LIVE from Celebrity Reflection - 4/27/18 - 10 nt Italy & Greek Isles Cruise

[Crissi the crazy cruizer]

hi guys, my sister and i are traveling with our hubbys in two different cabins and we needed info on drinks .

we are thinking we would like to upgrade my drinks package and wanted to ask a few question so my sister and i understand the difference in packages .

 

1:. if you up grade to from classic to premium, is it for everyone in the cabin or can just one person upgrade.

 

2; also the classic package doesnt offer champagne, does it offer prosecco

 

3; What champagne do they offer in the premium package. Verve??? or do we pay more for that. whats the house bubbles on premium .

4; if for example we stay on classic, do we have to pay full price for the champagne or just a small difference .

[WonderMan3]

So here is my review of my Italy & Greek Isles cruise on Reflection.

 

CHECK IN: B+

We arrived at the port in Civitavecchia around 12:15 via hotel shuttle. It was a little chaotic at the baggage area as someone came right up to us to give us tags for our bags (Celebrity never mailed them to us) but then we couldn’t find anyone to take the bags from us. Several porters were sitting around smoking on a break while the others were all busy. Finally someone told us to bring them inside the building where they were taken from us. It was confusing and made me appreciate Ft. Lauderdale or Miami that much more. Inside the terminal was a different story. Security took a minute to get through and we waited less than a minute to be helped at the check-in desk. As Suite guests we did not have an escort onto the ship as we have in Florida but I’m not sure if that is just not done in Rome or because we were just in a Sky Suite. Didn’t happen for us last year on Constellation either when we were in a Sky.

 

CABIN: Sky Suite 2182 - A-

 

Cleanliness/maintenance: A+

Cabin was in excellent condition. Not sure if it got a refresh in the dry dock earlier this year but you wouldn’t know that cabin was going on 6 years old.

 

Comfort: A-

Cabin was very comfortable and spacious including the balcony. There was also a ton of storage. We spent a good amount of time relaxing in the cabin because it was so comfortable. Only negatives were the mattress which was uncomfortable the first night but resolved the next day when we had a mattress topper added. And the shower/tub combo is always a negative in these Sky Suites due to the step up and my head being so close to the rain shower head.

 

Service: A

Butler: A

Our butler Sujith was outstanding. He was friendly and always around. We didn’t ask for too much beyond the bed issue I mentioned above, a few reservation requests and some food and beverage requests for the mini-bar and daily snacks. He was excellent at follow up and always checking in with us to make sure we had received invitations from the concierge, etc. He also was great at answering questions about things on the ship either knowing the answer right away or getting back to us as soon as he got the answer. I can’t give him an A+ because we did have an even more outstanding butler experience before but he did a really great job and we made sure we told the Suite Manager that while we were onboard.

Room Attendant: A-

Arwin was our attendant and while we didn’t see too much of him because of our busy schedule he was always friendly. He kept our room in excellent condition. The only area to improve would be for him to be a little more proactive on replacing toiletries. We would run out and have to leave a note for him for more soap or shampoo. We’ve had other attendants who see it getting low and leave a new supply before you even have to ask.

 

Location: C+

So this has good and bad to it which is why it doesn’t get a D or F rating. The good is that it is on deck 12 not too far from the central elevators so it was very convenient to getting to places especially the buffet and pool area. The big negative is that it was right under the buffet. I knew going into this that it might be a problem with noise but I had no choice on cabin when I booked due to a special deal I got. The first couple days it actually wasn’t bad, we would just hear the occasional cart lightly rumbling overhead in the morning or early evening. As the cruise progressed though it became much more noticeable and more often. Lots of cart rumbling, sometimes loud footfalls from heeled shoes, and the most frequent noise I’m not sure what it was, it almost sounded like someone continually off and dropping metallic things with a clanking sound. The noise also went later and started earlier as the cruise went on. One evening I was up late and went to bed around 2am and there was still rumbling above, not sure if that was from cleaning. And one morning around 5:30am when going to the restroom I could hear carts rolling already. It was really irritating. We’re lucky that I wear earplugs to sleep at night and my husband is a sound sleeper. The noises were really annoying though and if you are sensitive to noise do not book one of these cabins. The other sometimes annoyance was the large overhang above the balcony. It was great on hot days to shade us from the sun but was frustrating for taking photos at sailaway. We would not book one of these cabins again if we could avoid it.

