Q1 2009 Fuel Surcharge Refund Watch Thread

[Dall]

Great news. Of course I just paid off our cruise 2 days ago. But the OBC will be just as good.:D

[RhondaC]

A bunch of us watching here! We have 3 staterooms on January 2, and 4 staterooms on February 27!! :)

[crusinmama06]

WOOOHOOOO so not only do I get my $180 OBC on Indy for my Feb cruise, I also get $210 refunded off of my Oasis reservation.

 

So I checked my Oasis reservation, it still says fuel charge - $210. I guess they are taking them off after this Monday right?

[jimm]

Got the Press Release from Investor Relations:

 

 

 

The company reserves the right to reinstate fuel supplement charges if the price of West Texas Intermediate fuel exceeded $65 per barrel, on the quarterly milestone dates mentioned in the company's October 24, 2008, press release.

 

-- CLF069 --

6214 12/05/2008 17:04 EST http://www.prnewswire.com

 

Does this mean that if the fuel price exceeds $65 per barrel on the quarterly milestone dates they can then re-charge previously booked guests again for the surcharge? If so, nothing has really changed.

[Bigrigg]

do you get the difference between 65 and whatever it closes at per day or just the ten dollars or whatever they charged you a day??

[Gonzo70]

do you get the difference between 65 and whatever it closes at per day or just the ten dollars or whatever they charged you a day??

 

You get back the amount you paid.

[Gonzo70]

Does this mean that if the fuel price exceeds $65 per barrel on the quarterly milestone dates they can then re-charge previously booked guests again for the surcharge? If so, nothing has really changed.

 

Yes - not a whole lot changed; the main differences are:

 

1) RCL will not automatically reinstate the fuel surcharge if oil goes above $65 - they are just reserving the right to do so (which is slightly better than the old policy where one definitely had to pay the surcharge if oil was over $65)

 

2) If you already were paying $10 per day/per person and the surcharge is reinstated, you may only now have to pay $5 per day.

 

3) When booking a new cruise the surcharge will not be listed in the balance.

 

4) When making final payment you get to hang onto the fuel surcharge money that with the old policy was being held by RCL to possibly be reimbursed to you as OBC at the time of your cruise.

 

So there are some slight advantages to the new policy, but it is not all that much news over the old one.

[papakaiser]

Does this mean that if the fuel price exceeds $65 per barrel on the quarterly milestone dates they can then re-charge previously booked guests again for the surcharge? If so, nothing has really changed.

That's exactly the way I read it. They reserve the right to put the fuel surcharge back on. One small detail has changed: The automatic trigger is not there, should oil close at $65.01 on December 18, but they can still re-instate the surcharge at their discretion.

[gbcruise]

YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEE if fuel holds where it is, I will save over 477 bucks over the next 2 years:eek:--we cruise tooooooooooooo much;)

 

Thanks RCCL

 

No one can cruise toooooooooooooooo much

[negc]

I'm not sure why we should expect them not to reinstate a fuel surcharge if the price of oil surges back above the $65 a barrel mark. They are a for profit corporation after all and if the conditions that prompted them to originally put a surcharge in place, should return, it would not make any good business sense not to reinstitute the charge. However that is something that might or might not happen. Instead of being pleased that they have, as they promised, removed the surcharge, some among us seem determined to look at things in a negative way, already assuming the worst case scenario as fact. :rolleyes: Perhaps they won't reinstitute the surcharge but increase their rates by that much or more. Then there will be no mechanism other than the standard supply and demand to hold prices at reasonable levels.

[TEXASMUNK]

Glad someone else read some of the comments the same way!

 

"Oh, poor me, my fuel surcharge has been cancelled..." LOL

 

If oil surges back up, which it will do, eventually, then we will be back to complaining about $4.00 a gallon gas and how we cannot afford to drive to our departure port.

 

Sunny days cause a sunburn!

 

Smile folks!

[hawt1]

Hawt1 - are you going to keep this thread rolling until we know for sure we won't have it added back in?

 

I will go back to detailed updates if the price moves back above $55 per barrel prior to the 18th. Rumour is that OPEC is planning major output announcement on the 17th so...I suspect price will run up a bit in anticipation but we SHOULD be safe.

 

Hawt1

[familyof4cruising]

If we pay in full can they hit us up for the fuel?

 

and

 

If you were billed with a lower fuel charge( I booked a long time ago) then what is today's fuel charge... will they honor what I originally booked?

[hawt1]

OP back with final update as today is our day.

 

Oil needs to go up by $25 per barrel and RCI needs to act on it immediately by reinstating fuel surcharge so it looks like we are safe.

 

Good luck to Q2 cruisers and beyond in keeping the refund for which you currently qualify.

 

hawt1

[alwalaska]

OP back with final update as today is our day.

 

Oil needs to go up by $25 per barrel and RCI needs to act on it immediately by reinstating fuel surcharge so it looks like we are safe.

 

Good luck to Q2 cruisers and beyond in keeping the refund for which you currently qualify.

 

hawt1

 

 

Yea! Since the price has been so low and we saw the credit on our invoice - I had forgotten the significance of today's date. :D Yea! It is official - no surcharge!

 

On top of that, I just decided to switch the 4 of us from 1 oceanview cabin to 2 interior cabins and that will save us almost $700. This cruise is getting a bit more reasonably priced every time I turn around.

[Gonzo70]

I will go back to detailed updates if the price moves back above $55 per barrel prior to the 18th. Rumour is that OPEC is planning major output announcement on the 17th so...I suspect price will run up a bit in anticipation but we SHOULD be safe.

 

Hawt1

 

It seems like OPEC's cutting production isn't having much of an effect. It is not that surprising as when they were increasing production as oil climbed, it never had more than a small, short term impact in halting the escalation of oil prices.

[baabtx]

I find it highly amusing that OPEC commits to a 2mm/bbl a day output reduction and the as of a few minutes ago the price per bbl is $36.47....hmmm...makes you wonder just what influence the speculation market had on the price of a bbl earlier in the year.

 

I'd love to see the price hover around this or just a bit higher (as it helps the TX economy), but this really shouldn't be a resounding endorsement to go back to HUGE cars and not giving a darn about finding alternatives/nuclear/expanded domestic drilling.

 

Also one of the benefits I see of this as compared to the excess of the oil industry in the early 80's is that there was so much production here in TX and so much spent on capital to accomplish this that in the end the industry was left with so many idle rigs...at least that is not the case this time around - I just want to start using them to make hole here on our own soil...gulf....wherever!

[crazy 4 cruising]

Yea! Since the price has been so low and we saw the credit on our invoice - I had forgotten the significance of today's date. :D Yea! It is official - no surcharge!

 

On top of that, I just decided to switch the 4 of us from 1 oceanview cabin to 2 interior cabins and that will save us almost $700. This cruise is getting a bit more reasonably priced every time I turn around.

 

I did the same thing. hopefully it will hold down & all the othjer fuel surcharges I have will also go away BEFORE I make final payment, so it isn't OBC!!!