gratuities
The daily gratuity rate, the bar service charge, and how to prepay or adjust tips on a Norwegian cruise in 2026, verified against the official policy.
Quick answer
Norwegian adds $20 per guest per day in automatic gratuities, rising to $25 in suites. You can prepay them before you sail, and adjust or remove them at guest services on board.
Daily gratuity rate
Standard stateroom
$20 per guest / day
Suite
$25 per guest / day
NCL charges a daily service charge of $20.00 per person per day for Club Balcony Suite and below and $25.00 for The Haven and Suites, applied to all guests age 3 and older on bookings made from January 1, 2023. Guests sailing to Hawaii pay an additional 4.275% prepaid service charge GET tax. Separately, a 20% gratuity and service charge is added to all beverage purchases, spa and salon services, and specialty dining.
Bar service charge
20% on drinks
Norwegian 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
You can prepay the service charge up to 24 hours before sailing, and it is fully refundable if you cancel. It can be adjusted on board: raise any service issue at Guest Services, and if it is not resolved you can adjust the charge. NCL says there is no required or recommended tipping for service rendered to all guests.
Frequently asked questions
How much are gratuities on a Norwegian cruise?
Can I remove or adjust gratuities on Norwegian?
Can I prepay gratuities on Norwegian?
Does Norwegian add a gratuity to drinks?
More on Norwegian
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: each record is read from the company or government page that publishes it (connection times: OAG data via ExpertFlyer), 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 link to the source they were read from and show the date last checked; some cite a travel publication or aggregator rather than the company.
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.
- Norwegian: What is onboard service charge accessed 2026-10-02
If a figure looks wrong, email hello@vient.org, see how we handle corrections, or browse past fixes in our public changelog.
Cruise lines change gratuity rates without notice. Confirm with the line before you sail.