The usual rubbish whenever the question of tipping comes up. You only have to read the answers so far to see just how ridiculous this tipping business really is! Trite phrases such as "For your conenience" and "part of the tradition of cruising" appear with monotonous regularity. Well I've got news for you - I am an adult and it is definitely NOT convenient for me to be told how much and to who I should give a tip before I even board the ship. No-one has yet answered a question I always ask - Is it just the two or three people on the ship that you tip that are poorly paid. Of course not! The guy who cleans the toilets helps to make your holiday experience pleasuable but when does he ever get a tip? The answer is simple - there are several cruise lines in which tips are prepaid - book with those if you don't like the nonsensical ritual of tipping at the end of each cruise.

As previously stated you are not allowed to remove this charge...I would just add that when we went earlier this year if your cruise was longer than 8 days the charge was reduced to 4.50 euros per day per person. In our opinion this should just be added to the cost of the cruise which was how we dealt with it...I have to say that the staff on the cruise we went on did not give good service (apart from our cabin steward and waitress) and we felt that if there was an incentive i.e. optional tips, perhaps they would have tried a bit harder!!!!

For your convenience Costa has introduced an automatic tipping system, so instead of worrying how much and when to tip, an amount of 6 Euro, or US$8 per person per day will be added to your on board account. mandatory service charge for all passengers that is added to the cruise account and cannot be removed or changed. Costa UK managing director Marco Rosa said the fixed charge was brought in because unions were unhappy with the optional tipping system. “Each page in the brochure has a table that shows clearly the cost of the service charge so we are upfront about it.” Although the charge is compulsory, Rosa said Costa did not want to include it in the cruise price as it would make the line uncompetitive. It would also be confusing for the trade as Costa does not pay commission on the charge. So the answer is 'No' - you cannot remove the tips on Costa.

Yes you can opt out, but tipping is part of the tradition of cruising where you reward those who really look after you. We nowadays pay before we even join the ship and never had any poor service yet but if the occassion did arise then you can deal with that issue with the Purser's office, but have to agree all the staff take exceptional good care of us and they were worth every penny/dollar/euro.

costa do not let you opt out of the auto tip.