Asawi

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...

Very well explained! But to be clear, it's still not 42% tax (and you don't say it is, just wanted to point it out to person claiming it is). 20% of it is a service charge.

No, The VAT is 3.74. There is 3.40 gratuities. They should not appear on your onboard account.

I haven't stayed in that particular room but it looks like a fabulous location. I stayed in another aft deck 10 cabin during an Alaska cruise and absolutely loved just stepping out and get to Spice H2O in seconds! No noise issues whatsoever for me.

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.

Reading this topic makes me wonder if maybe I shouldn't be so ridiculously excited over my €941 balcony on my upcoming TA (Rome-NY, Gem, Dec 4-19) 😁 (Booked around 60 days before sailing, Solo traveller. Around 200 more than an inside, I think 170 more than OV. Added an extra CN and got one more speciality dinner, so kind of a no-brainer. Or so I thought...) Well, it's my first balcony and possibly my last so I m going to enjoy it. And use it - as in at least stepping out and staying a few minutes every day. 😁 A mug of hot chocolate would be nice... (An by the way, balcony price has now gone UP almost €400. Did not expect that!)

And maybe that was true at that time. As has been said promos change frequenly. I have used to certificates on inside cabins twice this year when that was offered. But it's not all the time!

Or you didn't understand them... There are different promos going on at different times. You can ALWAYS put ONE certificate against a booking. Sometimes you can use two on balcony or above, sometimes you can use two on any room, sometimes there is a restriction in how far away in time the cruise has to be, other times it's not. It's not as easy as one right answer.

Sure they will! They are 100% transferable!

Not Pearl, but Star with a similar layout. I was under the casino and didn't hear a thing. Under Stardust might be worse though but have no experience of that.

NCL consistently being inconsistent... 😮

If the times aren't conflicting with the ones you've booked they still show.

We usually don't have the BOGO here in Europe (we have other discount promos), but as I understan it it means each person gets half price. So a solo traveller can still take advantage.

The excursions you've booked show up for you, but not necesarily for others. At least that is the case for my upcoming cruise (not to any of the destinations mentioned here) where several cheap/free ones are sold out but still show up for me. I suspect there are gremlins at work. Been a lot of that lately.

Amen to that! I have never been on Prima so I have no idea if the complaints are "valid" or not. But either way, you can choose to focus on the positives or the negatives. To focus on negatives that you cannot change will just make you miserable. Choose your focus!

Yeah... it seems that boarding in Italy makes a difference to Spain or (recently) France. Odd... But as long as I know beforehand what costs I might run into I can to some degree plan. So for example I made sure my Le Bistro booking on my TA isn't when we're anywhere near France (20% VAT) because that would rack up a VAT cost of around $20 which I'd rather not pay. (It's still unclear if speciality dinners get charged or not.) I have decided to expect 10-20% VAT and plan accordningly. If it's not charged - great! If someone doesn't want to pay drinks surcharges there's always the option to not drink...

I didn't see anything here about the French VAT. Most, if not all, discussed here has been about "the Spanish tax". Some here still don't understand that it's not about Spain any more. But emails with "generic" wordings have been sent out. Oddly enough it seems not to everyone. Or maybe it's in their spam folder. Don't know...

Not on food and drink

Yes

LOL! To me it was the other way round watching it on Star: One Bacharach song now and then can be very nice. 10 in a row shine a light on how... (can't find the right word)...boring?... they are. If it hadn't been for the cast doing a good job I would have been tempted to walk out halfway. Licensing and cast talent can be used better on something else. (Maybe not being American makes a difference. Although well-known Burt Bacharach has never been a huge name over here.)

No. Weather was great and we didn't miss any ports on the first leg of her B2B. I think they missed one (Lerwick?) the second leg.

I was on the first leg of her Cruise. I agree with some of her complaints and opinions. Some I strongly disagree with. Being a vegetarian and not getting decent food probably impacted her views on other things too. That would make me grumpy too!

@KeithJenner is absolutley right and your belief is wrong. VAT in and out is declared totally separate from company income. It is "just" basically an in/out declaration (although any accountant dealing with it would give me a death stare for using words like "just" in connection with VAT). The VAT kind of runs alongside the product (and therefor is paid by the en user) if that makes sense Edit: Very well explained by @KeithJennerby the way! Maybe it really is simple and the word "just" can be used after all! 😄

Yeah... my cruises showed a negative balance of the FAS package amounts for a week or two but it is correct now (fixed a few day ago). I have noticed other oddities the last couple of weeks as well. Lots of little gremlins cruising around. 😄

Wrote a reply but think I was wrong, so delete...