Port fees

Jim,

Interesting question. Even more interesting is what about the port fees if you miss a port? This was a long discussion on cruisecritic.com. Obviously most cruise companies don´t charge any extra port fees anymore but include them in the cruise fare. In case a port is missed there´s no discussion about any refunds anymore. There was a lawsuit about 10 years ago where Royal Caribbean had to refund "port charges" for missed ports.

I also followed longs discussions on a German cruise board about tipping. You may know that tipping in Europe isn´t as important as in the US. We´re not used to tip very much as basic wages are high enough. First cruise lines in Europe didn´t recommend any tipping. Then there were recommendations for tipping. The next step was that tips can be charged to your onboard account. Now tips are automatically charged to your onboard account but you were able to cancel this and tip cash. The latest news is that one cruise company is automatically charging a daily "service fee" to your onboard account which can´t be changed or cancelled. "Honi soit qui mal y pense" as Queen Elisabeth would say. My conclusion is: This is a way to keep prices low and have people booking the cruises.

IMHO: Port fees should be included in your cruise fare. I´m booking a cruise with port stops and not a cruise to nowhere. How about a food fee or a sleeping fee???

Carmen

Port Fees

I booked my 2007 Cruise on the AQ with the DQSC. The rate that I am being charged is several thousand dollars less than we would be charged for the same room under the current rate structure (half of our family is under 18 and traveling free with paying adult).

At the time that our dates were adjusted by one day (still a 5 day, but it starts one day sooner), I was told that there would not be port fees if we didn't cancel our reservation, but if we couldn't travel on the new dates, they would be happy to refund our deposit, or apply it to a new reservation.

Does anyone here know if it is still true that reservations made with the DQSC will not be charged port fees?

I don't know why there wouldn't be port fees charged, they were charging them for years as that company entity. Be prepared - unless they are giving them as a bonus for booking. And the answer to the question about is it really that expensive for the company port fees, in a word: NO.

Judy Patsch;3775 wrote: I don't know why there wouldn't be port fees charged, they were charging them for years as that company entity. Be prepared - unless they are giving them as a bonus for booking. And the answer to the question about is it really that expensive for the company port fees, in a word: NO.

Ok, so I need to bring cash for the end of the cruise tips, and I may also have these other charges? Seriously, how does one figure the cost to depart after a prepaid cruise?

If they are going to charge you port taxes, it would be in your prepaid bill, not after you board. Previous companies took checks and credit cards to pay for bar, gift shop, shore tour purchases. Probably the only cash you'll need is for the tips.

May I be banned from Steamboats.org for stating this...but I really liked the pre-paid gratuities on the ocean liners...

it sure beats trying to look for an ATM machine in a strange town the last day of your cruise!!!

Pete,

Why should you be banned for this :-). No, it´s very convenient to put the tips on your onboard account. I´m sure we´ll do that in April. The main concern on the German board was: Will the crew really get the tips?? As far as I heard RCI is giving out vouchers to the passengers who opted for the onboard accout. These vouchers can be put into the envelopes for the tips. I think that´s a good idea. You can add cash for exceptional service if you like.

The only thing I don´t like is the policy that tips are automatically charged to your account and can´t be changed. I don´t think that this is really a tip for the crew but mainly a way to make the prices look lower.

Carmen

pat traynor

I've always written checks for cash to pay the tips at the end of the trip. The DQSC was very accommodating about cashing checks, I think something like up to $200 a day. And I don't ever recall paying port taxes on top of the price of the trip. Judy's right, that they're added and paid in the final payment I guess.
Of course, new owners mean different policies, so we won't know until we take that first trip, will we - and if we don't there's not a darn thing we can do about it, except not ride any more.

Steamboating colleagues:
I agree with Pat Traynor that Judy is on the money [No pun intended] in her information on port fees etc. 'Port fees' and 'tips' are interesting threads worth discussion. I'm more than 'fuzzy' about what cities/towns charge on the inland rivers for passenger cruise vessels docking. We mentioned this some time back on the web. Not 'steamboats,' but I pulled some cruise files here just now on 'blue water' ships we've been on over the last ten years plus. We just got off PRINCESS CRUISES last week from the CROWN PRINCESS. In the billing statement I see the notice of $350 charged to us. There were three in our cabin: Laynie, me and her 84 year old father. There were two other family members in a nearby cabin billed $207.80 for taxes and related 'government fees.' This was for five ports leaving and arriving in San Juan, P.R.

Carmen is correct about the over charge in recent years. In early Feb. we received two checks here for $10 each to reimburse us for a 'missed port' in the Caribbean last year aboard the GRAND PRINCESS out of Galveston, TX due to a pier being out of commission with a substitute port in Mexico. The cases went to litigation and a number of lines had to reimburse past passengers.

Tips can be included in your account aboard ship. We usually go that route and then in some cases give additional tips for exceptional service/attention by waiters, deck stewards, dining room manager. The Purser's desk also has envelopes for this at the end of the cruise. We were automatically charged 15% gratuity. *Always check your on-board ship account daily and at the end before disembarking. Computerization of on-board accounts records any and everything you can imagine. All cruise lines today accept no cash on board for beverages, shore excursions, services, purchases. You use your identification card given on the day of embarkation. This tightens up on control of money by the ship staff with no fumbling around with money, change etc. We've experienced this on CUNARD, NCL, RCCL, HOLLAND AMERICA, PRINCESS etc. No doubt Franz and Carmen will see the same process on their 'blue water' ocean cruise this spring with RCCL to the Caribbean. Frank Prudent may have additional insights on his end as a recent frequent passenger on CUNARD. Port taxes are levied even if a ship drops anchor in the harbor and tenders passengers in by small boat to docks.

