NCL PEARL - Alcohol not sold on board while in Piraeus/Athens port?

[sbnuggie]

HOwdy,

 

Friends we are cruising with (this will be there first cruise) stating that she read online somewhere that while the ship is in port at Piraeus it is not allowed to sell alcohol at the bars while in port thus you can't have a cocktail UNLESS you have the drink package. 

 

If you have the drink package, then you can get a drink because you are not "purchasing" alcohol, rather you are being served alcohol.  Anyone hear about this?

 

Initially I thought maybe they were referring to a gift shop on board not selling alcohol while in a port, but she said no they were very specific in that some guests had drinks as they had a drink package and others did not and they were upset about this.

 

Anyone experience this or heard of this.

 

Thanks

[luv2kroooz]

It is quite common with NCL and we've experienced it personally in various ports throughout the med including Spain and Italy. No first hand knowledge of Athens.

[Anoynmous Phoenix]

@sbnuggie

 

It does apply to Piraeus and all Greek Ports

 

[KeithJenner]

It depends.

 

This issue has been around for a few years now, and can change from cruise to cruise.

 

Last time I was in Athens they were not serving any drinks to anyone, even if you had the drinks package. A few weeks later there was a situation where one NCL ship at Santorini wasn’t serving drinks whilst the NCL ship anchored next to it was.

 

I haven’t seen much discussion about this recently, so think that most of the issues have now been resolved, but it could resurface at any time.

 

I don’t know when the freestyle daily above was from, but looking at past cruises doesn’t give you the answer as things can change from week to week, or ship to ship.

 

Edit: the freestyle daily above was from 2022. That was when the situation was at its most confused. I would totally disregard that as an indication of how things are going now.

 

 

Edited August 8 by KeithJenner

[JoLoca2208]

I've cruised to the Greek islands several times, with two different cruise lines, always with a drink package (last time with NCL in 2021) and I don't remember this rule. If this is the case now, I wonder how this will work for our Greek cruise next month - it's 9-day cruise with pretty much full days in ports. 

[KeithJenner]

35 minutes ago, JoLoca2208 said:

I've cruised to the Greek islands several times, with two different cruise lines, always with a drink package (last time with NCL in 2021) and I don't remember this rule. If this is the case now, I wonder how this will work for our Greek cruise next month - it's 9-day cruise with pretty much full days in ports. 

It should be fine.

 

As I mentioned, the main issues were a couple of years ago. It seems to have been fairly quiet since, but as this is NCL you never know.

[sheila77]

I sailed out of Athens May, 2023 for the 7 day on the Jade.  I did have the drink package and did enjoy several beverages from the bars. Everyone in our party had the drink package so can't speak of the no "selling", but we were definitely served beverages!

[sbnuggie]

Thanks all who replied.  I got copies of the PEARL dailies from our identical sailing in July 2024 and that advisement of no alcohol service is not on any of the greece ports of the dailies.

[bluesea777]

14 hours ago, Anoynmous Phoenix said:

@sbnuggie

 

It does apply to Piraeus and all Greek Ports

 

 

That's 2022, things have changed now.

 

[sbnuggie]

Howdy,  Back from the cruise and just answering my own questions in case this comes up again. 

 

I can proudly confirm that we embarked onto the Pearl at approximately 1245pm, walked right to the bar and obtained two very strong alcoholic drinks at 1246pm.....