Celebrity gratuities: budget by cabin and review the onboard deadline

Celebrity's current gratuity policy lists daily amounts of $19.50 per guest for Inside, Oceanview and Veranda rooms; $20.50 for Concierge and AquaClass; and $24.50 for The Retreat. When guests do not prepay, the amounts are applied daily to their SeaPass accounts.

The page explicitly calls gratuities optional. It allows guests to adjust or remove them through Guest Relations before the morning of disembarkation and says changes cannot be made after the sailing ends. Both the budget and the timing deserve a place in the cruise plan.

Use the cabin you will book

Find the room category on the quote rather than choosing a daily amount from a general discussion. Count every traveler covered by the booking and the actual cruise length. Recheck if the cabin changes, especially when comparing a standard room with a suite product.

Use our Celebrity Cruises directory and the Celebrity Edge page for ship context. The Celebrity Beyond page helps explore another ship without assuming that its cabin choices all have the same daily amount.

For a hypothetical seven-day cruise with two guests in a Veranda room, $19.50 multiplied by two and seven gives $273. The same simple calculation at $24.50 gives $343 for two guests in The Retreat. These examples illustrate the listed daily amounts, not the complete bill for a particular booking.

Keep purchases separate

The policy also lists an automatic 20 percent gratuity on specified purchases, including beverages, specialty dining, spa services, room service and minibar purchases. It describes that gratuity as optional too. Read the item or package terms rather than assuming that the daily room amount pays every added charge.

Our dining-package planning guide and room-service guide help assess the meals and purchases you expect to use. A package price and the total cost shown at checkout need to be compared on the same basis.

Review the account while onboard

Check the SeaPass account before the last morning. Identify purchases, daily amounts and anything that does not match the confirmation. Asking about an entry while still aboard gives Guest Relations time to explain it under the line's procedure.

If you want an adjustment, use the process and deadline in the current policy. Keep the resulting account statement. Do not assume that an automatic entry is mandatory when the official page says otherwise, or that an adjustment can be made after returning home.

Our Carnival gratuity guide and Norwegian service-charge guide show why the rules must be read for each line. Their amounts and procedures should not be substituted for Celebrity's.

Include the wider trip

Compare the cabin, onboard spending, hotel and transport as one travel budget. Cruise Frog’s port guides can support the ground journey. Lounge Frog’s airport directory helps connect the flight with the right arrival point.

If points fund the hotel, Points Frog’s program directory provides another planning starting point. Keep the cash still due alongside any reward balance so the trip comparison remains realistic.

Save the booking's current terms, including any applicable market or group-booking conditions. A clear budget lets you compare cruises using the same set of costs. Knowing the onboard deadline lets you review the account before the opportunity to request a change has passed.

Sources and date checked

Checked October 14, 2026. Celebrity’s current gratuity policy. Numerical examples are hypothetical, not live quotes.