Shuttle bus sticker shock

[doublebzz]

Those who have cruised HAL for more than 5 years can recall that shuttle buses from the dock into town in European ports used to be provided free as a courtesy. More recently, these buses charged a nominal fee of 1 or 2 euros. Having just returned from a Nieuw Amsterdam TA, guests were surprised to learn that shuttle buses in Motril and Palma charged $15 and $14 respectively for a round trip. The method of payment was through your shipboard sail card with a bus rep recording each guest's cabin number as they boarded the bus.

 

For a couple opting to take a taxi for the short ride into town, the cost was essentially the same. If 2 couples shared a taxi, the cost was half HAL's costs. It seemed pretty clear that HAL had a piece, if not a majority, of the action regarding revenue collected. Here, again, we have a situation where a former courtesy service has been turned into a profit center for HAL. No reasonable person would deny HAL a profit, but shuttle buses? Give me a break!

[jaspersmycat]

In 2007, my DH and I did a Baltic cruise with HAL and the shuttles into town were not free. I don't think being charged is new. In most ports the fee entitled you to unlimited round trips.

[Cruising-along]

I don't remember ever getting free shuttle busses. Our first European cruise was in 2006. Not that it wouldn't be great. :) I don't remember if we paid as much as $15/pp, it may have been closer to $10.

[1ANGELCAT]

I was also on the Nieuw Amsterdam's crossing. The shuttle bus was free in Alicante.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[rkacruiser]

Certainly do not have a definite answer to your concern. But, as a possibility, the port's taxi union may have something to do with whether there is a charge or not. I have heard of taxi drivers being upset in some ports when that port provides a free shuttle.

 

If one has to purchase shuttle tickets through the Shore Excursion Office, then, yes, I would think HAL might be getting some remuneration. But, if Shore Excursion personnel were not involved, my thought would be that charge to your shipboard account was being provided simply as a convienent way for the guest to pay.

 

Just my thoughts as I said.

[wander]

For a number of years the shuttles in many ports have been offered by/run by the Port itself. More seem to be charging these days. This is for non-Grand Cruises, But even for the Asia-South Pacific cruise last fall (2013) many of the shuttles were offered by the Port or the community or merchants, not HAL. As I recall, most of these were free.

[doublebzz]

I have done 2 TA's a year since 2011 on HAL and HAL has never been involved in the operation of the shuttle buses. Now, for the first time, HAL is involved; i.e. the payment process, and the costs have tripled. For this reason and others as well, there no doubt in my mind that HAL is trying to profit off the shuttle bus operation. I have no problem paying a reasonable charge but when the shuttle bus costs as much as a private taxi, that's exorbitant in my humble opinion.

[Krazy Kruizers]

It has been a few years since we did either a Med or a Baltic cruise -- but we did not have free shuttles. I know that we didn't pay any where near $15 round trip.

[catl331]

8.5 years ago on the Westerdam we paid $8 pp r/t in Helsinki and $10 pp in Stockholm. Tickets were purchased at the ship front desk.

[Typhoon1]

Just like everything else. Prices increase to keep pace with inflation.

[serendipity1499]

Those who have cruised HAL for more than 5 years can recall that shuttle buses from the dock into town in European ports used to be provided free as a courtesy. More recently, these buses charged a nominal fee of 1 or 2 euros. Having just returned from a Nieuw Amsterdam TA, guests were surprised to learn that shuttle buses in Motril and Palma charged $15 and $14 respectively for a round trip. The method of payment was through your shipboard sail card with a bus rep recording each guest's cabin number as they boarded the bus.

 

For a couple opting to take a taxi for the short ride into town, the cost was essentially the same. If 2 couples shared a taxi, the cost was half HAL's costs. It seemed pretty clear that HAL had a piece, if not a majority, of the action regarding revenue collected. Here, again, we have a situation where a former courtesy service has been turned into a profit center for HAL. No reasonable person would deny HAL a profit, but shuttle buses? Give me a break!

 

Boy, that is some accusation you make! ;) Are you sure of that!

