Unable to Dock at Ocean Cay Sat Dec 21

[perakcruiser]

5 hours ago, webworm said:

'My pont is they should treat all their passengers equally and not based on nationality.

Oh how much the cruise companies would love to do so. 100 nationalities on board, only Panama law is relevant, so simple and no rights for the passengers. But you for sure want to be treated under Canadian or US law. 

 

If you annoyed by port fees or taxes, you need to book in Europe where the cruise companies are not allowed to add any taxes or fees after the final payment. But then no free water and coffee for you 😁

Edited December 23, 2019 by perakcruiser

[Hlitner]

9 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

Oh how much the cruise companies would love to do so. 100 nationalities on board, only Panama law is relevant, so simple and no rights for the passengers. But you for sure want to be treated under Canadian or US law. 

 

If you annoyed by port fees or taxes, you need to book in Europe where the cruise companies are not allowed to add any taxes or fees after the final payment. But then no free water and coffee for you 😁

Sometimes Europeans are not happy with what they wish for.  There are some major cruise lines (HAL is one) that do not allow Europeans or Aussies to book via a North American cruise agency (they require a North American address).  In many cases those folks find themselves paying higher prices or not getting all the promotions (including big OBCs) that we can get in North America.  When asked why the European's do not get the same deals we get, one Future Cruise Consultant told us that the cruise lines often have their hands tied by various EU regulations that protect consumers.  I guess you could say that with some consumer rights (at least rights construed by politicians) you pay a price.

 

Hank

[perakcruiser]

42 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

When asked why the European's do not get the same deals we get, one Future Cruise Consultant told us that the cruise lines often have their hands tied by various EU regulations that protect consumers.  I guess you could say that with some consumer rights (at least rights construed by politicians) you pay a price.

 

Totally agree with you. Everything has advantages and disadvantages, nice to get free water and coffee in the MDR, nice not need to pay port fees or some "government taxes", nice to grab sensational good offers, nice to have maximum consumer protection, nice to get OBC which is forbidden in other countries. One will never get everything, but always this complaining, we poor Americans, Canadians, Europeans, Asians subsidize these Europeans, Asians, Canadians, Americans, useless in my opinion. You not what you get and what price it costs, leave it or take it. 

 

By the way, technically MSC also does not allow you to book from another market than where your residence is. They are just - MSC style - not very strict on this. 

Edited December 23, 2019 by perakcruiser

[GOLDENBONNY]

On 12/22/2019 at 8:03 AM, webworm said:

Be aware if you are a Canadian citizen and miss a port with MSC there is no refund of port fees and taxes. I was told only US citizens get a refund. This was my first MSC Cruise and it will be my last! I made that very clear with Guest Services this morning while getting of the ship.

What kind of bull is it? We cruise with MSC for years never been treated different from US citizens. 

[Hlitner]

A couple of related comments.  The refund of related port taxes/fees for a missed port (of if the fees decrease) happens for those from the USA as the result of a Class Action Law Suit (I think it was against Carnival) that was settled several years ago.  The cruise industry agreed to refund excess or unused fees.  I do not know if this settlement includes any non-USA bookings but would not be surprised if they are excluded.  

 

As to non-residence bookings it is an interesting issue as it related to many cruise lines.  We have a very good Australian friend that routinely cruises on HAL (and some other lines) that charge more money for Aussies then for North Americans.  But they specifically prohibit non-resident bookings (those from outside North America) via North American agencies.  But our friend gets around that residence restriction by simply using a Canadian address (that belongs to another friend).  He has been doing that for many years (dozens of cruises) with no problems.

 

A few years ago I went online to purchase some tickets on the Tranzalpine Railroad that connects Christ Church with Greymouth (New Zealand) and discovered that the railroad had much cheaper fares for ONLY residents of NZ and Australia.  So I simply used the TOR browser and set our location to an Australian IP address (you can do this in some browsers).  This fooled the railroad computer to thinking we were in Australia and it immediately gave us the far lower price and automatically e-mailed us our tickets :).  Have to love this digital world.  We used to do the same when booking French railroad tickets (SNCF) when they would not accept bookings from North America (they wanted us to use the Raileurope site which had higher prices).  I believe that SNCF no longer plays that game.

 

Hank