Do your port fees get returned if you miss a port?

[blueskadoo]

Hi everyone. Curious if you miss a port stop due to a reason like bad weather/rough seas, will you get the port fees returned to you? Or is it just too bad? Is there any way to know what we as passengers pay to each port? Thanks

[Al Aboard]

Yes.  We were on the Celebrity Apex Feb. 3-10 sailing and missed Grand Cayman due to a storm that hit the island the previous day.  There were no announcements made about a refund, but the final statement showed a $7.39 credit for myself and the same for my wife listed as "OBR-CRUISE AIR/PORT TAX FEE CREDIT*".  I don't know how to see what the breakdown is for the ports we did visit - just a total on the original booking for all the planned ports.

[prmssk]

It doesn't if your port gets replaced with something else.  That happened to me in late 2022.  I don't think I've had any recently on Celebrity where we missed a port and it was replaced by a sea day.

 

And no, there is no way to see a breakdown of port fees because they are constantly changing.  It's not a set per person fee - a lot more goes into calculating them.  What you pay up front is an estimate of what the cruise line thinks will be your share.

[Arizona Wildcat]

Have missed numerous ports.  About half the time received a refund of the port fees.  The reason is agreements with the ports vary.  Some contract the space on what is a use it or lose it type of contract.  Others are not paid a couple days ahead.  A few allow for a refund based on weather or emergencies.

[sofietucker]

We have missed many ports over the years, and our Allianz insurance has paid us, in every instance, $100pp, for each missed port. Most recently in Sept 2023, when we missed Volos, Greece.

[Mr. Click]

So maybe that explains the small credit from Celebrity that recently showed up on my credit card statement.....we missed St. John Antigua on our January 19 sailing on the Beyond.

[cruisestitch]

The issue of port fees is more complicated than it first appears.

 

here is what guest relations explained to me.  Port fees are constantly changing.  But when you book a cruise, you are quoted a certain amount for port fees.  In the intervening weeks and months, maybe the fees go up, maybe they go down, but you pay what you were quoted initially.
 

if the ship misses a port, maybe your aggregate total  fees for all the itinerary’s ports went down and you could get a refund.  But maybe the total for all of the ports went up and you do not get a refund for the one you missed.
 

but wait, there’s more. It also turns out that different nationalities are charged different port fees by certain destinations.  But the quoted amount at booking is the same for all.  
 

so it is possible that Germans might not get a refund for a missed port but Dutch citizens would.  On the very same cruise!  
 

 

[the penguins]

2 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

The issue of port fees is more complicated than it first appears.

 

here is what guest relations explained to me.  Port fees are constantly changing.  But when you book a cruise, you are quoted a certain amount for port fees.  In the intervening weeks and months, maybe the fees go up, maybe they go down, but you pay what you were quoted initially.
 

if the ship misses a port, maybe your aggregate total  fees for all the itinerary’s ports went down and you could get a refund.  But maybe the total for all of the ports went up and you do not get a refund for the one you missed.
 

but wait, there’s more. It also turns out that different nationalities are charged different port fees by certain destinations.  But the quoted amount at booking is the same for all.  
 

so it is possible that Germans might not get a refund for a missed port but Dutch citizens would.  On the very same cruise!  
 

 

Also some countries, for example Denmark, charges 1 fee for 2 ports i.e. miss one of the 2 (which we did on Silhouette) and there is no refund.

Additionally we have been on 2 cruises where our American friends received instant credits whereas we only got ours by asking. In both cases we were told "sorry no refunds" but when we said "our American friends got a credit" the response was "sorry of course you get a credit we will do it now". 

[Mark_K]

5 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

The issue of port fees is more complicated than it first appears.

 

here is what guest relations explained to me.  Port fees are constantly changing.  But when you book a cruise, you are quoted a certain amount for port fees.  In the intervening weeks and months, maybe the fees go up, maybe they go down, but you pay what you were quoted initially.
 

if the ship misses a port, maybe your aggregate total  fees for all the itinerary’s ports went down and you could get a refund.  But maybe the total for all of the ports went up and you do not get a refund for the one you missed.
 

but wait, there’s more. It also turns out that different nationalities are charged different port fees by certain destinations.  But the quoted amount at booking is the same for all.  
 

so it is possible that Germans might not get a refund for a missed port but Dutch citizens would.  On the very same cruise!  
 

 

It’s even more complicated than that, since what is commonly known as port fees is really port fees and taxes.  And last year when The Bahamas raised their taxes Celebrity most definitely added the increase to the invoices of passengers.

[gerelmx]

In August 2022 during our cruise aboard the Summit (Reykjavik to Boston), we did not go to Isafjordur, Iceland due to strong winds (very risky for the tender), we did NOT receive a refund of the port charges.

[cruisestitch]

1 hour ago, gerelmx said:

In August 2022 during our cruise aboard the Summit (Reykjavik to Boston), we did not go to Isafjordur, Iceland due to strong winds (very risky for the tender), we did NOT receive a refund of the port charges.

And now you know some possible reasons why…

[peanut head]

14 hours ago, sofietucker said:

We have missed many ports over the years, and our Allianz insurance has paid us, in every instance, $100pp, for each missed port. Most recently in Sept 2023, when we missed Volos, Greece.

What did you send in with the claim?

[mahasamatman]

5 hours ago, gerelmx said:

In August 2022 during our cruise aboard the Summit (Reykjavik to Boston), we did not go to Isafjordur, Iceland due to strong winds (very risky for the tender), we did NOT receive a refund of the port charges.

