Alaska Taxes/Fees high compared to Princess

[uksaint]

I did a search...and understand that differing ports impact the fare - but looking at two practically identical itineraries - NCL Pearl or Golden Princess out of Seattle to Alaska (4 pax)- Govt Taxes/Fees approx $440 on Princess but over $700 on NCL. Anyone know why?

 

I know its the final cruise price that counts, but this difference in taxes makes the two lines much closer in price than I first thought. Surely, the taxes and fees should be the same?

[njhorseman]

Many elements go into theses charges: The size of the ship, the number of hours spent in port, the total passenger and crew capacity being among them, and I've probably forgotten one or two. It's not a simple head tax of $X per passenger.

[smeyer418]

Why don't you also tell us the overall cost for the same type room with the taxes and fees. Many times, especially if you are getting this information from different TA's, its the TA that is breaking out the costs differently. Some cruise lines include some of these "fees" in the basic fare, some don't. Are these the exact same ports for the same number of days and hours? otherwise its comparing apples to oranges.

 

Alaska in fact has higher fees and costs than other places.

Including a tax on the cruise ships casino while within Alaska's territorial economic waters(which can extent to 200 miles out) that other places don't do either and a head tax for entering the States waters that other places don't apply.

 

Finally how a cruise line computes its taxes and fees does vary. Some include somethings and some don't. But they also consider some of these issues trade secrets for competitive reasons and you rarely get a complete breakdown. On the cruise lines own sites, all the fees/shared cost/port charges are supposed to be included in the base fare with only government taxes and governmental fees listed separately. TA's for some reason unknown to me are allowed to do this differently(mostly excluding from the base fare what are called NCF- non commission-able fare) but the overall amounts - the final amount are normally pretty much the same after you add everything back(there is some exception to this when the TA has a fare that is not on the cruise lines website)