Greener123

Train station is a short-ish walk from the cruise terminal NCL use. There’ll be frequent direct trains to London Waterloo. flights across the pond will pretty much only be from Heathrow or Gatwick - unless you get really unlucky and they book you on a strange route via another European hub - Southampton would only be via Amsterdam or Paris realistically which is unlikely

In the US do you pay 2 lots of sales tax on a buy one get one free offer?

I missed that, it shows on the site I use at Trieste, Venice, Ravenna as the first 3 days - often Trieste and Ravenna are labelled as (Venice) when on itineraries - not seen any with all 3 listed before though, I’d guess Ravenna should really be (Bologna) since it’s the closest major city - although still 2hrs away

Jeez, that’s jam packed… we’re on breakaway in September and only have 1 seaday but to have none on that long a cruise will be exhausting. Have to say I’m sad ships no longer go into Venice proper, got to do it twice and it is the most amazing cruise port to sail in and out of. I don’t buy the idea that the ships caused any kind of damage - they sail through basically with their engines off - just using the tugs, the tourists added compared to the 20m that visit anyway is going to negligible. Locals in Venice just hate tourists full stop and I guess the ships were the easiest to ban

Similar experience with lobster, much prefer crab, although did have an excellent surf and turf at a very nice restaurant in London a few years ago. my favourite though would be snow crab legs

Sooo… not carbonara then 🤣

They’ll be Caribbean lobster rather than New England… much smaller and not as nice flavour

That was going to be my question… I’m betting it’ll be cream and bacon.. proper traditional is guanciale not pancetta

Sunrise 😱 they have those while on holiday? 🤔

I think it changed with the start of this summer season - at least the sailings from Southamton on Virtuosa - it wasn’t the case when it was based out of Hamburg the sailings prior to 21st April IIRC

FYI MSC now only charge the difference between drinks package and drink cost.

I think it very much depends on the venue - if they turned around and said the sports court or the gym were closed I wouldn’t care 🤣 But a significant public lounge, with viewing space on a scenic cruise, that’s a bit different. happy to see they’ve opened 30% of it but it’s still a bit off to have it so shut off for something 95% of passengers aren’t interested in is a bit off

I had snow crab for the first time on Carnival Liberty - got 2 portions it was so good. that was quite a few years ago though

This is what I was thinking, I’ve only seen the extra VAT being mentioned on cruises embarking from Spain.

Got my upgrade bid email today, currently inside so bid on all balcony categories - reasonable amounts, not the lowest. we’ll see what happens

Onboard Virtuosa now, can confirm no tax on drinks - just an NCL issue

But yet again this is only something impacting NCL, no other cruise line charges additional tax in the UK. How can you charge tax on a £0 transaction.

since the other UK alcohol issue thread got closed 🙄 Seeing reports from those who boarded Dawn today (24th May) in Southampton that they were charged an additional tax when buying drinks even with a package. not even sure this is legal in the UK since our laws are that the advertised price has to be inclusive of taxes. Also NCL would again be the only line with such policy. why are they just making things up as they go

What makes me laugh now in all of this is that NCL are now going to suffer the consequences for a while… thanks to the reporting from a few online cruise sites and YouTubers - plus whatever else comes out, people who haven’t been following along live will find it and feel the need to contact NCL or get worried and cancel/not book. I hope we actually find out the truth as to why it happened in the first place

Seems to be the case… haven’t seen anything to the contrary… my TA contacted NCL and they assured her that there were no restrictions in Livorno 🙄

In Liverpool today so not totally sorted at all

If someone were to miss the all aboard time the advice is generally to go to next port and catch up - now that’s the case after embarkation… but if your husband were to be on a “delayed” fight to the embarkation port wouldn’t they let him too “catch up”.

See, clear as mud 🙃

Let me know next time you go on a cruise, I’m more than happy to charge you for various services I have no intention of supplying - you seem perfectly happy with that scenario 👍🏻

I booked via the US… their consumer laws are basically “screw you, we need more profit…” 🤣