The state of Alaska recently approved a new $46 excise tax on each cruise passenger. Gambling revenue [Aboard cruise ships] would be assessed 33% along with profits on shore excursions and businesses advertised by the ships ashore.

Foreign ports/nations [Some barely out of 3rd world status] find themselves in a 'Catch-22' scenario providing multi million $$$ piers etc. to handle increasingly larger ships with water, garbage disposal, dredging of channels etc. There's more than a little angst when big lines in time chage itineraries and re-deploy their vessels to other ports in other regions. It's all a good question and, well, what do I know?

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

To review succinctly the port fees the QUEENS face: New Orleans. Period.

Tips from someone who lived on tips.

When the tips are included, income taxes are considered as well. I am not actually against that but that still means that many tipped employees barely make the minimum wage. The Federal Guidelines for minimum wage are stated that the food service industry (including bartenders, waiters, and bussers) can be paid as low as $2.38 per hour. There is additional provision in the minimum wage law that states that the amount must actually equal the Federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour. (This may have changed as of Jan 1, 2007 and also is diferent in different states.)

The way the boats did things under the Union contract made a daily rate rather than a minimum hourly wage.

Under MAL, I do not know how things will be handled. I could ask some of my sources but then I would not post the info anyway so there is no point.

Personally, I am a genrous tipper because of having done those types of jobs but I am also probably more demanding as well as far as excellent service. I play close attention to details and a person will be rewarded if they paid attention to details too. If someone helped make a trip more interesting for a minor child, I might remember that person with cash. If a bartender was attentive, I would remember the bartender with cash although the boats had a 15% gratuity added to all sales.

That 15% was split 4 ways on the Delta Queen but not split on the AQ or the MQ. The policy of not splitting tips and forcing the cocktail servers to tip back bartenders meant there was less cooperation and more competition. The 15% was taxable income along with any other gratuities that were written in or added on.

Port fees are another matter and I agree with Carmen's comments and could see potential lawsuits in the future on that. However, having now understood them a little more because of the airline industry, some places do charge parking fees for boats and the weight factor or number of passengers are sometimes part of the fee structure. Judy would be a more accurate source of info on this.

Finally, I want to add that the question of how much the trip really costs is something I struggled with even before the current owners. The travel industry in general can be very confusing on that sort of thing. Again, look at airline ticket prices. The logic used in the airline industry is partly used by the boats- the more advanced notice on when you make your reservations, the more often you fly (or steamboat), whether you generate other revenue (by having others or special service fees), how many others you influence (corporate versus personal travel)--- these are all factors on how to get discounts. It is true that last minute discounts do happen but the travel industry does not want to encourage that at all and will find ways to get full fares.

Also, when I vacation, I do overspend but am still careful about that. I never really regret my overspending either because as the advertisement indicates- having fun or making memories is priceless.

Thank you, Judy. this is what I was getting at when I started the thread last month about docking/port fees. I assume by "port charges" they mean fees paid to port-of-call cities that must be recouped, and I was curious about that. You've cleared it up. I do know that there are fees for dumpsters and fresh water, but I would think that whatever these fees might be (and I assume they are not large), they would be built in to the published fare. That only seems reasonable -- they don't charge you a "food fee" or a "fuel charge" or anything else that is part of running an operation such as this.

I am referring only to the fee charged by the Dock Board or Port Authority to allow a boat to land at and use the wharf space. As you say, perhaps there are other fees for garbage, etc. but they are NOT what we've come to know as docking fees. In NOLA, a vessel is charged a daily rate according to its length. I think this is just another means a company uses to try to make the cost look less with a lower base fare, but by the time the various fees are added, it is significantly higher. When they used to allow a person to book a partial cruise at a shore stop, it was a $100 per day fare. It then went up to $150. Then they started adding the port charge, which was not prorated so that the total cost was prohibitive. So by charging a flat port charge regardless of how many nights or ports one makes, I think proves that this is just another 'gimmick' to get additional income without raising the basic fare and is not connected to actual docking fees...

Judy, I think you are right on all counts. The only reason I mentioned the services when referring to "Port Charges" was that in addition to whatever docking or landing fees may or may not be charged, there were also these other charges which were/are there. These end up being part of what it may cost the owner/operator to land somewhere. Another charge I thought of was police and/or security service, whether for actual security or traffic control (Memphis and St. Paul come immediately to mind).

And as you said, these are all part of the normal operational costs that should be figured into a base fare rate, not tacked on under some exotic sounding name or one that blames an entity out of the control of the boat company, like the Dock Board. A person taking the UMR trip has no real port docking tax, but its part of the bill anyway, regardless if your itinerary includes NOLA or not... Today's airfares are a wonderful example of the ticky tacky addons - you get excited about a $280 round trip airfare, but then add on taxes, a Sept. 11 fee by segments, and something else I can't name offhand, and your $280 roundtrip is now $366!!!