I want to talk about port "charges".

[MisterMatthew]

When a ship stops at a port, is that ship charged a flat-rate fee?  Meaning, let's say the Zuidy stops at Mazatlan.. is the cruise line then charged a flat rate of $3,000.00?  I am just throwing out a random numeral of course.  Or, is it related to how many passengers are on the ship?  I.E. if it had only 20 passengers, is the port fee low?

 

I have always wondered about this!

 

----MisterMatthew

[CruiserBruce]

If you do a search, you will find several discussions with great input from the people who do, or have, worked in the management and operation of cruise ships.

 

It can be a flat rate, but it can also depend on services rendered, like tugs or taking off waste (of all kinds) or provided, like drinking water. It can be related to number of people on board.

 

I believe it may also depend on who owns the dock. For example, Carnival Corp built the dock and port facility at Grand Turk. It is my understanding they pay much less than other visiting ships.

[Mary229]

@MisterMatthew  That can be a great discussion to have at those morning chat sessions on the ship with various officers.  I recall we had the ice pilot give a talk on our way through the Greenland fjords and he told us how much he charged per day.  It was eye opening.  Port fees can entail service charges as well as tourist taxes a locale may levy.  

[kirkc]

Many ports charge a fee per person. This is very common in the Caribbean.

[Heidi13]

6 hours ago, MisterMatthew said:

When a ship stops at a port, is that ship charged a flat-rate fee?  Meaning, let's say the Zuidy stops at Mazatlan.. is the cruise line then charged a flat rate of $3,000.00?  I am just throwing out a random numeral of course.  Or, is it related to how many passengers are on the ship?  I.E. if it had only 20 passengers, is the port fee low?

 

I have always wondered about this!

 

----MisterMatthew

 

Negative, port charges are not a flat-fee, as ship's length, Gross Tonnage and # pax can all impact the final costs.

 

This is a very complex subject which is impossible to provide a comprehensive response, as it would take many pages. If this is something of interest, your best bet is to research a few specific ports. Here is a link to the fee document for Metro Port Vancouver.

 

https://www.portvancouver.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2023-01-01-Fee-Document-for-2023-2023-04-27-2.1.1-updated.pdf

 

Note - this is just the port fees, as you will also have pilot fees and tugs, if utilised.

[chengkp75]

As Andy says, some ports charge by ship length, some by gross tonnage, some by passenger capacity.  Some do combinations of these.  Some have per person taxes.  The cruise line knows these charges approximately ahead of time, and sets the "port taxes and fees" accordingly, and then divides it by the historical number of pax for the cruise to reach the charges that each passenger pays.  Panama canal cruises also include all of the charges needed to transit the canal in the "port taxes and fees".  The reason the "port taxes and fees" sometimes go up or down is due to the actual number of pax that are on the cruise.

7 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

It can be a flat rate, but it can also depend on services rendered, like tugs or taking off waste (of all kinds) or provided, like drinking water. It can be related to number of people on board.

Not quite correct.  If tugs and pilots are required by the port authority, then the charges for these services are included.  However, things like garbage removal or fresh water are not.

 

Due to a class action lawsuit against NCL a couple of decades ago, "port taxes and fees" are limited to those charges imposed by a governmental or quasi-governmental agency that are required merely for the ability to make the port call (so things like wharfage (dock fee), pilots, immigration officials, tugs if mandated, etc), while things that are principally to do with ship operations (like baggage handlers, garbage removal, fresh water, bunkers, etc) are not allowed to be included.

 

Contrary to what most here on CC believe, wharfage fee is based on a 24 hour stay, even if the ship only plans on being in port 8 hours, so delays in departure generally don't involve extra cost, except for paying for "waiting time" for tugs and pilots.

[Banditswife]

Another interesting discussion.  On the Zaandam's holiday cruise, we originally had a sea day & then Curacao the following day.  Our itinerary was changed to dock in Curacao at 8 PM on the originally scheduled sea day & then over night there until 11 PM on the originally scheduled port day.  I wondered why they chose to show up at 8 PM on what was a sea day.  My guess was that it had to do with costs of sailing vs docking.  But if they have to pay for 2-24 hr periods... there might be another reason.

