lostinvegas

Royal Caribbean was also not informing its passengers of the VAT for ships departing from ports in Spain and that throughout the voyage VAT would apply for purchases on the ship as well.

That would not surprise me, I am not a fan of RCI either, they have great ships but like Carnival their customer service department leaves quite a bit to be desired.

I guess its an american thing, in the UK the price you see is the price you pay and includes all taxes if they are applicable. That goes for anything from food to holidays to cars.

I will post a full review soon, I have just got home and have very mixed feelings about my Carnival experience. They have been hammering UK TV with adverts recently, I think if they want to attract more British customers they are going to have to change their policy on tax and tipping.

I saw many people (mainly Brits I am sad to say) removing all tips entirely and most were astounded by the auto 15% on every drink. I saw lots removing them.

My biggest gripe with all of this is that Carnival don't tell you about it. Then again Carnival don't tell you about anything unless its to sell you something. I will post a full report on our cruise once were back. Very disappointed with Carnival, 3rd cruise with them and they have got worse and worse, our first cruise with them was quite good, we thought maybe the last one was a blip, obviously not.

I have not been impressed. An example of their lack of communication with the passengers: Last nights comedy club. The 9.45 performance was cancelled because the comic missed the ship in Venice. Did they tell us?? nope, everyone sat in the comedy club waiting until 9.45. Then when it got to 9.50 I asked a waiter "Is the show going to start" The response I got was "I am not the comedy host, its been cancelled," no sign up to say it was not on, no one of responsibility there, no communication nothing. A shame as the comedy club has been the highlight of the cruise.

That's just a small one too, wait until I get to some of the others.

Just a heads up for anyone cruising from Spain. We are currently on Carnival Sunshine and a 10% Spanish VAT tax is being added to all drinks on board.

Of course Carnival don't tell you about this, its probably in some small print somewhere. How you have to pay tax when your in International waters is beyond me.

So far its been a mixed experience, service has been poor in parts and excellent in other (room steward is great :).

After 4 days my thought is I would never cruise Carnival again simply down to the fact they try and rip you off on everything. I will post a review with examples on my return.