Port Cancellation

[pumplover]

We are sailing on the Voyager of the Seas 2/8/09 and were just made aware that they have canceled the port of Progresso and replaced it with a sea day.

Has anyone ever had this happen and if so wouldn't you be entitled to a refund of the port charge? I really don't know how that works. It's no big deal, just curious.

 

Janet

[Barbee524]

The port charge should be taken off before you make your final payment. If for some reason you have already paid for this cruise in full contact your travel agent or RCI.

[sail7seas]

We've had port changes/cancellations a number of times and have always been refunded the port charge.

 

Ports get changed/cancelled for a number of reasons.

 

[firefly333]

The port charges these days are included in the price of a cruise so you never see them. Carnival at times has given a token $25 for missing or cancelling a port, but Iv never heard of RCL doing this. It is up to the cruiseline if they decide to cancel a port, they are under no obligation to refund port charges which these days seem to now be averaging over $50 a port.

 

..... i.e. dont count on it. You have time to decide if you want to cancel or not, you have been made aware of this ahead of time. Go, enjoy your cruise and dont let this bother you. I loved Voyager and hope to be on her next spring again.

[Keith1010]

Yes, your port charges will be removed.

 

Sea days can be very special and we so enjoy them. So, the good news is that you will have an additional day to enjoy the ship.

 

Keith

[smeyer418]

but most port charges for any port aren't normally that much....

[pumplover]

It's all good. Heck, I'll be on vacation and nothing beats that!

 

Janet

[cherylandtk]

Only for the detail obsessed:

 

Port charges are different from port taxes, too. The port charges are typically a total fee that the port charges the ship, regardless of the number of passengers. Usually the cruiseline will approximate the per person amount, based upon a full ship, and include that amount as part of the port charges assessed within the fare. In the US, the port charges must be included as part of the fare. Port charges typically run around $150 - $200 for a two or three stop Caribbean cruise, but can be much higher or lower. You often will not even know the port charges unless your TA breaks them out as NCF on your invoice.

 

Port taxes are not included in the 'fare', are based on a per person rate, and show up on most booking websites (cruise and online TA's) as a separate line item as tax. Sometimes, as when you are purchasing cruise air, the taxes line includes both port tax and air tax.

 

IF a cruiseline refunds port fees and/or taxes, they may chose to refund just the taxes or both or just do as Carnival does and make it a blanket amount.

[pumplover]

My whole reason for starting this discussion was to find out what happens when a port is canceled. But it has become more interesting in that the port that was canceled on my cruise was Progresso. My TA called RCI and was told it was due to last years hurricane. I believe ships have been going there this year so that seems hard to believe. But another person taking the cruise has called and been told it was due to "political reasons". What does that mean? I really don't care about being at sea another day but wouldn't mind being told the real reason.

 

Janet :confused:

[cherylandtk]

Well, 'political' could mean anything from 'political unrest' to 'we don't want to use that much fuel to go to that port'. The official line appears to be that hurricane damage to the port makes it undesirable at this point--and might well be the same as what your friend was told is "political reasons". They don't really have to give a reason, particularly this far in advance.....'because we wanted to' might be all you get.

[sk8teacher]

During our last cruise the port at Stornoway Scotland was canceled by the Captain because the dock used for tendering was unsafe. We had so much fun trying to figure out how to spend the whopping 53 cents that each passenger received :p .

 

Cheers!

[vjmatty]

This happened on our upcoming cruise on the NCL Spirit, where the Grand Bahama Island stop was canceled. We were given $50 OBC per person.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We have had port changes before cruises -- the port fee was taken off our bill before fnal payment.

 

And we have had a port change after final payment -- were given credit back on our credit card.

 

And we have also had port changes once on a cruise -- got the port fees back as a shipboard credit.

[bobnatt]

We have had port changes before cruises -- the port fee was taken off our bill before fnal payment.

 

And we have had a port change after final payment -- were given credit back on our credit card.

 

And we have also had port changes once on a cruise -- got the port fees back as a shipboard credit.

 

and i had my ports changed on a cruise that resulted in an increase in the port charges,

[grandmato4]

My whole reason for starting this discussion was to find out what happens when a port is canceled. But it has become more interesting in that the port that was canceled on my cruise was Progresso. My TA called RCI and was told it was due to last years hurricane. I believe ships have been going there this year so that seems hard to believe. But another person taking the cruise has called and been told it was due to "political reasons". What does that mean? I really don't care about being at sea another day but wouldn't mind being told the real reason.

 

Janet :confused:

 

There can also be a big difference between a "change of itinerary" long before a sailing, such as yours is and a "cancelled port" the day before you sail or while you are sailing most often because of weather conditions. You may see a very small adjustment to your price because they changed your itinerary this far out to eliminate the port fee but I wouldn't expect much. I'd say the reason is "because" and not expect to ever figure out what really went into that decision making.;)

 

As someone else said, if a port is cancelled while sailing usually Carnival will give a $25 OBC but not sure what RCI does in that case if anything.

[firefly333]

As someone else said, if a port is cancelled while sailing usually Carnival will give a $25 OBC but not sure what RCI does in that case if anything.

 

We missed CocoCay stop in the Bahamas and got back nothing on RCL. I have never heard of RCL giving back something. Since the OP already knows about the change in port, this far ahead, its even less likely there would be a refund in the cruise charge.

[vjmatty]

We missed CocoCay stop in the Bahamas and got back nothing on RCL. I have never heard of RCL giving back something. Since the OP already knows about the change in port, this far ahead, its even less likely there would be a refund in the cruise charge.

 

Maybe different lines have different policies, because NCL not only is giving us OBC, but said we could cancel our cruise if we did so by August 22, nine days before sailing :confused:

 

I have never sailed with NCL before, so I have no idea whether this is typical practice for them.

[DonnaK]

We missed CocoCay stop in the Bahamas and got back nothing on RCL. I have never heard of RCL giving back something. Since the OP already knows about the change in port, this far ahead, its even less likely there would be a refund in the cruise charge.

 

 

Since CocoCay is their private island, and they own/lease the property, there may not have been any port charges to begin with.

 

My parents were on two RCI cruises that had ports canceled/changed, and they received an adjustment for the port charges. So, RCI does give back.