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Carnival Corp. is scrapping its fuel supplement for six of its brands—Carnival Cruise Lines, Costa, Cunard, Holland America, Princess and Seabourn—announcing that effective October 31 it will be eliminated for all new bookings on 2010 departures. However, Carnival said it will raise its prices on 2010 sailings.
In addition, Carnival has established reimbursement guidelines for 2008 and 2009 sailings.
For 2008 and 2009 departures, if the price of light sweet crude oil according to the New York Mercantile Exchange Index 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. Guests who book a 2010 cruise prior to October 31, will be charged the current fuel supplement but will also be eligible for a refund of the fuel supplement in accordance with the same fuel price conditions that are being implemented for the 2008 and 2009 departures.
Carnival's decision to drop the fuel supplement is in response to the vertiginous drop in the price of oil over the past weeks—now at below $80 per barrel. That said, Bill Harber, Carnival Corp. director of marketing, said a climb in the price of oil could precipitate Carnival reinstating the fuel supplement. Five of the six Carnival Corp. brands in question had fuel supplements of $9 per person per day for first and second guests, with $4 per person per day for third, fourth and fifth guests. Seabourn's fuel supplement is $15 per person per day for the first and second guests, $4 for third and fourth guests.
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