Viking River suffers bad PR after charging dead woman rebooking fee

Rules are rules, but sometimes cruise lines need to think about common sense. When they don't, it makes them look cold and uncaring. Take this Colorado man's situation. His wife died before their planned European cruise. Respecting her wishes, he decided to continue on the trip. He let Viking River know that he would still be going but his deceased wife would not. Of course the cruise company charged him a change fee of $850.

Aside from being uncaring, this rule makes no sense to me. The cruise takes on no extra cost by her not being there. He has the cabin, so they can't resell the room.

The media got a hold of the story and Viking dropped the fee. A relatively happy ending. Let's hope Viking learned their lesson.

Porthole has some unique predictions for new fees

Cruise fees are here to stay. Room service, activities, and more to come. For people who love to cruise it is a serious issue. But that doesn't mean you also can't laugh at some of the ridiculousness. Porthole Magazine's blog posted a facetious list of future fees. It's funny and on the nose. Porthole sees a day where you pay for a tender or even a squirt of hand sanitizer. Let's hope no one from a cruise company reads their list...they might get new ideas.

Carnival expands room service fee programs

Back in April we predicted the Carnival's room service fee charges were just the beginning. On Tuesday, the world's most popular cruise line announced that their room service fee structure will now apply to all Carnival ships. The test on three ships last spring was clearly a success.

Our advice is to just skip room service. We have yet to find a cruise ship where food is not plentiful and readily available. Even if you have a great room and great view, there are sure to be other great places to eat on board.

Now that the charge has been rolled out to all Carnival ships, it is only a matter of time before it spreads to more ships within the Carnival Companies. It is also just a matter of time before other formerly included services get fees attached to them.

Princess raises gratuity fees

Once again a major cruise company announced a plan to raise their fees. Starting in 2016, Princess will charge a gratuity fee of $12.95 per person, per day. Passengers staying in a suite will be charged $13.50. As with their current policy, Princess will allow passengers to remove or lower their fee while on board.

Raising fees and essentially mandating certain tip rates, is ultimately a bait and switch. The cruise lines want to keep preaching value, yet keep adding these backend costs that are not reflected in the sale price.

Fortunately there is growing movement on the upscale lines to remove all tipping. We hope that catches on with the mid-tier and lower-tier lines as well. There are other ways to incent the ship staff without tipping. Right now it is just a tool for cruise lines to nickel and dime customers and skim off of their employees' wages.