Every rate here, and where it came from
A calculator is only worth the numbers inside it. So we publish all of them: the figure, the page it was read from, the date a person checked it, and whether it has been checked at all.
A rate is sourced or it is null
Every figure is read off the line's own page. We never estimate one, and never carry a figure over from a similar line.
A person confirms it
No line rate reaches a total until someone has read it on the line's own page. Port fee ranges are the one exception, and the calculator marks every range it has not re-read.
Rates expire on a schedule
Lines change rates on announcement dates, not gradually. Anything checked before the most recent quarter boundary (01-01, 04-01, 07-01, 10-01) is treated as stale.
Cruise line gratuities
| Line | What they call it | Standard | Suite | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carnival Cruise Line www.carnival.com/help?topicid=1123 | Gratuities | $17.00 | $19.00 | 2026-08-23 |
| Royal Caribbean www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/onboard-service-gratuity-expense | Daily service gratuity | $18.50 | $21.00 | 2026-08-23 |
| Norwegian Cruise Line www.ncl.com/faq/what-is-ncl-onboard-service-charge | Onboard service charge | $20.00 | $25.00 | 2026-08-23 |
| Holland America Line www.hollandamerica.com/en/us/faq/onboard-cruise-experience/onboard-information/is-there-a-crew-appreciation-charge-gratuity-tip | Crew Appreciation | $18.00 | $20.00 | 2026-08-23 |
| MSC Cruises www.msccruisesusa.com/manage-booking/before-you-go/service-charges | Hotel service charge Priced by region | $17.00 | $23.00 | 2026-08-23 |
Carnival Cruise Line: $17.00 standard, $19.00 suite, per person per day. Assessed on all guests except children under 2, which we do not model, so a party including an infant is overstated by one head. Prepayable at booking, through carnival.com up to two days before sailing, or via a travel agent; otherwise posted automatically to the Sail & Sign account. A separate 20% service charge applies to beverages and specialty dining and is not part of this figure.
Royal Caribbean: $18.50 for all stateroom categories other than suites, $21.00 for suites. Prepayable at booking; otherwise applied automatically to the SeaPass account each day. Adjustable at Guest Relations any time before the morning of disembarkation, and the page notes the charge does not apply where prohibited by law. Separate gratuities apply to purchases and are not part of this figure: 18% on beverages, dining and room service, 20% on spa and salon.
Norwegian Cruise Line: NCL calls this a service charge, not a gratuity. $20.00 for Club Balcony Suite and below, $25.00 for The Haven and Suites, per person per day, for bookings made on or after 2023-01-01. Note that Club Balcony Suite sits in the lower tier despite the name, so our balcony class is the correct mapping for it. Charged to all guests 3 years or older; the under-3 exemption is not modelled, so a party including a toddler is overstated by one head. Prepayable up to 24 hours before sailing and fully refundable if the cruise is cancelled. Hawaii sailings add a 4.275% GET tax on the prepaid charge, which we do not model.
Holland America Line: Holland America calls this Crew Appreciation. $18.00 per guest per day for non-suite staterooms, $20.00 for suites, added automatically to the onboard account. The page states no child or age exemption, so all guests are charged the full rate here. It does not mention prepayment, so that is recorded as unknown rather than assumed. The page also warns the charge is subject to change without notice, which is the case for checking it every season boundary rather than annually.
MSC Cruises: MSC prices by sailing region and publishes one combined tier for Caribbean, Alaska and USA: $17.00 per night, $23.00 in the Yacht Club, for cruises booked from 2026-05-11. Both of our regions in that group carry it. Every other region resolves to unsourced rather than borrowing this figure. In this region children aged 2 and over pay the full adult rate and only under-2s are exempt, so the reduced child pricing MSC applies on Grand Voyages, South Africa and South America does not apply here. Their Mediterranean and North Europe section was empty when read, and their Grand Voyages rates for those waters are quoted in euros, which this schema does not carry. Added automatically to the shipboard account; the page does not mention prepayment.
Port fees and taxes
No line publishes these as a table, so they come off real booking pages. We record the lowest and highest quote we find and store both. An average would be wrong in both directions on the itineraries people actually search, and you cannot recover a range from one later.
| Region | Low | High | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caribbean | $100.00 | $250.00 | Unverified |
| Mexico | $155.54 | $182.01 | Unverified |
| Alaska | $150.00 | $350.00 | Unverified |
| Mediterranean | $138.00 | $198.18 | Unverified |
| Northern Europe | not yet | not yet | No range |
| Transatlantic | not yet | not yet | No range |
| Transpacific | not yet | not yet | No range |
| Panama Canal | not yet | not yet | No range |
4 of 8 regions have no port fee range at all. Pick one in the calculator and it says loudly that port taxes are missing from your total, rather than guessing a figure.
4 regions carry ranges taken from secondary reporting rather than a booking page. The calculator still uses them, and says so on the port fees row, because a range nobody has re-read is still better than no range. They are the next thing to check.