Tax on drinks query

[dearbhaile]

Hey all. Cruising this year and cannot wait. I’ve cruised on the Epic previously back in 2019 and 2005. 
As much and I cannot wait there are a few issues putting a slight dampener on things. 1 being that when we are in Liverno we cannot drink anything but beer and wine. We are there for an overnight and secondly that there will be a tax added to every drink. 
I have heard people say that this has always been the case but on my previous two sailings I have never had to pay extra tax on my drinks. 
I am from the U.K. and have purchased my free at sea for £149 and was told when booking by an NCL agent that there would be no further fees to pay that everything was covered in my final price. 
Can anyone from the U.K. who has purchased the Free at Sea clarify if there were charged extra?
Many thanks

[ChiefMateJRK]

Any time I am in a cabin with a couch, I check beneath the cushions for lost change.  I take what I find to guest services and have them add it to my on board account.  That usually covers any taxes on drinks while in port. 😎

 

(Obviously joking, but making a point. In port drink taxes are little more than "couch change.")

[dearbhaile]

Except people who are cruising now are saying that it is not just while in port it is the whole cruise. We are cruising for 11 nights with three overnights in ports. I’m just wondering is this a new thing or has it always been the case because I’ve never paid this before. 

[KeithJenner]

Having to pay tax for the whole cruise if you don’t leave the EU is certainly not a new thing. It has been in place for many years.

 

However, the issue is whether you will be charged if you have the beverage package. The answer for most of the time since NCL introduced the beverage package has been no, but this isn’t the first time that they have charged people with the package. It was charged for a while a few years ago, but that stopped after a few cruises.

 

I have neither the time nor inclination to go through the various discussions as to whether they should be charging this (there are a number of discussions on here), but whether correctly or not, they do seem to be charging at the moment.

 

Whether they still will be when you sail is a different matter, and history shows that these things can change with no notice, so you are very unlikely to get a definitive answer.

[pete_coach]

It seems to me that all drinks have tax and gratuity included.

When in ports, I think you pay additional taxes of whatever country it is.

[di T]

13 hours ago, dearbhaile said:

Hey all. Cruising this year and cannot wait. I’ve cruised on the Epic previously back in 2019 and 2005. 
As much and I cannot wait there are a few issues putting a slight dampener on things. 1 being that when we are in Liverno we cannot drink anything but beer and wine. We are there for an overnight and secondly that there will be a tax added to every drink. 
I have heard people say that this has always been the case but on my previous two sailings I have never had to pay extra tax on my drinks. 
I am from the U.K. and have purchased my free at sea for £149 and was told when booking by an NCL agent that there would be no further fees to pay that everything was covered in my final price. 
Can anyone from the U.K. who has purchased the Free at Sea clarify if there were charged extra?
Many thanks

We were charged the tax on the Sun in Spanish ports, this was on our b2b in February/March think it was a bit strange as we cruise to these same ports many times every year and this is the first time been charged tax. After paying for the free at sea for both cruises would not expect to be charged extra! But we still had two great cruises.

[dearbhaile]

40 minutes ago, di T said:

We were charged the tax on the Sun in Spanish ports, this was on our b2b in February/March think it was a bit strange as we cruise to these same ports many times every year and this is the first time been charged tax. After paying for the free at sea for both cruises would not expect to be charged extra! But we still had two great cruises.

Can I ask roughly what you paid for the whole cruise in regards to extra taxes? 

[di T]

Can’t remember exact amount but was approx $20 for two of us in total, we did do a lot of time off the ship in Malaga and Cadiz.Malaga was 8pm departure on both legs, so wine with dinner was charged the tax. But Cadiz we left 4 pm each time so by 7 cocktail time we were out of Spanish waters.So not too bad, it would of been worse if as we had heard no alcohol at all in Gibraltar but that wasn’t the case.

[The Traveling Man]

16 hours ago, dearbhaile said:

Hey all. Cruising this year and cannot wait. I’ve cruised on the Epic previously back in 2019 and 2005. 
As much and I cannot wait there are a few issues putting a slight dampener on things. 1 being that when we are in Liverno we cannot drink anything but beer and wine. We are there for an overnight and secondly that there will be a tax added to every drink. 
I have heard people say that this has always been the case but on my previous two sailings I have never had to pay extra tax on my drinks. 
I am from the U.K. and have purchased my free at sea for £149 and was told when booking by an NCL agent that there would be no further fees to pay that everything was covered in my final price. 
Can anyone from the U.K. who has purchased the Free at Sea clarify if there were charged extra?
Many thanks

There currently are several other threads on this forum which touch on this issue.  One of them focuses on a related subject, but has hundreds of posts specifically on taxes.  You may want to check those threads for further insight on this subject.