Bar service in Greek ports

[KeithJenner]

6 hours ago, _Mr.G_ said:

I'm just back from the Jade May 8-15 out of Athens last week and I can't confirm any of this.

 

We boarded in Athens around 1 pm. We went straight to the Garden Great Outdoors and had lunch with beers and later several other drinks from that bar before sail away. I saw other people with different alcoholic drinks. The bars were only closed for a short time during the muster drill PA announcements.

 

The entire week bars were open and served alcohol, especially in Santorini. We had a great cruise!

What that does confirm is that my assumption that the situation was resolved on the Jade after a couple of cruises was correct.

 

This must also be good news for people booked on the Gem in the coming weeks. If it was sorted on the Jade then you’d hope that it will be on the Gem as well.

[KeithJenner]

The Escape has also been in Greece this week (although they missed Santorini). I’ve not heard of any problems there, so this does seem to relate specifically to the Gem at the moment.

[lahrbrat]

I’m on the Escape right now. We stopped in several Greek ports and we always head to O’Sheehan’s or the Waterfront for drinks when back on board. All bars were open. There may have been a revolt otherwise! 😁

[bavarianbumblebee]

11 hours ago, purplecow15 said:

Now many comments on Facebook saying it’s not true and that bars are indeed open. We will just wait and see I guess

can you give me a hint how to find these comments?

[KeithJenner]

25 minutes ago, bavarianbumblebee said:

can you give me a hint how to find these comments?

I haven’t seen any. There are a few confirming that the Jade is ok, but no conflicting info about the Gem.

[bavarianbumblebee]

52 minutes ago, KeithJenner said:

I haven’t seen any. There are a few confirming that the Jade is ok, but no conflicting info about the Gem.

Boarding the Gem on May 29th. Maybe they sort everything out until then.

With 3 Greek ports I'm not happy about no drinks for about 10 to 12 hours eachs.

[craig01020]

16 hours ago, Cardex said:

that they want to help the local bars and restaurants.

But they're allowed to serve food while in port? Makes no sense.

[Muckyduckway]

11 hours ago, _Mr.G_ said:

I'm just back from the Jade May 8-15 out of Athens last week and I can't confirm any of this.

 

We boarded in Athens around 1 pm. We went straight to the Garden Great Outdoors and had lunch with beers and later several other drinks from that bar before sail away. I saw other people with different alcoholic drinks. The bars were only closed for a short time during the muster drill PA announcements.

 

The entire week bars were open and served alcohol, especially in Santorini. We had a great cruise!

We had a similar experience on the 8th May sailing.

 

We were seated in O'Sheehans at 12:23 with Margaritas in hand at 12:28, the Great Outdoors was also more than willing to provide full bar service.  Ditto for Santorini on our last port day - no problem getting alcohol at any of the bars.

 

Whatever is going on didn't affect us at all, but I hope it all fizzles out as we're booked on the Gem in October. ( 🙂 hic!)

[Pele_Nipsy]

One of the first posts about bar service not being able to be served in Greece was on Easter.  I'm wondering if the holiday had something to do with it, and then it was inadvertently carried over to more ports than just Easter Sunday.  Happy to hear that the problem is being sorted out.

[KeithJenner]

16 minutes ago, Pele_Nipsy said:

One of the first posts about bar service not being able to be served in Greece was on Easter.  I'm wondering if the holiday had something to do with it, and then it was inadvertently carried over to more ports than just Easter Sunday.  Happy to hear that the problem is being sorted out.

I don’t think so. The first report was the week before Easter (two weeks before Greek Orthodox Easter). We had the problem the following week (sailing Easter Sunday), but I don’t think they did on the following cruise (which was during Greek Easter weekend).

[thera]

Interesting.  I'd be pretty peeved if I couldn't get a drink with dinner.  We have the beverage package and scheduled to be on the Jade this September.  I hope all this works out.

