LITTLE ROCK — Italian cruise line Costa is making passengers an "offer they can't refuse" on its Arabian Peninsula voyages.
At several ports where shuttles are necessary to get from the dock to a drop-off point in the city (port security rules), Costa is charging passengers 5 euros apiece ($6.90) for the service.
That's $28 more per couple - more once you factor in the credit card's exchange rate and interest - for the cruise, a fee that appears on your final bill at the end of the cruise.
"There is a charge for these shuttles in order to cover the cost of the service," said Costa spokesman Dana Dominici. "On certain cruises and itineraries, these are offered by the ports.For this particular itinerary, we offer this ourselves for the guests."
"Offer" isn't exactly accurate, except in the Mafia-like extortion sense. The service is required: Passengers cannot walk on their own at these ports, so if you don't pay the fare, you can't leave the port area, which equates to not leaving the ship. The added fare pays for a service that, essentially, is the same as tender-boat passage to land when docking the ship is not an option. Without exception, tendering is either free or built into the price of the cruise.
Is $28 a big deal? It is in the context of the continuing trend of cruise lines charging for services that previously were free and of breaking out separate fees for expenses that, traditionally,are part of the cost of doing business and therefore should be part of the published cruise fare.
Other notable examples include the "fuel surcharge" adopted by several lines in recent years and the infamous "service fee," which grew out of the automatic-tipping trend and, in many cases, doesn't actually go to the workers.
The latter example became an issue for me on the same Arabian Peninsula cruise. On ships that have automatic tipping or a service fee, I typically go the front desk and cut the "optional" fee by 50 percent, and then distribute adjusted gratuities at the end of the voyage to specific workers who helped me.
On Costa Classica, however, the clerk at reception told me tocome back later, saying that the supervisor who could make the adjustment was away and, on the second try, that he couldn't find the correct form. He found the form and got clearance from his boss on my third attempt, but only after I threatened to reduce the service fee by 100 percent if he didn't allow me to make the change right there and then.
The traditional system of tipping the crew may be outdated in some ways, but the new ways often aren't very clear. You wouldn't just dump $140 (per couple per week) in the trash; demand to know who's getting that money and how it's administered. If you don't get a satisfactory answer, opt out of the system and tip workers the old fashioned way.
Travel, Pages 90 on 10/07/2007