Taxes/Fees range approx. 11% to 51%

[maxxedout2]

Princess Taxes/Fees less?

 

In a fit of fiduciary responsibility I am trying to find cheap flash,

last minute deals from FLL or MIA. You know, cruise more for less.

 

Someone here wrote that the total price = Cruise cost + Taxes/Fees + Port Costs.

 

Confusing online pricing examples I just found. Per person prices.

 

Nights---Line------Cruise Price---Taxes/Fees---Percentage(apprx)

 

5 Nt-----NCL--------$358------------$183--------51%

15 Nt----NCL--------$649------------$298--------46%

4 Nt-----RCI--------$438------------$133---------33%

10 Nt--- Princess---$649-------------$89---------13%

 

My question is, if anybody knows, "Do different cruise lines put Port Costs into their

Cruise Price (Princess) or toss/hide them into Taxes/Fees"?

 

Taxes and Fees in the 50% range sure look to me....well, suspicious.

 

I noticed the per day Taxes/Fees ranges from $20 (longer cruises) to

$36 per day (short cruises).

 

Thanks.

 

:cool::cool:

[Aruba]

My understanding is that port taxes/fees etc are a fixed dollar amount, not a percentage of the cruise price. If that translates into 50% for example, it does not mean that the taxes are high, it means that the rate the cruise line is charging for that particular sailing is incredibly low! The fees are based on the specific ports visited. If you miss a port because of weather, for example, you will receive a credit on your stateroom charge for the tax that you had pre-paid for that specific port.

[georoc01]

You will see the same thing in airfares, sometimes even exceeding 100%.

[cherylandtk]

That Princess amount looks to be just the taxes amount, not including the port fees. By law, cruise pricing has to be advertised with fare + port fees, so it is possible that you are not comparing port fees and taxes on each listing. Some Travel agents list port fees separately (as they are non-commmissionable), some roll them into the fare just as the cruiseline does. LBNL, port fees and taxes do vary (widely) depending upon itinerary and ports visited.

 

eta-if port fees are assessed per ship regardless of size, the per person cost is higher for smaller capacity ships, too.

[Nebr.cruiser]

All cruises I've been researching lately seem to have the port fees included in the cruise fare, with taxes and fees added when you book (or do a fake booking, in my case.)

 

Taxes and fees (and port charges) will be higher, of course, for longer cruises and more ports, or for specialty cruises, like the Panama Canal, which costs ships quite a bit to go through.

 

What I haven't been able to figure out (but haven't really tried) is whether port fees, taxes and fees are exactly the same if two different cruise lines have the exact same itinerary or not--which doesn't seem to happen very often anyway.

[geoherb]

The fees could vary even if ships did nearly identical itineraries because the length of time they'd be in port would not be exactly the same. I don't think you'd ever find two ships with exactly the same itinerary.

[Pam in CA]

Unless you compare itineraries, ports and time in each port, there's no way you can compare port charges and fees side-by-side. Each port has it's own taxes and fees, and a number of variables, including time in port. That's one of the reasons a ship will time it's arrival in port carefully, even if the ship could have docked earlier. On our Crown cruise, we arrived in New York at about 5am but the ship didn't dock until 6am. As the Captain explained, if they threw out their lines before 6am, the ship would be charged an extra $16,000 so they don't do it until 6:05am.

[maxxedout2]

My understanding is that port taxes/fees etc are a fixed dollar amount, not a percentage of the cruise price. If that translates into 50% for example, it does not mean that the taxes are high, it means that the rate the cruise line is charging for that particular sailing is incredibly low!

 

I see your point about low cruise fare if taxes and fees are fixed.

I guess it still boils down to total cost PP, period.

 

Also thanks Geoherb, Pam for mentioning time in port...time is money...

$16,000...ouch.

 

:eek:

[njhorseman]

I see your point about low cruise fare if taxes and fees are fixed.

I guess it still boils down to total cost PP, period.

