No Alcohol in any UK ports - what! 😱

[DCGuy64]

3 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

Hahahaha, check out BBB. NCL don't care. It's been like this for a very long time.

BBB is a treasure trove of complaints. I'd never patronize any company were it only for that site. One thing's for sure: when we cruise with NCL later this year, we'll be sure to pack some wine to bring onboard in case there's any interruption in serving liquor. And if we're absolutely dying to have a "real" drink and such isn't on offer, we'll be able to manage finding one in Rome, Valletta, Santorini, Mykonos, Messina, Athens, Livorno or Naples. Something tells me we won't go thirsty! 😄🍸🧉🍹🍷🍺🍾 If worse comes to worse, I'll do what people undoubtedly are doing now: queuing up for 2 Mojitos the moment the ship is in international waters!

[SteveH2508]

4 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

BBB is a treasure trove of complaints. I'd never patronize any company were it only for that site. One thing's for sure: when we cruise with NCL later this year, we'll be sure to pack some wine to bring onboard in case there's any interruption in serving liquor. And if we're absolutely dying to have a "real" drink and such isn't on offer, we'll be able to manage finding one in Rome, Valletta, Santorini, Mykonos, Messina, Athens, Livorno or Naples. Something tells me we won't go thirsty! 😄🍸🧉🍹🍷🍺🍾 If worse comes to worse, I'll do what people undoubtedly are doing now: queuing up for 2 Mojitos the moment the ship is in international waters!

So you have taken on board (excuse the pun) the problem, and are going to take steps to mitigate any issues. Good for you.

 

Knowledge is power.

 

I would suggest that you also pack a dose of cynicism, because there will likely be other issues to deal with on your cruise.

 

 

[TardisDance]

I am on the NCL Star cruise right now.  We met the shore excursions manager at the cruisecritic meeting and have been talking to him throughout the cruise.  He basically told us that we'd have to file a complaint; there's nothing they can do onboard about refunding 2 days of gratuities.  Here's the link: https://www.ncl.com/uk/en/case-submission

 

We went to Guest Services initially and they told us they can't and basically we'd have to waive our entire service charges, etc.- we said that's a different charge, she said they are packaged together.  We don't want to stiff the staff!  We just want to pay for 10 days of a beverage package when we are only receiving 8 days.

[ziggyuk]

Moderna is absolutely dead, apparently a flood of cancellations due to no wine.

[goldmom]

I would suggest that people start sending e-mails detailing this situation and stating that other cruise lines sailing from the same port are not suspending serving alcohol.

Try sending e-mails to : vicepresidentguestservices@ncl.com

I believe this is Katy Bird's address and I know her office has responded to customer concerns in other areas.

Good luck and hopefully this situation will be dealt with.

[purplecow15]

We will be flying in to LHR day of cruise and have private transfer to Southampton Port. Is there anywhere in terminal area to purchase wine?

[bendoestheworld]

10 minutes ago, goldmom said:

I would suggest that people start sending e-mails detailing this situation and stating that other cruise lines sailing from the same port are not suspending serving alcohol.

Try sending e-mails to : vicepresidentguestservices@ncl.com

I believe this is Katy Bird's address and I know her office has responded to customer concerns in other areas.

Good luck and hopefully this situation will be dealt with.

I emailed Harry Sommer, the CEO, last year over issues on Epic and he responded back personally in 5 minutes. I was shocked. But you'll probably get a response from him.

[kitkat343]

31 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

I may be in the minority here, but I couldn't care less about any refunds.  I want the full cruise experience.

That is completely understandable.  I was replying to an earlier thread in which someone asked who we should contact/what we should do about this, and one option is to go to the media.  I think the media would find the fact that NCL is charging people for a service, not delivering it and refusing to refund the charges for that service to be newsworthy.  If NCL refunded people (which I totally understand wouldn't make you much happier) it is less of a news story, but I do understand it could still screw up your vacation.  Since NCL has been marketing this "free" all included drinking package for years now, I would expect a higher percentage of their core cruisers care a lot about alcohol and feel like you do.  So it is surprising they won't fix this quickly by paying whatever the competing cruise lines are paying to the British authorities, unless they really don't have the money to do so.  

 

   

[KeithJenner]

1 minute ago, purplecow15 said:

We will be flying in to LHR day of cruise and have private transfer to Southampton Port. Is there anywhere in terminal area to purchase wine?

Not at the terminal as far as I am aware. There are some options in Southampton, but you would need to walk a little way (depending on which terminal you are in).

[SteveH2508]

5 minutes ago, purplecow15 said:

We will be flying in to LHR day of cruise and have private transfer to Southampton Port. Is there anywhere in terminal area to purchase wine?

If you have a private transfer you should be able to ask them to go via a supermarket to stock up. I think there is a Marks and Spencer in Southampton, who will have a decent selection.

 

In the UK one can buy booze easily (on land anyway😉).

[ChiefMateJRK]

3 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

So it is surprising they won't fix this quickly by paying whatever the competing cruise lines are paying to the British authorities, unless they really don't have the money to do so.  

I'm pretty sure they will pay it very soon.  Having worked at MegaCorp, I understand how dysfunctional and beurocratic corporations can be.  Somebody dropped the ball and they're now playing catchup.  It's not like somebody in finance can just write the check.  Probably has to go through legal and a half dozen signatures by people who themselves may be on Holiday.  In the meantime, some guy in marketing had to draft that lame notice and get it to the affected ships.