 

SUITE PERKS: B+

 

Butler: see comments above

 

Michael’s Club: n/a

We didn’t make it there at all this cruise so cannot rate.

 

Concierges: n/a

There were two on this cruise, Nadia and one other. We only saw them briefly one time at a helipad event so I don’t think I can rate them fairly based on that.

 

Suites Manager: A

Sylvia was the fill-in manager on this cruise. We knew her as our concierge on prior Eclipse cruise. We only had one interaction in person with her this time but she was just as pleasant and funny as we remembered. She also arranged to have a bottle of sparkling wine in our cabin changed to champagne.

 

Invites/Events: A-

We got invited to two special events this cruise; a helipad sail in to Messina and a helipad sailaway at Rhodes. We only went to the Messina event which was a bit underwhelming as we were already basically inside the harbor when it started. It would’ve been better if they had started it maybe 30 minutes earlier as we passed through the Strait of Messina. We appreciated the invites though.

 

Priority tendering: n/a

This was only in Santorini and we did not use as we took an excursion. We did have reminders in our cabin about it though.

 

Priority disembarkation: n/a

Did not need to use.

 

Luminae: C+

 

Food overall: B

Dinner: A-

Lunch: B

Breakfast: C

The food at this Luminae for dinner was quite good with both quality and presentation on point. While not quite as good as our experiences on Eclipse where the chef hit it out of the park basically every night, this was not too far behind. There were only a few dishes where we had some minor complaints; the bacon wrapped trout was tender but a bit bland, and the squab was a bit too gamy for my tastes. A plus was they have added back the palet cleanser treats before the dessert course. They were not present for our Silhouette cruise in January (others reported the same on other ships around that time). But the breakfasts were a different story. It really felt like they were phoning it in for the breakfast dishes. The quality was really not much different than what you could find at Oceanview. In fact, the Eggs Benedict were better at Oceanview than when I ordered them at Luminae; hot vs. lukewarm with a fresh English muffin vs. one that I could barely cut with my knife. They do have several unique items in the pastry basket that I have not seen elsewhere on the ship but that was really the high point. This is a decline I have noticed over the past year or so for breakfast in Luminae on multiple ships. Lunch we only tried once on boarding day and that was fine. Better than our last few cruises but still not as good as the first year of Luminae. It’s the little things you notice like with the burger, the lesser quality bun used, the thinner beef patty, or the switch from thicker truffles fries to basic ones like you’d find at Oceanview. We have also reached a point of a bit of monotony with the menu choices. This was our 5th cruise with Luminae since it started in fall of 2015 and it is essentially the same menus with a few minor modifications. We are really hoping that with Edge there will be a new set of Luminae menus in order to keep the concept fresh.

 

