I have just been notified last night that I am being charged an additional $50 per person mandatory fuel surcharge by Princess for our cruise we will be taking in March.It has been paid for a year and my receipts say paid in full, only now to say I owe $800.00 more for a group of 16 people. Is this normal practice, and is there a chance they will add more before time to go? Are other cruise lines also charging this fee?

Which ship is it and whats the date?

All cruise lines owned by Carnival (which includes Princess) are adding the surcharge for cruises staring after March 1, 2008. It is not a "normal" practice but it has happened before - back in 2001 I think. Blame the high oil prices. My understanding is that it is supposed to only be charged for the first two occupants of a cabin, and then it is supposed to be capped at $70. But that may be strictly for Carnival cruises.

And yes, it could increase again. Look for Royal Caribbean and the others not owned by Carnival to follow suit.

Read the press release about the surcharge here .

I see it says starting in February instead of March.

I sure wouldn't be surprised to see it rise again. It's still less than I have to pay to drive to and from work each day and I'd much rather be cruising. Groceries will be going up, air fare will be going up, medicine will be going up, everything but our paychecks will be going up. We need to come up with alternative fuels now, not years from now so we're not jerked around by the controlling factions of the mid-east. You can't blame the cruise lines for this, it takes fuel to run the ships. Maybe one day they'll be able to run on water, but not now.

It will be the Emerald Princess March 25.

Hi Moon,

I too just received notice of the fuel surcharge and while I can understand the need I don't think it should be applied to a cruise already booked. I am sure if the price had gone down we would not get a rebate. Another issue I have is that I can't find a email address for princess to relay may concerns and objects on adding the cost to a pre-book cruise. I am thinking of changing to another cruise line for Alaska in May. Any suggestions?

Caseyg

Just remember that the surcharge applies to all the cruise lines owned by Carnival, which includes Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn Cruise Line, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard
Line, Iberocruceros, Ocean Village, P&O Cruises and P&O Cruises Australia.

This leaves Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and NCL as your realistic choices for Alaska, and I would not be surprised to see them add a surcharge too.

Thanks Dave. I just get a little frustrated when they add the fee to a trip already booked. Also, that I can't find and email address to let them know my feelings. In all likelyhood I'll stay with Princess I really like their product. Just needed to sound off.

Caseyg

While I don't see an email address here is their contact page. I can understand your frustration, but I can understand their problem as well. Good luck letting them know your feelings!

I can understand their problem too. But that is the cost of doing business in the transportation industry! I have no problem with them increasing the fares for new bookings. Their costs go up, they need to change their pricing. In fact I EXPECTED the price of cruising to go up. BUT I paid in advance and paid an agreed upon price. Now they are saying.. "nope, that price has now gone up, cough up more money" THAT is a bad business practice. I should be rewarded for booking early with a guaranteed price. When they decrease the cruise price, they don't always give me a refund (although RCCL has), what is good for the goose...

Imagine sitting down on the airplane and having the captain come on the loud speaker and say, "wow, the price of fuel has really gone up, the flight attendant is coming by, please kick in some money to pay for gas"!

It is bad practice to hit already paid-up passengers with this. I'd be more comfortable with their doing it for new bookings. But obviously the cruise contract allows it to be done. I guess like many things they figure people will gripe for a while but very few will cancel their bookings.

Believe it or not one airline did try charging people an extra fuel surcharge at the counter when they checked in for their flight.

What everyone must understand here is the Cruise rate itself did not go up. It is a surcharge. Surcharges fall under the clause with government taxes and fees, which are subject to change at any time even after final payment. Every cruise line operates with that clause and it is printed in all the fine print. Last year when Alaska voted in the $50 per person head tax, it was an added tax, not an increase on the cruise rate itself.
Carnival Cruise Lines and Princess Cruise Lines have a combination of 39 ships. Multiply the surcharge times the number of people on each ship (1st and 2nd). That is just for one sailing on each one of those ships.
I am sure the other major cruise lines will follow suit. Some of the luxury cruise lines like Crystal and Regent have charged $20 per day surcharges.
None of us like paying extra cost. But if they don't collect the surcharge you'll be paying for it in higher cost somewhere else anyway.

I was looking around on Google and found something to show the cost of fuel. Using the QE2 as an example, which goes about 30 feet per gallon of fuel oil. A nautical mile is around 6000 feet, so the QE2 needs around 200 gallons of fuel to travel one nautical mile. Now, fuel prices have gone up tremendously. Carnival claims their costs have gone up 50% in the past few months. Obviously I don't know what Carnival pays for fuel. I'm sure they have contracts for it, which reduces the price a bit as compared to the retail rate, but let us say they spent $2.60 per gallon today (I'm using a price for fuel oil I found) and it was $2.00 yesterday. For a 2000 mile journey, that price difference is $240,000, or for a month's worth of 2000 mile cruises (say that is four 7-night cruises) we are at $960,000, and assuming the price stabilized and they did this for a year, we have increased operational costs of $11.5 million dollars per ship, per year. So for Carnival, with 39 ships in their different brands, we see a price increase of $450 million dollars per year.....roughly, and not exactly given my assumptions.

Wow! When you put it like that, $50.00 dosen't seem so bad.

Rick,

Yes, the costs start piling up!

Rick!!!! Great to see you again old friend! I missed you greatly and know others share my feeling.

Oh yeah, fuel sur-charges. I've called approx 2/3 of the people on my list to call about these add'l charges now. I'll call the rest tomorrow. Most have taken the news very well. Many even expressed that they expected it after watching the news on fuel pricing. But there are a few who have given me quite an earful. So far nobody has cancelled even though there is no penalty on Feb08 and beyond cruises. I figured there would be a few. I'm in agreement that as soon as RCI, NCL and others finish their assessment of their bottom line cost increase vs booking revenue and knowing CCL has already stepped into this without major revolt, they'll follow suit. Hope I'm wrong!

Cheers, Neil

I think we all saw this coming; it was just a matter of when and how much.

And thank you Neil; it's great to be back. I've missed all of you also.

Just think-Windjammer can't break even using wind!!

BillyBuzzy

Billy, funny you post that. While calling clients to advise of the fuel sur-charge one on them suggested I tell the cruiseline to put up some sails on their ships to consreve fuel and give back their money. Shouldn't have laughed, I think from the silence on the other end he was serious.

Cheers, Neil