 

Also thanks Geoherb, Pam for mentioning time in port...time is money...

$16,000...ouch.

 

:eek:

 

To give you an example of the taxes and fees being fixed, I just did two test bookings on the same cruise...so there's no question about the itinerary being the same, the ship being the same, etc. The first booking was for the cheapest cabin on the ship...offered at a price of $499 per person, double occupancy. The second booking was for the most expensive suite on the ship...at a bit over $8,000 per person, double occupancy.

 

The quoted govenment taxes and fees for both bookings was identical, $135.08 per person. For the first booking , the taxes and fees are about 27% of the base fare. For the second, about 1.7%. Same ship, same cruise, same ports, same date.

 

By the way, each cruise line has its own in-house formula that determines how it computes the taxes and fees.

[firefly333]

All cruises I've been researching lately seem to have the port fees included in the cruise fare, with taxes and fees added when you book (or do a fake booking, in my case.)

 

Taxes and fees (and port charges) will be higher, of course, for longer .

 

All cruiselines have to include port charges in the cruisefare. Some TAs insist on breaking it out and telling pax and confusing the issue (because they dont receive commission on this part of the cruisefare) .. but breaking it out just confuses new cruisers.

 

The FL AG did a class action lawsuite mid 1990s and now the port charges HAVE to be included by all cruiselines.

[firefly333]

My understanding is that port taxes/fees etc are a fixed dollar amount, not a percentage of the cruise price. If that translates into 50% for example, it does not mean that the taxes are high, it means that the rate the cruise line is charging for that particular sailing is incredibly low! The fees are based on the specific ports visited. If you miss a port because of weather, for example, you will receive a credit on your stateroom charge for the tax that you had pre-paid for that specific port.

 

I received zero when RCL missed a port.(the private island)

 

Carnival used to give $25 pp back (of the roughly $50ish port charges paid pp), now they give govt taxes on the port charges back.

 

Im betting all cruiselines handle this differently, that you cant make a blanket statement of what someone would get back if a port was missed.

[LHT28]

It is a complex formula for port fees

Port fees are accessed by the number of people on the ship (crew included) what the specific port charges pp

So it can change by the size of the ship the cruise lines guesstimate the amount $$ ahead of time

 

The cruise lines never know if they will be sailing full or not at the time they set the rate (maybe 18 mths in advance)

 

Just check the bottom line ...if it works for you go for it ;)

[Greghouseo]

The fees could vary even if ships did nearly identical itineraries because the length of time they'd be in port would not be exactly the same. I don't think you'd ever find two ships with exactly the same itinerary.

 

Plus tonnage and dimensions might make a difference.

I don't know if they do but I guess it's a possibility

[firefly333]

Im always curious why conquest is $47 for taxes and fees, but RCL for the same exact itinerary, Voyager for instance is $87 .. (approx fees and taxes), but RCL has much higher taxes and fees for the same ports visited, both larger ships, RCL has more tonage, same # of pax approx etc).

 

RCL taxes and fees are huge compared to Carnival's

[GORDONCHICK]

Port charges can also vary if a ship is docked compared to anchored and people have to tender in. Some places like GC, only really small ships can dock and all the others anchor.

[firefly333]

Port charges can also vary if a ship is docked compared to anchored and people have to tender in. Some places like GC, only really small ships can dock and all the others anchor.

 

We got back the actual govt taxes on this port and jamaica which is a port where they dock. Jamaica we got back $9.74 and we got $12.XX for missing Cayman Islands. This was on a cruise I returned from Oct 3rd.

[kitty9]

All cruiselines have to include port charges in the cruisefare. Some TAs insist on breaking it out and telling pax and confusing the issue (because they dont receive commission on this part of the cruisefare) .. but breaking it out just confuses new cruisers.

 

The FL AG did a class action lawsuite mid 1990s and now the port charges HAVE to be included by all cruiselines.

