Royal Caribbean and Norwegian eliminate fuel surcharges

Several weeks ago, cruise industry leader Carnival dropped fuel surcharges on its cruises and now Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) have followed suit.

The second- and third-largest cruise lines in the world revealed early last week that they would not be levying fuel surcharges on 2009 bookings, and that all customers who paid surcharges on 2009 cruises would receive refunds of that amount as an onboard credit.

Royal Caribbean Cruises, which is the parent company of Azamara Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, and Royal Caribbean, made its announcement a few hours after that of NCL.

Carnival Corp., the parent of Carnival, Cunard, Holland America, and Princess, made its announcement several days earlier.

“NCL will refund the fuel supplement in the form of an on-board credit for all 2009 bookings within the final payment period,” said the cruise line in a prepared statement. All existing 2009 bookings outside of the final payment period will be adjusted to remove the fuel supplement and NCL will revise the final payment amount.”

Similarly to Carnival, Royal Caribbean and NCL have cited the rapid decline in the price of oil in recent months as the reason for their move. Oil has dropped from a high of $147 per barrel in July to approximately $40 per barrel at the end of last week.

In late October, Royal Caribbean and NCL eliminated some of their surcharges when oil fell below the $70 mark.

Thanks to www.usatoday.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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