Service: C

This was tied with a cruise we had last year on Constellation for our worst service experiences at Luminae. The key problem was a lack of personality from the servers and no relationship building. Part of that problem may be that we kept getting bounced around to different servers each night as opposed to being assigned the same server like at all the other Luminaes we’ve been at. That is a Reflection specific issue as they are just too busy with so many suites to effectively match guests every night with the same server unless perhaps you dine at 6pm each night. Since we didn’t have the same server each night there was no building of connections like we always had on prior cruises. I know this sounds like whining but believe me when I say on our two Eclipse and one Silhouette Luminae experiences we had some of the best servers we have ever had while cruising. This group of servers was not bad per se but we just didn’t connect with them and didn’t feel much of an effort. One server who got twice was totally checked out because he was leaving the ship after this cruise; he never introduced himself, never exchanged any pleasantries or even smile once. Another server named Miro who the hostess said was their best server did appear to be quite efficient at first but he became a bit arrogant and condescending when we didn’t order menu items that he suggested. He would insist on bringing out items for us to try and we would have to say no several times. He had good intentions I know but his delivery was all wrong. (And we heard guests at a table next to us making similar complaints so we know it wasn’t just us). We wound up having him as a server 3 times but not on consecutive days and he would never remember us and act like he was serving us for the first time, so again with the lack of relationship building. It wasn’t much better with the hostess Katya who seemed very nice the first night we met but that seemed more plastic as the cruise wore on as she never remembered our names or room number despite eating at Luminae many times. She always seemed pretty frenzied too as the restaurant was always busy so there was little time for small talk. The maitre’d was no real help to her from what we saw. Unlike other maitre’d’s on other ships who step in and seat guests, clear tables and even serve food at times to help their staff, he just continually lumbered around the dining room and doing the requisite “how is your meal” question with no real small talk and with the feeling that he didn’t really want to know your opinion. The topper was the last morning where both maitre’d and hostess froze me out and ignored me as I described in my day to day log. And we were not troublesome guests in any way. We never sent food back, never asked for special orders off the men, were always cordial to all the staff, so we were really just left feeling that it was some other issues going on and not anything directed at us personally. The only true negative encounter was with the sommelier who was pretty much blatantly rude. He seemed annoyed with us from the start as we ordered cocktails the first night and not wine. After that he never came to our table unless asked by a server; he had to come to pour a bottle of champagne we had sent down, but he seemed very bothered by it all. Then the second night we used our champagne he got into a ridiculous near argument with us over what day we had last eaten at Luminae; it was totally absurd. We never saw him again after that which was midway through the cruise and we forgot to finish off our bottle of champagne since he never came to our table again. The only bright spots were the server assistants who delivered the bread and water and often did drink orders. They got to know our drink preferences and had to step in a couple times when they realized the server had forgotten to bring a drink we had ordered. When we have seen dysfunction like this on a cruise it usually speaks to the management of that area. Since other dining areas on this cruise like Oceanview, Lawn Club and Tuscan went pretty well I would have to lay the blame on that maitre’d or whoever his manager is. It was disappointing as Luminae has been one of the key highlights for most of our recent cruises. This was so not the same that we didn’t even eat there the last two nights of the cruise, preferring Oceanview on one of those nights, in part because we were tired but also just feeling a bit alienated by the service there.

 

ENTERTAINMENT: n/a

 

We didn’t go to any shows and only half paid attention to singers in the atrium when we walked by so can’t really judge this effectively. There was an ABBA music night that seemed fun when walking by one night and a couple from Argentina doing music at Sunset Bar sounded okay.

 

OCEANVIEW CAFE: A-

 

Food: B+

We didn’t eat here as often as we do during Caribbean cruises as we were off ship for lunch pretty much every day. Food was solid as usual. Occasionally I encountered a dry piece of meat, but then there was one night with some roast chicken that was the best thing I’ve ever eaten there. Some minor annoyances were the lack of blue cheese dressing during the entire cruise (or at least every time I ate there) and none of that passion guava juice at breakfast like they usually have.

 

Service: A-

Friendly and efficient pretty much all around. Tables were cleared quickly, coffee cart always coming around, staff at the food stations were friendly. Besides one surly bartender on the last night of the cruise it was positive all around here.

 

TUSCAN GRILL: A-

 

Dinner: A

 

Food: A

Service: A

 

One of the better experiences we’ve had at Tuscan in the past couple years. Food was all on point and our server Zaza was friendly and helpful.

 

Brunch: B

 

Food: B

Service: B-

Atmosphere: B+

 

This was a little disappointing. Expected more from the experience. The food was really no better than Oceanview but we were paying $39pp for it. Service was a bit lackluster. It took forever for someone to come by and take a drink order and the hostess was a bit cold; when she came by to ask how things were I told her the flame for the pan where the bacon was must have been on too high as the bacon was literally turning black at the bottom of the pan. She gave nodded and me a weird look and went back to her station without ever looking at the bacon pan. I never understand why people ask for feedback if they really don’t care about hearing it.

 

LAWN CLUB GRILL: B+

 

Food: B

Service: B+

 

This was a good experience and a vast improvement over our experience on Silhouette. Food highlight was the hot cookie dessert and bratwurst, the pizza and salad bar and sides were good while the filet was not cooked enough. The cooking temperature issue was a problem on Silhouette also. I asked for a Medium and it came Medium Rare. I only have this issue at this venue, never with filets at Tuscan or Luminae. Service was friendly and efficient.

