As of July 1, 2024 Princess Pricing to Include Taxes, Fees and Port Charges

[azbirdmom]

2 minutes ago, voljeep said:

9% Princess / AON insurance still based on cruise fare, not the new total price?

Hmmmm interesting question.  Will have to see how that one plays out.

[Rick&Jeannie]

1 hour ago, Ombud said:

Got it too. I guess if we miss a port now we won't get port fees refunded as OBC?

Hah! Good point!

[dreaminofcruisin]

I think it's a good idea. Some people really scrimp and save to be able to cruise. Even though the port charges are there when they finally book, knowing the total cost upfront will help them not get too excited if it really is beyond their means. Those of us that cruise often know about the extra costs...new cruisers...maybe not so much.

[private92656]

I hope this will not stop cruise lines from giving out obc on fees charged when a port is skipped. Fingers crossed.

[Mike07]

27 minutes ago, voljeep said:

9% Princess / AON insurance still based on cruise fare, not the new total price?

 

I would think that largely nothing will change except for how PCL markets a fare.

 

They can't do "21-day cruise for $499!!" And then you find out it has $3,000, per person, in taxes, port and processing fees. Obviously I'm exaggerating the fees part but I hope you all recognize the click bait of a very low fare with very serious ****'s everywhere and very specific terms and conditions

 

It's like buying a car.... There are always more fees. Same with the ultra low cost carriers like Spirit and frontier.... Fares may be low but mandatory taxes and fees and security charges add up

Edited June 20 by Mike07

[Ombud]

35 minutes ago, voljeep said:

9% Princess / AON insurance still based on cruise fare, not the new total price?

AON insures only what cannot be refunded so it should be new cruise fare minus taxes / port charges IF (and this is a big IF) IT doesn't muck it up

Edited June 20 by Ombud

[Astro Flyer]

1 hour ago, azbirdmom said:

Yes, this was announced last month and discussed here:  

 

I can't recall where but I did see a mock-up where the actual port fees were displayed on the booking confirmation, not just baked in like some other lines like Oceania do it.

 

I prefer the way Oceania includes taxes & fees in their pricing to quickly see the total cost. I’ve seen lower Princess prices where T&F added an additional 50% to the cruise fare.

Several years ago I remember Princess showing the total price however after their competition didn’t do the same thing on the surface it made Princess appear to be more expensive so they went back to showing cruise fares and T&F separately.

 

Great question about the Princess insurance…since T&F are fully refundable when canceling, the 9% cost should be based on the cruise fare only. They do not include EZair flights when calculating the 9% cost of the insurance. In 2018 we had our only health related cancellation using their insurance & IIRC our airfare was immediately refunded to our c/c while the cruise fare was an insurance claim.

 

 

 

[azbirdmom]

9 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

I prefer the way Oceania includes taxes & fees in their pricing to quickly see the total cost. I’ve seen lower Princess prices where T&F added an additional 50% to the cruise fare.

Several years ago I remember Princess showing the total price however after their competition didn’t do the same thing on the surface it made Princess appear to be more expensive so they went back to showing cruise fares and T&F separately.

 

Great question about the Princess insurance…since T&F are fully refundable when canceling, the 9% cost should be based on the cruise fare only. They do not include EZair flights when calculating the 9% cost of the insurance. In 2018 we had our only health related cancellation using their insurance & IIRC our airfare was immediately refunded to our c/c while the cruise fare was an insurance claim.

 

 

 

Oceania actually assesses the insurance premium on the total amount including port fees and taxes.  What they wanted to charge us was 13.5% of the total which drove us to finally get an annual policy.  Our TA separated out the port fees / taxes on their invoice so it was pretty easy to confirm this.  I'm hoping Princess keeps it out of the calculation, it's not hard to do.

[Mike07]

31 minutes ago, private92656 said:

I hope this will not stop cruise lines from giving out obc on fees charged when a port is skipped. Fingers crossed.

