Celebrity is jumping ....

[JoeyandDavid]

When checking our booking on line I noticed this was added to the bottom of the page.

[sailingrose]

Here we go.........guess RCI will do the same thing. I'm going to look at my booking.......nothing there yet.

[JoeyandDavid]

Wait for it!!

[cruisetarp]

Royal Caribbean did indeed follow suit and has imposed a $5 per person per day fuel tax on all sailing AFTER Feburary 1, 2008.

NCL has just imposed a $7 per day per person for the 1st and 2nd passenger in a cabin and $3 for each additional passenger in the same cabin.

[rogue]

That's all of the cruise lines

[sailingrose]

Oh well.......usually once 1 main line does it they all do so I'm not surprised at all.

[JoeyandDavid]

Oh well.......usually once 1 main line does it they all do so I'm not surprised at all.

And folks lets not forget why they instituted this charge...........................................

Because they can......................bottom line..

[sailinglisa]

I'm not happy about the surchage being added to my 9/08 cruise on the Dawn Princess, but my mind does understand the reasoning. Here is a quote from the President of Crystal Cruises - it does give you an indication about why the cruise lines are doing this.

"Obviously, the rapidly escalating price of fuel was

the justification given by each of the lines, but Crystal

president Gregg Michael gave the most graphic example

today. "We set our 2008 cruise fares in late 2006, yet

the price for fuel rose 66-70% from February to November

2007. ""

Here is a link to a cruise blog where the fuel surcharge is debated a bit. http://cnd-cruiseblogger.blogspot.com/

Just seeing how much the price of gas has risen just this year alone; and how much the cost of groceries and all other goods that are transported to stores has risen, we are all paying every day for the rising fuel costs.

[JoeyandDavid]

Well Mr Michael at least put a plausible reason on the ravble...for that I do appreciate the response.. but it also occurs to me ... that when pricing cruise fares that far out should they not already take into account inflation???....

[JohnG]

At least RCCL/Azamara/Celebrity is not applying it to already paid in full bookings, unlike some of the other lines.

Carnival Corp gave a similar explanation when they announced theirs:

MIAMI (November 7, 2007) As a result of the continued rapid escalation of fuel prices, the North American brands of Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK) have announced they will implement a fuel supplement of $5 per person per day.

The fuel supplement, which only applies to the first and second guests in a stateroom and will not exceed $70 per person per voyage, is effective on all bookings for voyages departing on or after Feb. 1, 2008 on the following Carnival Corporation & plc brands: Carnival Cruise Lines, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, and The Yachts of Seabourn.

According to Carnival Corporation & plc Chairman and CEO Micky Arison, the recent spike in fuel prices has dramatically impacted the company's operating costs, thus necessitating the supplement. The price the company pays for fuel has increased 140 percent over the last three years, with a 50 percent increase occurring in just the last seven months.

Earlier this year, we implemented a supplement for our European brands. We had hoped to avoid a similar supplement for our North American brands but with the price of oil approaching $100 a barrel this is no longer possible. The implementation of the fuel supplement beginning February 1 for our North American brands will result in consumers paying approximately one-third of our year-over-year fuel cost increases over the first six months of the fiscal year," he said.

Arison added that the company had been considering a supplement for some time but held off as long as it could. "We are hopeful fuel prices will someday return to a level that will enable us to eliminate this supplement. Until then, we believe that guests sailing on our North American brands will understand the dilemma that soaring fuel prices has caused for our company and industry and that a fuel supplement was needed to enable us to continue offering the high quality cruises our guests have come to expect," Arison explained.