Port fees refunded for missed ports ?

[difranco]

Have recently returned from the Splendor on a 10 night Baltic/Scandinavian cruise sailing 30th June 2023.

We missed 3 ports due high winds and swell when attempting to dock. Today, on checking my credit card a pending credit of £78.88 dated 3rd August marked "Seven Seas Splendor" has appeared. Has anyone else who was on this cruise received a similar unexpected credit ?  I'm assuming this is a refund for port fees not incurred on the 3 missed ports of call.

Unfortunately, there has been no correspondence from Regents regarding this small refund. There again, it's only showing pending and may vaporise in the coming days.

[DeepFreeze63]

We were on same cruise. Nothing (Nada) on our credit cards as of today. 

[NCCruzQueen]

Contact your travel agent and see what they can find out for you.

[mrlevin]

Regent doesn't refund port fees to US passengers as they are not separately priced.  Maybe this refund is UK only.

[jjs217]

I've never been on any cruise where I received a port fee refund.  Although, the cruise line is usually pretty good about trying to make lemonade out of a lemon experience.  

[RachelG]

never have had a port fee refunded on Regent, Silversea, or Oceania.

[Pcardad]

Perhaps you left the ship with a refundable OBC still on your account?

[royallondon]

Had 2 missed ports in May on Navigator but no port fees returned.

[macbest]

I wonder why this is? They collect the port fees. I would assume they don’t pay them if they don’t dock. Is this just a windfall for Regent? That would not seem right to its customers. 

[JMARINER]

In my experience, only the economy mass market lines breakout and separately charge port fees as an item on the cruise ticket. Never have received a refund for any  missed port on Regent or any other Lux line.

 

Like written above, maybe the rules are different for UK pax.

J

[frantic36]

1 hour ago, JMARINER said:

In my experience, only the economy mass market lines breakout and separately charge port fees as an item on the cruise ticket. Never have received a refund for any  missed port on Regent or any other Lux line.

 

Like written above, maybe the rules are different for UK pax.

J

 

Pre-Covid I have had port fees refunded on Seabourn for missed ports and friends onboard from other countries have as well. I don't recall it on our cruise earlier this year but I wasn't looking for it. I will be curious to see if they still do this going forward on upcoming cruises.

[rcandkc]

Over the years we have missed many ports without port fees refunded.  However, we have been on a couple cruises that missed ports became a real issue…we got onboard credit to help with the disappointment.  We were safe and although disappointed went on having fun. 

[2SailingNomads]

Like my friend frantic wrote on Seabourn they refund port fees for missed ports.  On the cruise we departed 10 days ago got a refund for a port we anchored at vs. docked.

[rallydave]

There was an agreement several years ago in Florida with all Florida based cruise lines that any money specifically listed for port fees or taxes had to be refunded if the money was not given to the government agencies.

 

Regent and Oceania both signed that agreement.  The kicker is that the money had to be broken out on the invoice to make it mandatory refunded and both Regent and Oceania do not break out these port fees and taxes thus they do not have to and have chosen not to refund to the passengers when ports are missed.

 

By the way Seabourn another luxury line breaks out the port fees and taxes and thus refunds for missed ports.  On a recent Seabourn cruise actually got a $0.37 credit for fees not paid.

[2SailingNomads]

We got about $39, don't have the statement nor desire to find it, in front of me refunded.

[loriva]

8 hours ago, rallydave said:

There was an agreement several years ago in Florida with all Florida based cruise lines that any money specifically listed for port fees or taxes had to be refunded if the money was not given to the government agencies.

 

Regent and Oceania both signed that agreement.  The kicker is that the money had to be broken out on the invoice to make it mandatory refunded and both Regent and Oceania do not break out these port fees and taxes thus they do not have to and have chosen not to refund to the passengers when ports are missed.

 

By the way Seabourn another luxury line breaks out the port fees and taxes and thus refunds for missed ports.  On a recent Seabourn cruise actually got a $0.37 credit for fees not paid.

 

Thanks for this information @rallydave.  To follow-up, we live in Florida and our invoice from Regent includes a line for "Gov't fees and taxes."  I would think--but do not know--that this would include port fees and/or taxes.  It is a lump-sum figure for the full cruise, not broken out by individual port--but that is the way I also remember it being on mainstream cruise lines.

 

That said, I do not recall a refund from Regent for missed ports on our most-recent cruise with them, a British Isles in September 2022.  MAYBE they were refunded to our onboard account and we spent the money?  I don't remember.  Will try to remember to watch on our upcoming trips.

[mrlevin]

11 minutes ago, loriva said:

 

Thanks for this information @rallydave.  To follow-up, we live in Florida and our invoice from Regent includes a line for "Gov't fees and taxes."  I would think--but do not know--that this would include port fees and/or taxes.  It is a lump-sum figure for the full cruise, not broken out by individual port--but that is the way I also remember it being on mainstream cruise lines.

 

That said, I do not recall a refund from Regent for missed ports on our most-recent cruise with them, a British Isles in September 2022.  MAYBE they were refunded to our onboard account and we spent the money?  I don't remember.  Will try to remember to watch on our upcoming trips.

Although Regent does not break out fees and taxes on passenger invoices, they do break it out for TAs identifying what is the "commissionable" fare.  Some TAs also break it out so they can show how they calculated their kickback.  

[papaflamingo]

17 hours ago, macbest said:

 Is this just a windfall for Regent?  

Doubt it's a "windfall" when you consider the additional cost of an extra day at sea (fuel, alcohol, food, etc.).   

[pappy1022]

I guess that holds true for cancelled excursions as well - no refund, although we know that we are paying for excursions as part of the cost. Do small group tours that we pay extra for, get refunded? And if so, is it timely enough to be able to reuse the shipboard credits that we used to pay for them?

[papaflamingo]

15 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

I guess that holds true for cancelled excursions as well - no refund, although we know that we are paying for excursions as part of the cost. Do small group tours that we pay extra for, get refunded? And if so, is it timely enough to be able to reuse the shipboard credits that we used to pay for them?

Yes it's refunded.  

[pappy1022]

That’s good but how quickly? They are use it or lose it credits so they need to be refunded quickly.

[rcandkc]

18 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

I guess that holds true for cancelled excursions as well - no refund, although we know that we are paying for excursions as part of the cost. Do small group tours that we pay extra for, get refunded? And if so, is it timely enough to be able to reuse the shipboard credits that we used to pay for them?

Yes..if you pay extra for an excursion and it is cancelled , it is refunded into your shipboard account. I think it was the next day we got notified. 

[rcandkc]

2 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

That’s good but how quickly? They are use it or lose it credits so they need to be refunded quickly.

I don’t believe they are use it or lose it.  We cashed out. 

[papaflamingo]

3 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

That’s good but how quickly? They are use it or lose it credits so they need to be refunded quickly.

Like rcandkc said, I don't think they aren't "use it or lose it.".  The "use it or lose" it OBC is the "non-refundable" that you get from Regent.  Any OBC you get from a refund that you paid money for is yours to cash out if you don't use it. 

[pappy1022]

There are 2 different types of onboard credits. The one’s you get from Regent as part of the cruise are non refundable. They are use it or lose it. Some TA credits are non refundable, some are not. We have a mix of credits, both non refundable and refundable from our TA.