Tax/Port Charges

[billydog]

I was looking at 14 Western/Tropical Caribbean leaving Nov 30th next on Nieuw Statendam.    Charges at USD 906 seem out of line on total cruise cost of USD 5018.  Looked at similar cruise on Celebrity and charges far less. Is this an error or am I missing something?

 

Any advise would be appreciated.

[Moriah]

Is this a Panama canal cruise where you do all the locks?  Those are the most expensive "port" charges for some reason. 

[AKJonesy]

10 minutes ago, billydog said:

I was looking at 14 Western/Tropical Caribbean leaving Nov 30th next on Nieuw Statendam.    Charges at USD 906 seem out of line on total cruise cost of USD 5018.  Looked at similar cruise on Celebrity and charges far less. Is this an error or am I missing something?

 

Any advise would be appreciated.

IDK, but this morning I pulled up a couple of HAL cruises on Pacific Coast and Alaska and wowsers...the fees/etc were in some cases as much as the fare. Just sayin.

[CruiserBruce]

24 minutes ago, Moriah said:

Is this a Panama canal cruise where you do all the locks?  Those are the most expensive "port" charges for some reason. 

Canal fees are very expensive...that's why.  3 or 4 hundred thousand dollars (or more) to reserve a assigned transit time, and the actual transit fees. Put that across 2000 people, you can do the math.

[CruiserBruce]

25 minutes ago, billydog said:

I was looking at 14 Western/Tropical Caribbean leaving Nov 30th next on Nieuw Statendam.    Charges at USD 906 seem out of line on total cruise cost of USD 5018.  Looked at similar cruise on Celebrity and charges far less. Is this an error or am I missing something?

 

Any advise would be appreciated.

You can't compare fees for any two ships, even if the ports are exactly the same. Fees can vary by size of ship, number of pax, length of stay, support required, services provided, contracts and other relationships between the cruise line and the port. For example, Carnival built the port at Grand Turk. You can bet they pay less than a Celebrity ship were to dock there.

 

And port fees have zero correlation with the cost of the cruise. The port fees are per person, not a percentage of the cruise fare.

[billydog]

OP here.  This is not a Panama Canal trip so that doesn't seems to be the reason..

[Fouremco]

2 hours ago, billydog said:

I was looking at 14 Western/Tropical Caribbean leaving Nov 30th next on Nieuw Statendam.    Charges at USD 906 seem out of line on total cruise cost of USD 5018.  Looked at similar cruise on Celebrity and charges far less. Is this an error or am I missing something?

 

Any advise would be appreciated.

$452 per person does seem a bit steep, but it has nothing to do with the cost of your cruise. Taxes, Fees and Port Expenses are normally going to be the same whether in an inside cabin or the biggest suite. Moreover, these are costs dictated by others, not by the cruise line. Here's how they are derived:

Your cruise is quite port-intensive with 10 ports to be visited and only 4 sea days.That drives up the cost compared to cruises with a higher percentage of sea days.

 

 

[yerdua]

Also, the bigger the ship, the more passengers for the total port charges to be divided between. A ship carrying 3500 or more passengers to spread the port charges between is going to be less $$ per person than a ship carrying 1400 passengers. The NS carries around 2500 passengers. What is the passenger load of the Celebrity ship you're comparing it to?

Edited February 13 by yerdua

[AKJonesy]

Seems high.  I looked as Princess as a comparison and there was one less port and half the fees.  It is hard to compare, but I have noticed that Holland pacific coast and Alaska are high no matter the ship.  Just sayin.

[twprincessfirsties]

On NS last week where a port was changed and one cancelled we received refunds or differences of the port fees.