Who Pays Port Charges for Princess Cays ?????

[1 HappyCruiser]

Whether you booked through a regular TA or a discount TA, Princess gets the same revenue from the booking.

I would assume so. There should be no reason any booking agent gets preferential treatment. At this point it's a matter of who receives back the refund- the TA who discounted the trip or the people who paid it directly to Princess at the time of booking.

 

Any refund for missing a port should have been credited to your onboard account.

 

That's exactly what I told 6 different people at the pass services desk & was given the same hazy explanation each time.

 

• It depended on the time the trip was booked.
  
• It could be that the port charges were discounted by a TA and saving were passed on to me in which case the TA is the one who gets the refund.
  
  

[nyc12345]

I was on this cruise too and I did book my cruise through a discount TA. I got my refund of $18 p/p for missing this port.

 

Unless your TA sent less money than required to Princess, there's no reason why you would not get the refund. I don't think that's possible that your TA can decide not to pay the tax on your behalf.

 

What they can do is use part of their commission to cover for the discount, but the tax portion has to be paid...

[WeBeGone]

I can say that in 10 years of booking clients on Princess ships, and giving discounts and OBSs, etc, never, ever, have I received back a refunded port charge. Those are refunded back to the on board folio.

[PescadoAmarillo]

1 Happy-did you contact your TA yesterday, and, if so, did you receive an answer?

[WVBill]

WVBill,

We were on the March 25th Ruby cruise too and the port charges refund for Princess Cays was on our shipboard statement before we disembarked! It ended up being almost $25 per person.

Diane

Oh, and we booked with a TA

 

Correcting myself - was looking at a copy of my on-board folio that I had gotten early on the 30th rather than the final statement.

 

Yes, I do have a credit for $18.67 on my folio - listed as Gov't Fee Refund at 15:38 on 30 Mar. I booked directly with Princess.

 

Bill

[1 HappyCruiser]

1 Happy-did you contact your TA yesterday, and, if so, did you receive an answer?

 

I talked to my TA today & found out that yes, we paid the port charges of $350 P/P just like everyone else plus government tax & fees of $138.41 P/P. I've sent an email to Princess for an explanation of just what occurred & I'm waiting for a reply.

Right now the only thing I can thing of is that the port charges were not refunded to anyone aboard the ship since we spent an additional 4 hours spent in Curacao which I'm sure cost them additional money. The $18 received by many people was probably a refund of taxes which I understand can vary depending on the when the cruise was booked. (?) It was identified as Government Tax refund on their statements and I suppose there was an increase after the time we booked and since I did not have to pay it - therefore no refund. If my thinking is correct Princess should confirm it in writing. I have no idea what the people who received the $18 refund paid in taxes but at this point I suppose it was $18 P/P more than mine. My assumption that the $18 refund was a port charge was not correct and if the people at the PSD had only explained that the $18 refund was not a port charge reimbursement it would have ended there.

[PescadoAmarillo]

I talked to my TA today & found out that yes, we paid the port charges of $350 P/P just like everyone else plus government tax & fees of $138.41 P/P. I've sent an email to Princess for an explanation of just what occurred & I'm waiting for a reply.

Right now the only thing I can thing of is that the port charges were not refunded to anyone aboard the ship since we spent an additional 4 hours spent in Curacao which I'm sure cost them additional money. The $18 received by many people was probably a refund of taxes which I understand can vary depending on the when the cruise was booked. (?) It was identified as Government Tax refund on their statements and I suppose there was an increase after the time we booked and since I did not have to pay it - therefore no refund. If my thinking is correct Princess should confirm it in writing. I have no idea what the people who received the $18 refund paid in taxes but at this point I suppose it was $18 P/P more than mine. My assumption that the $18 refund was a port charge was not correct and if the people at the PSD had only explained that the $18 refund was not a port charge reimbursement it would have ended there.

That makes some sense. We just yesterday booked for 2013-2014 and the taxes/fees were a flat $115 per person regardless of the Emerald itinerary (eastern or southern Caribbean). These are high compared to what they have been this year, so I assume that Princess just made an approximation - a high one - to cover themselves and we'll see refunds later. However, you still should have seen a refund for missing Princess Cays. The fact that the ship stayed longer than planned in Curacao should not be charged to you (I wouldn't think).

[1 HappyCruiser]

That makes some sense. We just yesterday booked for 2013-2014 and the taxes/fees were a flat $115 per person regardless of the Emerald itinerary (eastern or southern Caribbean). These are high compared to what they have been this year, so I assume that Princess just made an approximation - a high one - to cover themselves and we'll see refunds later. However, you still should have seen a refund for missing Princess Cays. The fact that the ship stayed longer than planned in Curacao should not be charged to you (I wouldn't think).

 

Nope. No refund for port charges for missing Princess Cays and like I posted before $18 it was identified as a government Tax refund. It's not that upsetting not to get port charges back since we did have 4 extra hours in Curacao but if we didn't get anything in exchange I might have been more disappointed.

Princess has my request for an explanation & has assigned to to a specific person so I might here an answer some day.