Epic out of Barcelona and VAT on beverages

[hitch-04]

Anyone recently off the Epic out of Barcelona? Saw a brief mention in an old thread about upgrading to the PPBP that EU itineraries out of Span have to pay Spanish VAT on beverage purchases for the entirety of the cruise.  Trying to figure out a) is this true, and b) how much of a sticker shock are we in for after a week of taking advantage of our upgraded PPBP.

[z4oslo]

Yes you have to pay a small fee for each drink as long as the ship is in spanish territory, its a tax to the spanish goverment and has nothing to do with NCL per se. Its not a big deal. Its not for the entire cruise, just for the port of Barcelona and Mallorca.

Edited May 20, 2022 by z4oslo

[hitch-04]

2 minutes ago, z4oslo said:

Yes you have to pay a small fee for each drink as long as the ship is in spanish territory

I'm okay as long as it's just the Spanish ports, but had read it would be for the entirety of the week if there weren't any non-EU ports. 

[hawkeyetlse]

They will charge VAT on all purchases throughout the cruise (for example in the gift shop) but there is thankfully a different rule for drinks. Or at least for drinks that are included in your beverage package. I don't know how they handle actual drink purchases for people with no package, or who go outside of their package.

 

 

[hitch-04]

25 minutes ago, hawkeyetlse said:

 there is thankfully a different rule for drinks. Or at least for drinks that are included in your beverage package. 

 

 

Awesome, that makes me feel a lot less worried considering we're leaning towards more time on the ship (and its bars) and less time on the excursions 🙂

[KeithJenner]

Spanish VAT is chargeable on all drink purchases for the whole of the cruise as the ship doesn’t leave the EU.

 

However, if you have the beverage package then it doesn’t get charged. There was a short period of time a few years ago (around 2015 or 2016 I think) when it was charged on drinks served with the package, but that did stop. If it had started again then it would have certainly been mentioned here.

[hitch-04]

2 minutes ago, KeithJenner said:

However, if you have the beverage package then it doesn’t get charged. There was a short period of time a few years ago (around 2015 or 2016 I think) when it was charged on drinks served with the package, but that did stop. If it had started again then it would have certainly been mentioned here.

Okay cool, I remembered having to pay while still in US territorial waters for the last cruise I did in 2019 even on beverages covered by the drink package, and it added up just from sail away champagne and such.  I  was starting to have visions of a super unexpectedly large bill at the end of next week. Thank you for clarifying and relieving that worry.

[KeithJenner]

15 minutes ago, hitch-04 said:

Okay cool, I remembered having to pay while still in US territorial waters for the last cruise I did in 2019 even on beverages covered by the drink package, and it added up just from sail away champagne and such.  I  was starting to have visions of a super unexpectedly large bill at the end of next week. Thank you for clarifying and relieving that worry.

Yes, I can see the concern. The VAT on just the champagne could really add up over a week.