What are 'taxes, fees and port expenses' on a cruise?

It is a single line the cruise line adds at checkout that bundles together several unrelated charges: government passenger taxes levied by each country you call at, port authority dockage and wharfage the line pays and passes through per passenger, and in some places a head tax or development levy. The cruise line does not keep it and does not control it. On a 7-night Caribbean sailing it typically runs $140 to $200 per person. In Alaska the same line runs $200 to $320, because Alaska adds a state excise no Caribbean itinerary has an equivalent of.

How much is Mexico's cruise passenger fee?

It doubled to US$10 per passenger on 1 August 2026. Under a presidential decree published in the Diario Oficial on 30 June 2025, it steps to US$15 from 1 July 2027 and US$21 from 1 August 2028. Two details are commonly got wrong: it is set by decree rather than by statute, so the Executive can amend it; and it is charged once per voyage, not once per Mexican port, so a Cozumel plus Costa Maya itinerary pays it once. Passengers are billed in pesos, so the dollar figure is approximate.

Why is an Alaska cruise's tax line so much higher than a Caribbean one?

Alaska levies a state commercial passenger vessel excise tax of $34.50 per passenger on voyages exceeding 72 hours in state marine waters, which no Caribbean itinerary has an equivalent of. Juneau then adds a $5 marine passenger fee and a $3 port development fee. A real 7-night Alaska sailing from Seattle quoted $320 per guest in taxes and fees, against $140 to $200 for a comparable Caribbean sailing.

How much does Santorini charge cruise passengers?

Under Greek law 5162/2024, Santorini and Mykonos charge EUR 20 per disembarking cruise passenger per call from 1 June to 30 September, EUR 12 in April, May and October, and EUR 4 from 1 November to 31 March. Every other Greek port charges EUR 5, EUR 3 and EUR 1 across the same three windows. The fee applies regardless of age and is charged per passenger who goes ashore.

Are cruise port fees refundable if a port is missed?

Often, partially, and almost never automatically. Because much of the charge is per passenger per call, a skipped port means the line was not billed for it. Most lines refund the port-specific portion as onboard credit or to the original form of payment, but policies differ and the amount is rarely itemized. If your itinerary changes after booking, ask for the port fee adjustment in writing rather than waiting for it to appear.

Do river cruises charge port fees too?

Yes, and unusually they publish the number and include it. AmaWaterways states on its itinerary pages: 'Port Charges (included in cruise price): $250 per person in 2026', with $280 published for 2027 and $290 for 2028. That is exactly 12 percent higher next year, disclosed a year ahead — and because it is inside the fare rather than added at checkout, the quoted price is closer to what you actually pay than most ocean cruise quotes are.

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Cruise Port Fees and Taxes in 2026 — And What's Already Scheduled to Rise

Travel ConnectsSeptember 9, 20269 min read

On 1 August 2026, Mexico's cruise passenger fee doubled to US$10 per person. Under a decree already published in the Diario Oficial, it steps to US$15 in July 2027 and US$21 in August 2028 — a tripling inside twenty-four months, on the most-sailed region out of Florida, and it appears in no 2026 brochure.

It also will not, by itself, be the reason your cruise costs more than you expected. It is one component of a line item that every cruise adds at checkout, that almost nobody reads, and that nobody compiles in one place. So we started keeping a dated record of it. This is the first entry. Every figure below carries the source that published it, and the ones we could not verify are named as unverified rather than quietly folded into a total.

What "taxes, fees and port expenses" actually is

It is not one charge. It is at least three unrelated things bundled into one line so the checkout page fits on a screen:

Government passenger taxes — levied by each country you call at, per passenger. These are the ones that move with policy.
Port authority charges — dockage and wharfage the line pays for the berth, passed through per passenger. These move when a port raises its rates, on its own schedule, without announcing anything to travelers.
Local levies — head taxes, environmental charges, and in a few places a development fee earmarked for terminal construction.

The cruise line does not keep any of it, and does not control it — which is why the figure is not fixed when you book a fare, and why two sailings on the same ship in the same month can carry different amounts. The variable that matters most is how many ports you call at, and when. Much of the charge is per call, and some of it is seasonal, so a port-intensive August itinerary carries a materially heavier line than the same ship in February.

The 2026 numbers, by who collects them

Table: 2026 government and port charges affecting cruise passengers, by collecting authority. Verified against primary sources 29 August 2026.
Who collects it	Charge	2026 amount	What to know
Mexico (federal)	Cruise passenger fee	US$10 per passenger	Doubled 1 Aug 2026. Charged once per voyage, not per port. Steps to $15 (Jul 2027) and $21 (Aug 2028) by decree.
Alaska (state)	Commercial passenger vessel excise	$34.50 per passenger	Only on voyages over 72 hours in Alaska state waters, and reduced by municipal taxes predating Dec 2007.
Juneau	Marine passenger fee + port development fee	$5 + $3 per passenger	Both charged directly to you, on top of the state excise.
Santorini & Mykonos	Cruise passenger levy (law 5162/2024)	€20 Jun–Sep · €12 Apr, May, Oct · €4 Nov–Mar	Per disembarking passenger, per call, any age. All other Greek ports: €5 / €3 / €1.
Jamaica	Tourism Enhancement Fee	US$2 per cruise passenger	The widely-quoted US$20 is the airline arrival rate. Cruise passengers pay $2.
Dominican Republic	Arrival charges	$0 separately	Tourist card and departure tax are both already inside the airfare.
AmaWaterways (Europe rivers)	Port charges	$250 per person, included in the fare	Published a year ahead: $280 in 2027, $290 in 2028.

