PollyMurg

Interesting!

I wonder if anyone will make any comment on the spelling mistake made by Captain Hoydal 🤦‍♀️

3 minutes ago, PollyMurg said:

 

I have just read that the current cruise out of Marseille has no more VAT for the rest of the cruise and all related signage has been removed. 
Even more confused! 🤣

1 hour ago, Asawi said:

The main complaint from many is the lack of information except the qouted T&C. Odd thing is that I, (and I know others) HAVE received emails about possible VAT addons i Europe. Not this particular cruise (since I'm not on it...) but for other upcoming cruises. If this is NCL's consisten inconsistency (entirely possible!) or people not noticing emails/too aggressive spam filtering I don't know.
What bugs me the most about this isn't the VAT in itself. I'm a boring rule follower so that's not really a problem. But being that boring rule follower it bugs me to not KNOW the rules! Right now the speciality dining VAT/no VAT is kind of bugging me. But I think/hope that with time all will be clear. As mud...

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.

I will reiterate that I do in fact have Free At Sea. 

We have never had receipts before either. 

I suspect we are being issued with them to show the charges. Good job really as we were ‘charged’ for two beers when actually one wasn’t available so we were able to reclaim back the vat on that one. 

If you look back at the first receipt I posted you will see VAT 10% and VAT 20%. The total of those are the values that are showing on our onboard account. 

For your amusement, last night was our first meal in Manhattan. We were asked did we want wine with our meal. We did. The waiter poured mine and I thought that it was to taste to see if I liked it but it was my measure! I have never had such a small measure on board.

The purpose of me posting was to advise future travellers that it is not only cruises out of Spain that are being charged VAT.

Thank you @ Asawi for following closely btw 

That’s all from me ! 

The itinary for our cruise is Marseille, Cannes, Livorno,  Salerno, Rome and back to Marseille.

We are being charged the European French Value Added Tax previously known as European Value Added Tax on day one and two of this cruise throughout the entirety of the trip.

There are no’inconsistencies’ in what I am saying - apologies if I was unaware that I could access this website for free while onboard.

Thank you Ceri for sharing your Specialty Dining bill. That is a relief ☺️

We too were advised by a lady employee at Guest Services to cancel the prepaid gratuities to offset the additional incurred charges.

Good morning from Salerno

For clarity, we have got the Free At Sea package. I am using the free minutes from my 150 minutes free Wi-Fi to send this ☺️

We are booked on the Transatlantic cruise on Prima out of Barcelona in November so we are aware of the port taxes in Spanish waters.

This cruise from Marseille was only recently booked and we checked and checked again that there would be no more additional costs as our budget is super tight.

Our first drinks on the ship were around 5pm. There was nothing on the bar indicating the additional port taxes. We got to our room and put on our on line account to see we already had charges to our account. We went to Guest Services and soon realised by the lengthy queue that there was a ‘problem’!

When we went to the bar for more drinks there was A4 signs advising of the charge and we are now given receipts after each drink.

Also on the first two Freestyle Daily’s this additional charge was called European  Value Added Tax but from Day 3 it has changed to European French Value Added Tax.

We have booked two meals in the Specialty Dining and have asked if this will now incur an additional charge but haven’t had a definitive answer. I will let you know!

Yesterday we chatted to guests who were sailing on Celebrity Beyond and they haven’t had this additional charge added to their purchases.

7 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

Old news...as opposed to fake news.

Unfortunately, it's all too real.

We are the first cruise that this has been applied to. We are going from France to Italy and back. We are aware of Spanish waters. Thank you for your input ☺️

17 minutes ago, SpainAlien said:

Is this charge being applied to drinks bought in Spanish waters? If so it is already mentioned in the T&Cs plus it has been all over the cruise bloggers/vloggers pages recently.

 

No we are only sailing from France to Italy and back. Not in Spanish waters

We are not going to Spain. France and Italy only. 

Port taxes are now being added. This is on our cruise that left Marseille on Monday.

No prior warning. Many unhappy sailers. Never saw guest service queues like this ☹️

Yes the queue for boarding was long but as soon as we got on the ship that was long forgotten.

We enjoyed everything the ship had to offer - the configuration of the cabin not so much but hey, there is so much to do that we spent little time in our cabin.

I agree that 4 Blue in The Cavern Club were amazing! I would pay good money to see them.

If anyone has a good recording of Eye in the Sky please PM me 😉