 

Same here - and same cruise!

 

On a cruise last year, we missed a couple of ports while running from Hurricane Juan and sheltered in Boston Harbour to wait it out. We only expected to get port fees and taxes back, but I believe we got 25% of our cruise fare (or maybe more) as FCC on that one.

 

 

 

Edited February 22 by mahasamatman

[sofietucker]

1 hour ago, peanut head said:

What did you send in with the claim?

The notices from the ship that they canceled the port: screenshots or printed notices in the daily, etc. To be clear, this is with our travel insurance company. The most the ship ever compensates is the port fees.

Edited February 22 by sofietucker

[WatchHill]

We did a transatlantic out of Southampton, a day late leaving there, and once on the ship were informed we would not be stopping in the Azores, but going onto Bermuda and Nassau [egh} as planned. Sadly, no credit and leaving us quite disappointed. 

 

Darcy

[peanut head]

1 hour ago, sofietucker said:

The notices from the ship that they canceled the port: screenshots or printed notices in the daily, etc. To be clear, this is with our travel insurance company. The most the ship ever compensates is the port fees.

Yes, I understand.  How did you calculate the cost of the port fee that it came to $100pp.  I am just trying to store this tidbit of info in the back of my brain in the event this ever happens to me.

[gold1953]

42 minutes ago, WatchHill said:

We did a transatlantic out of Southampton, a day late leaving there, and once on the ship were informed we would not be stopping in the Azores, but going onto Bermuda and Nassau [egh} as planned. Sadly, no credit and leaving us quite disappointed. 

 

Darcy

yes, they did not refund our port fees. not good

[sofietucker]

53 minutes ago, peanut head said:

Yes, I understand.  How did you calculate the cost of the port fee that it came to $100pp.  I am just trying to store this tidbit of info in the back of my brain in the event this ever happens to me.

No calculations. It's a flat missed-port rate in their policy. Someone in another forum once implied that we were greedy. But hey, it's included in their policy, which we paid for--and while missing Key West isn't a heartbreaker, some of the European ones are pretty special. St Malo? May not ever get back. And hey, if we didn't get, in terms of the itinerary, what we paid for, heck yeah we'll file a claim. 

Edited February 22 by sofietucker

[peanut head]

22 minutes ago, sofietucker said:

No calculations. It's a flat missed-port rate in their policy. Someone in another forum once implied that we were greedy. But hey, it's included in their policy, which we paid for--and while missing Key West isn't a heartbreaker, some of the European ones are pretty special. St Malo? May not ever get back. And hey, if we didn't get, in terms of the itinerary, what we paid for, heck yeah we'll file a claim. 

Greedy?!  Give me a break!  You took the time to invest in an insurance policy and are taking advantage of it.  Not utilizing what you pay for could be considered "dumb".  I say, "good for you!" 😀

[blueskadoo]

22 hours ago, Mr. Click said:

So maybe that explains the small credit from Celebrity that recently showed up on my credit card statement.....we missed St. John Antigua on our January 19 sailing on the Beyond.

This was the credit I was looking for! That exact ship and sail date. So it showed up on your credit card after the fact? About how much was it to try to help me figure out if its there or not. Thanks!

[Mr. Click]

15 hours ago, blueskadoo said:

This was the credit I was looking for! That exact ship and sail date. So it showed up on your credit card after the fact? About how much was it to try to help me figure out if its there or not. Thanks!

A credit from Celebrity for 23.88 showed up last week.  Not totally sure what it was for but I am guessing it was that missed port.  

[CruisingTheWaves]

On 2/21/2024 at 8:08 PM, sofietucker said:

We have missed many ports over the years, and our Allianz insurance has paid us, in every instance, $100pp, for each missed port. Most recently in Sept 2023, when we missed Volos, Greece.

Wow, that is good to know. We don't usually get the travel insurance but this time we did, through the company you mentioned. If anything happens I will definitely look into that.

[sofietucker]

Just guessing, but that $23.88 may be a port-fee refund for the missed port, NOT a missed-port refund.

We also once got the port fee back from the ship when Key West was cancelled due to waves*--but NOT for their private island the next day, which was also too rough to visit. I guess that port doesn't incur fees. We got missed-port refunds for both "sea days" from ins. company.

We got the Azamara port fee refunded for Volos when they rerouted to Cesme. Insurance refunded for that missed port as well, even though we did go to a different port that day.

*Which has happened on our last 3 attempts to visit. If I were a gambler, lol...

Edited February 23 by sofietucker

[sofietucker]

4 hours ago, CruisingTheWaves said:

Wow, that is good to know. We don't usually get the travel insurance but this time we did, through the company you mentioned. If anything happens I will definitely look into that.

Just do review your policy; they offer a bunch of different plans...

[Lastdance]

We have missed ports, but then new ones were assigned.  Unfortunately, if there is a natural disaster, like the fire in Lahaina, that is not included.  When we were young, insurance was not part of our cruising; however, now it is a different story.  Being well versed in travel insurance is very important, not to mention pre-existing conditions and those details, as so many do not get reimbursed due to a prescription change or something else. Details make the difference when buying insurance and everyone is different.  Remember, the insurance company knows all the loopholes, so you should too.  Always read the fine print, ask questions and work with a reputable company.

Edited February 24 by Lastdance
I hate insurance!