Texas Cruise Guests Facing Additional Fees at Popular Ports

Let's see. Hurricane Season 2024 ended a couple of days ago, so residents of Galveston, Houston, and Corpus Christi are breathing a little easier. The temperature dropped into the 30s, so folks in Lufkin, Dallas, and Tyler aren't sweating like they used to. The combination of the end of hurricane season and the arrival of cooler temperatures can only mean one thing here in Texas: It's time to go somewhere tropical and warm.

Isn't it funny? We complain about the heat and humidity and almost all of us take our vacations to destinations that are known for their heat and humidity. Of course, we get to wear our swimsuits on vacation so that makes the heat and humidity a lot easier to handle. One of the ways we get to those tropical climates is via cruise ships.

The Port of Galveston offers sailings on most of the major cruise lines that serve the Gulf Coast and Caribbean. You can sail on Carnival, Disney, MSC, Norwegian, Princess, and Royal Caribbean all from Galveston. But if you're headed to Mexico, you might want to pack a little something extra, namely more money.

Of the Caribbean Ports that are most popular with Gulf South cruise guests the ones in Mexico are head and shoulders above the rest. But those ports could soon see their arrivals and departures diminish if the Mexican Government goes ahead with a plan to charge cruise ship passengers and immigration fees.

The legislation has already been approved by the lower house of Mexico's Congress. The new law would require that every passenger on a cruise ship that docks at a Mexican port be assessed a fee of $42. That would be $84 for a couple or $168 for a family of four.

The fee would be assessed whether or not the guests actually left the ship or not. And to add insult to injury the assessed fee would not go to improve port facilities or tourist attractions in the region, two thirds of the money would go to Mexico's military. 

In the past, the Mexican Government has exempted cruise ship passengers from this "immigration fee". But apparently, the new ruling party needs the money and this would be one way to earn money in the short term. A cruise ship with 4,000 passengers would return $168,000 in "fees". And when you consider that ports in Mexico are among the busiest in the world, that could add up to a lot of money really quickly.

It could also discourage cruise lines from sailing to your ports. This is why many tourism groups in Mexico are fighting so hard against this legislation. By the way, Mexican tourism is currently struggling with reports of violence and other crimes in many of the country's most popular destinations. So this could be a major blow to the tourism industry south of the border.

Will it pass? We will have to wait and see and if it does you can bet it will be built into your ticket price. But it should be something you're asking about if you are booking a cruise to Mexico in the next few months.