10 Hidden Costs on Royal Caribbean Cruises to Watch Out For!

When you book your cruise, you might be thinking you got the deal of a lifetime! That’s what we thought when we booked our 7 night all-inclusive Royal Caribbean Cruise for $2000 for the four of us. However, there were a LOT of extra fees that we did not anticipate as first time cruisers. Here are all the hidden costs of Royal Caribbean cruises that you need to watch out for.

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view of the sky bar, pool, and the north star attraction on the deck of ovation of the seas at nighttime.

Table of Contents

Hidden Costs on Royal Caribbean Cruises

1. Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi on a cruise ship can come with a steep price tag. For our cruise with Royal Caribbean in 2024, the price for wireless internet was $26 per day PER PERSON. While I expected to pay for internet, I did not expect that price tag. We went without internet for our cruise. Luckily, the basic connection allowed Dane and I to be able to text each other while on the ship.

Don’t try to rely on your phone having service for an Alaska Cruise. We have Verizon for our phone carrier, and we had no service the entire time. Even when it looked like our phone had service, we didn’t. Occasionally in port, you could get a teeny tiny bit of service, but I wouldn’t expect it.

If you’re really keen on getting wi-fi, but not paying for it, you can try to find a restaurant with wi-fi in port. Additionally, you could pay for wi-fi for one day at sea and not your entire trip!

2. Gratuities

Gratuities were something that I did not really know much about before going on the cruise. We did not pre-pay gratuities before getting on the ship, so we noticed they tacked on a fee of $18 per day PER PERSON. And that included fees for our one and three year old.

We did end up opting out of the gratuities for our kids. We had to go talk to the customer service team at Royal Caribbean, but they removed those fees without a fight. The pre-paid gratuities are supposed to be an easier alternative to tipping with cash on board. However, it does seem that cash tipping is still expected in some situations on board in addition to the gratuity fees. This was one of the most expensive hidden costs of Royal Caribbean cruises that I was not prepared for!

3. Daycare

The daycare was surprisingly reasonable and for our three year old it was actually FREE! This was a great service that we used for our days at sea. The nursery for our one year old did have a fee, but it was a very affordable $6 per hour (with higher fees at certain hours).

Read more about our experience with the Royal Caribbean Nursery and Daycare and we’ve got you covered with Everything You Need to Know About Royal Caribbean With a Baby or Toddler!

4. Excursions

You probably already know that excursions are not included on your cruise bill. However, they can come with a big bill that you might not be expecting. Especially for an Alaska cruise, a lot of the excursions were hundreds of dollars per person with only a small discount for kids.

But, if you want to save money on your Alaska cruise by not booking the cruise’s excursions – check out some of our guides to the Alaska ports. For other ports that we don’t have resources for, I would recommend checking out local tourism boards for the town you are visiting for ideas!

5. Activities on Board

There are a few activities you can do on board the cruise ships that are free, but for most of the activities, you’ll have to pay. Even activities that we thought would be free onboard came with restrictions for certain hours unless you want to pay.

Examples of activities on board that might cost you:

The Spa
Certain Restaurants
North Star* (free during port hours)
Flow Rider
Indoor Skydiving
Bingo

Depending on which ship you cruise on, the activities will be slightly different. But the premise is the same, you will definitely end up spending some extra money on board! There also weren’t a lot of activities for small children which is one of the reasons we don’t recommend cruising with a baby.

In addition to the lack of activities for little kids, here are 17 reasons we won’t be cruising with a baby again!

6. Drinks

You likely already know that drinks are not included in the “all-inclusive” price of your cruise. The drink package including alcoholic beverages was ~$90 per person/day. This could be worth it, if you plan to drink alcohol, specialty coffees, soda, etc. For us, we chose to just buy a drink here and there instead of spending an extra $1000+ on our cruise.

One way to avoid having to pay for drinks is bringing your own drinks on board! Each guest (above 21 years old) can bring one 750 mL bottle of wine or champagne onto the ship.

7. Room Service

Room service is a great addition to your cruise if you want to stay extra cozy in your room for a meal and avoid getting dressed up! However, it’s not a free service with Royal Caribbean. You will pay a room service fee of ~$8 per meal plus a gratuity.

There are certain breakfast items that are complimentary with room service, but it’s a limited menu.

8. Tips

I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on cruise tipping etiquette. However, from what I could gather, it’s still generally expected to tip staff members on board the ship (even if you’ve already paid the gratuities).

We were actually happy to tip select staff members on our cruise because the service was INCREDIBLE. Our room attendant (Arlene!) and our main dining room team (Iwayan and the rest!) were especially amazing and deserved a tip 10x what we could afford.

These extra tips are a good reason to bring extra cash on board.

9. Shuttles

It’s a relatively small expense, but if you’re not part of a paid excursion, you’ll have to pay for a shuttle from the cruise ship port to the downtown area. This will depend on which port you visit, but it’s an expense to think about. Our shuttle costs ranged from $5-15 per person per port.

10. Cruise Port Parking

Cruise port parking needs to be part of your price consideration unless you have someone that is dropping you off at the cruise port and picking you up. We parked at Seattle Cruise Park which ended up costing just shy of $200 for a 7 night cruise.

staircase from the lobby to the next floor up on a royal caribbean cruise

I hope this posts helps you so you won’t be surprised by any hidden costs of Royal Caribbean cruises! If you’re prepared ahead of time and still want to cruise, you’ll be better equipped to budget so you can have the cruise of a lifetime! Let me know in the comments if there are any other hidden costs that you were surprised by.

And if you’re wondering here is our list of What to Pack for an Alaska Cruise with Kids: Tips and Printable PDF Checklist