Carnival is raising their fuel surcharge

[BobBeaSea]

RCL ships do not have to bunker in the U.S. So our polices should have nothing to do with the price they pay. The growing need for oil in India and China is why it has gotten so expensive. And if we don't find some way of getting more local oil and increasing our refinery capability. It's never going to get better.

Or we can just blame the "Big Bad Government"

 

It doesn't matter where the ships fuel up. The U.S. dollar is still the world's petro-dollar therefore oil and commodities produced from oil are priced in U.S. bucks. In the last 5.5 years the U.S. buck has lost at least 33% of its value when compared to a basket of other industrialised nations' currencies. Given this, the price of oil today is $109.00 /barrel. Lop off $10.00 - $12.00 for the speculators as well as $36.00 for the devaluation of the greenback and we have a price of around $63.00. Speculation at this price is about $7.00 /barrel resulting in a $70.00 /barrel price. This is today's price if the U.S. dollar had the same value as 5.5 years ago.

 

As for China, and to a lesser degree India, no question consumption is up. China passed Japan a few years ago as the second largest consumer of oil in the world. Add to this the fact that, even as U.S. consumption is down slightly, about 1.5% to 3% depending on product/distillate, U.S. oil consumption is still about 25% of the world's oil production.

 

I may not like fuel surcharges but I completely understand them. Just a fact of life, unfortunately.

[BobBeaSea]

#23 Today, 08:08 AM

BobBeaSea

Cool Cruiser Join Date: Jan 2005

Location: Burlington ON Canada

Posts: 2,867

 

 

 

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Quote:

Originally Posted by rt1092

RCL ships do not have to bunker in the U.S. So our polices should have nothing to do with the price they pay. The growing need for oil in India and China is why it has gotten so expensive. And if we don't find some way of getting more local oil and increasing our refinery capability. It's never going to get better.

Or we can just blame the "Big Bad Government"

 

It doesn't matter where the ships fuel up. The U.S. dollar is still the world's petro-dollar therefore oil and commodities produced from oil are priced in U.S. bucks. In the last 5.5 years the U.S. buck has lost at least 33% of its value when compared to a basket of other industrialised nations' currencies. Given this, the price of oil today is $109.00 /barrel. Lop off $10.00 - $12.00 for the speculators as well as $36.00 for the devaluation of the greenback and we have a price of around $63.00. Speculation at this price is about $7.00 /barrel resulting in a $70.00 /barrel price. This is today's price if the U.S. dollar had the same value as 5.5 years ago.

 

As for China, and to a lesser degree India, no question consumption is up. China passed Japan a few years ago as the second largest consumer of oil in the world. Add to this the fact that, even as U.S. consumption is down slightly, about 1.5% to 3% depending on product/distillate, U.S. oil consumption is still about 25% of the world's oil production.

 

I may not like fuel surcharges but I completely understand them. Just a fact of life, unfortunately.

 

I would look for a pretty quick announcement from RCI.

[mckinna]

So if you're not going to cruise or fly on your vacation because of the fuel surcharge, what are you going to do? Do a land vacation? You've just imposed your own fuel surcharge by driving to wherever you're going. We drove to Galveston a couple of weeks ago to save the plane fare for 5 of us, and we paid dearly for fuel. We booked early enough to avoid the fuel surcharge, but with our gas bill was hefty.

 

Shipping companies have added a fuel surcharge and those costs are passed on to us as higher prices on things we buy- in essence a fuel surcharge, especially in the grocery stores. Most companies cannot afford to eat the higher costs- especially independent truckers- diesel is over $4 gallon. I'm not sure what kind of fuel the ships use, but my bet is it is just as expensive. What is the recourse there- not to buy anything?

 

RCI is a business, and they are making a business decision. I don't want to see more cutbacks in service aboard the ships. As for the ships being built, those were ordered and started before this mess came about- they really just can't cancel an order when the ship is half built. That would make no sense at all, and I'm sure there are contract involved that would make that impossible. I really don't want the fuel surcharge added to the cruise ticket price, either. If these prices come down, they will remove it. If it's buried in the cost of the cruise, it will be there forever.

 

If you vacation, whether driving, flying, going by train, or cruising, you're paying a fuel surcharge, whether it is itemized as such or not.

[Ocean Boy]

With this kind of attitude we'll be paying $200 a week fuel surcharge in no time at all. How about the cruise lines cut back on some of their new builds? Building ships the size of small cities during a recession seems kind of ridiculous to me.

 

Not only are the new builds rediculous at this time but they may well be a very poor concept even without the worsening economy. Even though other factors were involved, the shipping lines of the past got into big trouble constantly competing to build bigger and faster ships. You know what they say about history repeating itself.