 

ROOM SERVICE: B+

We only ordered one time but the food was on time, hot and good quality. We have had horrible room service experiences in the past but with our cruises over the past year they have definitely turned things around.

 

BARS: B-

Sunset Bar: C

Pool Bar: C

Mast Bar: B

Martini Bar: A-

 

Just summarizing a score based on the bars we visited, which wasn’t that often. Service at Pool Bar leaned to the negative with some surly bartenders who at times appeared quite lazy just standing around chatting with each other in their native language while guests sat waiting. At Sunset Bar it was mixed with some staff friendly and others again surly. Service was slow there as they were very busy when we we were there. Mast Bar was more consistent with service but had a problem that all three of these bars had where drinks never seemed to be made the same way by different bartenders. Some pina coladas had nearly no rum, others had regular rum and then were drowning in dark rum (a good thing!). I ordered a Mango Colada one day with no issue. Next day another bartender said they didn’t have that until I insisted he check with someone. And the drink making thing was shipwide. I could order a Bahama Mama in Tuscan, Luminae, and Sunset and they would all be made differently. The bartenders should really be operating from the same handbook. Martini Bar had the best service and it’s our favorite bar but we only made quick stops there on the way to somewhere else; normally we spend much more time there.

 

CASINO: B-

Host: C

Staff: B

Perks: B+

 

I’m only rating this on service. The gaming is unpredictable (although generally tight). We only play slots and found them much tighter than most of our past Celebrity cruises. The host named Dimi, was an arms length host. He never spoke to my husband until the last day of the cruise despite him being a Sapphire member and playing for a few hours every day. I didn’t have any interaction with him until Day 7. Then two more times before the end of the cruise. The same thing happened on our past few cruises save for Constellation last year. The hosts just don’t interact with the players anymore beyond what they are required to do for events like raffles and slot tournaments. We had no gifts or treats sent to our cabin at all like past cruises. We did get our bill wiped out of all charges at the end of the cruise and earned a future cruise incentive but that was based on our play and not really anything special that the host did. He did offer us more things like if we wanted more spa treatments or specialty dinners but this was on Day 9 of a 10 day cruise when he offered this. The other casino staff were a bit more accessible. I interacted with a slot technician named Tatiana several times who was friendly.

 

SHORE EXCURSIONS: C+

Messina (Taormina and Blue Grotto): B

Santorini (Oia on your own): C-

 

I described these excursions in detail in my day to day in this thread. The Messina tour to Taormina gets points off for the guide being a bit hard to understand, for the description being misleading about seeing the Greek Theatre which was not included and for not giving enough time in Taormina to really enjoy it especially after our tour had the Blue Grotto portion cancelled and they only added 15 minutes extra time in Taormina. The Santorini Oia tour was a bust because of how much time is wasted on transportation. A 3.5 tour only had 1hr 20min in Oia. Plus we had to be a the theatre 50 minutes before our tour departed which was a huge waste of time.

 

SPA: B-

Treatments: A-

Pricing: C-

Service: B-

 

We both had deep tissue massages and then my husband had a mani/pedi. My massage was one of the best I’ve ever had (A+) while Mike’s was disappointing © but he loved his mani/pedi (A). The pricing has become obscene for these treatments though. $280 for the 80 minute massage. Thankfully the casino wiped out all our charges at the end of the cruise. They were really doing a hard sell on booking other treatments and buying products which I don’t like. There was also confusion over taxes on products I bought in the spa. The spa employee told me if I filled out a form and gave it to her I wouldn’t have to pay tax but then another employee later said that was incorrect and I would have to go through the refund process at the airport to get the money back. Then another service error when I cancelled a second massage. Days later on the day of the appointment the spa called looking for me even though it had been cancelled.

 

OVERALL SHIP CONDITION: A

Ship was in great condition, clean and maintained very well. The lawn was the best shape of all the Solstice class ships I’ve been on.

 

DISEMBARK: A

This was easy as pie. Left the ship around 8:45 with no lines and bags were waiting to be picked up right away.

 

OVERALL RATING: B+

 

 

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[sailco]

Thank you for taking the time to write your full review. We've loved following your journey and have enjoyed your honest appraisal of the overall cruise. Can't wait to see where you go next!