[kochleffel]

1 hour ago, thera said:

I'd be pretty peeved if I couldn't get a drink with dinner.  We have the beverage package and scheduled to be on the Jade this September. 

 

I just checked the itinerary for my Jade sailing. For it, the ship is in port after 6:00 p.m. only at Patmos (docking there at 6:30 p.m.) and Santorini.  Except for one MDR that opens at 5:30, all other dining venues open at 6:00.

[kimandtim]

Any updates on what is currently happening on the Gem?  Shockingly, when I called NCL about another matter, they had no knowledge about any snafus with the bar closings on any of the ships.🤔

[KeithJenner]

The Gem is in Corfu today and apparently there is no bar service.

 

[modfanmike]

I am on the Jade right now still in port in Athens. Drinks are being served. 

[Tonesinkent]

Seeing lots of reports of this being true on NCL Facebook forums. Apparently it is written on the daily freestyle planner onboard, but no one from NCL on the actual ship can confirm the reason.

We have booked on the NCL Gem for 24th July this year and have 3 stops in Greek ports for several hours each. We love the sail away parties which start a few hours before departing each port so im guessing they will be "dry" and not much fun!

In all, around 20 hours totally removed from our drinks package, lets see if they refund any of that? Im no big drinker, but I think its a disgrace that NCL are not reporting this to anyone until after the get on board. I have phoned and chatted online to NCL reps and they deny its true, even though lots of people are reporting live from the Gem today in Corfu saying the bars are closed until after leaving the port. 

Im seriously considering cancelling or changing my cruise. 

[iloveglee]

I am interested in this topic as we have just booked for September on the Jade.  Since I booked, I get NCL ads on my facebook feed, and this is where I first saw remarks about this.  Find it a bit hard to believe, if this was greek law then there surely would have been complaints from cruisers on other lines.  

 

I know for certain the shops are closed, which is the law, and casinos also, not just in Greece, everywhere.  I wonder if this may have been some kind of staff training issue, maybe with new starters?  We had a major issue on a Royal Caribbean cruise in south america a few years ago relating to drinks.  Nobody had a clue, the new regime had been handed down from the powers that be in Florida and it was mayhem.  It was actually quite hilarious and provided us many hours of entertainment, but we hadn't bought a drink package up front so weren't especially affected.  This was of course, a staff training issue, not their fault as they hadn't been properly informed beforehand.  

 

And if someone was declined a drink during drill then of course, you can't get a drink then as all the staff are supervising it.  And you should be there anyway!!  When you read stuff on non specialised social media, all it takes is for some kind of misunderstanding to have happened, and it spreads like wildfire, and is not actually true.  Although from reading some of the previous posts, this has actually been happening, to what extent is uncertain.  

 

I have to speak to our cruise consultant in a week or so, I might see if she has heard anything of this, or at least can find out.  She's an exceptionally helpful young lady so if she can't get the word, nobody can.  Look forward to further updates on this. 

 

 

[mertziek]

1 hour ago, KeithJenner said:

The Gem is in Corfu today and apparently there is no bar service.

 

Wonder what the problem really is.  It would be nice if NCL or the ship where it’s happening could be transparent and explain what the reasoning is behind this.  As people who often like staying on the ship when in port, I’d be perturbed if I couldn’t get my afternoon mudslide!  🙄  First world problems, I know, but ncl charges enough for the beverage package (yup, it’s not really free) so if they don’t provide what they say you’re supposed to get access to then they need to explain why not.  JMHO

[KeithJenner]

14 minutes ago, iloveglee said:

I am interested in this topic as we have just booked for September on the Jade.  Since I booked, I get NCL ads on my facebook feed, and this is where I first saw remarks about this.  Find it a bit hard to believe, if this was greek law then there surely would have been complaints from cruisers on other lines.  

