All fees included now?

[tatabea]

I just read this-interesting. I hope it’s true.

 

…I'd like to tell you about an industry-wide change in the way cruise prices are displayed to the public. In order to reduce confusion, cruise prices will be required to include government taxes and fees which heretofore have not been included in the price displayed for many lines. All cruise sellers must make this change by Monday, July 1. Please note that including taxes and fees in the displayed price does not mean customers are now paying more for cruises than they did prior to this change -- taxes and fees have always been required to be paid as part of the final purchase price, they just were not included 

[Sea42]

14 minutes ago, tatabea said:

I just read this-interesting. I hope it’s true.

 

…I'd like to tell you about an industry-wide change in the way cruise prices are displayed to the public. In order to reduce confusion, cruise prices will be required to include government taxes and fees which heretofore have not been included in the price displayed for many lines. All cruise sellers must make this change by Monday, July 1. Please note that including taxes and fees in the displayed price does not mean customers are now paying more for cruises than they did prior to this change -- taxes and fees have always been required to be paid as part of the final purchase price, they just were not included 

Source?

[Cruise Junky]

It’s looking that way.  One of the biggy online agencies has made the change for both HAL and Princess.  

[Banditswife]

It will be a welcome change, no surprises.  I also wish they would include gratuities.  I would imagine that could possibly lower the cost of gratuities if everyone had to pay them up front.

[BermudaBound2014]

13 minutes ago, Sea42 said:

Source?

It’s true. Sprouted from California’s transparency bill (SB478). Lots of articles have been published. 

[Sea42]

1 hour ago, tatabea said:

I just read this-interesting. I hope it’s true.

 

…I'd like to tell you about an industry-wide change in the way cruise prices are displayed to the public. In order to reduce confusion, cruise prices will be required to include government taxes and fees which heretofore have not been included in the price displayed for many lines. All cruise sellers must make this change by Monday, July 1. Please note that including taxes and fees in the displayed price does not mean customers are now paying more for cruises than they did prior to this change -- taxes and fees have always been required to be paid as part of the final purchase price, they just were not included 

I was skeptical but after doing some Googling I was very happily surprised! Thanks for sharing the information.

I hope this covers Airbnb and VRBO too!!

[SilvertoGold]

This is excellent. I get so tired of searching the bottom of HAL pages to find the taxes and then add them to the fare to get full cost. I have noticed at least one travel agency here in BC has started to do this on their website.

What I would like to see, as informational info, is " $3500, including $ 500 taxes and fees".

Edited June 20 by SilvertoGold

[sunviking90]

1 hour ago, Banditswife said:

It will be a welcome change, no surprises.  I also wish they would include gratuities.  I would imagine that could possibly lower the cost of gratuities if everyone had to pay them up front.

I wouldn’t like to see that. We pay our gratuities out of our OBC.

[CNSJ]

Port fees and taxes can be a shocker.  Panama Canal may be one of the worst ones.  This is good.  As @SilvertoGold mentioned it would be nice to see the breakout.

[SilvertoGold]

48 minutes ago, CNSJ said:

Port fees and taxes can be a shocker.  Panama Canal may be one of the worst ones.  This is good.  As @SilvertoGold mentioned it would be nice to see the breakout.

Yes! Two autumn repos (20 and 21 days) Panama have taxes of CND 942 and 901. Not sure how much in USD but likley something like $650 - 700?

[Boatdrill]

1 hour ago, CNSJ said:

Port fees and taxes can be a shocker.  Panama Canal may be one of the worst ones.

This year Alaska is $370 for a 7 day trip.   

[Cruise Junky]

1 hour ago, Boatdrill said:

This year Alaska is $370 for a 7 day trip.   

Depends where it leaves from. I only paid $354 Cdn on Koningsdam from Vancouver.  That’s $258 USD$

Edited June 21 by Cruise Junky

[VMax1700]

10 hours ago, SilvertoGold said:

This is excellent. I get so tired of searching the bottom of HAL pages to find the taxes and then add them to the fare to get full cost. I have noticed at least one travel agency here in BC has started to do this on their website.

