Misself

Hello. I haven't done a P&O cruise for ages, but have booked Britannia for June and the classic drinks package. Most cruise lines have been on before, in the MDR, once they've served you a wine (and know you are on a package), they tend to just come round a top you up freely. With the 15 drink limit, are they a bit more 'strict' on P&O. I'm deciding whether to upgrade to deluxe as clearly getting 250mls rather than 175ml means less ordering needed 😉

Some sort of guarantee that this problem won’t pop up again in another port would be good. Never gonna happen as that would mean acknowledging that NCL were in the wrong all along. the trouble is, if there IS a repeat of this in the future, the ship will tow the same line and tell us ,the customer, that it’s not their fault.

We had a Twitter/Blogger on our Sun cruise last November and I reached out to ask her thoughts on the ‘No alcohol in Gibraltar’. She never replied and I did think maybe she didn’t want to bad mouth them for some reason 😉. I saw cruisemummy put her blog on Twitter and there were a few shocked reactions. Hopefully there will be more bloggers commenting (assuming the issues continue). .

Haven’t read all the responses. Suffice to say I experienced NCL moving the goals posts on my last cruise. I managed a refund of taxes plus a refund for one day of the free at sea package (Gibraltar), but I assume all this was purely out of ‘goodwill’ rather than accepting they were wrong. I wonder if this is something BBC Watchdog would investigate?!?

Someone in our group, just to be minded, on the last day of the cruise went to guest services and got them to print off VAT receipts for all the drinks they charged VAT on. (Ridiculous VAT on a drink that costs you nothing!) . The idea being there is a place at the airport where you can claim it back. Of course he never bothered to do that as it was only a few dollars, but he simply wanted to inconvenience them.

Emailed you

UPDATE had a response from NCL. They are saying as I had prepaid drinks package I should NOT have been taxed in Spain and are refunding the $ that I paid in tax. still no explanation re Gibraltar but are saying it was until 6pm although on our cruise it was not until 8.30pm (after dinner).that they were allowed to serve.

Hey I definitely don’t want to get into a debate. 😁. Just must been lucky on all my other cruises to Spain . (NCL &, RCL). The main gripe however was Gibraltar.

Uk t&c are different (ie we don’t pay gratuities on the free package which I understand some people do). Most UK people will vouch that we never pay tax in Spanish ports on UPB drinks (I’ve done the epic out of Barcelona numerous times). Something to do with our consumer rules or something . .If we purchase something else (outside any included package), then yes we pay tax. Anyhow the tax issue is minor, albeit annoying and probably due to the ship not understanding the uk’s T&C…or a change in regulation. And yes Gibraltar sucked 😜

Don’t worry, the bars were open for soft drinks. Just all the alcohol cleared away.

It was the uk side. All NCL is saying is the stock reply of ‘while docked in Gibraltar NCL is not allowed to serve alcohol’. no further explanation as to why, or any comment as to why all other cruise lines can but NCL can’t.. . This has come down to principle. (1st world problems and all that 😂). I didn’t really mind that I couldn’t have my usual afternoon cocktail and certainly wasn’t shaking from alcohol withdrawal as some people suggest 😜. But it’s the lack of honesty or transparency that bothers me. It seems from talking to others in the industry that NCL haven’t paid for the license or something but they are still happy to charge us for the package that day. And it’s strange that the week before NCL sun COULD serve alcohol in Gibraltar.???

I thought that but others were getting cans so I did too! Handy to keep in the fridge.

Thank you ! That is what we would have expected but even with a package they wouldn’t serve us in Gibraltar.

Can you do this rather than booking a specific cruise?

Again the tax issue was strange. As a uk booker, once we’ve paid for our package it includes all tips, taxes blah blah blah. On the numerous NCL cruises I’ve done to Spanish ports I’ve never had to pay tax (the drink is effectively no charge as already paid for it…how can you tax nothing?!). Blimey….3 dry ports is a bit extreme. Were you still charged 3 full days drink package?