 

Not necessarily true. Crystal does not include taxes or port fees on any of their information. It's something you have to read the small print to see, even on their website. They list a price for their cruise, and then below everything else, they print the extra fees. It is the same for my upcoming cruise on Celebrity. When I got the invoice, it listed the price on the website, and then a separate area for the fees and taxes.

[cruiseco]

Im always curious why conquest is $47 for taxes and fees, but RCL for the same exact itinerary, Voyager for instance is $87 .. (approx fees and taxes), but RCL has much higher taxes and fees for the same ports visited, both larger ships, RCL has more tonage, same # of pax approx etc).

 

RCL taxes and fees are huge compared to Carnival's

 

Cruise lines are free to split out their "taxes and fees" in just about any way they choose.

 

For example, two ships from two cruise lines stop at the same port for the same amount of time on the same day. While there, each will hook up to shore power and also offload garbage. The island's port authorities will charge for both services.

 

Cruise line A feels that these charges are just the normal part of doing business and figure them into the actual cruise fare.

 

Cruise line B says to itself "if we dump these costs into the cruise fare we end up paying the travel agents commission for shore power and garbage handling." Since they don't feel like adding an extra 10% - 15% to the actual cost of these services they put them in the non-commissionable category of "fees".

 

Multiply these decisions by the dozens of costs the cruise lines pay at ports of call during the course of the cruise and you can see why there can be a wide variance in how they show up when comparing cruise lines.

 

The only thing that should be at least a little uniform is actual "taxes." But even that can vary. One port might charge by the ship's tonnage or length rather than or on top of a per person tax. Or a ship calling on a Sunday may have to pay more than a ship calling on a Tuesday if the port personnel are now collecting overtime pay.

[njhorseman]

Not necessarily true. Crystal does not include taxes or port fees on any of their information. It's something you have to read the small print to see, even on their website. They list a price for their cruise, and then below everything else, they print the extra fees. It is the same for my upcoming cruise on Celebrity. When I got the invoice, it listed the price on the website, and then a separate area for the fees and taxes.

 

I believe you're confusing "government departure taxes and fees" , which are stated separately, with port charges, which are included in the base fare. They're two different things.

[cruiseco]

 

The FL AG did a class action lawsuite mid 1990s and now the port charges HAVE to be included by all cruiselines.

 

Just to muddy up the waters, that ruling only applies to the cruise line advertising. Individual travel agencies, on the other hand, can do pretty much whatever they want as long as everything adds up. So you can go to the cruise line's web site, and to three different online TA sites and see the same cruise quoted in four different manners.

[zqvol]

Make sure that what you are looking at is actually taxes and port charges.

 

Most cruise lines have a portion of the fare that they do not pay commission on, that includes actual taxes and port fees, and MAY include other charges.

 

If you are comparing two cruises that stop in the same port the taxes and port fess will always be the same, BUT the non commissionable portion of the fare can vary wildly.

[RoofingPrincess]

I received zero when RCL missed a port.(the private island)

If it's their own private island, then maybe they don't have to pay the local authorities anything to stop there?

[kitty9]

I believe you're confusing "government departure taxes and fees" , which are stated separately, with port charges, which are included in the base fare. They're two different things.

 

No, I'm not confusing the two. In the case with Crystal, they definitely state Port Fees and Taxes, which for most Crystal cruises is usually over $300.

[njhorseman]

No, I'm not confusing the two. In the case with Crystal, they definitely state Port Fees and Taxes, which for most Crystal cruises is usually over $300.

 

You can't book directly with Crystal as they work exclusively through travel agents. Travel agents are permitted to break out the charges in any manner they please, as long as the bottom line is correct. You can't even get an exact price quote from the Crystal Web site...you fill out a form that is forwarded to a travel agency. So the situation with Crystal is not comparable to most other cruise lines.

 

In your post you also said it was true for Celebrity, but it is not...the separately stated amount, when booking directly through Celebrity, is clearly identified as "government departure taxes and fees". Again, if you choose to book through a TA, their invoice may break it out differently.