[WonderMan3]

Thank you for taking the time to write your full review. We've loved following your journey and have enjoyed your honest appraisal of the overall cruise. Can't wait to see where you go next!

 

 

 

Thank you! Next up is Edge in December. We are on the inaugural 7 night sailing going to the Western Caribbean.

 

 

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[sailco]

Thank you! Next up is Edge in December. We are on the inaugural 7 night sailing going to the Western Caribbean.

 

 

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Will definitely be looking out for your report from the Edge!

[riclop]

Thanks for sharing.

[I_love_the_wake]

Thanks so much for sharing, I've been eagerly awaiting each post. I like your writing style, very honest without being judgemental. And so informative. Can't wait for the Edge review!

 

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[lola2013]

Thank you! Next up is Edge in December. We are on the inaugural 7 night sailing going to the Western Caribbean.

 

 

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Great review...thank you! I'll also be anxious to hear about the Edge. We were scheduled on one of the now-cancelled preview cruises this coming Thanksgiving weekend. We now have to wait until December, 2019 to sail on the Edge. :loudcry:

[Sammy1]

Adam, I think you should change your CC handle to WonderReviewer....a little longer but very accurate description! Its been a real pleasure following you on your cruise, and very timely for us as we'll be doing the same itinerary in just a few weeks.

 

We're also eagerly awaiting your review of the next phase of your journey, to the Tuscany region.

[Lastdance]

Hey Wonderman3...any comments to my reply? I would appreciate a response when you have the time, as your comments really threw me for a loop. I am sorry that your experience was not as pleasant as mine, but it would be cordial and helpful to me if you would kindly offer a response to my clarification. I would really appreciate this...thank you!

 

I am no longer on the Edge inaugural, as I chose to cancel when cruises were added and deleted. Also, I want to give Celebrity time to iron out the issues with a brand new ship. It will be interesting to read your review on Edge. I will not comment at all, so no worries there. Although, I may ask a few questions as I did on this review. I am looking forward to many reviews on Edge from those who offer constructive criticism. You were very kind with your comments on San Giorgio Hotel. I thought the dyes were a title dangerous if one needed to use the bathroom at night, so put a light on downstairs to monitor and adjust that situation. But that hotel was better than the one I stayed at last time, so overall it was an improvement[emoji844]

 

 

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Edited May 16, 2018 by Lastdance

[Lastdance]

Not dyed but stairs!!!

 

 

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[JFontaine]

Adam, I just spent two hours traveling with you guys. What fun! Thank you for the time you spent doing this, it is much appreciated. (No reply expected, thanks, ;p )

[Joy1004]

Adam, thanks so much for your very complete and helpful review. I really enjoy your clear and concise writing style. Looking forward to your experiences on the Edge!

[Homestyle]

Hi, could you tell me whether there were any additional Italian Tax added to you final bill. I have read on the forum that this happens. We are doing the same itinerary end of June and was looking to book some speciality restaurants on board.....if I can get them for the right price. But if they then put on and additional 23% it would not be great and would sway me to pre book online.

[WonderMan3]

Hi, could you tell me whether there were any additional Italian Tax added to you final bill. I have read on the forum that this happens. We are doing the same itinerary end of June and was looking to book some speciality restaurants on board.....if I can get them for the right price. But if they then put on and additional 23% it would not be great and would sway me to pre book online.

 

 

 

Hi, the only taxes I am aware of that would be added to the bill would be the VAT for any retail purchases made onboard such as in the shops or beauty products at the Spa. They left a letter in our cabin detailing this (not sure if I posted that earlier in the thread). Depending on what you purchase and the amount you spend you may be able to get the VAT refunded at the airport before you go home. You have to keep the receipts and get a form from the cruiseline. They gave us one for the items I bought in the spa but then the casino removed all items from our bill at the end so we didn’t have to worry about it. There are no extra taxes charged for your cruise fare though. That is paid in full before you get onboard.

 

 

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[abbydancer2003]

Hi, the only taxes I am aware of that would be added to the bill would be the VAT for any retail purchases made onboard such as in the shops or beauty products at the Spa. They left a letter in our cabin detailing this (not sure if I posted that earlier in the thread). Depending on what you purchase and the amount you spend you may be able to get the VAT refunded at the airport before you go home. You have to keep the receipts and get a form from the cruiseline. They gave us one for the items I bought in the spa but then the casino removed all items from our bill at the end so we didn’t have to worry about it. There are no extra taxes charged for your cruise fare though. That is paid in full before you get onboard.