What I would like to see, as informational info, is " $3500, including $ 500 taxes and fees".

That is exactly what they do in EU.

 

[MISTER 67]

43 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

That is exactly what they do in EU.

 

This is good but I’ve noticed and mentioned before that HAL port charges in the Caribbean are higher for basically the same cruises as Princess and Celebrity.

Edited June 21 by MISTER 67

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

12 hours ago, Banditswife said:

It will be a welcome change, no surprises.  I also wish they would include gratuities.  I would imagine that could possibly lower the cost of gratuities if everyone had to pay them up front.

 include gratuities.  That will be hard to do in the U.S.

[richwmn]

It is interesting how attitudes change. Long ago cruises were all inclusive and were advertised as one price. The cruise lines did reserve the right to charge more if the port charges and taxes went up. People wanted to see those charges separately, so the cruise lines started selling them that way and started refunding when port charges went down.

 

Now people are complaining about not seeing the full price, and advertising will change again until people complain again.

 

[ontheweb]

28 minutes ago, richwmn said:

It is interesting how attitudes change. Long ago cruises were all inclusive and were advertised as one price. The cruise lines did reserve the right to charge more if the port charges and taxes went up. People wanted to see those charges separately, so the cruise lines started selling them that way and started refunding when port charges went down.

 

Now people are complaining about not seeing the full price, and advertising will change again until people complain again.

 

Actually, the new change in advertising the price is in response to a law passed in California and about to go into effect. There will not be a change back unless that law is repealed.

 

When we are interested in a cruise, I call our TA and get a bottom line price. Later if we book, an invoice is sent and that breaks out the various charges.

[richwmn]

6 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Actually, the new change in advertising the price is in response to a law passed in California and about to go into effect. There will not be a change back unless that law is repealed.

 

When we are interested in a cruise, I call our TA and get a bottom line price. Later if we book, an invoice is sent and that breaks out the various charges.

I understand that, but the law wouldn't have been passed unless either a substantial number of people, or the right people, complained about the pricing structure.

 

[SilvertoGold]

9 hours ago, Cruise Junky said:

Depends where it leaves from. I only paid $354 Cdn on Koningsdam from Vancouver.  That’s $258 USD$

14 day Collector Alaska : taxes and  fees CND 735 pp

[SilvertoGold]

3 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

That is exactly what they do in EU.

 

Colin!  This is perfect. I really hope HAL does this now for all.

[SilvertoGold]

3 hours ago, MISTER 67 said:

This is good but I’ve noticed and mentioned before that HAL port charges in the Caribbean are higher for basically the same cruises as Princess and Celebrity.

I have noted this as well for many cruises I see advertised, mostly Alaska, Hawaii.

[Happy fool]

I think this is a positive change. After all, port fees and taxes are not optional. I like knowing the full price when I’m researching a cruise. 

[BaldiePete]

4 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

That is exactly what they do in EU.

 

Similarly here in the UK. I wonder if it’s because, from my experience of the US, it’s routine to add any taxes onto the ticketed price that you see in the store so you end up paying more than the advertised price. Similar logic may have been applied when booking cruises. 

Edited June 21 by BaldiePete
Typo

[SilvertoGold]

4 minutes ago, BaldiePete said:

Similarly here in the UK. I wonder if it’s because, from my experience of the US, it’s routine to add any taxes onto the ticketed price that you see in the store so you end up paying more than the advertised price. Similar logic may have been applied when booking cruises. 

Also in Canada!  Maybe your reasoning is correct. Maybe the cruise lines want to hook customers into the cruise fare pricing without the tax. Some cruise taxes are high enough now to send that nice, reasonable fare into the stratosphere!

[sunviking90]

9 hours ago, Cruise Junky said:

Depends where it leaves from. I only paid $354 Cdn on Koningsdam from Vancouver.  That’s $258 USD$

Size of the ship affects this too, particularly for Alaska. We noticed Zaandam fees were higher than the Noordam, etc.