Therese S. Posted July 16 #1 Share Posted July 16 Has anyone purchased Princess Insurance after the new CA Consumer protection law SB 478 went into affect on July 1? I recently booked a cruise on the Ruby Princess: Here's the breakdown of charges: Base Cruise Fare 619.00 Required Cruise Fees & Expenses 186.41 Government Fees & Taxes 73.59 Total 879.00 When I checked into how much the Princess insurance (Platinum) would be, Princess website shows the cost as $72.48. I was expecting it to be 55.71 which is the base fare (619 x .09). Took me a bit to figure out the charge of 72.48 was calculated on the base fare plus the required cruise fees & expenses. (619 plus 186.41) x .09 Does this sound correct? I thought all port fees and taxes were refunded if you had to cancel and only the base fare needed to be insured. Why would I insurance port fees and other cruise expenses? I passed on purchasing the insurance for right now until I can find out if this is correct or not. Sorry if my post is confusing 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
that Posted July 16 #2 Share Posted July 16 Yes disappointing Perhaps like some cruise lines these fees will no longer be reimbursed, thus insurance covered? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wishing on a star Posted July 16 #3 Share Posted July 16 Therese, you are correct.... Many do not like this, because Princess bases the insurance on your final total cost. If you, for example, book with Plus or Premier, yes, you will pay insurance based on the addition of the package. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t&atravel Posted July 16 #4 Share Posted July 16 (edited) 22 minutes ago, Therese S. said: Has anyone purchased Princess Insurance after the new CA Consumer protection law SB 478 went into affect on July 1? I recently booked a cruise on the Ruby Princess: Here's the breakdown of charges: Base Cruise Fare 619.00 Required Cruise Fees & Expenses 186.41 Government Fees & Taxes 73.59 Total 879.00 When I checked into how much the Princess insurance (Platinum) would be, Princess website shows the cost as $72.48. I was expecting it to be 55.71 which is the base fare (619 x .09). Took me a bit to figure out the charge of 72.48 was calculated on the base fare plus the required cruise fees & expenses. (619 plus 186.41) x .09 Does this sound correct? I thought all port fees and taxes were refunded if you had to cancel and only the base fare needed to be insured. Why would I insurance port fees and other cruise expenses? I passed on purchasing the insurance for right now until I can find out if this is correct or not. Sorry if my post is confusing I understand your question because I was the one who brought it up on your other thread however after researching some more I believe you were charged correctly. Prior to them bundling the cost for advertising the amounts you would see were the base fare and the “govt taxes and fees”. They did not have a separate line item for the “required cruise fees”. I believe those where in the base all along. See the attached where it is highlighted that the required fees are subject to penalty so should be insured. It is the govt taxes and port fees that are fully refundable and the PVP was not applied to those. Sorry if I misinformed you. i checked my cruise that I booked before the bundling and did a mock booking today and it works out to same amount. Edited July 16 by t&atravel 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Therese S. Posted July 16 Author #5 Share Posted July 16 30 minutes ago, t&atravel said: I understand your question because I was the one who brought it up on your other thread however after researching some more I believe you were charged correctly. Prior to them bundling the cost for advertising the amounts you would see were the base fare and the “govt taxes and fees”. They did not have a separate line item for the “required cruise fees”. I believe those where in the base all along. See the attached where it is highlighted that the required fees are subject to penalty so should be insured. It is the govt taxes and port fees that are fully refundable and the PVP was not applied to those. Sorry if I misinformed you. i checked my cruise that I booked before the bundling and did a mock booking today and it works out to same amount. Thank you for the detailed info. I do still feel like Princess is trying to grab some extra dollars or maybe I just dont like the new law. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t&atravel Posted July 16 #6 Share Posted July 16 (edited) 17 minutes ago, Therese S. said: Thank you for the detailed info. I do still feel like Princess is trying to grab some extra dollars or maybe I just dont like the new law. So I checked again and it does seem like the insurance is now applied to more $$. Below are screen prints of my Booking confirmation and of current pricing for the same category room on the same cruise. The price is a bit different because I booked a while ago but it seems like the fees that didn’t have the insurance applied are almost the same total as the new “required fees” and the “govt fees” added together. You can see my insurance was only on the base. So are these “required fees” refundable or not? It looks like they use to be! Edited July 16 by t&atravel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tothemall&beyond Posted July 16 #7 Share Posted July 16 (edited) 1 hour ago, Therese S. said: Has anyone purchased Princess Insurance after the new CA Consumer protection law SB 478 went into affect on July 1? I recently booked a cruise on the Ruby Princess: Here's the breakdown of charges: Base Cruise Fare 619.00 Required Cruise Fees & Expenses 186.41 Government Fees & Taxes 73.59 Total 879.00 When I checked into how much the Princess insurance (Platinum) would be, Princess website shows the cost as $72.48. I was expecting it to be 55.71 which is the base fare (619 x .09). Took me a bit to figure out the charge of 72.48 was calculated on the base fare plus the required cruise fees & expenses. (619 plus 186.41) x .09 Does this sound correct? I thought all port fees and taxes were refunded if you had to cancel and only the base fare needed to be insured. Why would I insurance port fees and other cruise expenses? I passed on purchasing the insurance for right now until I can find out if this is correct or not. Sorry if my post is confusing On July 1st, the day the new California fare disclosure law went into effect, Princess changed the way it breaks out the taxes, port fees, etc. - putting a portion of it into your fare as a line item called "Required fees" that then becomes part of the base fare on which the insurance is calculated. They also managed to raise the port fees, taxes, etc. for every cruise that we had either booked or been looking to book. I surmise that accordingly it would also not be treated as something they would refund after final payment, but merely issue as FCC with the rest of the fare, thereby still keeping it in their coffers. Sneaky and so wrong. Edited July 16 by tothemall&beyond 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wishing on a star Posted July 16 #8 Share Posted July 16 Here is my question... If Princess has found a way to 'calculate' this to include Port Charges, etc... What about the Plus or Premier Package. They used to even include that in the total amount of the Insurance premium. We will be adding insurance on our next upcoming cruise. Which now has the Premier Package. Now I am also confused. I hate to bother our TA, again. Does anybody know if they are still using the packages in the total cost to calculate the insurance? Any insight on that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memoak Posted July 16 #9 Share Posted July 16 56 minutes ago, Therese S. said: Thank you for the detailed info. I do still feel like Princess is trying to grab some extra dollars or maybe I just dont like the new law. No one is requiring you to by Princess insurance. There are other companies for travel insurance 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Therese S. Posted July 16 Author #10 Share Posted July 16 13 minutes ago, memoak said: No one is requiring you to by Princess insurance. There are other companies for travel insurance Geez! Don't you think I know that? What's the use of cruise critic if we can't ask other members questions. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjpj Posted July 16 #11 Share Posted July 16 OMG! I read all the way through this tread thinking CA was Canadian. Only to finally to figure out it was California! Was wondering why I hadn't heard about this! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzyed Posted July 17 #12 Share Posted July 17 (edited) 55 minutes ago, cjpj said: OMG! I read all the way through this tread thinking CA was Canadian. Only to finally to figure out it was California! Was wondering why I hadn't heard about this! It was on the website a bit ago. I guess when CA changed to include the fees, Princess just decided to do it across the board. They made is sound like it was such a great idea! LOL Edited July 17 by suzyed 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wishing on a star Posted July 17 #13 Share Posted July 17 (edited) I am just hoping that somebody who is insuring a cruise can chime in here and tell us whether that percentage includes packages or not. cjpj, The new law, of course, is from California... And, it involves transparency in pricing. Stating these port charges and fees right upfront. Not buried at the end, and requiring that you would have to 'click' to show the breakdown. NOTE: since all of these major cruise lines sail from California, I understand that they have all followed the guidelines in how they show pricing. I hadn't thought about how that would affect the Insurance. Princess had been using the final TOTAL cost to calculate Insurance. I believe that even included extras like the PLUS or PREMIER package. Who knows how this would affect something like insurance? Princess seems to still be using the total with all of the