Taxes on Drinks

[ucmino]

We will be sailing with NCL next month.  Spending 5 days visiting the various islands.  We have the beverage package, do we get charged taxes on the drinks while in port?  Also, seeing as we are spending 5 days I’m assuming we never get into international waters?  TIA

[travelin.sisters]

our cruise to Maui (we docked at Kahului, not Lahaina) last Jan people were charged taxes on alcoholic beverages but not the other ports

 

& no, you are probably never in international waters

[chengkp75]

On 3/1/2023 at 1:39 PM, ucmino said:

We will be sailing with NCL next month.  Spending 5 days visiting the various islands.  We have the beverage package, do we get charged taxes on the drinks while in port?  Also, seeing as we are spending 5 days I’m assuming we never get into international waters?  TIA

Sales tax is charged until the ship is outside state waters (3 nm), not when it reaches international waters (12 nm).  When I worked the NCL Hawaii ships, the bridge would call down to the Purser's office and notify them of when we left state waters, and the POS registers were reprogrammed to stop adding GET (Hawaii uses GET not sales tax).  Yes, not only beverage package drinks, but any purchase made onboard while inside the 3 mile limit (specialty dining, shops, spa) will be charged GET.  GET varies by county (island), from 4% in Maui, to 4.5% in the other islands.