The Dominican Republic row is worth pausing on, because it is the cleanest destination we track and it shows what the actual problem is. Nothing there is hidden — the fees exist, they are simply already inside a price you have paid. Everywhere else the same money arrives later, separately, and feels like a surprise. The charge did not change. Only when you found out about it did.

Two numbers almost every article gets wrong

We got one of them wrong ourselves in an earlier draft of this article, which is a reasonable argument for keeping a dated record rather than trusting a memory.

Jamaica's Tourism Enhancement Fee is US$2 for cruise passengers, not US$20. The $20 figure is real — it is the rate for incoming airline passengers, collected inside the ticket. Quoting it on a cruise page overstates the charge tenfold. Jamaica also levies a US$35 air departure tax; it does not apply to cruise passengers, and no current Jamaican government source publishes the rate at all — Jamaica Customs still posts a superseded figure — so we do not use it.
Quintana Roo's VISITAX does not apply to cruise passengers. The roughly MXN 285 per-person tourist tax is an air-arrival charge. Cruise passengers fall under a separate provision of the state's revenue law, and paying that exempts them from VISITAX. If you are flying into Cancún for a resort stay it applies to you; if you are calling at Cozumel it does not.

What is already on the books to rise

These are not forecasts. Each has been decreed or published by the party that collects it, and none is reflected in a 2026 brochure.

Mexico: $10 → $15 (July 2027) → $21 (August 2028). For a family of four the difference between a 2026 sailing and a 2028 one is $44 on this line alone. Note the wording matters: this sits in a presidential decree, not a statute, so it is binding but amendable — the current schedule itself replaced a steeper plan in 2025.
Juneau roughly doubled what it charges ships to dock, from 2026. That is a charge on the vessel rather than on you, and it will not show up as a passenger fee — but roughly $2.5m to $5m a season across a port's calls reaches the fare eventually.
AmaWaterways has published $280 per person for 2027 against $250 this year, and $290 for 2028. Exactly 12% next year, disclosed a year ahead.

None of this is a reason not to cruise. It is a reason to treat a fare quoted eighteen months out as a fare rather than a total, and to ask what the taxes and fees line is assumed to be — so you find out now instead of at final payment.

Why Alaska costs so much more than the Caribbean on this line

A 7-night Caribbean sailing typically carries $140 to $200 per person in taxes and fees. A 7-night Alaska sailing out of Seattle quoted $320 per guest. The fare difference between those two cruises is the part people compare. This is the part they do not.

The gap is almost entirely structural: Alaska's $34.50 state excise has no Caribbean equivalent, and Juneau adds $8 per passenger on top. For a family of four that is roughly $480 more before the fare is considered — and none of it appears in a headline price comparison.

River cruises publish theirs, and include them

AmaWaterways states it plainly on its itinerary pages: "Port Charges (included in cruise price): $250 per person in 2026." Two things about that sentence are unusual. The number is published at all, where most ocean lines publish a range at best. And it is included, not added at checkout.

The practical consequence is that a river cruise is easier to budget accurately than an ocean cruise at the same price point, even though its published fare looks higher. The number you are quoted is closer to the number you pay. That is worth something, and it is invisible in a side-by-side fare comparison.

What we could not confirm

Two figures that belong in an article like this are not in the table above, because we could not verify them to the standard the rest of it meets.

Jamaica's US$35 air departure tax. Real, and normally bundled into the ticket, but no current Jamaican government page publishes the rate — the best source is a 2016 budget commentary, and Jamaica Customs still posts an obsolete Jamaican-dollar figure. It also does not apply to cruise passengers.
Costa Rica's widely-quoted US$15 arrival tax. We could find no Costa Rican government source for it at all — every site asserting it is a travel publisher citing another travel publisher. We have dropped it. The departure tax, by contrast, is properly sourced: US$29 (US$27 under Ley 8316 plus a US$2 agricultural inspection fee), per Banco de Costa Rica, the official collector. It is inside the fare only where your airline has an agreement with Costa Rica, which is why airport payment kiosks still exist.

What to do with this before you book

Ask for the taxes and fees figure as a number, not a promise. It is knowable at quote time for a specific sailing. A quote that does not state it is a fare, not a total.
Count the ports, and check the month. Much of the charge is per call and some of it is seasonal. A seven-port August itinerary and a four-port February one at the same fare are not the same price.
If your itinerary changes, ask about the port fee adjustment in writing. A missed port usually means the line was not billed for it, and the refund is rarely automatic or itemized.
For 2027 and 2028 sailings, assume the Mexico step-ups apply. They are already decreed. A quote built on the 2026 figure is optimistic by construction rather than by intent.

Where these numbers live

We keep every figure in this article in a dated record and re-check it weekly, because a fee schedule that drifts is worse than no fee schedule. You can read the current set, with the source link and verification date for each, on the Travel Fee Index. To see what they add up to for a specific trip — your party, your nights, your travel month — the trip cost calculator runs them against a real itinerary, and will also tell you whether a quote you already have is complete.

If you would rather just ask, tell us about the trip and we will price it properly, including this line. Cruise lines pay us as the booking channel, so the planning costs you nothing — and we are the ones who have to be there when the real bill arrives, which is the whole reason we keep the record.