 

I know for certain the shops are closed, which is the law, and casinos also, not just in Greece, everywhere.  I wonder if this may have been some kind of staff training issue, maybe with new starters?  We had a major issue on a Royal Caribbean cruise in south america a few years ago relating to drinks.  Nobody had a clue, the new regime had been handed down from the powers that be in Florida and it was mayhem.  It was actually quite hilarious and provided us many hours of entertainment, but we hadn't bought a drink package up front so weren't especially affected.  This was of course, a staff training issue, not their fault as they hadn't been properly informed beforehand.  

 

And if someone was declined a drink during drill then of course, you can't get a drink then as all the staff are supervising it.  And you should be there anyway!!  When you read stuff on non specialised social media, all it takes is for some kind of misunderstanding to have happened, and it spreads like wildfire, and is not actually true.  Although from reading some of the previous posts, this has actually been happening, to what extent is uncertain.  

 

I have to speak to our cruise consultant in a week or so, I might see if she has heard anything of this, or at least can find out.  She's an exceptionally helpful young lady so if she can't get the word, nobody can.  Look forward to further updates on this. 

 

 

This is not just a social media misunderstanding, or anything to do with muster drill.

 

I was personally in the Jade last month and the most bars were closed, and those that were open (i.e. o'Sheehans for lunch) could only offer soft drinks. The freestyle daily listed most bars as opening at 7pm on that day (although I think they did actually open slightly earlier). They weren't just closed for a while, but right up until the bars got a telephone call a while after sail away to say that they could now serve alcoholic drinks. We had been onboard since before midday. I knew it would happen as it had been reported by someone very reliable on this forum the week before.

 

Last week on the Gem there was no service whilst the ship was in all Greek ports. For example, in Santorini where the ship leaves late (around 10pm) you couldn't get a glass of wine with your evening meal. That has been reported in multiple places, and verified by people on this forum.

 

Unbelievable it may be, but it is a fact.

[hawkeyetlse]

If they're not giving people the full story on board the Gem, no one at NCL shoreside is going to tell us, either. And if it's something that reflects poorly on NCL, it's fair enough for them to want to keep it under wraps. We don't have a right to know all their company secrets. But they should not announce the closure of bars and leave it at that. Are they allowed to give away free drinks? Can you order 10 unopened cans and bottles the night before and tell them they're for the next day in port? Or they could offer everyone a bar set-up in their cabin? Or just some good old OBC?

 

I have faith in Gem passengers to make a (calm, reasonable) stink about this, without taking it out on the bar staff of course. And I hope they will put pressure on the relevant ship officers to provide credible information about how long this situation is expected to last.

[TrumpyNor]

On 5/17/2022 at 8:07 PM, willetstravel said:

Yeah, you are probably right.  But I am definitely surprised that more people currently sailing Greece aren't saying more about it.  

Probably because the majority of the people on board have never even heard about CruiseCritic. 😉

And because we are still at the very beginning of the cruising season around the Greek Isles. 

[TrumpyNor]

A friend of mine is currently on the Gem, today is the first day in a Greek port on their itinerary and this is what she just posted on FB: 

Not allowed to sell alcohol when in Greek port.

Edited May 22, 2022 by TrumpyNor

[KeithJenner]

Someone on Facebook has just posted saying that they are serving on the Gem.

 

I wonder whether it said in the freestyle daily that the bars would be closed, but meanwhile the issue has been sorted and they have opened.

 

Most bars would be closed at this time anyway, so someone could easily have read that in the daily and seen closed bars inside, without realising that the outdoor bars are serving.

 

Hopefully someone will clarify soon.

 

Edit - It seems that the Gem has now left Corfu, which is why they are now serving.

Edited May 22, 2022 by KeithJenner

[FreestyleNovice]

Thanks for reporting @KeithJenner, curious how this will work out in the future..! 

[WexIrl]

We are on the Escape on the 10th June with 4 Greek Port stops.

If it is true about the bar service being suspended for each Greek stop, I would have definitely chosen a different Ship/route. 


 

Edited May 22, 2022 by WexIrl