 

Suggest out check out this thread on the Ports of Call Board:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2024986&highlight=palma

 

According to post Number one the cruiser was on the Norwegian Epic & asked about the HOHO bus into Palma. which she/he says cost $12.00 per person..

 

So it looks to me like that is what the port authorities are charging & HAL is not profiting from this..

 

Haven't checked out Motril yet but you might want to do it yourself..

 

Wish I could remember if the shuttles were free in all the ports when we've done our Trans=Atlantics.. I do know that in Northern Europe a few posters said they did charge

 

CRS has gotten to me..

[serendipity1499]

Those who have cruised HAL for more than 5 years can recall that shuttle buses from the dock into town in European ports used to be provided free as a courtesy. More recently, these buses charged a nominal fee of 1 or 2 euros. Having just returned from a Nieuw Amsterdam TA, guests were surprised to learn that shuttle buses in Motril and Palma charged $15 and $14 respectively for a round trip. The method of payment was through your shipboard sail card with a bus rep recording each guest's cabin number as they boarded the bus.

 

For a couple opting to take a taxi for the short ride into town, the cost was essentially the same. If 2 couples shared a taxi, the cost was half HAL's costs. It seemed pretty clear that HAL had a piece, if not a majority, of the action regarding revenue collected. Here, again, we have a situation where a former courtesy service has been turned into a profit center for HAL. No reasonable person would deny HAL a profit, but shuttle buses? Give me a break!

 

Can't find anything on Motril except free shuttles to town, but many were going from Motril to Grenada which was 40 something miles away..

 

Were you just going into the town of Motril which is very small or were you planning on seeing surrounding areas & sights?

[sail7seas]

I remember when Java Cafe on HAL ships had no added charge. They used to have Dutch Night and pass around wonderful cubes of gouda and edam cheese. Remember the lovely fireworks when we sailed late from Curacao?

 

Things change.

Prices change.

HAL is a for profit company and if they don't charge high rates for a great many of the cabins, they must make money on sources other than cabin sales.

 

Land transportation costs are something travelers should figure into their budget when deciding where and how to travel.

 

Shuttle bus charges are quite appropriate IMO

 

[Mytime2014]

can you imagine the sticker shock if you bought gas for the first time in 5 years?

Or Mt. Dew. I think it should still be a quarter!

[curtdesilets]

Those who have cruised HAL for more than 5 years can recall that shuttle buses from the dock into town in European ports used to be provided free as a courtesy. More recently, these buses charged a nominal fee of 1 or 2 euros. Having just returned from a Nieuw Amsterdam TA, guests were surprised to learn that shuttle buses in Motril and Palma charged $15 and $14 respectively for a round trip. The method of payment was through your shipboard sail card with a bus rep recording each guest's cabin number as they boarded the bus.

 

For a couple opting to take a taxi for the short ride into town, the cost was essentially the same. If 2 couples shared a taxi, the cost was half HAL's costs. It seemed pretty clear that HAL had a piece, if not a majority, of the action regarding revenue collected. Here, again, we have a situation where a former courtesy service has been turned into a profit center for HAL. No reasonable person would deny HAL a profit, but shuttle buses? Give me a break!

 

In Reality....$15 per person R/T is not that bad. True "Sticker Shock" is when you need transfers from Rome Airport to the port of Civitavecchia. I think when we did it, it was something insane like $120 per person. People tried to save $$ by trying to figure out the Italian trains and doing a bit of walking. But it seemed a bit risky to us however with our sleep deprivation and the known facts about pick pockets and such in Italy. We bit the bullet and bought the vouchers.

[doublebzz]

Can't find anything on Motril except free shuttles to town, but many were going from Motril to Grenada which was 40 something miles away..

 

Were you just going into the town of Motril which is very small or were you planning on seeing surrounding areas & sights?

 

We were going into the town of Motril which was no more than 2 miles from the pier. The one way cost for 2 people was $15.00 for the shuttle bus and 10 euros ($13.90) for the taxi. You blame this on inflation? In Spain for the preceding year, the inflation rate was less than 2%; not 300%.

