Un-Cruise Adventures extreme tipping?

Hello, just booking 1st Inside Passage cruise. 84-px ship Safari Endeavour, 7 nights. Fares per-person are $5K to $6K for most cabins. Crew size about 25.

Company literature suggests:

"Recommended gratuities for excellent service on the cruise are 5-10% of the fare. Gratuities are shared equally by all the crew."

I don't have vast cruising experience, and I understand it's a SMALL ship, but a quick calculation is, at 10%, a tip of $1500 per crew member for the whole set of passengers.

Any experience with this unusually high % ?

Thank you.

5-10% is reasonable. We usually choose inside cabins on the main lines and can get them for $400-$700 for a week. Auto tips are $11.50/day/person. At $400 we’re providing a tip of about 20%. That seems more of an issue.

We tipped 5% on Un-Cruise a few years ago at the end of a two-week trip. Yes, it’s a big hunk of change but only 5% vs. the 20% we’ve paid while on the main lines.

We went with UnCruise in 2013, and thought the recommended 10% gratuity was fine. The crew really do go above and beyond - at least that was our experience. And, I doubt they are averaging $1500 per trip (using your example), since there are probably a lot of people who don't tip, or who leave lesser amounts.

I also agree that the amount is not out of line with what we tip on a larger cruise ship.

I find the comment that "5-10% is reasonable" interesting, at best. I'm not sure that paying $80 in tips for a week compared to $500 makes the $500 a "bargain as it is only 5%. The $1500/per crew member is not a far off estimate. If the boat can be chartered for $466K, then 10% is $46.6K, divided by 25 is $1864. Not every crew member is making minimum wage so they are really getting quite a compensation even at 5%.

When I travelled a few years back, the 'suggestion' was 5-10% of the cruise fare, which was $4995 at the time. Most cruise lines suggest something in the order of $10/person/day which would make a tip of $70 on a week-long trip. But even 5% of the cruise fare would equate to $250, which IMHO is excessive. The trip was great, no complaints, but the pressure to leave a huge tip left a sour taste.

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