Carnival Pricing Showing Incorrect Taxes and Port Charges

[dioxide45]

I was doing a price check on our upcoming Vista cruise in September in the Mediterranean and thought I had found where we could upgrade to a balcony from a Spa Interior for only a few dollars more. We are booked through a travel agent so I gave them a call, they spoke with Carnival and they could not find the fare that we could. After speaking with the rep, I learned that the difference in what I could see and what they and Carnival could see was in the taxes and port charges. My travel agents website along with Carnival's is showing $119.50pp in taxes and port charges, our current reservation has them at $328.50.

 

I looked up a cruise for this year to see what the taxes and port charges for a 5 night out of Tampa and compared it to the same cruise last year and the taxes and port charges appear to be the same as what we paid last year.

 

So I don't know if this is just affecting Vista cruises or something bigger?

 

In the end, I couldn't get the upgrade in cabin unless I wanted to pay the correct taxes and port charges of $328.50, not what the Carnival website and my travel agents website is reporting.

[fuddrules]

Port charges do and can change.

 

To price check were you using fareviewer or doing a mock booking?

[dioxide45]

Port charges do and can change.

 

To price check were you using fareviewer or doing a mock booking?

 

I was doing a mock booking. I do understand that they can change, but by $200pp? However, what I see in the mock booking are different than what the travel agent and their contact at Carnival can see when they try to replicate the fare I see.

[vwrestler171]

A lot of times, Carnival just includes prepaid gratuities in that section so it looks like the taxes are higher. Is that the case here?

[fuddrules]

I'd call my TA then and have them use Carnival.com

 

I'd walk through each step of the booking process with them. They can do it on their computer and you can do it on yours.

 

If you go through it step by step with the TA, you'll either get the same price or figure out where one of you is wrong.

[dioxide45]

A lot of times, Carnival just includes prepaid gratuities in that section so it looks like the taxes are higher. Is that the case here?

 

I thought maybe that was it. However the rep I was talking to was quoting me the exact prices that their rep at Carnival was reporting to them, $328.50pp for taxes and port charges. The Carnival website, my travel agents website and another major cruise consolidators website are all showing $119.50pp. So it seems that the problem is on Carnival's end, however when they look it up, they see the correct Taxes and Port Charges.

 

I may call back anyway because we are thinking about changing to a balcony anyway, even though the fare is a little higher than our current Spa Interior.

 

We are looking at the Sept 3 Vista sailing.

[Kcruiser2014]

That's crazy. I'm on the Oct 11 cruise and my port taxes are $112pp. When I do a mock booking for Sept 3, I get the 119.50 pp taxes also. Unless you are going to get cancellation fees, if all else fails, I would cancel and rebook online at the lower rate. My itinerary is the same as yours, just in reverse. No way should the taxes be $328.50pp. You can always them transfer back to your TA.

Edited February 20, 2016 by Kcruiser2014

[dioxide45]

That's crazy. I'm on the Oct 11 cruise and my port taxes are $112pp. When I do a mock booking for Sept 3, I get the 119.50 pp taxes also. Unless you are going to get cancellation fees, if all else fails, I would cancel and rebook online at the lower rate. My itinerary is the same as yours, just in reverse. No way should the taxes be $328.50pp. You can always them transfer back to your TA.

 

It does seem high at $328.50pp. I even have our current invoice from our travel agent with that amount for the taxes and port charges. That number seemed to match up with what they are saying when I called them today.

 

I called again because we decided to switch to the balcony from the Spa Interior anyway. Even though our final cruise price was going to be about $250 higher. When I called this time the price they were quoting now matched the price I could see. They even confirmed and updated our confirmation with Carnival. I suspect that the taxes and port charges is now $119.50pp.

 

I think the $119.50 is more likely the correct amount. I have taken advantage of price drops over time and actually originally booked with Carnival and transferred to our travel agent. So I have several invoices. The first one from Carnival had the taxes and port charges at $222.78. When I transferred it to our TA, the taxes and port charges on their first invoice were $222.78. First price drop took the amount to $320.39. Second price drop they went to 328.50. We had one more price drop again, but the taxes and port charges didn't change. So I think they were over charging us previously.

 

Cancelling and rebooking would have worked, but we initially booked an ES rate and would have had the $50pp non refundable penalty.

Edited February 20, 2016 by dioxide45

[fuddrules]

A mock booking on Carnival.com shows $239.00 total taxes, fees and port expenses for two. Looks like you have that now but no reason for anything much higher than that.

 

I too have a 10-day cruise on the Vista and the taxes, fee and port expenses started off at $111.39 and are now listed at $119.50. I've not seen them higher than $119.50 so someone was looking at this part of the cruise cost wrong.