Why Don't Taxes go up/down When Cabin Price Does?

[Tazzycat]

There are three parts to a cruise price: The port charges (which are not negotiable and don't change), the Government Taxes, and the cabin cost.

 

I understand why the port charges never go up or down, but why doesn't the tax change based on the total price of the cruise? it seems that the tax is a certain percentage of something that is negotiable, right?

 

What am I missing?

 

I have asked my TA this question 3 times and so far she has successfully ignored me. Hopefully you all won't...

[Happy ks]

It's not a sales tax, but a gov't fee that is per person. If you book a suite or the smallest inside cabin, the port and gov't fees are the same.

[luddite]

Because taxes only go up?

[firefly333]

Option #3, the port fees, which are included in your cruise fare, you dont see, so you dont know if they change or not.

 

The taxes and fees which are added on do sometimes change, maybe by $20, up or down. I had one that went up after final payment and my TA charged me for it when I had a price drop. I also had a RCL cruise where they dropped and RCL tried to charge me for the taxes and fees back when I had bought a next cruise cert, not the taxes when I booked, which made no sense. It took my TA almost 45 minutes to get RCL to agree while I was on hold. ... so they can vary and change by a small amount.

 

So, they do change once in a while, but they are a set amount, per person, not a percentage.

[Happy ks]

If the gov't charges a new fee, they can and will add it to already paid fares. We had that happen years ago on a Hawaii cruise, a lot of people were very angry about it for a few minutes here on CC.