SteveH2508

Clearly this topic is a hot potato. Ah, my coat and my taxi - thank you.

This what our cruise booking is showing. That is also on Copacabana beachfront.

There are plenty of taxis. One time we did not have a coach seat, the taxi was happy to take us to home in Central London, so they are flexible, at a price of course!

Coach departure is usually 12:30 from Victoria Coach station, often Gate 1. The journey usually takes about an hour and a half. Half an hour early at VCS is probably not absolutely necessary, but for any travel in Central London, I would factor in at least half an hour for delays.

The post I responded to was referring to the DSC, so your post is moot. The financial reporting standards relate to accounting for charges which go to the staff and are optional. It does not matter whether they are called tips, gratuities, service charges, bungs, bribes or gifts (other words are available). They MUST all go to the staff and the customer is able to remove or amend them, otherwise NCL are breaching the Stock Exchange rules by not including them in their accounts. That ain't happening.

You have been played. If NCL were doing this they would be in a world of hurt from the US financial authorities due to their accounting practices. Another poster made a good summary of this which I shall reproduce with a link to the original post. Tipping and US Accounting Keep in mind that the big three cruise line holding companies NCLH, RCL and CCL are all listed on the US stock exchanges. As a result even though they are not US companies, they must follow US accounting standards. Under US accounting standards tips are outside of the company’s books. The amount of tips received are not considered as income, and the money paid to employees are not considered to be expenses. The money is processed outside of the company’s books. There are some conditions that must be met. The most important is that all monies received must be distributed to employees. The second condition is that they must be optional, as in can be removed. Both of those conditions are important. They mean that the money does go to the employees and is not retained by the company. The current system does provide benefits to the company, the workers and the passengers. As far as the company is concerned it does impact some payroll taxes depending upon a workers country of residence. It also impacts gross and net margins in their financial reporting. As far as employees it may impact the taxes they pay, depending upon country. Lots of variance between countries on how tips are treated vs income. It may also impact recruiting fees. As far as passengers since gratuities are paid onboard, unless you buy a package, they are not included in the trip insurance cost calculation. If gratuities went away and fares went up by the same amount the trip insurance prices would go up. For the same reason one does not have to pay them in advance so less money is due at the final pay dates. https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2933055-mandatory-gratuities/page/3/#comment-65359471

The veterans discount/OBC is somewhat historical. P&O and Princess were at one time under the same umbrella, and the then CEO was a Vietnam vet (I think). Given the close relationship between US and UK forces he decreed that UK vets should also get a benefit for P&O and Princess sailings.

I will probably get flamed for this post but here goes anyway. The US is probably one of the most unfriendly countries to visit in terms of obtaining visas and convoluted entry requirements. There is an element of tit-for-tat here: you make it difficult for our citizens to visit you, we shall make it difficult for your citizens to visit us. I seem to recall that Brazil was charging US passport holders an exit fee?

How can a cruise be smoke free but have designated outdoor smoking areas? That is not smoke free. Finding NS crew for smoke free vessels might be a challenge.

It was the 'new' Top Gun movie when we were on board a fortnight ago?

We were on the previous cruise to you. The staff in Food Republic were so pushy with the Hero cards and checking every two minutes that 'everything was OK' that we stopped going there. They are gaming the system somewhat and doing themselves no favours.

Just a thought - VAT on drinks etc. If this is a totally EU cruise then leaving from Barcelona will incur Spanish VAT for the whole cruise. I think leaving from Rome will not incur VAT all of the time.

I'm afraid to say that NCL seem to have some systemic confusion at the moment. Adding VAT onto VAT is just plain wrong. We are on Prima, Rome to Barcelona in November. I shall not stress on this VAT stuff because we have $200 OBC buckshee due to NCL's screw up (don't ask!), which should cover most of it.

Yes they are - and IMHO they are doing a better job of it.

VAT refunds for non EU visitors are subject to several rules and limits. https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/guide-vat-refund-visitors-eu_en

@KeithJenner 's explanation is virtually identical to the one I used to use to introduce VAT to my AAT(accountancy) students. The devil in me wants to bring in zero-rating to further confuse our US cousins, but I shall refrain. The concept of Input and Output tax for registered VAT traders is enough😈.

You can add Ambassador to that list (18+ except for a couple of multi-generational cruises per year, no-fly out of UK). 2 older ships and quite traditional.

Something that has not been mentioned is the fact that NCL's ships have all been designed with Freestyle/freedom dining in mind. Other lines have been shoehorning a 'freedom dining' concept into a ship which was not necessarily designed for it.

This sounds very like what happened to Ambassador Ambience in Cherbourg at Easter. Lines ripped the metal mooring thingy out of the berth, gangway fell into the sea, tugs used to hold the ship against the berth overnight. No one hurt BTW.

Having read your wonderful account of your Voyager cruise, I am so glad we have 'lifted and shifted' to a Voyager cruise in Jan 2024 around Cape Horn. We loved our Voyager cruise round the Middle East in 2019.

They do have tables for two (on Ambience anyway). To get a 'guaranteed' sitting (1st or 2nd) you need to book the fare with the drinks/gratuities package included. It is not 100% clear whether you will also get preference for numbers of seats at the table.

I was struggling a bit with the whole 'booze remaining in a bottle' thing...

I bet there are resealable gizmos out there that could be used to reseal an opened beer bottle to keep it in the fridge for later.

The big palettes of fresh produce being forklifted onto the ship would tend to bely the pre-prepared rumour.

DW wanted to see a couple of things in Rome, so adding a couple of off season days pre-cruise made this a no-brainer. This is somewhat a last chance for NCL to redeem themselves for various reasons (though we do sail on Regent Seven Seas a couple of weeks later so that could make for some 'unfair' comparisons).