UBP, when to buy?

[hawkeyetlse]

If you buy when you get on board while the ship is still in port: you WILL pay taxes.

The thing is, they may just have a table set up in the atrium with no cash register/computer. So the purchase is done the old-fashioned way with a slip of paper that doesn't actually go into the system until someone gets around to punching it in manually, probably several hours later, after the ship has sailed away. So there is a good chance that you WILL NOT pay taxes even in this situation, and you can always ask them about it directly to be sure.

I wonder if it would "retroactively cover" any drinks I bought on the ship prior to buying UBP.

It would not. At least that is what people have reported (with the lame justification that they have no idea if you bought those drinks for yourself or for someone else).

 

Except in very specific circumstances (e.g. an EU-only cruise out of Spain, as explained above), I see no benefit to pre-paying the UBP, and no benefit to buying drinks for the first few hours and then buying the UBP.

Edited February 16, 2014 by hawkeyetlse

[nyc511]

there was a thread within the last day or two where the poster was charged a tax while in Miami. Perhaps if you wait until the ship is away from the dock it might be different. It is also possible that the tax may not be charged when you call in advance because the operators may be in a different state - similar to ordering something on the internet and having it shipped to you.