You might think that a global company the size of Royal Caribbean is good at paying its fees, but it turns out that even having a whole accounting department isn’t enough to stop a few things from falling through the cracks.
The forgotten fees in question? A relatively small 600,000 Norwegian kroners (approximately £60,000) in pilot fees that was supposed to be paid in October.
But Royal Caribbean is unlikely to be making the same mistake again. In fact, the Norwegian authorities have made sure that they’re at the top of the agenda for the cruise line, by impounding one of the world’s largest cruise ships.
Independence of the Seas, a 150,000-tonne behemoth capable of carrying nearly 4,400 passengers, was seized by a Norwegian bailiff, but it was only held for an hour, as the cruise line quickly paid its dues and rectified the situation.
While it may seem like the Norwegian Coastal Administration was making an undue fuss over the delay, it requires on fees from ships to fund its operations along the country’s most dangerous stretches of coastline.
And it seems that Royal Caribbean is not alone in missing the due date on their bills. Arve Dimmen, of the NCA, said that the organisation is currently 7.6 million kroner short (approximately £760,000) due to cruise ships not paying their bills on time.
“It’s a lot of work for us to follow up these cases,” he said.
