Saba Live aboard fuel surcharges on the Caribbean Explorer II?

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divedeeepr

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Messages
25
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Location
Delaware
# of dives
500 - 999
Our group has a trip coming up in ten days on the Caribbean Explorer II for Saba St. Kitts. We have been hit in the eleventh hour with a fuel surcharge of $95.00 per person X 18 guests ($1,710.00)!!! Many of us are questioning this as we all know diesel and gas prices have fallen sharply. Prices are now below where they were before fuel surcharges came to be 2 or three years ago. SO why a surcharge at all???

Does anyone know the price of diesel per galllon in Saba in U.S. dollars per gallon. Our trip operator tells us that the falling price takes time to reach a place like Saba and that our fuel surcharge has been reduced from $160.00 to $95.00 and we should be grateful. But to us it seems like they are sticking to the tourists.

Any advice?

MAtt
 
Not sure if thats standard practice or if there was anything in your sign-up contract info that informed you of that potentiality,but if there is nothing in there and this was just sprung on you in Last Minute fashion I would express my displeasure and make sure they knew I'd Never be patronizing their business again.
 
Fuel surcharges have been part of liveaboard pricing for several years (2-3 at least). I did the CEII a couple years ago and was charged a surcharge, but it was disclosed to me at the time I signed up. They used to have a notice on their web site plus a note in the material that they send you when you sign up. Your tour operator may have received it if they still do that.

Aggressor has "eliminated" the surcharge, but has incorporated it into it's standard pricing schedule, so you don't see it directly.

Fuel is more expensive in the islands that in the US. But on a relative basis it has come down considerably since the peak. But remains high.

I did the AquaCat out of Nassau last month. They had reduced their surcharge and indicated that it might be eliminated if fuel prices remained low and stable.

Advice: Since you are booking the entire boat, you should have some leverage to neg., but only if the charge wasn't disclosed to your operator. My guess is that your operator was aware of it or should have been if they read the info from Explorer.

Great trip. Enjoy.
 
When the trip is over maybe you could also let them know that your tip would have been more but since you were charged $95. at the last minute you're going to have to reduce their tip by the same amount.
 
As said this has been common procedure on many liveaboards for quite awhile. I know the information has been on Explorers website as I booked a trip with them early last year and almost did again recently. The information is quite obvious on the pricing page, as well as a link to a letter that talks about the recent drop in the amount of the surcharge.

By trip operator, I assume you mean some dive shop or travel agency that booked the whole boat. How long ago was this? I suspect your beef is with them and not Explorer. If you booked with someone and they gave you a set price without mentioning the surcharge - either because they didn't read or were sloppy - you would be justified in assuming it was included and in not paying it now. (Although good luck with that.) I would go back and read everything the tour operator sent you.

Stiffing the crew on a trip if the travel agent screwed up hardly seems fair.
 
I concur that this is a well known and disclosed practice.

Its pretty clear on their website also.
 
When the trip is over maybe you could also let them know that your tip would have been more but since you were charged $95. at the last minute you're going to have to reduce their tip by the same amount.

Hopefully you realize that the "them" in the first part of your post is a different group of people than the "their" in the second part of your post.
 
...just like the airlines...dive ops advertise/promote a 'low' base price to lure you in...them slap on various fees/surcharges/taxes/tips in the fine print...and since there's a semi-plausable 'reason' behind a 'fuel surcharge' they semi-deceptively slip that in as an 'extra'....now, in my book, a Nitrox fee is truely optional...dive Nitrox and pay more...don't dive Nitrox and pay less...a fuel surcharge isn't 'optional'...any more than expecting a price reduction for only eating 2 meals daily on the boat instead of 3 meals daily...eat whatever you want, same price regardless.
Also, since you're obviously a rich tourist......you've got plenty of $ to burn anyway.....the fuel surcharge is a minor % of the total trip price.....who's gonna call off a trip over a fuel surcharge, especially at the last minute that's already paid for and non-cancellable with non-refundable airfare to boot ?
...for some reason, so many dive ops consider tourist divers as inherently wealthy, by definition, and fail to realize many of us actually work for a living, sacrifice to make dive trips...so the natural inclination is to 'soak-the-rich'...after all, whatever 'extras' are tacked on don't amount to anything more than rounding errors on the paychecks of all us rich 'gringos' who, by virtue of merely living in the USA, make a million bucks a year !
 
Matt,

I'm booked on a Nekton trip out of San Juan, Puerto Rico on Jan. 31. When I originally booked the trip (about three months ago), I paid a $150 fuel surcharge. They called me about two weeks ago telling me that they've reduced it by $75. They aren't giving refunds, but a credit to be used on board (which is not a problem 'cause it can be use toward the crew's tip).

(I agree with the others that the suggestion to deduct it from the crew's tip was a lousy idea...obviously taking it out on the wrong group.)

Ron
 
We have this same boat booked in the Bahamas in May and were informed in August 08 at the time of booking there was a $160.00 fuel surcharge. Just two week ago they informed us that they dropped the price to $95. I dont think you were not informed of this. Somebody dropped the ball.
 
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