Canal Expansion is Now 3 Years Old and...

[BillB48]

A short English version of some of the milestones since the opening of the new locks on June 26 2016.

 

Now for the and... Increased tolls!  Starting January 2020 tolls will be increased over most of the toll schedules to include passenger ships.  There is going to be a change in how the tolls are calculated for passenger ships, previously the toll was calculated on the number of passenger berths for most larger passenger ships.  The Canal has changed this requirement to any official document that states maximum passenger capacity rather than the number of passenger berths.  For the original locks there will be 4  maximum passenger ranges, 1999 and under will be $153 per maximum passenger capacity, 2000 to 2999 $ 151 per max pax capacity, 3000 to 3999  $146 per max pax capacity and 4000 and up it will be $142 per max capacity.  I think as a practical matter only the first two rates (153 and 151) will be used at the old locks because by the time you get to the 3000 number of passengers, those ships will use the new locks.  There are only two rate bands for the new locks, $166 up to 3999 max pax capacity and $179 for 4000 and over.  I have not seen any changes in the other significant fees that are not really tolls but are usually applied to the cost of the transit... yet.  These would be the reservation fee and daylight transit guarantee, those two combined run around $75K.

 

Even though the cruise lines carve out more than enough to cover the present tolls in the taxes and fees portion of your fare, I would expect them to up that portion to include the new rates.  The rate structure is open for public comment presently and the new rates are slated to go into effect this January 1.

[ski ww]

Thanks for posting this info, always wondered what the cost to the cruise lines was.