[DCGuy64]

2 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

I'm pretty sure they will pay it very soon.  Having worked at MegaCorp, I understand how dysfunctional and beurocratic corporations can be.  Somebody dropped the ball and they're now playing catchup.  It's not like somebody in finance can just write the check.  Probably has to go through legal and a half dozen signatures by people who themselves may be on Holiday.  In the meantime, some guy in marketing had to draft that lame notice and get it to the affected ships.

I wonder about that, too, Chief. With the financial hit the cruise lines have taken, maybe the person in charge of paying these fees was not replaced, staffing shortages, etc. Who knows? But I applaud people who are being proactive in bringing this to the company's attention. That's very productive! (And as a future NCL passenger, I'd like to benefit from that) 😄

[Greener123]

15 minutes ago, purplecow15 said:

We will be flying in to LHR day of cruise and have private transfer to Southampton Port. Is there anywhere in terminal area to purchase wine?

There is actually a wine shop very close to the port entrance, could get your taxi to drop you off there and then walk to the port
 

Majestic Wine

Mountbatten Retail Park, Western Esplanade, Southampton SO15 1QJ

[ziggyuk]

7 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

That is completely understandable.  I was replying to an earlier thread in which someone asked who we should contact/what we should do about this, and one option is to go to the media.  I think the media would find the fact that NCL is charging people for a service, not delivering it and refusing to refund the charges for that service to be newsworthy.  If NCL refunded people (which I totally understand wouldn't make you much happier) it is less of a news story, but I do understand it could still screw up your vacation.  Since NCL has been marketing this "free" all included drinking package for years now, I would expect a higher percentage of their core cruisers care a lot about alcohol and feel like you do.  So it is surprising they won't fix this quickly by paying whatever the competing cruise lines are paying to the British authorities, unless they really don't have the money to do so.  

 

   

There is an ASDA (Walmart) very close to the port.

[KeithJenner]

4 minutes ago, Greener123 said:

There is actually a wine shop very close to the port entrance, could get your taxi to drop you off there and then walk to the port
 

Majestic Wine

Mountbatten Retail Park, Western Esplanade, Southampton SO15 1QJ

How walkable that is depends on what luggage you have and what terminal you are at. A lot of people say that the nearby railway station is too far to walk with bags.

 

There is also a co-op near the Premier Inn, which is closer (as well as M&S in West Quay.

[Greener123]

2 minutes ago, KeithJenner said:

How walkable that is depends on what luggage you have and what terminal you are at. A lot of people say that the nearby railway station is too far to walk with bags.

 

There is also a co-op near the Premier Inn, which is closer (as well as M&S in West Quay.

True… NCL generally will be going from Horizon (since they part paid for it) - that’ll be marginally closer than westquay 

[SteveH2508]

1 minute ago, Greener123 said:

True… NCL generally will be going from Horizon (since they part paid for it) - that’ll be marginally closer than westquay 

My bold - the irony is strong here...

[Goatie123]

5 hours ago, johala_reewi said:

It's as good as the Monty Python argument sketch. 😄

Is that the five minutes, or the full half hour? 😁

[jennjess]

2 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

And Greece and Gibraltar.

 

Maybe NCL should get into the habit of checking these things a bit earlier.

Surely they would be advised about these restrictions/liabilites when they book their berths in the ports.  It's not as if they can just show up and dock is it?

[Greener123]

2 minutes ago, jennjess said:

Surely they would be advised about these restrictions/liabilites when they book their berths in the ports.  It's not as if they can just show up and dock is it?

Especially when theyre ports they’ve been visiting for decades 

[flamingo_fancies]

36 minutes ago, purplecow15 said:

We will be flying in to LHR day of cruise and have private transfer to Southampton Port. Is there anywhere in terminal area to purchase wine?

I can't remember anything in the terminal. There is an ASDA supermarket about 15 minutes walk. There may be some smaller shops nearer.

[flamingo_fancies]

23 minutes ago, Greener123 said:

There is actually a wine shop very close to the port entrance, could get your taxi to drop you off there and then walk to the port
 

Majestic Wine

Mountbatten Retail Park, Western Esplanade, Southampton SO15 1QJ

That's good to know, I had no idea. When we get to Southampton it's always eyes on the prize.....Where's the ship😆

[Greener123]

3 minutes ago, flamingo_fancies said:

That's good to know, I had no idea. When we get to Southampton it's always eyes on the prize.....Where's the ship😆

Being a local has its advantages 🤣

[Greener123]

Slightly back on topic, Dawn is due in Scotland tomorrow, not seen any posts of the freestyle advising of restrictions in leith? 
 

curiouser and curiouser 

[Travelling2Some]

Might be good to give some of the cruise bloggers on YouTube a heads up on the issue - La Lido Loca, Emma Cruises, Gary Bembridge (sp?) and Jay (forget his last name).  Could be good material for their daily segments. 

 

Personally, I have decided I don't want to pay $400 in FAS gratuities on our cruise in a few weeks with this uncertainty.  I believe you can cancel drink packages 48 hours in advance and when I do I will certainly tell them why.  We will be the first Baltic cruise (so the situation in those ports cannot be known in advance).  The cruise is very port heavy anyway - no sea days at all - so we would probably only break even anyway.  I'll dust off the ol' Rum Runners too, just in case!