port charges and fees to calculate the Insurance premium. (and, as mentioned, aren't these considered refundable extra fees? Which makes no sense to charge to insure something that is already totally refundable.. They must think that this is within the law. My guess is that they are also still using the total amount, including packages, because there is no specific requirement in this law that would stop them. If they must use only the base cruise fare, and no refundable charges, then I foresee an increase in that 9%. (or 12% if one does not have Captain's Circle status to include the automatic upgrade in the insurance). Edited July 17 by Wishing on a star Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t&atravel Posted July 17 #14 Share Posted July 17 (edited) Yes insurance includes packages. Always has. See my screen prints in post #6. Both my booking from a few months ago and my test booking yesterday includes the plus package. It is part of the fare and is not refundable by itself therefore subject to cancellation fees. The issue in this thread is that insurance is now applied to fees that prior to the new law were not included in the insurance charge. They are now called “required fees and expenses”. The govt taxes and fees are not included as expected. Edited July 17 by t&atravel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wishing on a star Posted July 17 #15 Share Posted July 17 (edited) Sorry if I am brain dead!!! Wake up, brain!!! I looked again. THANKS for showing this! I think I understand now. So, before and after this new pricing stuff... Your cruise fare, which does include PLUS, was used to calculate that insurance premium. $1525. 00 Base Fare $ 420.00 Plus Package assuming 7 days at $60. per day $ 1945.00 Total (fare, Plus, but no 'fees') $. 175.05. Insurance Premium $1945.00 X .09 THEN the port charges and fees are added on. Seems the PLUS Package was included in the fare, and used to calculate the premium. But NOT the port charges and fees. So, the premium to add this insurance on my booking, which now has PREMIUM, will def. be a little more with the package. Should have added insurance first then insurance? (Leave it to Princess. to insure something that is cancelable and refundable already... No surprise though.) Edited July 17 by Wishing on a star Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t&atravel Posted July 17 #16 Share Posted July 17 Why would you NOT want to insure your package. It is not refundable after the cancel date! That’s a lot of money to lose if you need to cancel. The costs that were previously not covered by the insurance are/were refundable no matter when you canceled. Again the issue is that they have split those previous taxes and fees into two different categories and one of them now seems to be non-refundable and needs to be covered by insurance whereby previously it did not. Not huge dollars but why the change? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare startedwithamouse Posted July 17 #17 Share Posted July 17 18 hours ago, Therese S. said: Thank you for the detailed info. I do still feel like Princess is trying to grab some extra dollars or maybe I just dont like the new law. Take insurance from an outside provider if you think you're being ripped off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wishing on a star Posted July 17 #18 Share Posted July 17 (edited) We have gotten the cruise-specific insurance from the nation wide big agency. We like that it had additional cruise coverages, and you could get it until final payment. You can't get 'cancel for any reason' or pre-existing look-back waiver now, unless you get the insurance when you initially book the cruise. To me, it just does not seem kosher that something like an extra package, that can easily be booked at any time, thru the first day of boarding, and make it non-cancellable. If/since this is the policy... Yes, one might want it covered. But, insurance would not be needed if they had the appropriate policy, that extras like packages, specially dining, etc.. which can be booked, and are fully cancellable under any other circumstance, were actually cancellable. I don't see that as a respectful or reasonable policy. Nobody has to post, with an exclamation point... why wouldn't you want them covered. I don't see any clear, upfront, transparency that would explain how and why they are not cancellable. Or an explanation that would make any sense. I don't know if anybody is saying rip-off. But, it is fair and valid to try to understand how much one is being charged, and why. Edited July 17 by Wishing on a star Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Rick&Jeannie Posted July 17 #19 Share Posted July 17 21 hours ago, Therese S. said: Geez! Don't you think I know that? What's the use of cruise critic if we can't ask other members questions. I really don't think @memoak meant to offend in his answer. Those of us who are "regulars" here on the forum never know the poster's situation or details unless they are explicitly mentioned. I guarantee you that there are *some* cruisers who don't even *know* about insuring their trip. We always have...and thankful for that fact when we missed a connecting flight to FLL for a transatlantic cruise! Since we had Platinum insurance, we got a full refund (future cruise credit) and even got credit back from Delta for the missed return flight home (unrelated to the Princess insurance of course.) I *hope* you are not planning on passing up insurance unless you truly are prepared to forego your entire trip's cost in case something bad happens...and bad things *do* happen! