A major cruise line is planning to raise service charges anywhere from $4-5 per day per person on most cabins when booking cruises on one of their cruise ships in 2023 and beyond.
Norwegian Cruise Line announced that they will be raising their onboard service charges. The onboard service charge, or daily gratuities as some cruise lines call it, is a daily charge per person that get split up between complimentary restaurant staff, stateroom stewards and behind-the-scenes support staff.
Starting on January 1, 2023, Norwegian Cruise Line is raising most of their daily gratuities by 25%. For guests staying in a Club Balcony Suites or below (balcony, oceanview, inside etc), daily service charges will be now be $20 per day, up from $16 per day. (Club Balcony Suites were $18 per day)
For guests staying in suites and in The Haven, daily service charges will be $25 per day, up from the current price of $20 per day. All service charges are priced per day, per guest.
These new rates will apply to cruises that are booked on or after January 1, 2023. For bookings made before this date, you will be able to prepay your daily service charges at the current rate before you cruise. ($20 for The Haven and suites, $18 for Club Balcony Suites, and $16 for all other cabins)
You can prepay your service charges up until 24 hours before sailing. If you have to cancel your cruise, they are 100% refundable.
Eight months ago, NCL last raised their daily service charges by 50 cents a day for most cabins and $1.50 per day for The Haven.