More extra charges

[wato1963]

Just pay the price and enjoy the cruise, for me cruising is the cheapest way to holiday,

[Biker19]

That £533 (about $900) seems like it may include the pre-paid grats. Having experienced the taxes separately on US bookings there are few itineraries where the taxes top $200 per person. The balance I assume is the pre-paid grats. The other possibility is that the UK invoice splits out the port fees which are included in the US prices (and rarely seen by US consumers).

 

For comparison purposes a non stop sailing between Southampton and NY has taxes of $85 and $210 (this can only be seen in a detailed invoice from a TA and not available on the RCI web site) in port fees per person.

[critterchick]

The U.K. government do not extract a 20% VAT uplift on cruise fares - yet!

Having said that, it would help if any cruise line INCLUDED the port charges (and any other charges) in their upfront fares rather than adding them on after the headline fare.

 

Airlines used to do the same thing and now are required to show the entire fare at the initial stage of booking. Because port fees do fluctuate, it would be difficul for the cruiselines to include the current amount in the advertised price. I wonder how accurate the UK pricing really is if that's how they do it...

 

If you want them included, upfront, it would make no difference. If a tax happy country or port raised them after your deposit or final payment, you would still have to pay them.

Your gripe may be valid about the amount, but that is a decision your nation has made..you voted in the folks who get to dig into your pockets, not RCI.

 

RCI does not pass along increased in port fees after the initial booking, at least they have never done so to us. Like Patti, we have seen small refunds on our onboard accounts that we assume were a reduction in those fees. This is in the US; perhaps they do otherwise in other countries.

[waterbug123]

They most certainly were not when I booked my 2015 cruise.

Anyway, I am saying that these unavoidable fees should be included IN THE BASE PRICE - not added afterwards. You don't find British Airways adding landing charges to their headline fares!

 

It was only a year or two ago that airlines in the US were required to include all taxes/fees in the advertised price of a ticket. Until then, it was routine to see a price of, say, $379, and then when you went to actually book it it would suddenly be $642 with all the taxes and fees. Now they must show the $642 price right off the bat.

 

It has NOTHING to do with my Government. These are charges that RCCL are [passing on to the consumer). They have been (or will be) paid by RCCL. Again I say that try and find an airline that charges extra for landing fees.

 

But most of these taxes and fees ARE set by the government, or the local port authority or aviation authority. They are not set by the cruise line or airline, so it has everything to do with the government.