Taxes and Fees

[Ifloat]

I notice that on the Carnival website and other travel agency websites, taxes and fees are pretty much all $56.93 per person.

 

Can you think of any reason why my agent wants to charge us $255.93 per person? Would some sort of state tax apply that doesn't apply for internet booking? That same agent has $56.93 per person on their website.

 

Or is our agent charging us creatively?http://boards.cruisecritic.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

 

And yes, we will be calling to ask her, but I thought I'd seek your opinions first.

[todb]

That would be your port fees.

[gfsmith]

maybe that includes the port charges. Not all agents include this in the fare when they tell you the price.:confused:

[habby]

Definitely call and ask her. TAs are there to book vacations, etc. and answer questions. If you're not satisfied with her answer you have two choices, stay with her or find another TA.

[big_duck]

If you included Carnival air, various airport fees will be in there as well.

[mcbor]

If you got insurance it could also be in there.

[mrdood]

Was airfare included, anything else? If just the cruise, I can't imagine it would be that high per person, depends on the cruise, but port fees are relatively small.

[Ifloat]

The insurance is billed separately, and we bought cruise only. Hmmm.

 

When I go through and make as if to purchase this same tour from carnival the $56.93 seems to be all they try to add to the base price for a cat 11 room.

[cherylandtk]

I suspect that the total is still pretty much the same if you look closely. Most initial quotes, the ones you see when doing a quick search, are the fare including the port charges. You have to click through a couple more pages to see the total with taxes added.

 

If you go as far as the pages where they actually book, some sites suddenly switch the port fees into the 'tax and port' column, but also reduce the fare by the same amount. So your total is the same, but they have re-categorized the port fees. This is possibly because the TA's don't get a commission off the port fees, just the true fare.

[Bothell]

I just looked at my docs...Taxes and Fees: $86.68. Insurance was seperate (didnt get it through Carnival) I purchased my cruise through Alaska Airlines and we are going to 3 ports.

[Ifloat]

I think cherylandtk may have hit on the answer. I went back and dug out my quote, and the "non-commissionable fare" portion is the same amount she transferred over to taxes and fees on the invoice.

 

Thanks, everyone!

[Wennfred]

Thats about right, Port Charges could run from 139.00 and Taxes around 52.00

 

Document Processing fees are 20.00. which totals to 211.00

 

Thats usually what I see.

 

In your case, your Port Charges are 179.00 which is pretty high, with ur Taxes at 56.93 and 20.00 Doc Processing fee: 255.93

[dms_cruisers04]

I think cherylandtk may have hit on the answer. I went back and dug out my quote, and the "non-commissionable fare" portion is the same amount she transferred over to taxes and fees on the invoice.

 

Thanks, everyone!

I think she's right too. In booking my upcoming Elation cruise I was quoted $227 for port charges, taxes and fees. By itself it seems like a huge amount, but after you figure back in the cruise fare it all equals out.