[rochelle_s]

Have to agree with the OP about the shock factor. A lot of the European ports will offer to supply a shuttle but are denied by the cruise lines so that they can put on their own and make some money.

 

I fully realize that cruise lines are in the business of making money but I don't think this is they way they should go about doing it. If people do not say something about it it will just continue to happen and the cost for these shuttles will increase, just because they can.

 

Once on a Princess ship when we got off the ship in the port there was the staff telling us we HAD to get on the shuttle for $10. They told us we were not allowed to walk out of the port. Even though my research had led me to believe otherwise. Not a minute after that shuttle started moving then we could see the brightly painted pedestrian walkway with people walking on it. Needless to say I was not a happy camper and let me point out it was not the $10 it was the principle.

 

If you are on a European cruse they are often longer. On my upcoming 14 day European cruise we have 10 ports of call. If we were charged $15 in every port we would be looking at another $300 (10 x 15 x 2). So it does add up quickly.

 

If cruise lines are so worried about making a profit or even breaking even then they should just charge more upfront and be done with it.

 

Just my thoughts

 

Rochelle

[rjrpar]

All cruise lines charge for shuttle busses. Cruise lines need to get their revenue. Either you pay these additional charges or you pay higher cruise fares, which today are pretty cheap and need to stay competitive within the industry.

I prefer the ala carte pricing so I pay for what I use. There is no free lunch.

[FRANKIEDNYC]

:) We recently sailed on the Prinsendam 68 day South America/ Antarctica cruise And HAL provided a free shuttle to town at almost every port. When we left Curacao about 10 or 11pm HAL provided us with a beautiful fireworks display. This being a Grand Voyage means we probably paid for all this up front. But is was still very nica.

[sail7seas]

Have to agree with the OP about the shock factor. A lot of the European ports will offer to supply a shuttle but are denied by the cruise lines so that they can put on their own and make some money.

 

 

<snip>

Rochelle

 

 

I wonder how we would know for sure if any port 'wanted to offer' a shuttle but cruise line refused them? Did 'someone' say so? I don't think it's quite that simple.

 

Some people don't think the cruise lines should make money for high cabin rates. Others say they shouldn't make money for high price of wine. There are those who don't think the cruise lines should charge so much for excursions,,,,,photos,,,,, shuttles/transfers.

 

Where is it okay for cruise lines to make their money?

 

I don't mean this as an 'attack' on you but as an addition to the conversation.

Cruise lines will never get any of us to agree where we think it's okay for them to make money. :D

 

 

 

 

Edited April 28, 2014 by sail7seas

[johnmik1]

Those who have cruised HAL for more than 5 years can recall that shuttle buses from the dock into town in European ports used to be provided free as a courtesy. More recently, these buses charged a nominal fee of 1 or 2 euros. Having just returned from a Nieuw Amsterdam TA, guests were surprised to learn that shuttle buses in Motril and Palma charged $15 and $14 respectively for a round trip. The method of payment was through your shipboard sail card with a bus rep recording each guest's cabin number as they boarded the bus.

 

For a couple opting to take a taxi for the short ride into town, the cost was essentially the same. If 2 couples shared a taxi, the cost was half HAL's costs. It seemed pretty clear that HAL had a piece, if not a majority, of the action regarding revenue collected. Here, again, we have a situation where a former courtesy service has been turned into a profit center for HAL. No reasonable person would deny HAL a profit, but shuttle buses? Give me a break!

 

We were on the NA cruise with you and could not understand why people were waiting in line to get their tickets for the shuttle.We went the night before these ports and got our transfers at the shore excursions kiosk and walked right by the people standing in line.

[iancal]

We do not mind paying shuttle bus fares.

 

What we do mind is when those fares are clearly inflated, ie when we can take a taxi for the same or LESS money, or when we are given information the implies that we must use the cruise line shuttle. On one cruise line, we were given, and I believe purposely, incorrect information about the cost of cab fares by someone at the excursion desk. It did not make sense to us so we ignored the data. To be polite, we found that taxi fare information to be 'grossly exaggerated'.

