taxes and port fees

I was about to book a 17 day cruise that leaves San Francisco goes thru the Panama canal and ends up in Ft Lauderdale. They wanted 400 dollars per person for taxes and port fees. This seems extreme to me compared to other cruises I have done.:mad:

It is because the fee to transit the Canal runs to about $300,000 per ship. Somebody has to pay that.

Yes, that makes sense Bruce, This cruise leaves tomorrow, I was going jump at the price $999 inside but those fees would be 800 for two so I changed my mind

Passenger vessels in excess of 30,000 tons (PC/UMS), known popularly as cruise ships, pay a rate based on the number of berths, that is, the number of passengers that can be accommodated in permanent beds. The per-berth charge is currently $92 for unoccupied berths and $115 for occupied berths.

Guess who pays that fee?

Everyone should do a full Panama Canal transit at least once (IMO).

Everyone should do a full Panama Canal transit at least once (IMO).

Agree totally.

Buck Turgidson, if you canceled because of the port fees and taxes, I think you missed a great opportunity. The port taxes and fees aren't going down, and can't be discounted. The cruise fare you were offered was pretty darn nice.

Agree totally.

 

Buck Turgidson, if you canceled because of the port fees and taxes, I think you missed a great opportunity. The port taxes and fees aren't going down, and can't be discounted. The cruise fare you were offered was pretty darn nice.

Yes, and the ship sails tomorrow:confused:

Plenty of time! :D

I questioned port taxes and fees once. I just wanted to know who gets what. TA said "Call and ask the line" I did. They wanted to know my name, booking #, who my TA was and then told me "that is not public information". Go figure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well somebody gotta pay for that brand spanking new, 25 years in the making, $100 million dollar, cruise terminal in San Francisco :p;)

Yes, and the ship sails tomorrow:confused:

And you were thinking about it, but indicated you were interested, but declined due to port taxes and fees. I noted the imminent sailing, but figured you had it worked out, as wild as it sounded.

And you were thinking about it, but indicated you were interested, but declined due to port taxes and fees. I noted the imminent sailing, but figured you had it worked out, as wild as it sounded.

It's worked out, the canal will have to wait, I will sail at a later date.:D

It has been 100 years.

Look at this interesting article :

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/11034282/Whats-50-miles-long-carries-3pc-of-world-trade-and-turns-100-today.html

The thing is, if you want to cruise the canal, you will have to pay the hefty fee, no matter what. It's not going down, in fact if the new canal ever gets done, I suspect it will be higher.

We've done the canal twice--loved the experience both times, even my husband who was a big skeptic--he was sure he'd be bored silly. Not!

Under a $1K for a 17 day cruise????? And you passed? You're not going to find that great a deal again. If we lived in Calif. we would have jumped on that deal, regardless of the port fees.

I questioned port taxes and fees once. I just wanted to know who gets what. TA said "Call and ask the line" I did. They wanted to know my name, booking #, who my TA was and then told me "that is not public information". Go figure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Perhaps not a very accommodating answer but the questions the cruise line asked were likely to determine the booking source. As it was a TA, they probably didn't feel they could answer as the TA "owns" their bookings and is responsible for all aspects and questions regarding it.

The TA should have provided that information for you. Ours has in the past with a similar question. They certainly understand that part of cruising or should have been able to find out for you rather than tell you to call the cruise line directly. Not sure why "that is not public information" was the response you received, however. Maybe a poorly communicated way to say that is not something they can provide directly?

That being said - as you probably are aware - port taxes and fees are not set or controlled by the cruise line and are assessed by the country with each port of call, which would include the Panama Canal transit. And it is received by the country of the port of call.

What's to stop a cruise line from adding on to what they call "port fees" when they aren't transparent?

What's to stop a cruise line from adding on to what they call "port fees" when they aren't transparent?

Yep

Two options... cruise or don't cruise. We have to accept the fee if we choose the first.

What's to stop a cruise line from adding on to what they call "port fees" when they aren't transparent?

On every booking we make, port taxes and fees are shown in total separately from the stateroom rates - the total of the two equals the total per person rate paid. If you are suggesting that they should further breakdown the individual port amounts, etc., I guess that could theoretically be done.

But how would that assure that each charge did not have something additional added to it, unless that information would come directly from the ports of call. Not sure how practical - or necessary - it would be to do that.

As example, our upcoming Freedom cruise has four ports of call and the total port taxes and fees is $117 pp., which does not seem too significant spread over four ports. Not sure how much room in that there would be to add on to as certainly there are legitimate port charges from each port of call and required taxes comprising that.

Unless it is an industry wide practice with the same amounts being added in, one way to confirm the legitimacy of these charges would be to do comparative bookings with different cruise lines with similar itineraries to see how these charges compare.

But that to me seems quite unnecessary.

Panama Canal Full Transit was hands down the best cruise we have ever taken!

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What's to stop a cruise line from adding on to what they call "port fees" when they aren't transparent?

There have been a number of lawsuits and related actions that now require cruise lines to identify port charges and government taxes as such.

What's to stop a cruise line from adding on to what they call "port fees" when they aren't transparent?

There have been a number of lawsuits and related actions that now require cruise lines to identify port charges and government taxes as such.

Hi,

I guess there has to be some 'trust' towards the company that I will be cruising on one of their ship ...... or I might not want to cruise at all with them...... if I do not trust them. I know that profit is what gudes them.

I read one of long posts posted by (I think) BruceMuzz in response to some questions about port charges ...... the port charges depend on so many factors and can change rapidly even for the same ship and the same ports. For example my port charges for my Vision cruise in dec are different if I book now from when I booked back in Jan.

For example my port charges for my Vision cruise in dec are different if I book now from when I booked back in Jan.

In my experience, port charges are subject to change after booking, even after final payment. If you're doing a Panama Canal cruise changes in the port charges can be significant in the 9 months between booking and sailing.

In my case, once the booking was made - they charged me the port/tax, whatever it was in effect on the day of my booking (my sailing 87 dol) and they did not changed it ( so far -paid in full ) to the new rate ( which today is 113 dol) ..... same sailing.

I did call them about a price drop in cruise fare ( two weeks ago) .... they took care of the price drop ( before final) and left my port/tax alone.

I know about the port charges for Panama canal ...... we paid them when we cruised there on Millenium (full) and Meridian (partial) ...... it was worth it.

I went back and checked my records. An increase in Canal fees was invoiced to me about 3 weeks before final payment (so about 4 months before sailing). The increase was around $28 per passenger. Total taxes & fees for the 2-week cruise were just over $700/passenger.