Mainstream Cruise Line
Norwegian Gratuities
The daily gratuity rate, the bar service charge, and how to prepay or adjust tips on aNorwegian 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
$20per guest / day
Suite
$25per guest / day
NCL calls it a daily onboard service charge rather than a gratuity: $20.00 per person per day for Club Balcony Suite and below (standard staterooms) and $25.00 for The Haven and Suites, charged to all guests age 3 and older. Guests sailing to Hawaii pay a small additional prepaid GET tax. Separately, a 20% beverage service charge applies to individual drink purchases, though it does not apply to More At Sea drink and dining packages.
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. The 20% beverage service charge also applies to spa and specialty dining. NCL says general-service tipping is not required.
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: 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.
- Norwegian: What is onboard service chargeaccessed 2026-07-08
Cruise lines change gratuity rates without notice. Confirm with the line before you sail.