[mcrcruiser]

It seems to us that the port taxes/charges keep increasing even to Mexican riviera ports .both the Pqnama Canal Taxes & Alaska raxes are very high 

[ontheweb]

9 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

It seems to us that the port taxes/charges keep increasing even to Mexican riviera ports .both the Pqnama Canal Taxes & Alaska raxes are very high 

It is not surprising that the port taxes are very high for the Panama Canal. See post #6 in this thread to see what is included.

[DaveOKC]

It now seems that on every cruise we get a credit from reduced port fees to our onboard account.  It makes me wonder if HAL is overestimating these fees so that they can refund them back to your onboard account, knowing that you are more likely to spend that money.

[Fouremco]

52 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

It now seems that on every cruise we get a credit from reduced port fees to our onboard account.  It makes me wonder if HAL is overestimating these fees so that they can refund them back to your onboard account, knowing that you are more likely to spend that money.

Or maybe they simply know that passengers would be much happier getting a credit on their account rather than a debit while at sea.

[chengkp75]

No, more likely the actual pax count is higher than previously estimated, so the share of each pax goes down.

[St Pete Cruiser]

3 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

It now seems that on every cruise we get a credit from reduced port fees to our onboard account.  It makes me wonder if HAL is overestimating these fees so that they can refund them back to your onboard account, knowing that you are more likely to spend that money.

Plus most of us like getting a refund as opposed to a charge for more!

[ontheweb]

20 minutes ago, St Pete Cruiser said:

Plus most of us like getting a refund as opposed to a charge for more!

I have received a refund a few times, never a charge for more port fees. I have seen it posted that if they underestimate, they do not charge the passengers. I would think they are required to refund, but for the very few dollars involved, it is not worth it for them to charge and anger passengers.

[MisterMatthew]

This is fascinating!

 

---MisterMatthew

[Mary229]

On 12/14/2023 at 9:28 AM, DaveOKC said:

It now seems that on every cruise we get a credit from reduced port fees to our onboard account.  It makes me wonder if HAL is overestimating these fees so that they can refund them back to your onboard account, knowing that you are more likely to spend that money.

I must be on the wrong cruises😊.  I only get a refund if we miss a port.  Some cruise lines do not refund fees for missed ports.

[Haljo1935]

59 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

I must be on the wrong cruises😊.  I only get a refund if we miss a port.  Some cruise lines do not refund fees for missed ports.

I typically see small refunds in strange amounts that are labeled as "...port...adjustments" - $5.36 and a nice, beefy $29.66 for my most recent 2 cruises out of Rome.

Edited December 15, 2023 by Haljo1935
Typo

[Mary229]

3 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

I typically see small refunds in strange amounts that are labeled as "...port...adjustments" - $5.36 and a nice, beefy $29.66 for my most recent 2 cruises out of Rome.

I have never had one.  Just my luck😉

[Haljo1935]

6 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

I have never had one.  Just my luck😉

That's stunning given your cruise history. I cannot remember one when I didn't get one.

[hrhdhd]

I got $6.54 credited on this week's Nieuw Statendam cruise. 🎉

[Mary229]

51 minutes ago, hrhdhd said:

I got $6.54 credited on this week's Nieuw Statendam cruise. 🎉

Woohoo!  That will buy a drink at happy hour. 

[hrhdhd]

1 hour ago, Mary229 said:

Woohoo!  That will buy a drink at happy hour. 

I was actually pretty proud of myself that my account was going to have a credit balance of a few cents, but between this and the 25% off on my Pinnacle lunch today (forgot!), I have $5.52 of HAL's money to spend. Argh.

[Mary229]

1 minute ago, hrhdhd said:

I was actually pretty proud of myself that my account was going to have a credit balance of a few cents, but between this and the 25% off on my Pinnacle lunch today (forgot!), I have $5.52 of HAL's money to spend. Argh.

I refuse to leave any money.  If nothing else go to the shops and buy chapstick😀. Anything extra can be left for the crew too.  It gets put into the crew pool 

[DaveOKC]

We just received $29 refund on our 10 day Western Carb.  Managed to spend it all plus I owed HAL $2.40!  But then again I received a $2 credit from our upsell (to our card), so net, net was only 40 cents.  Will try to do better next time.

 

One way to use up extra OBC is to add tips to specialty dining and drink service.  Easy to do.

 

[dchip]

2 hours ago, hrhdhd said:

, I have $5.52 of HAL's money to spend. Argh.

Buy a bag of M&M’s. 😂 We did. 🤣