Cruising after Brexit.

[terrierjohn]

8 hours ago, docco said:

Maybe not doomed, but it’s not looking good if we end up with a no deal Brexit.  Which is presumably why the government’s planning to advise people not to book travel abroad after 29 March.

 

I can live, I suppose, with long delays getting back to Southampton, but the prospect of delays at each port visited does concern me.

 

I’m also unhappy at the prospect of 20% VAT having to be charged on everything bought on the cruises - on the ship and in ports.

 

8 minutes ago, docco said:

Post #80 didn't suggest any such thing - how could VAT be imposed on ships outside territorial waters? 

 

The point was, though, that whilst everything brought in currently from within the EU carries no additional VAT/duties, that changes if we leave.

 

Duty free allowances will return, but they're pretty small - I suppose it depends what you're buying as to whether the new regime will suit.

Sorry it was post 76 my reply to yours was #80.

But as regards on shore purchases, from your expectation of sterling values you wont want to pay EU prices anyway.

As for on ship purchases these will be subject to the current limitations that exist at present, a duty free Tag Heuer watch should still be disclosed to customs as it should now, but presumably rarely is.

[SteveH2508]

Closed loop EU cruises already carry VAT on goods bought on the ship (and some food and drink depending on where in the EU the cruise starts). Avoiding this VAT charge is why Gibraltar; Canary Islands and the Channel Islands are popular ports of call, because they cause the cruise to not be closed-loop.

 

Cruises out of Southampton etc. will render a cruise non closed loop as well after Brexit.

[CCFC]

I have sailed out of Barcelona, Venice and Southampton with people who came from Australia, the USA, Honduras, Canada, Mexico and many other nations who were treated the same as us Brits while in port. 

 

There is a lot of scaremongering going on here.

[Harry Peterson]

13 minutes ago, CCFC said:

I have sailed out of Barcelona, Venice and Southampton with people who came from Australia, the USA, Honduras, Canada, Mexico and many other nations who were treated the same as us Brits while in port. 

 

Of course they were. Each of those countries has agreements in place with all the EU countries.

 

After Brexit, though, we will not be an EU country and we’ll be out on a limb because we have no agreements at all in place - that was done for us by the EU. No agreement = no short cuts from ship to ports. Passports only.

 

If you don’t want to accept that, take a look at David Dingle’s comments above. He knows what’s going to happen if there’s no deal, and as a past CEO of P&O he knows what he’s talking about.

[majortom10]

1 hour ago, docco said:

Of course they were. Each of those countries has agreements in place with all the EU countries.

 

After Brexit, though, we will not be an EU country and we’ll be out on a limb because we have no agreements at all in place - that was done for us by the EU. No agreement = no short cuts from ship to ports. Passports only.

 

If you don’t want to accept that, take a look at David Dingle’s comments above. He knows what’s going to happen if there’s no deal, and as a past CEO of P&O he knows what he’s talking about.

You are such a happy soul with many of your posts Carnival Shares, Brexit and Parking4Cruises parking hope you dont look at everything on the black side of your future cruises. Or perhaps you will cancel stay at home and never go out of the door because it wont be worth it because there will be nothing in the shops to buy.

[Harry Peterson]

11 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

You are such a happy soul with many of your posts Carnival Shares, Brexit and Parking4Cruises parking hope you dont look at everything on the black side of your future cruises. Or perhaps you will cancel stay at home and never go out of the door because it wont be worth it because there will be nothing in the shops to buy.

Forward planning. Try it.

[SteveH2508]

That poster's ignorance of the mechanics of cruising; their scaremongering and pessimism is truly mind-boggling.

 

I can't help thinking that either they have been brainwashed by Project Fear or they are an employee of it.

[Harry Peterson]

7 hours ago, SteveH2508 said:

That poster's ignorance of the mechanics of cruising; their scaremongering and pessimism is truly mind-boggling.

 

I can't help thinking that either they have been brainwashed by Project Fear or they are an employee of it.

With four cruises currently booked, I'm simply concerned at the increasing risk of a no-deal Brexit.  Cruising has always been so easy, simply leaving and returning to the ship at each port by showing your card, and I hope it stays that way.

 

Trying to pretend that nothing will change, though, is simply sticking your head in the sand and ignores the reality of the situation.  If that suits you, fine.

 

Do you still believe what you've been told right from the outset that doing a deal with the EU would be easy, by the way?  Such a simple process because they're so keen to trade with us?  No problems getting a deal?  Extra £350m pw for the NHS?  All that stuff?

 

People can be very gullible, and believing that warnings about the reality of a no-deal Brexit are just part of 'Project Fear' (a nice term invented by the liars who are still trying to hoodwink you) just emphasises that gullibility.

