Port Charges and Other Sails Tricks

You’re just beginning to congratulate yourself for booking a cruise for your vacation because of its all-inclusive price (one basic fee covering all meals, lodging, entertainment and transportation from port to port), when you suddenly notice the fine print. The only items not included in the base price are gratuities, bar bills, laundry fees, gift shop purchases, beauty services--and something called port charges.

What are port charges, and why aren’t they included in the fare?

Sometimes referred to as port taxes, these surcharges--relatively modest compared to the overall cost of a cruise--are tacked onto fares as separate line items and may be subject to change after a brochure is published. Included under the broad heading of port charges are port city “head taxes” (a per-passenger fee) and ship tonnage taxes, tugboat services (obligatory in many ports), garbage disposal, dockage and pilot fees, and harbor dues.

For years port charges have been accepted as a separate fee with only occasional mild grumbling from passengers who wonder why they can’t be included in the overall fare. But in the increasingly competitive world of cruise fares, lines are reluctant to add anything else into the base price for fear of looking more expensive than a competitor on the same itinerary.

Also, according to Tim Gallagher, spokesman for Carnival Cruise Lines, separating out the port charges “is the accepted historic standard, the way it’s always been done.”

For instance, the three largest cruise companies, Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean Cruise Limited and Princess Cruises, all publish set prices for port charges based on the length of the cruise and the number and location of ports visited rather than an item-by-item breakdown of costs.

But there are differences in the published port tax for different lines offering the same or a similar cruise. Why? Insiders offer a couple of explanations.

Each cruise line negotiates its own rates for services rendered in port, and regular year-round visitors, such as Carnival, may be charged a lower rate on negotiable services by a given Caribbean port than, say, a Princess ship, which visits only during the winter season.

According to Carnival’s Gallagher, the size of the vessel as well as passenger density, makes a difference, and with year-round commitments or passenger number commitments above a certain level, a line can sometimes negotiate a lower head tax.

“Our approach to it is not precise,” he admits. “It’s too difficult to try to figure it out port by port and ship by ship. We try to add up all these costs and we arrive at a number. We don’t even charge that whole [amount], but try to come to a consistent number that covers a majority of the costs.”

In the Caribbean and Bahamas, port charges may range from $13 to $36 a day, depending on the cruise line. The lowest port charges generally are for the Bahamas, Caribbean and Mexican coastal cruises; the higher prices are in Bermuda, Alaska, transatlantic sailings, the Panama Canal, Europe and Asia.

A three-night cruise from Florida to the Bahamas in 1996 aboard Royal Caribbean’s Nordic Empress, for example, carries published port charges of $69 with a stipulation pointing out “U.S. departure and user taxes/fees are additional.” The latter includes the little-known North American Free Trade Agreement fee of $6.50 per passenger imposed by U.S. Customs since 1994 on all cruise ships.

On Carnival’s Ecstasy, a three-night cruise from Florida to the Bahamas lists port charges of $65, the same fee charged by the line’s Holiday for a three-night cruise from Los Angeles to Ensenada. But Carnival also reminds its passengers in the fine print that port charges, fuel surcharges, government taxes and other surcharges “are subject to change without notice.”

Published port fees for a seven-day Caribbean cruise in 1996 are $114 for Princess Cruises and $99 for Carnival. But on seven-day cruises to Bermuda, which charges visitors the highest head tax in Caribbean/South Atlantic waters--$60 per person--the port charges assessed by Royal Caribbean’s Song of America escalate to only $115, which does not reflect the full head tax.

In Alaska, on a seven-day sailing from Vancouver, Princess charges port taxes of $128 for Inside Passage cruises visiting four ports, including Vancouver, the port of embarkation. Northbound Gulf of Alaska itineraries cost $162; southbound cost $168. Carnival charges $149 for a seven-day Gulf of Alaska sailing aboard its Tropicale.

The highest port charges in proportion to fares are those levied on one-day cruises. Discovery Cruise Line, which sails from Fort Lauderdale and Miami on cruises to the Bahamas and “cruises to nowhere,” charges $19.50 port charges for a cruise that costs $49, while Palm Beach Cruises, which sails from Palm Beach to the Bahamas, lists $36 port charges for a weekday cruise that costs $79.

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Slater and Basch travel as guests of the cruise lines. Cruise Views appears the first and third week of every month.