 

Many of us still cruise because we like being on a ship and the ocean. I have no idea what the final product that they call Genesis will look like. But I am not sure that I will have any interest in trying it. I'm not sure that it will be far different from being at a land resort where at least there are not 6000+ people trying to check in and out at the same time. As it is I don't even have an overwhelming desire to try a Freedom class ship. A stretched Voyager doesn't really offer any more to me that the Voyager class isn't providing. There are also plenty of threads lately about people tiring of the same old ports of call. Developing new ports that can accomodate these ships in areas where high numbers of passengers can be easily moved in and out is no small tast.

 

I do not know where the cruise lines are heading with their future plans but if the sensation of being on a ship on the ocean is lost these new builds could be a very big bust.

[BobBeaSea]

Ocean Boy, I agree with you. With the advent of mega ships (Voyager class and up) I don't believe the mass market cruise lines are selling cruising as much as they are selling vacations which happen to be on water. Just MHO. :)

[My2Kitties]

Or maybe its time to sell the stocks?

 

Actually right now it is the time to buy stock...

 

Ok my 2 cents...

 

I would rather pay a charge that could decrease or be eliminated if the fuel cost go down...

 

You do have a choice to drive or not to drive...I dont work so I have been spending more days at home chatting with you guys or cleaning or whatever...and I do as much as I can in the shortest distance I can as to keep the gas cost min..my DH doesn't run to Lowes on Sat or Sun but now goes on his way home when he passes it...so we do whatever we can to not drive...

 

No matter how bad the economy gets we all take time for vacation...make it what you want...but if you want the cost to settle down there is only one thing I can say to everyone - VOTE...

 

aqhacruiser, the cruise ships do make a big chunk of their money on board...

 

I have to make daily choices and I want to cruise so I will pay whatever...no matter how long I have to take to save for it...

[MBeamTX]

We regret having to take this action, but fuel price increases have continued and we now find it necessary to implement a modest increase in the supplement.

 

Going from $5/day to $7/day is a 40% increase. 40% is "modest"? What does that make the 3-5% raise most people got this year? Oh, yeah - invisible.

 

Cruise fares, in my casual observation, seem to be at least 10-20% higher than a year ago, without even factoring in the fuel surcharges. With the economy going the way it is, I can't see how the cruise lines will continue to fill their ships at the prices they are now charging. I think they know they are going to have to cut prices in coming months, so they are jacking up the fuel surcharges in advance.

 

Just my opinion.

 

Susan

[Ocean Boy]

Actually right now it is the time to buy stock...

 

This might be the right time to buy stock in some companies but I am not sure it is the right time to buy stock in a company that is taking on massive debt during an ecomonic down turn all in order to produce a commodity (ship?) that may, or may not, be in demand.

[thesawch]

Jewel of the seas is burning 30 gallons of fuel a MINUTE. The new genisis ship will burn approx 35-40 gallons a minute.I wonder when the big ships will be coming out with nuclear reactors onboard so we won't have to worry about fuel surcharges.The navy has been using them for years without many problems.At least that we don't know of.Thesawch

[cruisinfanatic]

Wow - all cruises are for the most part sold out? Interesting .... as for the $100 comment, it is not a matter of being able to afford to cruise or not - it's the principal behind allowing an industry to get away with something. People have to drive their cars - they don't have to take cruises. I wouldn't sail a ship who was going to charge $100 extra, and I can more than afford it. It's the point.

I guess you're never going to cruise again then.

[TPKeller]

Jewel of the seas is burning 30 gallons of fuel a MINUTE. The new genisis ship will burn approx 35-40 gallons a minute.I wonder when the big ships will be coming out with nuclear reactors onboard so we won't have to worry about fuel surcharges.The navy has been using them for years without many problems.At least that we don't know of.Thesawch

Oh there was a very long thread about this a couple years ago... I can't remember if it was before this latest board update or not, so I don't know if it's still on-line.

 

The general consensus (and several former Navy nukes participated in the discussion) was that it would be way too expensive. The government can much more afford to balance the benefits of not having to refuel into the overall equation, but on a strict dollar basis, it's probably not the best bang for the buck. That's a hastily recollected summary, maybe someone can dig back and find a link to the thread.

 

Theron

 

Ah... found it: Nuclear Cruise Ships.

[kingsgirl]

What do you expect the cruise lines executives to say? In a slowing economy the first thing affected is the vacation industry. Why else are these cruise lines moving so many ships to Europe? And lets not forget all the cutbacks. The cruise lines certainly are feeling the affects of high fuel costs and a slowing economy.

 

I disagree. Cruising is a great deal. You think about spending a nice vacation away in a hotel, and it's easily at least the same or much more expensive than a cruise.

 

Just like how we don't see people cutting back on driving due to high fuel costs, you don't see people stopping their vacations.

[Host Kewlguy]

I disagree. Cruising is a great deal. You think about spending a nice vacation away in a hotel, and it's easily at least the same or much more expensive than a cruise.

 

Just like how we don't see people cutting back on driving due to high fuel costs, you don't see people stopping their vacations.

 

On the contrary, I do see people cutting back on their driving habits. I know we have. Just wait until the price of a gallon of gas hits $4.00 per gallon this summer.