One of the most unpleasant cruise patron experiences in recent history, was the brief period in time where we had to pay for the ship’s fuel. I’m sure that some of you have not so fond memories of what I’m talking about, fuel surcharges. For those of you who missed out on all of them fun, it happened last year. Fuel prices were at an all time high and profit margins were at a low. So, instead of eating further into their profits the cruise lines decided to pass the buck, to us. They instituted a fuel surcharge which ranged in price from cruise line to cruise line but amounted to approximately 8 dollars per day per person. It wasn’t a huge amount but even still the whole idea of having to pay for your fuel struck me as (to put it mildly) insane.

Many of us thought the fuel surcharge was here to stay, but luckily when the price oil returned to a more palatable level the cruise lines did the right thing and stopped passing on the costs to us. While they did leave open the chance that fuel surcharges would return, so far they have not. Some cruise lines set magic numbers anywhere between 65 and 70 dollars a barrel that if exceeded gives them the right to re-institute the surcharge. For a while the price of oil stayed relatively low, but nothing lasts forever. Recently the price of crude has crept up dangerously close to those magic numbers and the time has once again come to wonder whether or not cruise lines will bring back the fuel surcharge.

Tomorrow we will take a look at what the cruise lines say about the fuel surcharge and whether or not they are planning to re-implement them.