When ‘Free at Sea’ is not Free at At Sea

[JimMaCruise]

14 hours ago, terrillja said:

Wasn’t charged any VAT for specialty dining in France or Spain. 

Really? It should be 10% on food..

Tomorrow we have our specialty dining, would be great if there's no extra charge. I'll post it here 😁  

[steamboats]

1 hour ago, JimMaCruise said:

Really? It should be 10% on food..

 

Exactly, "should be" 😉

 

steamboats

[macattack1111]

On 10/3/2023 at 9:10 AM, JimMaCruise said:

On the epic now and it's a bit worse than expected. 

Vat on the cruise, the whole cruise and nothing but the cruise 🙄

 

20% on all shop items and alcoholic beverages

10% on all non alcoholic beverages and food (a la carte items and specialty dining)

We have some obc that we planned to use in starbucks, but we'll need it for the vat instead.

We received the info on paper during check-in and it's mentioned in the daily.

Did they still charge VAT about 2 hours after you had left port( you would now have cleared the 14 nautical miles NCL agents keep refering to and be in international waters) or were you charged VAT on every single drink..Morning, noon and night.

[Asawi]

On 10/3/2023 at 10:10 AM, JimMaCruise said:

On the epic now and it's a bit worse than expected. 

Vat on the cruise, the whole cruise and nothing but the cruise 🙄

 

20% on all shop items and alcoholic beverages

10% on all non alcoholic beverages and food (a la carte items and specialty dining)

We have some obc that we planned to use in starbucks, but we'll need it for the vat instead.

We received the info on paper during check-in and it's mentioned in the daily.

Have you (or anyone you've talked with) actually been charged VAT on FAS speciality dining? Or are you saying this because of what's written? I ask, becasue others have reported NOT being charged for dining.

 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Asawi

[PollyMurg]

3 hours ago, Asawi said:

Have you (or anyone you've talked with) actually been charged VAT on FAS speciality dining? Or are you saying this because of what's written? I ask, becasue others have reported NOT being charged for dining.

 

Hello! We definitely didn’t pay anything extra on FAS Speciality Dining. We were very pleased but confused as to why on beverages but not food.

[KeithJenner]

4 hours ago, macattack1111 said:

Did they still charge VAT about 2 hours after you had left port( you would now have cleared the 14 nautical miles NCL agents keep refering to and be in international waters) or were you charged VAT on every single drink..Morning, noon and night.

I can’t answer specifically for the person you asked, but on some cruises (ones that don’t leave the EU and originate from

Spain, and now France) the VAT is charged for the entirety of the cruise.

[schmoopie17]

23 minutes ago, KeithJenner said:

I can’t answer specifically for the person you asked, but on some cruises (ones that don’t leave the EU and originate from

Spain, and now France) the VAT is charged for the entirety of the cruise.

So...next year we're on a cruise that is round trip from Rome. On that same cruise are people who will be round trip from Barcelona (the dates overlap). So...those people boarding and disembarking in Barcelona will be charged VAT the entire cruise and the rest of us won't? Highly unlikely...

[KeithJenner]

17 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

So...next year we're on a cruise that is round trip from Rome. On that same cruise are people who will be round trip from Barcelona (the dates overlap). So...those people boarding and disembarking in Barcelona will be charged VAT the entire cruise and the rest of us won't? Highly unlikely...

I mentioned Spain and France because there have been specific reports on here of the VAT being charged all cruise from those countries. The omission of any other countries in my post just means that I haven't seen any reports from there about the charge. There may be other countries that do charge.

 

I'm just trying to piece together the information from the fairly confused reports we are getting here. The information is very confused at present.

[Girr]

1 hour ago, schmoopie17 said:

So...next year we're on a cruise that is round trip from Rome. On that same cruise are people who will be round trip from Barcelona (the dates overlap). So...those people boarding and disembarking in Barcelona will be charged VAT the entire cruise and the rest of us won't? Highly unlikely...

Yes, you will be charged VAT the entire cruise if it doesn't leave EU waters (or unless something changes) even if boarding in Civitavecchia vice Barcelona or Marseille. Like your upcoming cruise I was on the Epic in July and boarded in Rome.  (This is the cruise you can start in Barcelona, Marseille, or Rome.)  From day one in Rome until the last day (9 days) back in Rome we were charged 10% VAT on all beverages (alcohol/non-alcohol). 

 

It now sounds like you'll be charged a different VAT rate depending on the country's waters you're in but should anticipate VAT being levied the entire cruise.    

 

Now, if you leave EU waters during the cruise there's a different set of rules.

[graphicguy]

More pics from today….

[Girr]

19 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

More pics from today….

This is why I LOVE cruising in the fall - the streets are EMPTY!!!!!  

[graphicguy]

1 hour ago, Girr said:

This is why I LOVE cruising in the fall - the streets are EMPTY!!!!!  

Sorry.  Wrong thread!😉

[Girr]

5 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

Sorry.  Wrong thread!😉

I figured that - but still loved the photos!

[terrillja]

10 hours ago, macattack1111 said:

Did they still charge VAT about 2 hours after you had left port( you would now have cleared the 14 nautical miles NCL agents keep refering to and be in international waters) or were you charged VAT on every single drink..Morning, noon and night.

Yep, in international waters still charged VAT. Casino is open because we are in international waters but we are charged “local” taxes. Go figure. FAS specialty dining cost is zeroed out on receipts, but they tax any gratuity at 10%. 

