Carnival Cruises launches a new program giving stickers for prepaying tips. Then passengers claim they know the real reason for the label

Tipping culture is difficult to escape, and you expect to see endless tipping screens in certain places, especially on cruise ships. While tipping has already been an option for various services available on Carnival Cruises, the cruise line has rolled out a new gratuity feature.

According to Cruise Critic, Carnival is giving stickers to passengers who prepay their daily gratuities. The basics of this program are that passengers are encouraged to prepay daily gratuities for their cruise, and if they do, then they will get a “Crew Love” sticker.

For passengers like Tony (@lalidoloca), the program feels like a way to coerce passengers into paying more in tips and tipping ahead of time for the sake of receiving better treatment from the staff. Of course, prepaying your gratuity doesn’t spare you from the tipping screens during your cruise.

Tony shares what he knows about the program and whether his cruise is part of it

On TikTok, Tony is a frequent cruise-goer who addressed some questions about the new program, which he says isn’t on every cruise ship yet, and he happened to be on a cruise that wasn’t testing the idea of prepaying tips. Apparently, for the cruises that are part of the program, prepaying your tips is supposed to give you a sticker that you put on a card, which you can show as proof that you already paid gratuity.

Tony didn’t get a sticker on his card. He went on to talk about his experience with tipping on this particular cruise, and he seems to be quite familiar with cruises, as his card says that he’s sailed 132 with Carnival. According to Tony, an email from Carnival said that the program is being tested and his cruise appeared to not be part of the test.

Tony explained that he has a drink package for this cruise, and he got a drink from the coffee bar, one from a casino, and a third from a bar. He claims that each time, he got a paper ticket with a line for gratuity, which prompted him to say that gratuity is alive and well.

Carnival released a statement about the new program

A spokesperson for Carnival said, “The Carnival gratuity program is an important way guests recognize our hardworking team members and ensure that gratuities are shared among both guest-facing and behind-the-scenes crew who make great vacations possible.”

They continued with, “Our team members provide great service to every guest. The ‘Crew Love’ stickers and thank-you notes are simply a way to let our crew know that a guest has prepaid their gratuities, while giving those guests a little recognition for their generosity.”

Responses to the idea of the program appeared both on Tony’s TikTok and in the Cruise Critic community. Some replies expressed displeasure about more tipping and tipping culture in general. Others wondered why they needed a sticker for proof and why information about prepayments couldn’t just show up as part of their details.

The biggest concern seemed to be how much of the prepaid tips make it to the staff working on the cruise, as one comment on Tony’s video claimed, “Tips don’t go to the staff is what people were saying.”

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to know how your tip money is allocated, as one server shared that she doesn’t get the full tip amount tables leave for her. Carnival doesn’t seem to break down how prepaid tips are shared, but the company stated that it’ll be adjusting the program based on feedback.

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