Carnival Corp. Changes Advertised Pricing Policy & Cancellation Fee Structure to Comply with Calif. Law

Effective for all new bookings for sailing July 1, 2024 and beyond, all Carnival Corp. brands will include all current taxes, fees, and port expenses into the advertising pricing. The move is in response to a new California consumer protection law that goes into effect on that same date that requires that the advertised price shown to consumers include all required components of the total pricing.

As part of the change, the cancellation fee will also be changed to reflect the total advertised price.

Advisor commissions will not change.

In a letter to travel agencies, Carnival Corp. wrote: “This will provide guests with the clear total price upfront for the cruise selected. Please understand this is only a change in the way the cruise prices are advertised but does not impact the total price consumers pay today or the portion of the cruise fare that is commissionable to travel advisors.”

The new policy applies to Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruise, Holland America Line, and Cunard. Seabourn already advertises fares this way, but the changes for cancellation fees will now also apply to Seabourn as well.

In its letter to advisors, Carnival Corp. made it very clear that travel advisors must also comply with the new law.

“All travel advisors will be required to comply with the new California consumer protection law as it relates to the advertised consumer pricing for these brands.”

This will include making changes to all pricing listed on an agency’s or advisor’s website, as well as in all consumer marketing materials.

“For those travel advisors that receive pricing information from these brands through an electronic distribution, the existing pricing feed will be modified to include the mandatory consumer advertised price, as well as a breakout of all the other pricing components…”

Pricing breakdown
As a part of the transition, the current total taxes, fees, and port expenses will not change, but will be separated into two components: 1.) Governmental Taxes & Fees and 2) Required Cruise Fees & Expenses, which includes the fees and expenses associated with cruising including visiting ports. Both components will be included in the advertised price and will be shown broken into two parts only in the detailed price confirmation.

Examples
Carnival provided two examples of how this will look, with separate displays for Carnival Cruise Line, and then the rest of the Carnival Corp. brands.

For example, if the total cruise charge for a Carnival Cruise Line sailing is $849, the breakout would show:

Total Cruise Charge – $849
Required Cruise Fees & Expenses – $100 (included in the Cruise Charges)
Government Taxes & Fees – $50 (included in the Cruise Charge.)

For a Princess, Holland America, or Cunard North America cruised priced the same, the website price confirmation would look slightly different.

Total Cruise Price – $849
Cruise Fare – $799
Government Taxes & Fees – $50 (included in Total Cruise Price)

Cancellation fees
As part of the change, cancellation fees – for all bookings for sailings starting July 1, 2024 – will be assessed on the amount of the adverted price, excluding the government taxes and fees.

As an example, if the advertised price is $849 and that includes government taxes and fees of $50, the cancellation fee will be assessed on the amount of $799.

Group contracts
Travel advisors with existing group contracts for 2024, 2025, or 2026 departures must comply with the new consumer advertising requirements when advertising those groups effective July 1, 2024 and beyond.

Existing group allocations will not be amended for this change. However, effective July 1, 2024 and beyond, changes and/or additions made within the existing group allocations will reflect the new consumer advertising requirements. All new group contracts also will reflect the new requirements.

Advertising “FREE” promotions
“Free” promotions (such as 3rd and 4th guests sail FREE) will require new disclaimer verbiage (in the terms and conditions) as part of the new policy.

The new verbiage will be: “Complimentary (free) cruise offer applies to cruise fare only for offer recipient and guests covered by the complimentary cruise offer (if any) and excludes Government Taxes & Fees (approximately $X to $XX), any required deposit ($X), Required Cruise Fees & Expenses, (approximately $X to $XX), and other cruise-related expenses and travel expenses. Actual amounts owed by recipient and applicable guests may vary and shall be calculated at the time of booking.”

Travel advisor commission breakdown
In all travel advisor disclosures, the Carnival Corp. brands will provide a full breakout of the pricing to document the portion that is commissionable.

The company provided an example of the new travel advisor disclosure.

Advertised Price:                                         $849
Non-Commission Fare (NCF):                   $119
Government Taxes & Fees:                       $50
Required Cruise Fees & Expenses:           $100
Commissionable Cruise Fare:                   $580