Fuel Supplements????

First off, as a professional cruise specialist, let me say that we have no control over the cruise lines pricing. We do not make any commission on the fuel supplements, port charges or gov't fees only the cruise fare portion of the price you pay.

The thought struck me about the added fuel supplements that as the cost of fuel (per barrel) was going up, the fuel supplements were added on to the cost of a cruise. OK, I personally did not have a problem with this since it takes a lot of fuel to run these wonderful cruise ships and staying in port was not my plan for my cruise vacations. They started at $5 for the 1st and 2nd passenger, then went to $7 and then $10 or more and even the 3rd and 4th in the cabin were being charged something.

But as the price of fuel is coming down, the supplements are not. Why? This was supposed to be "temporary" to offset the cost of fuel until prices came back down. Needless to say since booking people on their cruise vacations is how we earn our money, I will not be in favor of boycotting cruises.

Even with the fuel supplement added to the price, cruising still represents a great value and is our personal preferred way to vacation (and yes, with only a few exceptions, we pay for our cruises the same as you although we do get to save the commission portion since it comes back to us).

Hopefully the fuel supplements will be reduced soon. Helen and I will be going on a Seminar at Sea on the NCL Sky next week. Now that the ship is going to be in Miami for the 3/4 day itinerary, and we are well familiar with the Carnival and Royal Caribbean ships, it will give us a chance to know this product also for making recommenadations to our clients.

We will be attending many hours of workshops during the cruise so it is work actually (I know - it's a sacrifice but someone has to do it ). My point here is that I believe once one cruise line lowers their fuel supplement, the others will follow suit (the same as the airlines) and I will try to bring this up during one of the meetings. I can't guarantee anything will happen but I can guarantee nothing will if nothing is mentioned or tried. I will also look for opportunities to bring this up in other ways.

Time will tell.