In a statement released today to CruiseOne, Carnival Corp. announced that it will be eliminating the fuel surcharge for all new bookings on 2010 departures, effective October 31, 2008. Of course, at the same time, they will be raising the fares for the 2010 departures so keep that in mind before you start jumping for joy.
Carnival is also saying that for 2008 and 2009 voyages, there may or may not be a fuel surcharge in effect on each sailing, depending on the price of oil for about a month prior to each sailing. They will use the ending trading price of light sweet crude oil on the NYMEX for 25 consecutive trading days ending 5 trading days prior to departure; if the price each trading day is $70/barrel or less, then passengers will get a shipboard credit in the amount of the fuel surcharge. If not, then passengers will not get a shipboard credit. So it seems to me that if you have 2 people setting sail on 2 consecutive days, that the guy who sails first could get a shipboard credit for his fuel surcharge, and the guy who sails one day later could end up without a shipboard credit, if the price of oil went up by a few cents on the 26th trading day. This also seems like it could be a logistical nightmare for Carnival Corporation, because it would mean a lot of tracking to see which cruises will have the fuel surcharge in effect and which won't. I also wonder whether or not passengers and/or their travel agents will be notified prior to sailing whether or not they'll be getting a shipboard credit.
So, this could potentially be good news, but I take it with a lot of caution, because this is all dependent on the stock market, and we all know that could be very good or very bad!
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