Carnival to Remove Fuel Surcharges (Maybe)

Effective October 31, 2008, the multi-brand Carnival Corp. will be eliminating fuel surcharges on all new bookings for 2010 departures -- but only for the following lines: Carnival Cruise Lines, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Holland America, Seabourn and Princess Cruises. Surcharges for AIDA, P&O Cruises, P&O Cruises Australia, Ocean Village and Ibero Cruceros remain unchanged.

Additionally, the company has established specific guidelines under which the current fuel supplement could be reimbursed -- in the form of onboard credit -- to passengers sailing on 2008 and 2009 voyages.

This could mean savings for at least those looking to book a cruise in 2010 on or after October 31 -- but "price increase on all 2010 sailings" will go into place on October 31, 2008 ... the same day that surcharges are lifted on new bookings for those 2010 sailings.

Carnival cautioned that surcharges could be reinstated at any time, depending of course on the price of oil. Carnival's official statement reads: "For 2008 and 2009 departures, if the price of light sweet crude oil according to the New York Mercantile Exchange Index (NYMEX) is $70 per barrel or less at the 2:30 p.m. close of business as reported by Reuters on each of the 25
consecutive trading days ending five trading days prior to the guest's cruise departure date, the fuel supplement will be refunded in the form of a shipboard credit."

To clarify, this means that oil must trade below $70 per barrel for 25 straight trading days (every business day is not a trading day) until five trading days before your cruise.: "The process will be automatic and guests do not need to apply [for the credit] or track the price per barrel. The five days is to allow us the necessary time to get the refunds processed and communicate with the relevant vessels.

Still, with oil prices so volatile right now, it's almost impossible to predict whether anyone will actually receive a refund under these guidelines.

World's Largest Cruise Night

October is National Cruise Vacation Month and there are many specials and promotions coming up shortly in conjunction with CLIA's World's Largest Cruise Night on October 16th. I am featuring 5 different short cruise line video previews at

http://wlcn.cruising.org/mshepp.

A total of 21 cruise lines are taking part of this special. The promotions involve discounts, upgrades, reduced deposit amounts and/or on board credit. The "booking windows" vary but you will get to take advantage of these promotions between Oct 15th and 17th for sure and many will run through October and some even into November. Some of these promos are for select sailings or destinations, but many are simply for any ship in a specified date range well into 2009.