 

I think it happens much more often in Europe because the cruise lines, including HAL, take advantage of the fact that some people are a little apprehensive because of their perception of a language issue/foreign country.

 

In general, our experience is that the cruise lines are guilty of greatly overinflating the costs/margins of everything in Europe from tours to shuttles, to pre and post hotel charges. This experience is from many years of independent land travel in Europe.

Edited April 28, 2014 by iancal

[serendipity1499]

We were going into the town of Motril which was no more than 2 miles from the pier. The one way cost for 2 people was $15.00 for the shuttle bus and 10 euros ($13.90) for the taxi. You blame this on inflation? In Spain for the preceding year, the inflation rate was less than 2%; not 300%.

I Bolded your last two lines as don't understand what you mean..I never spoke about inflation in either of my posts..Perhaps someone else did but you only quoted me????

 

Also are you sure that this was a HAL which decided on the fare & not done because the taxi drivers or port required it? You are also tending to ignore the fact that when I looked up Palma it shows that the bus is $12.00 for all cruise lines..

 

You are claiming that HAL is making a profit & you may be right..However, as Frankiednyc mentioned (see his post below) we were given free shuttles on our SA Antarctica cruise & paid double per night for the cabin we chose than on any other HAL cruise we've ever been on! (we've been on 15 HAL cruises.) As another poster mentioned, perhaps it's only fair that those who use the shuttle pay for it! Or would you think it would be better for HAL to increase the price of your cabin & have everyone pay for the shuttles, if they use them or not? SIZE]

 

:) We recently sailed on the Prinsendam 68 day South America/ Antarctica cruise And HAL provided a free shuttle to town at almost every port. When we left Curacao about 10 or 11pm HAL provided us with a beautiful fireworks display. This being a Grand Voyage means we probably paid for all this up front. But is was still very nica.

 

We took the same cruise in January of 2012 & agree it was very nice! You are right, we paid for those special little things up front, but they were well worth it.. I'm still reliving that cruise!!!:D:D

Edited April 28, 2014 by serendipity1499

[cruisemom42]

We do not mind paying shuttle bus fares.

 

What we do mind is when those fares are clearly inflated, ie when we can take a taxi for the same or LESS money, or when we are given information the implies that we must use the cruise line shuttle. On one cruise line, we were given, and I believe purposely, incorrect information about the cost of cab fares by someone at the excursion desk. It did not make sense to us so we ignored the data. To be polite, we found that taxi fare information to be 'grossly exaggerated'.

 

I think it happens much more often in Europe because the cruise lines, including HAL, take advantage of the fact that some people are a little apprehensive because of their perception of a language issue/foreign country.

 

In general, our experience is that the cruise lines are guilty of overinflating the costs/margins of everything in Europe from tours to shuttles, to pre and post hotel charges. This experience is from many years of independent land travel in Europe.

 

I am in complete agreement with you.

 

I have no problem with the ship charging for a shuttle. The prices charged by the mass market lines are so low that they have to make profit where they can.

 

What I do have a problem with is when cruise ship staff purposely lie or mislead cruisers about their options -- and I have seen it done many a time on several different lines, including HAL.

 

I always do my own research (and often my own touring using public transportation), and I can't tell you how many times on board I've been asked questions about "How are you going to do such-and-such on your own??" when they've been told by cruise lecturers that it is 1) unsafe to sightsee on your own in a particular port, or pickpockets are bad, or trains go on strike all the time, or cab drivers are unreliable..... or 2) they will actually LIE about options, telling passengers they aren't allowed to walk through a port or that there won't be any taxis available so they should book a tour, or that they aren't allowed to get off the ship without a visa (Russia; conveniently leaving out mention of private tours that circumvent this issue....)

 

I understand the need to make money -- but at the cost of honesty?? I'm not a fan. :mad:

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

It depends on the port ...