[Alba1]

On 9/27/2023 at 6:56 PM, PATRLR said:

@PollyMurg

The title says "When ‘Free at Sea’ is not Free at At Sea"

Why are you being charged for drinks if you have Free at Sea?  Seems like I'd be much more concerned about the $26.40 than the $4.84.

 

We were also on this cruise and had Free at Sea. Alot of unhappy people on board.

 

When you order anything you got a receipt showing the items purchased and their value, the service charge and both the 20% and 10% Vat charges as per PollMurgs receipt shows.

 

When checking your cabin account it takes the purchase off and only the vat charges and service charges are applied to your cabin account. 

If you have prepaid the service charge then this also comes off.

So your free drinks are still technically free but then you have to pay the vat tax on what the original value of what the drink was. Making them not free.

 

We knew about the 10% in Spanish Waters tax but we were never in Spanish waters. It was France and Italy. The 20% and a further 10% Vat tax cant be justified by NCL and the staff couldn't answer why it was being applied.

Passengers on the ship the week before didn't have these taxes but then had them this week.

 

Every passenger we spoke to felt completely ripped of by NCL

 

[Phoenixon]

7 minutes ago, Alba1 said:

We were also on this cruise and had Free at Sea. Alot of unhappy people on board.

 

When you order anything you got a receipt showing the items purchased and their value, the service charge and both the 20% and 10% Vat charges as per PollMurgs receipt shows.

 

When checking your cabin account it takes the purchase off and only the vat charges and service charges are applied to your cabin account. 

If you have prepaid the service charge then this also comes off.

So your free drinks are still technically free but then you have to pay the vat tax on what the original value of what the drink was. Making them not free.

 

We knew about the 10% in Spanish Waters tax but we were never in Spanish waters. It was France and Italy. The 20% and a further 10% Vat tax cant be justified by NCL and the staff couldn't answer why it was being applied.

Passengers on the ship the week before didn't have these taxes but then had them this week.

 

Every passenger we spoke to felt completely ripped of by NCL

 

 

Reported in another thread that these changes to VAT were introduced on September 25th and that most lines are rolling the cost into the drink package cost or fare. NCL is doing it as a line item. 

[Alba1]

8 minutes ago, Phoenixon said:

 

Reported in another thread that these changes to VAT were introduced on September 25th and that most lines are rolling the cost into the drink package cost or fare. NCL is doing it as a line item. 

That is just our luck that it started on our cruise. 🤦🙄

Lesson learnt.

Will just need to budget for it in future. Its put us off booking with NCL again.

[sfxthx]

Can I use my non-refundable onboard-credit to pay the tax?

[RocketMan275]

1 hour ago, Alba1 said:

That is just our luck that it started on our cruise. 🤦🙄

Lesson learnt.

Will just need to budget for it in future. Its put us off booking with NCL again.

If all the lines are doing it, why blame NCL?

[Alba1]

5 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

If all the lines are doing it, why blame NCL?

It was a NCL ship that we were on when the 20% vat was introduced.

NCL did not inform the passengers before hand and we only found out about it once onboard. Introduced it by stealth.

Long lines at guest services with complaining passengers.

Why its 20% most of the crew didn't even know.

We were told it was only the Epic that these charges have been introduced from 25th Sep so would be interesting to see if any other NCL ships have had the 20% vat introduced.

 

We are booked with P and O in November so I will contact them to see if they are introducing this vat charge or not.

 

 

 

[suncote]

27 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

If all the lines are doing it, why blame NCL?

 TUI (Marella) and MSC not passing on these extra charges, not sure which other cruise lines apart from NCL adding the charges.

[ChiefMateJRK]

On 9/29/2023 at 7:26 AM, graphicguy said:

As far as inside rooms, they’re not for me.  I LOVE throwing upon the curtains in the a.m. and seeing the sun rise on my balcony.  One of my true joys is having coffee and a danish on my balcony early in the a.m.

That sounds great friend.  Myself?  One of my great joys is an early rise and a quick trip to the buffet to grab a) a spicy bloody mary and b) a nice table for breakfast when others in my party drag themselves out of bed.  Time doesn't matter at that point.

[RocketMan275]

2 hours ago, Alba1 said:

It was a NCL ship that we were on when the 20% vat was introduced.

NCL did not inform the passengers before hand and we only found out about it once onboard. Introduced it by stealth.

Long lines at guest services with complaining passengers.

Why its 20% most of the crew didn't even know.

We were told it was only the Epic that these charges have been introduced from 25th Sep so would be interesting to see if any other NCL ships have had the 20% vat introduced.

 

We are booked with P and O in November so I will contact them to see if they are introducing this vat charge or not.

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, suncote said:

 TUI (Marella) and MSC not passing on these extra charges, not sure which other cruise lines apart from NCL adding the charges.

So, essentially, you're  upset that NCL isn't paying these taxes for  you?

[Alba1]

14 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

 

So, essentially, you're  upset that NCL isn't paying these taxes for  you?

Yes that's right.

I love paying extra taxes.

YAWN 🥱 .

Get a life!

 

[RocketMan275]

Just now, Alba1 said:

Yes that's right.

I love paying extra taxes.

YAWN 🥱 .

Get a life!

 

But why should NCL pay taxes for you?