 

We shall see, shan't we.  I hope I'm wrong, because those four cruises are going to be a nightmare otherwise, but when David Dingle, ex-CEO of P&O Cruises warns "Equally we can’t have our passengers in every European port taking hours to get ashore off the ship."  you'd be a fool to ignore him.

[davecttr]

1 hour ago, docco said:

With four cruises currently booked, I'm simply concerned at the increasing risk of a no-deal Brexit.  Cruising has always been so easy, simply leaving and returning to the ship at each port by showing your card, and I hope it stays that way.

 

Trying to pretend that nothing will change, though, is simply sticking your head in the sand and ignores the reality of the situation.  If that suits you, fine.

 

Do you still believe what you've been told right from the outset that doing a deal with the EU would be easy, by the way?  Such a simple process because they're so keen to trade with us?  No problems getting a deal?  Extra £350m pw for the NHS?  All that stuff?

 

People can be very gullible, and believing that warnings about the reality of a no-deal Brexit are just part of 'Project Fear' (a nice term invented by the liars who are still trying to hoodwink you) just emphasises that gullibility.

 

We shall see, shan't we.  I hope I'm wrong, because those four cruises are going to be a nightmare otherwise, but when David Dingle, ex-CEO of P&O Cruises warns "Equally we can’t have our passengers in every European port taking hours to get ashore off the ship."  you'd be a fool to ignore him.

You have my sympathy about the nature of some of the responses. On a facebook closed group about cruising I reported about an article in the Sunday Times. some of the replies were appalling, vindictive, nasty and aimed directly at me and my character. All this because I was merely a messenger and I  did not even express a political opinion in my post. The 'B' subject is toxic in the UK. moderators take note.

[comcox]

20 hours ago, daiB said:

 

Have you ever cruised?

 

On leaving a cruise ship at any port, there are no EU channels. Or any other channels. All the paperwork is done by the ship before you disembark. 

 

Princess carries from the UK cruisers from Canada, the US, Japan, Australia etc. They get off all together and show their cruise card. There is no indication that that will change.

But it's not true that non UK-folk can just use their cruise cards or at least it was not on Fred Olsen.  On both my and my husband's fall cruises we had to wait at the guest services desk every port until immigration had boarded and cleared our passports.  We then had to take our passports with us on shore and then return them to the desk when we re-boarded.  Between our two cruises we had ports in Germany, France, and Belgium.  And at one port in France my husband even  had to show his passport when coming back through the port gate.

Edited December 18, 2018 by comcox

[Cathygh]

I think it is useful to consider there are 2 issues if there is NO DEAL.:

1 Visa. requirements. This is not until 2021, no point discussing this now.

2 Queues at immigration/passport control. This is a real practical problem. I anticipate this will be something like St Petersburg (leaving aside the Russian visa issue). So possibly very long queues, everyone showing their passport.

Will EU have time to put smooth procedures in place to enable British cruisers to enter ports seamlessly so we won't see a difference?

Probably not. I imagine this will be time consuming, costly and will need to be negotiated so it won't just be replacing like with like. It won't be possible to piggy back onto existing arrangements between EU counties and non EU countries without negotiations and an agreement in place.

Will the ports have time to recruit and train the extra staff to process passports etc and can they actually afford extra staff?

Anyway time will tell.

Praying for a deal

Cathy

 

 

[Harry Peterson]

Thank goodness some sanity and understanding of the true situation is starting to enter this forum at last.  Let's keep our fingers crossed that we leave the EU with an agreement in place.

 

If that happens, at least cruising should continue much as it does now over the transitional period.

[majortom10]

13 hours ago, docco said:

Forward planning. Try it.

Not forward planning its a doom and gloom attitude. Everything you comment on is you looking on the black side you are obviously a half glass empty rather than half glass full. 

[Harry Peterson]

Just now, majortom10 said:

Not forward planning its a doom and gloom attitude. Everything you comment on is you looking on the black side you are obviously a half glass empty rather than half glass full. 

You can throw as much mud as you like - I’m not remotely bothered.  🙂

 

However, I’ll be prepared for whatever Brexit might bring, and sticking one’s head in the sand never was the brightest of policies.

[Wiltonian]

On 12/17/2018 at 10:06 AM, dorsetlad said:

Of course, once we leave the EU, together with our vast annual contributions, .😤😤

 

 

The impact of Brexit on the economy will far exceed the "vast annual contribution" of less than 1% of GDP which we pay to the EU. £350m or even the net £175m a week sounds a lot of money, but it's a drop in the ocean as far as total trade and government spending are concerned.

[CCFC]

2 hours ago, comcox said:

 And at one port in France my husband even  had to show his passport when coming back through the port gate.

 

You have to show your passport in Venice to get back on the ship regardless of your nationality.

