Fuel Surcharge ?

[Iowa Hawkeye]

Cruising on the Voyager of the Seas on Feb. 21, 2010. Concerned with the rising fuel prices, does anyone have knowledge of RCCL starting the fuel surcharge yet?

 

[sanjoseca]

They haven't been charging the fuel surcharge so far and I have two cruises scheduled for 2010. The surcharge is based on the cost of a barrel of west Texas crude going over $65. I need to find out the difference between the cost of a barrel of crude on the London market......which is what we see in the news......it was over $70 most of December. My belief is that West Texas crude is cheaper, so no surcharge at this time.

 

[MisterD21]

Thursday, January 7, 2010: NYMEX West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil for February delivery closed down $0.52 at $82.66 per barrel.

i think they say that about the cruse surcharge as a disclaimer. I think no cruiseline actually wants to be the first to actually start charging the surcharge though.. But if crude prices go above 100$ a barrel again you can bet someone will eventually start charging it ...

BTW... west texas intermediate crude is the benchmark for the NYMEX(new york mercantile exchange)crude prices. West texas crude prices are directly tied to the OPEC crude prices as well. If OPEC charges 85$ a barrel you can bet that will be the price for WTIC....

 

[sanjoseca]

Thanks for the information on the differences in crude. I haven't been watching oil prices in a few weeks.....now I wish that I hadn't seen it today at $83.

I nthink you're right about no cruise line wanting to be first up with surcharges.

 

[Mbandy]

Disney has been refunding the fuel surcharge as an on board credit quarter by quarter for existing bookings to which the charge was added. They announced last week that they will not be refunding the fuel surcharge for cruises departing in the first quarter of 2010 since the price of cruse closed above $70 on the pre determined date of December 18th, two weeks prior to the beginning of the quarter. At the present time, they will not be adding the charge to existing bookings that do not already have it. That's going to ruffle some feathers. Some are paying the surcharge and some are not.

Mr. D is right. No cruise line wants to be the first to reinstate the charge but don't be surprised to see it in the future.

 

[cruise42]

Just returned from Jan 02 sailing on Oasis, we did not get charged a fuel surtax.

 

[MisterD21]

oil price update....and other comodities...

Market Last Change
Crude Oil (CL) 79.46 -0.19
Brent Crude (BZ) 78.82 -1.01
Heating Oil (HO) 2.0791 -0.0155
RBOB Gasoline (RB) 2.0635 +0.0033
Natural Gas (NG) 5.665 -0.068
Gold (GC) 1,138.2 +1.8
Silver (SI) 18.555 +0.017
Copper (HG) 3.4280 +0.0405

Hehe... Yay!! oil has fallen back under $80.00 a barrel....

 

[Jeanie]

No knowledge of RCCI fuel surcharge to date, keep checking their web site