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Crystal Cruises, MSC Cruises and Peter Deilmann cruises are revising their fuel surcharge policies amid falling oil prices.
Should crude oil drop below $65 per barrel on a specific quarterly date, Crystal will reimburse its guests in the following quarter. The cruise line will continue to charge $12 per guest per day for Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity voyages departing in 2009.
Fuel surcharge adjustments on Crystal cruises will be determined on a quarterly basis, and based on the closing price of light sweet crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange, as reported in the Wall Street Journal. Should the closing price drop below $65 per barrel two weeks prior to the beginning of the upcoming calendar quarter, then Crystal will automatically refund the charged supplement, in the form of a Shipboard Credit, for cruises departing within that quarter.
Crystal Cruises has not yet assessed fuel surcharges for 2010 sailings.
Meanwhile, MSC Cruises has eliminated the fuel surcharge for all cruises departing on or after April 1, 2009. The surcharge will not be levied on any new bookings for cruises sailing from that date on, and the accounts of guests already booked on these cruises will be adjusted to remove the surcharge from their balances.
The line also has announced that it plans to drop the fuel surcharge for new bookings on sailings departing from January 1 through March 31, 2009, if fuel prices remain stable going into the new year. Guests booked on these cruises will receive a refund of the fuel surcharge in the form of an onboard credit if the price of West Texas Intermediate fuel is at or below $65 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on December 18, 2008.
Although MSC Cruises can not rule out the possibility that a future substantial increase in fuel costs might require re-implementing the fuel surcharge at a later date, the company reiterated its commitment that all reservations booked with a deposit prior to such a decision would be protected from any additional charge.
Peter Deilmann Cruises has similarly announced the immediate cancellation of fuel surcharges on its flagship, the MS Deutschland. The company will also be refunding any fuel surcharges paid for Deutschland sailings yet to depart. Deilmann also announced that fuel surcharges will not be charged on its fleet of eight luxury river ships for cruises beginning in 2010. The river cruise line's surcharge is currently $10 per night per passenger.