(Updated at 6:14 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time) — Celestyal Cruises, a small ship cruise operator, stated Friday that it will begin imposing fuel surcharges on new reservations made beginning April 1, 2022 and departing from April 18, 2022 and beyond.
All relevant reservations made after April 1 will be subject to an extra fee of $8 per person, per day (6 Euros per person, per day) in addition to the base fare. Any reservations made before March 31, 2022, will not be impacted in any way.
A letter to travel partners from Celestyal — which generally organizes three-, four-, and seven-night trips across the Greek Islands from Piraeus (the port for Athens, Greece) — said that the modifications were necessary owing to increased fuel prices.
As a result of the significant and sustained increase in global oil and fuel prices in recent weeks and months, Celestyal Cruises will be instituting a fuel supplement on all new, unnamed, and non-deposited 2022 bookings beginning April 1, 2022, for sailings departing April 18th and later until further notice, according to an email from the line. Our disappointment at having to make this choice, but it is unavoidable given the present circumstances.”
Celestyal has said that, in the event that the price of gasoline falls, the premium amount would be reimbursed to guests in the form of an onboard credit two weeks ahead to the scheduled sailing. It did not specify a minimum amount of gasoline that had to be purchased in order for the credit to be awarded.
For the first time in more than a decade, a cruise company has returned to the practice of adding a premium to cruise tickets on a per passenger, per day basis in order to deal with escalating fuel prices. Additionally, CroisiEurope, a river and ocean cruise operator located in Strasbourg, also implemented a fuel surcharge on new reservations earlier this month.
As the price of oil approached $100 per barrel in the autumn of 2007, cruise companies and airlines started to impose fuel fees on passengers. These were remained in effect throughout the summer of 2008, however by the end of the year, most cruise companies had stopped charging the additional costs on most reservations beginning in 2009.
While most companies have eliminated their fuel surcharges, practically every company has declared that they retain the right to resume the cost if the price of oil climbs over a particular amount – often $60 or $70 per barrel.
The price of oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange, often known as the NYMEX, is now hovering around $112 a barrel for West Texas Intermediate.
As new information becomes available, Cruise Critic will update this post accordingly.