[jh1809]

Almost all the members of the EU (with the notable exception of Britain, of course), as well as Norway and Iceland, are currently members of the Schengen Area. If the Area continues then, though a full documentation check might be required at the first port, I wouldn't have thought that that would be required at further ports if they are all in countries that are within the Area. After all, passengers on cruise ships calling at multiple ports in the US are only required to pass through the immigration procedure at the port of entry, even though the US is pretty paranoid about the possibility of illegal immigrants. It's hard to see why our leaving the EU should make a massive difference, given that we aren't in the Schengen Area now and that the Area is an entity distinct from the EU.

Edited December 18, 2018 by jh1809
fx typo

[Brayman]

17 hours ago, jh1809 said:

Almost all the members of the EU (with the notable exception of Britain, of course), as well as Norway and Iceland, are currently members of the Schengen Area. If the Area continues then, though a full documentation check might be required at the first port, I wouldn't have thought that that would be required at further ports if they are all in countries that are within the Area. After all, passengers on cruise ships calling at multiple ports in the US are only required to pass through the immigration procedure at the port of entry, even though the US is pretty paranoid about the possibility of illegal immigrants. It's hard to see why our leaving the EU should make a massive difference, given that we aren't in the Schengen Area now and that the Area is an entity distinct from the EU.

and on one occasion we have had to wait on board to be processed at our first port of call (Stockholm), no issues anywhere else. La Rochelle once were also being picky checking everyone getting back on board!

 

[Son of Anarchy]

We were delayed at Alicante while Spanish officials inspected passenger's passports and noted their details in writing - slowly.

 

They got bored after an hour or so and went  home.  We walked straight off with no hassles.

 

Presumably the fallout of an earlier incident regarding Gibraltar.

[jeanlyon]

I was about to say, before someone already did, that on a US/Canada cruise, we only checked in at the first port.  After that we were cleared.  It will be the same.  First port of call, passports which should show your ETIAS exemption, just like the States Esta.  After that zero.  Italy has always asked for passports to be taken ashore and quite often shown, as in Venice.  Wonder why?

[qm2lover]

On recent Princess cruise (Southampton to Southampton via Scandinavia ) non-EU passport holders (will apply to us in future) had to individually attend immigration interviews and have all documentation checked before being allowed to go ashore.  Long queues and very time consuming even though the majority of passengers were from UK.  When such actions take place for all passengers then it would hardly be worth going ashore!

[Harry Peterson]

35 minutes ago, qm2lover said:

On recent Princess cruise (Southampton to Southampton via Scandinavia ) non-EU passport holders (will apply to us in future) had to individually attend immigration interviews and have all documentation checked before being allowed to go ashore.  Long queues and very time consuming even though the majority of passengers were from UK.  When such actions take place for all passengers then it would hardly be worth going ashore!

That's precisely the concern I have about a no-deal Brexit, which is the way things look to be heading. 

 

If that's the way it ends up, because MPs are terrified of taking sensible actions for fear of upsetting their Leave voters, cruising going to change beyond all recognition, and the only bright spot would be the bargain cruises for those who aren't much bothered to leave the ship for a couple of weeks.  Not my idea of fun, and I'm seriously concerned that the cruises we've already booked could now go badly wrong.

[Jules.]

I’ve had to cancel a fly-cruise on Oceana for 18 April due to my ill health (waiting for an operation). We booked in January this year and the balance would have been due on 10 January. We got a great price on booking, and prices have steadily risen since then but a recent check showed a significant price drop to not much more than we would have paid. When we booked the cruise Brexit didn’t enter our heads, we just needed a cruise that would fit in with our holiday dates! 

Now I’m wondering if our cancellation is a blessing in disguise 🙁

[Eglesbrech]

36 minutes ago, Jules. said:

I’ve had to cancel a fly-cruise on Oceana for 18 April due to my ill health (waiting for an operation). We booked in January this year and the balance would have been due on 10 January. We got a great price on booking, and prices have steadily risen since then but a recent check showed a significant price drop to not much more than we would have paid. When we booked the cruise Brexit didn’t enter our heads, we just needed a cruise that would fit in with our holiday dates! 

Now I’m wondering if our cancellation is a blessing in disguise 🙁

 

Sorry to hear that you are poorly and hope that all goes well with the surgery.

 

Looking at cruises around “B” day the prices have dropped significantly for some of them, even those in the (Scottish) Easter school holidays. One is offering a balcony at £499 for a week! I have seldom seen balconies at these very low prices.

 

I do wish our elected members would get on and find a solution to all of this, it should never have been left this long to sort out. People are clearly losing confidence is travel within Europe in the current information vacuum. I know of several friends who have normally booked next years holiday by now who are holding off to see how things turn out.

 

 

[qm2lover]

All hypothetical, but I wondered if having left on 29 March 2019 what would happen to duty paid goods purchased before 29 March but brought back into the country, on cruise ship, after 29 March?  Would it still be duty paid or would it have become duty free (even though duty had been paid).