Key Aspects:
- In response to actions taken by the US, China has enacted new port fees for vessels connected to the US, which includes cruise ships.
- The new charge is 400 yuan ($56) per net ton, which will grow to 1,120 yuan ($157) per ton by April of 2028.
- So far, Oceania Cruises’ Riviera cancelled its call on Shanghai to avoid the fees, and Royal Caribbean’s Spectrum of the Seas was issued a fee waiver to return to Shanghai.
In response to the US charging new port fees for Chinese ships, China has enacted its own special port fees.
Starting on October 14, 2025, China began charging 400 yuan ($56) per net ton for US vessels, which also applies to ships from cruise lines based in the United States.
The starting fee is just slightly more than the $50 per net ton that the US is charging Chinese ships to dock in US ports.
However, it will increase annually until it reaches 1,120 yuan ($157) per ton by April of 2028.
Each ship will be charged the fee on a maximum of five voyages per year, and the fee will only be levied at the first Chinese port of call on the itinerary.
While cruise lines often pass off slight port fee increases onto passengers in the cruise fare, the new port fees China has introduced may simply be too high to reasonably go that route.
When considering that cruise ships are thousands to hundreds of thousands of gross tons, this extra fee would equate to millions of dollars. Even getting hit with this charge just once would be a massive blow.
Just two days after China’s new policy took effect, on October 16, 2025, Oceania Cruises’ Riviera replaced its scheduled call to Shanghai, China, for this reason.
According to Chinese outlet Caixin Global, the luxury cruise line would have had to pay more than $1.6 million for the 66,172-gross ton ship to visit.
Instead of shelling out the cash, the cruise line rerouted the 1,250-guest ship to Busan, South Korea.
For context, Oceania Cruises operates under Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., which is based in Miami, Florida.
More US Cruise Ships Potentially Affected
This is likely only the beginning of US-owned cruise ships steering away from Chinese ports to avoid the hefty fees.
However, Royal Caribbean’s Spectrum of the Seas, which is currently homeported in Shanghai, was still able to dock at the Chinese port on October 17, 2025.
There was initially some speculation on how the cruise line would proceed given the new fees.
Spectrum of the Seas in Nha Trang, Vietnam (Photo Credit: Huy Thoai)
Looking at the math, a single voyage for the Quantum Ultra-class ship would cost more than $26 million.
Luckily, the 169,379-gross ton ship was able to obtain a waiver to avoid paying the new fees.
This was likely because the 4,426-guest ship primarily caters to the Chinese market with short getaway sailings and was built specifically with Asian cruisers in mind.
Read Also: What You Should Know About Cruise Port Cancellations
That said, Caixin Global reported that Chinese officials have warned that this isn’t a blanket waiver for all cruise ships connected to the US, and other vessels may not get so lucky.
Royal Caribbean has other ships scheduled to call on Chinese ports like Hong Kong in the next year, such as Navigator of the Seas.
Ships from its sister brand, Celebrity Cruises, are also on the port schedule for Hong Kong in the coming months. These include Celebrity Millennium and Celebrity Solstice.
Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, and Holland America Line are all US-based cruise lines that are also supposed to make appearances in China in November and December.
And if these vessels cannot obtain waivers or something doesn’t change, the cruise lines will need to make some very important decisions about their itineraries.
Appeared first on: Cruisehive.com