 

I truly believe that PCL will still provide an itemized invoice of fare, taxes, port fees, doc fees and every other fee when this is all said and done. Rather, it prevents deceptive advertising.

[Astro Flyer]

2 minutes ago, azbirdmom said:

Oceania actually assesses the insurance premium on the total amount including port fees and taxes.  What they wanted to charge us was 13.5% of the total which drove us to finally get an annual policy.  Our TA separated out the port fees / taxes on their invoice so it was pretty easy to confirm this.  I'm hoping Princess keeps it out of the calculation, it's not hard to do.

That’s why we purchased an independent policy for our Oceania cruise later this year. In my opinion Oceania does many things well although that doesn’t apply to their insurance nor to their air program which based on my experiences cannot compete with Flexible EZair.

[Lady Arwen]

2 hours ago, skynight said:

The information was always there. Now it has to be included in the advertised price. 

Of course it was and yes it will be.

[alwalaska]

I for one am very happy about this and hope that someday soon all cruise lines and hotels go this route.  I really hate getting excited about a price and then seeing that the final number is more than double what I expected.  Just before sailing on non-full cruises, the taxes and fees can far exceed the price of the cruise itself.

[JerseyGirlatHeart]

3 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

Yes, I predict no changes to those that cruise quite often and know what will and what won’t be added on your invoice.  I imagine it will be helpful for those new to cruising that are shocked when another $500+ is added to their pricing.  
But, just like when you go to buy airfare, there is always a breakdown of the flight vs the added taxes and fees on the page on or around the payment screen.  

 

I don’t see how this new law will have an impact on port fees being refunded.  It’s a law that the port fees have to be returned if a port was missed, in the event it isn’t replaced.  

Was on Celebrity Beyond in January; we missed Antigua with no port fee refund or OBC.

[Cruise Raider]

5 minutes ago, JerseyGirlatHeart said:

Was on Celebrity Beyond in January; we missed Antigua with no port fee refund or OBC.

I can’t speak to that specifically but they may have shorted their expected port fees and since it’s such a small amount, they could have just let it go and not charged everybody the overage.  
It oftentimes shows up on your folio as a credit but hardly noticed as it is sometimes not a small amount.  You’d certify any notice it on a Panama Canal cruise.  😉 

[alwalaska]

9 minutes ago, JerseyGirlatHeart said:

Was on Celebrity Beyond in January; we missed Antigua with no port fee refund or OBC.

NCL stopped refunding port charges sometime post-COVID, not sure when.  Each line is trying to recover by adding or cutting in their own ways.

[Astro Flyer]

41 minutes ago, alwalaska said:

I for one am very happy about this and hope that someday soon all cruise lines and hotels go this route.

IIRC, all of Royal Caribbean’s cruise lines will also include T&F in their pricing but think for both PCL & RCI it’s only for bookings made in the US.

 

Edited June 20 by Astro Flyer

[NavyVeteran]

3 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

Great question about the Princess insurance…since T&F are fully refundable when canceling, the 9% cost should be based on the cruise fare only. They do not include EZair flights when calculating the 9% cost of the insurance. In 2018 we had our only health related cancellation using their insurance & IIRC our airfare was immediately refunded to our c/c while the cruise fare was an insurance claim.

The big question is whether taxes and fees are itemized separately after purchase and are still fully refundable. It they are fully refundable, then they should not be included in the insurance calculation. If they are now considered part of the fare and are now subject to the cancellation penalty schedule, then they would need to be covered by insurance.

[MacMadame]

Right now, when you get an email from some cruise reseller that has two 7 Nights Alaska cruises that look like they are different prices, you don't really know which one is cheaper because you aren't seeing the full price. The one being advertised as $499 pp might actually cost more than the one advertised as $599 pp because they go to slightly different ports with different port fees.

 

The same with two cruises to different itineraries that have the same price. Once you add on port fees and taxes, one of them will cost more than the other.

 

It's a lot easier to compare cruises when you are comparing apples to apples and not apples to oranges.

