SEATTLE, June 14 (Our Washington Times) — For Washington travelers comparing cruise costs, Holland America Line’s own policy pages show an added daily charge that now runs $18 per guest for non-suite staterooms and $20 per guest for suites.
Those amounts appear in two Holland America FAQ pages reviewed for this story: a booking FAQ updated June 14 and an onboard FAQ updated June 9. Both list the same per-person, per-day rates. Holland America says the fee, called “Crew Appreciation,” is automatically added to a guest’s onboard account.
In its onboard FAQ, the company describes the charge as a daily gratuity “to recognize the many Holland America Line team members who make your cruise feel effortless.” The same page says the money is pooled “to support team members across the ship” in guest-facing jobs and behind-the-scenes roles.
The posted rates matter because they are charged per guest, not per cabin. At Holland America’s current published rates, a couple in a non-suite room would see $36 a day added to the onboard account, or $252 over a seven-night cruise. A couple in a suite would see $40 a day, or $280 over seven nights.
Holland America’s booking FAQ says the rates are subject to change. The official FAQ pages reviewed for this story list the current amounts, but they do not spell out the earlier rates or the date the latest increase began.
Fox News, citing Holland America, reported that the higher rates took effect June 1 and that guests may adjust the daily gratuity amount while onboard. Fox News also quoted a Holland America spokesperson who said “100% goes directly to our shipboard team” and described the charge as “in line with the cruise industry competitive standards.”
A broader comparison across cruise lines is harder to verify from operator records alone. In a February cruise tipping explainer, The Points Guy reported that some cruise lines charge as much as $25 per person per day in automatic gratuities. The materials reviewed for this story did not include an underlying industry dataset for that claim.
No Washington state regulator, port authority or consumer-protection record was included in the materials reviewed for this story, so this report does not quantify complaints from Washington passengers. What the company’s published records do show is narrower: Holland America’s current official policy pages list an automatic daily “Crew Appreciation” charge of $18 per guest for non-suite staterooms and $20 per guest for suites, and the company says those rates are subject to change.
