Port charges

[alecalaska]

I made a reservation with a cruise line travel agency and they are charging me over $400 for a party of 4 for port charges. This additional cost is distinct from the government charges and was not shown on the quote off the disney cruise web site. Should I be paying this fee?

 

[outahere]

I made a reservation with a cruise line travel agency and they are charging me over $400 for a party of 4 for port charges. This additional cost is distinct from the government charges and was not shown on the quote off the disney cruise web site. Should I be paying this fee?

Welcome to the DIS!!

Since no travel agent is allowed to discount DCL cruises, unless they are selling pre-purchased cabins that they own, your price should be exactly what the DCL web site is quoting. Most online travel agent sites do not include taxes and port charges in their initial quote, and you don't find out about them until you book a reservation. DCL includes port charges, taxes, transfers and insurance in their initial quotes, but you can deselect the transfers and insurance to get a "cruise only" price. If they are charging you $400 more than the price on the DCL site, you are getting ripped off!

 

[woody73]

I made a reservation with a cruise line travel agency and they are charging me over $400 for a party of 4 for port charges. This additional cost is distinct from the government charges and was not shown on the quote off the disney cruise web site. Should I be paying this fee?

DCL includes the port charges in the cruise fare.

To compare quotes, you have to look at the bottom line price.

Woody

 

[clten]

Bottom line is that all cruise fares include both port charges and government fees. The government fees is just sales tax; the port charges are paid to the individual ports. There are two reasons these are broken out separately: 1- the cruise lines don't pay commisions on these parts of the cruise fare and 2 - if the ports change their fees or the government increases taxes, you may have an increase in your cruise price (if it happens before your cruise is paid in full), this is the only part of your fare that may increase. Some agencies like to show them separately so you can see if there is an increase, the base fare is staying the same.

$400 is not an unreasonable amount for a family of 4, so I don't think the agency is trying to double dip on anything. DCL includes them with their price quote and doesn't show them separately, but the total price between the agency and DCL should be pretty close.