 

Google Flights does something similar. You tell it how many bags you will have and it tells you the total price. So if one airline only charges for the 2nd bag and another charges for both, you can see how that impacts the total and which fare is really the cheaper one.

 

I like it.

[paddingtonbear]

This has been the law in Australia for years (maybe decades) it is great - so easy to compare prices.  Any princess fare sold in Australia currently automatically includes the port fees and taxes. 

 

I've been booking accomoodation around the US and Canada for this trip and it is so annoying going to individual hotel websites and having to click through to the final screen to find out what the actual cost is including taxed. 

 

Individual mom and pop places sometimes don't have prices and you have to email about 5 times to get the "actual" price per night.  One place the other day said "we don't charge anything extra except taxes".  So I had to email again "what are your taxes?" And some times on top of taxes is the resort fee per person per night which some people don't think is a "tax".  It just takes time. 

 

I can see why people book through booking dot com is all the taxes and fees are included, it give you a nightly rate, you don't pay until you arrive (unless you choose a non refundable rate), you can toggle between currencies and your whole trip is accessable on one site.  I hate doing it as I'd prefer to go direct but sometimes the hotels make it so very difficult.  The big hotels are great - book with us lowest price guaranteed and save 20%. 

[TRLD]

7 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

Yes, I predict no changes to those that cruise quite often and know what will and what won’t be added on your invoice.  I imagine it will be helpful for those new to cruising that are shocked when another $500+ is added to their pricing.  
But, just like when you go to buy airfare, there is always a breakdown of the flight vs the added taxes and fees on the page on or around the payment screen.  

 

I don’t see how this new law will have an impact on port fees being refunded.  It’s a law that the port fees have to be returned if a port was missed, in the event it isn’t replaced.  

If I recall the law requires them to be refunded if they are broken out in the invoice.

 

If they just present just the total like Oceania and other cruise lines do then that law nolonger applies.

 

So it depends on if they show only the final price then probably no tax/fee refund. If they advertise the final price, but then still break it out in invoice then the refunds will continue. Big advantage to them breaking it out because TA fees are based on fare not taxes and port fees.

[EDVM96]

1 hour ago, paddingtonbear said:

This has been the law in Australia for years (maybe decades) it is great

Just like in the rest of the world. Except the U.S. and Canada. Price concealment is common there.

Resort fee, destination charge, amenity fee, service charge, dine in fee, convenience fee ...

 

Edited June 21 by EDVM96

[Redrobo]

The prices broken down have been included in the Uk for years.  No big deal.

 

 

 

 

 

[WisCruiser2]

3 hours ago, Redrobo said:

The prices broken down have been included in the Uk for years.  No big deal.

 

 

 

 

 

That's how it is here in USA, too, at least on all the invoices we've received!

[Mary loves to travel]

What's interesting is that this law was targeted towards hotel & resort fees -- you know, you see the price of a hotel room, but then later find out there's a "resort fee", or in the case of an AirBnB or other vacation rental, a "cleaning fee", etc, etc, etc.

Very hard to compare the real prices using a search engine.

This law aims to improve that process.

 

Of course, since cruise ships are "floating hotels" - we have Hotel Managers, don't we? -- this new law covers cruise line pricing as well.

 

I'll just have to make a little adjustment to my price tracking spreadsheet 🙂

 

[JordanF]

2 hours ago, Mary loves to travel said:

What's interesting is that this law was targeted towards hotel & resort fees

Yep--I find the hotel fees to be the more annoying ones.  The port fees for cruises--I guess since I go on maybe one cruise a year or so, I don't mind sorting through it all.  But hotels with the resort fees, for really nothing at all, make it difficult to compare.  I recently booked a hotel in Boston and they added an "Urban Fee."  I have no idea what I get for that (yes I do--nothing).  So as fees proliferate, I am happy to have some laws that fight back--and if cruise pricing is included, that's fine--especially for newbies.  My understanding is that the fees are a way for prices to look lower when comparing them on the internet--so the whole overall purpose of the fees is to be deceptive--good for California to strike back.