 

 

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I was told on our cruise that if you bought services on the ship they'd get the tax and you couldn't get that back. (For example a dining package). Not sure though.

 

Also, you get the refund at your point of exit from the EU. We flew from Rome to London, overnighted and flew home the next morning. We had to get our vat refund at Heathrow. By the time it went from Euros to pounds to dollars, we lost a lot of value on it.

[JoePDX]

Thank you! Next up is Edge in December. We are on the inaugural 7 night sailing going to the Western Caribbean.

 

 

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Adam - Excellent review. Thanks for taking us all along.

 

Husband and I are booked on the Edge TA in April 2019, so will be anxiously awaiting your review. :-)

 

Joe

[Lastdance]

I was told on our cruise that if you bought services on the ship they'd get the tax and you couldn't get that back. (For example a dining package). Not sure though.

 

 

 

Also, you get the refund at your point of exit from the EU. We flew from Rome to London, overnighted and flew home the next morning. We had to get our vat refund at Heathrow. By the time it went from Euros to pounds to dollars, we lost a lot of value on it.

 

 

We did ours in Milan, then flew from Milan to London to US. They put the tax back on our credit card and said it would take 7 days...€ to $.

Just the facts; not an opinion.

 

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Edited May 17, 2018 by Lastdance

[abbydancer2003]

We did ours in Milan, then flew from Milan to London to US. They put the tax back on our credit card and said it would take 7 days...€ to $.

Just the facts; not an opinion.

 

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Hmmm, wonder why? Britain was still in EU, so hence why we had to do it at our point of exit. I wonder if it was because we were overnighting?

 

And for what it's worth, they told us the cable we bought in the Apple store on board wasn't eligible for VAT refund.

[WonderMan3]

I was told on our cruise that if you bought services on the ship they'd get the tax and you couldn't get that back. (For example a dining package). Not sure though.

 

 

 

Also, you get the refund at your point of exit from the EU. We flew from Rome to London, overnighted and flew home the next morning. We had to get our vat refund at Heathrow. By the time it went from Euros to pounds to dollars, we lost a lot of value on it.

 

 

 

I found the letter they left in our cabin. It specifies the items that get the tax and services are not among them.

 

 

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[Homestyle]

Hi, the only taxes I am aware of that would be added to the bill would be the VAT for any retail purchases made onboard such as in the shops or beauty products at the Spa. They left a letter in our cabin detailing this (not sure if I posted that earlier in the thread). Depending on what you purchase and the amount you spend you may be able to get the VAT refunded at the airport before you go home. You have to keep the receipts and get a form from the cruiseline. They gave us one for the items I bought in the spa but then the casino removed all items from our bill at the end so we didn’t have to worry about it. There are no extra taxes charged for your cruise fare though. That is paid in full before you get onboard.

 

 

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Thank you for your speedy response. I was wondering if they applied the VAT to the purchase of Specialty Dining cost or beverage package uplift costs?

[upwarduk]

It does depend where you are sailing, VAT is added if you are in Spanish waters.

However, some countries are VAT free, St Petersburg and Gibraltar are 2. So this means that if your cruise visits these ports, purchases on board will not attract a tax. When we did a Baltic Cruise in 2015, I was able to buy an iPad which was VAT free. I just had to be aware that I didn’t exceed our UK tax allowance which is £390 for goods taken in to the country.

 

 

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[musicalianne]

You got an awesome deal on this cruise! Just found this thread—excited to read your review!!

 

 

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[Lastdance]

wonderman3...what else can I possibly say? I thoroughly enjoyed my cruise, thought your review was great, but am very disappointed that you are unable to respond further. Okay, I get it, but it really goes against my perception of the person who wrote the review...bon voyage.

[WonderMan3]

Thank you for your speedy response. I was wondering if they applied the VAT to the purchase of Specialty Dining cost or beverage package uplift costs?

 

 

 

Not according to the letter I posted above.

 

 

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