Taxes, Fees, Port Expenses & charges

[sweeetness]

When booking a future reservation, onboard,

I was charged a specific amount for "Taxes, Fees, &

Port Expenses & Fees"

Then... the cruise line offered the same exact cruise ( & same sailing date & cabin category )

with a much lower Taxes, Fees, & Port Expenses & Fees.

Does anybody know how this works??

I thought those charges would be consistent 🤔 

Please Please let me know?

 

[LHT28]

What was the bottom line onboard  & what is it now?

Has the cruise been discounted recently?

Call & ask for the lower prices

 

Port fees are a guesstimate   based on  many factors  size of  ship/# of pax/ services needed at the port

 

[kristapb]

That last item "fees" is not spelled out.  NCL comes to mind, where you get charged extra for the beverage package service charges when you get the "free" beverage package.  Could be something like that.  You really need to do a line by line comparison to make sense of it.

[wrmiles]

Who did you book with? The cruise lines aren't allowed to do it, bet some agencies will try to charge the non-commissionable fare separately, usually when quoting some sort of package, and when questioned, will call it something like port charges.

[marco]

Good question!  A while back I asked my TA "when it comes to "fees and taxes", exactly who gets what"? SHe didn't know but suggested I call the line.  I did.  When I asked, the first thing  they wanted to know my name, sailing I was going on, and  booking #.  After being transferred to "whoever", I was told that that was not public information. When it comes to Caribbean sailings, once upon a time we were just tendered in to a small little dock.  Now, the ships dock at what resembles a "mini mall".  I'm guessing WE are paying for that in the form of "port fees".  I think the last Caribbean cruise we took "port taxes and fees" were upwards of $200.  An old ticket I found a while back from a cruise over 40 yrs ago, the port taxes/fees was $12. 

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, marco said:

Good question!  A while back I asked my TA "when it comes to "fees and taxes", exactly who gets what"? SHe didn't know but suggested I call the line.  I did.  When I asked, the first thing  they wanted to know my name, sailing I was going on, and  booking #.  After being transferred to "whoever", I was told that that was not public information. When it comes to Caribbean sailings, once upon a time we were just tendered in to a small little dock.  Now, the ships dock at what resembles a "mini mall".  I'm guessing WE are paying for that in the form of "port fees".  I think the last Caribbean cruise we took "port taxes and fees" were upwards of $200.  An old ticket I found a while back from a cruise over 40 yrs ago, the port taxes/fees was $12. 

And how much would that $12 from 40+ years ago translate into present dollars?

[marco]

8 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

And how much would that $12 from 40+ years ago translate into present dollars?

 According to currency converter, $12 in 1980 would be $25.90 in 2020.  A far cry from $200 !

[Heidi13]

The fees and taxes charged have changed significantly over the past 40 years, with many Governments now charging cost recovery fees for services provided to shipping. The standard fees for docking, line handling, tugs, pilots, etc are still there, but similar to the airline industry, numerous add on are included by various levels of Govt.

 

Port of Vancouver has a lengthy document outlining their fees, which similar to the airport included an infrastructure fee to pay for capital projects. The Feds also charge a Marine Navigation fee to claw back the cost of providing these services. Ship owners must also pay a fee to the local spill response organisation.

 

Many of these were not applicable 40 yrs ago.

[ilikeanswers]

 

6 hours ago, marco said:

Good question!  A while back I asked my TA "when it comes to "fees and taxes", exactly who gets what"? SHe didn't know but suggested I call the line.  I did.  When I asked, the first thing  they wanted to know my name, sailing I was going on, and  booking #.  After being transferred to "whoever", I was told that that was not public information. 

 

This Op Ed from last year lists the prices of something called a "head tax" of some of the Caribbean Islands. Not exactly a full breakdown of taxes and fees plus it seems to be a tiny portion, but hopefully better than nothing🤷‍♀️. Interestingly you really see the price discrepancies between islands:

 

Op-Ed: Rethinking Caribbean Cruise Port Revenues