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cajuntraveler Posted July 17 #20 Share Posted July 17 (edited) delete Edited July 17 by Cajuntraveler delete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacMadame Posted July 17 #21 Share Posted July 17 8 hours ago, Wishing on a star said: cjpj, The new law, of course, is from California... And Massachusetts and one other state I don't remember. Companies think these laws will spread so that is why they are doing it for all customers and not just the ones whose state requires it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
remydiva Posted July 19 #22 Share Posted July 19 On 7/16/2024 at 3:18 PM, Therese S. said: Thank you for the detailed info. I do still feel like Princess is trying to grab some extra dollars or maybe I just dont like the new law. On 7/17/2024 at 4:03 PM, MacMadame said: And Massachusetts and one other state I don't remember. Companies think these laws will spread so that is why they are doing it for all customers and not just the ones whose state requires it. At least you can still buy Princess protection insurance.. as of Oct 2023, depending where you live you cannot due to state and provincial laws not allowing ‘cancel for any reason’ insurance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chengkp75 Posted July 19 #23 Share Posted July 19 Under the old model, the cruise lines tried to pass off as much as possible as "port taxes and fees", so they could advertise the lowest possible fare. This led to a class action lawsuit about 20 years ago, where the courts ruled that only taxes and fees that were "required for the ship to make the cruise" (i.e. fees that are required to enter ports) were to be considered as "port taxes and fees", and things that were not required, but were fees anyway (garbage removal, fresh water), could not be included in the broken out "port taxes and fees". So, the cruise lines continued to push as much as legally possible into the port fees and taxes. Now, with the new law, there is no real advantage to breaking out "port taxes and fees", as far as advertising a fare, so the cruise lines have reduced these to only those taxes and fees that are paid to a governmental agency (docking fee to a port authority, passenger head tax, etc), so that the amount that would be refundable if a port is canceled is much smaller. The rest of the "old" "port taxes and fees", and likely some newly freed up fees (like the garbage and fresh water), and anything not paid to a government agency (tugs, pilots) is now lumped into the "required port fees and expenses" (which is subject to penalty if canceled, just like the fare), and this still allows the base fare to be as low as possible. This way, they can keep "fares" "the same" over time, and just increase the "required fees and expenses" and say "this is beyond our control". But, there is now no legal definition of these "required fees and expenses", nor any regulation. 3 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare cr8tiv1 Posted July 20 #24 Share Posted July 20 @chengkp75 You have been missed. Welcome back to the boards. Or...at least...I haven't seen you posting for a while. Always reliable and simple (for me) to understand explanations. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzyed Posted July 21 #25 Share Posted July 21 On 7/17/2024 at 11:47 AM, Wishing on a star said: Sorry if I am brain dead!!! Wake up, brain!!! I looked again. THANKS for showing this! I think I understand now. So, before and after this new pricing stuff... Your cruise fare, which does include PLUS, was used to calculate that insurance premium. $1525. 00 Base Fare $ 420.00 Plus Package assuming 7 days at $60. per day $ 1945.00 Total (fare, Plus, but no 'fees') $. 175.05. Insurance Premium $1945.00 X .09 THEN the port charges and fees are added on. Seems the PLUS Package was included in the fare, and used to calculate the premium. But NOT the port charges and fees. So, the premium to add this insurance on my booking, which now has PREMIUM, will def. be a little more with the package. Should have added insurance first then insurance? (Leave it to Princess. to insure something that is cancelable and refundable already... No surprise though.) If you added the insurance before the Plus Package and then add the Plus Package later, when they add in the charge for it they also add on an addition amount for the insurance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now