What is the cost for a cruise line to hold a cruise?

Answer 1

Any ocean liner facing a port delay can incur countless costs, each of them variable. Depending on the vessel, just the fuel costs alone can exceed £10,000 for a three hour delay. This, again, is variable as it's impossible to predict what the specific delay is, what the destination is, what the age of the ship is, how long has it been held behind and how much additional fuel would be required for the vessel to travel at a far higher speed to (hopefully) catch up in time in order to reach its destination on schedule. Then there are periphery costs: Loss of a berthing slot time is non-refundable. The liner would be required to book a second berthing time.

If the liner has contracted for passengers to connect to flights to onward destinations, the liner would be faced with having to pay for accommodation/meals/transport, etc., to get passengers to their originally planned destination.

If the liner were scheduled (by contract) for dry-docking on a specific day, Stand-Down crew costs at the docking point would be substantial, as well as paying on-board staff to support passenger's needs beyond their contracted duty-pay.

For passengers who miss a scheduled sailing time from a holiday destination can often be distraught and not understand how the cruise liner could leave them behind, leaving them to face dealing with the cost (at their own expense) of catching up with the liner or simply returning home.

Sadly, whilst it can be costly and exasperating, the passengers seldom take into account how substantially it can affect all the other passengers, the running of the ship, the associated costs. Because destinations are fine-tuned to a schedule, based upon distance and the liner's capacity, the majority of cruise lines have very little 'make-up' room to work with, whatever may cause a delay. More often than not, when 'force majeure' (an act of God) occurs, (weather, earthquake, etc.), the liner is often required to altar their destination schedule. In these instances, liners will refer passengers to their 'conditions of carriage' which detail these events and how the liner will respond should such events occur.