P&O Cruises announced last week that it is ending the mandatory daily service charges effective May 2019, according to the Express newspaper in London.

Cruise passengers seem to have welcomed the news, thinking that the change will make cruises cheaper for them.

The majority of cruise passengers in the British market seem to have resented

Shortly after the new year, Royal Caribbean will again increase the automatic gratuities which it charges its passengers. Royal Caribbean will hike the automatic gratuities which it adds onto its guests’ accounts (by more than 7%) to $14.50 per person, per day. Passengers who stay in suites will pay even more, $17.50 per person, per

Cruise lines have mastered various way to steal the tips which are intended by passengers to compensate waiters and stateroom attendants.  Carnival’s P&O Cruises implemented a policy this year to withhold forwarding the tips paid by cruise passengers if the crew member’s performance falls below a 92% rating as determined by management. Read Profits Over

BBC News is reporting that a cruise line waiter hanged himself after being accused of stealing money from the tip box on the cruise ship.

The article indicates that an Indian waiter, Sumith Gawas, from Goa, allegedly killed himself in his cabin on the P&O Cruise ship Arcadia while it was docked in Southampton earlier this summer.  Fellow crew