Beverage Package

[rick160158]

I recall that when you board your cruise at the home port, before the ship leaves, even though you have the beverage package, and order an alcoholic drink, you'd still pay the tax on that drink. Until the ship sails about an hour out, at which point the tax isn't applied. Does this still apply ? We're sailing out of Miami. 

[Jadn13]

13 minutes ago, rick160158 said:

I recall that when you board your cruise at the home port, before the ship leaves, even though you have the beverage package, and order an alcoholic drink, you'd still pay the tax on that drink. Until the ship sails about an hour out, at which point the tax isn't applied. Does this still apply ? We're sailing out of Miami. 

Without the package I paid 77 cents in tax on one glass of wine. I didn’t pay tax with the package. 
I took a B2B one week with the pkg one week without 

Edited February 9, 2022 by Jadn13

[Mike45LC]

I was under the impression that this is the rule sailing from Miami, that the ship needs to charge and collect tax for the City on all sales within the City limits.  My understanding is that with the beverage package, the ship adds the tax to your shipboard account for all drinks purchased until the sail-away.

 

But this is not what Jadin reported.

[scooter6139]

This happened on NCL Encore when sailing to Alaska from Seattle.  Since you are in port, local taxes I think apply.

[Jadn13]

22 minutes ago, Mike45LC said:

I was under the impression that this is the rule sailing from Miami, that the ship needs to charge and collect tax for the City on all sales within the City limits.  My understanding is that with the beverage package, the ship adds the tax to your shipboard account for all drinks purchased until the sail-away.

 

But this is not what Jadin reported.

I got a glass of wine in the dining room on embarkation day for lunch and wasn’t charged…may not be the policy but I joked all week about my first glass of wine being nearly $15 that I made sure to double check that I wasn’t charged w/the pkg and nothing not even tax showed up. 

[capriccio]

We had the Princess Plus package when we sailed out of Fort Lauderdale on January 2.  We boarded early and we both had a drink on the Lido before the MDR opened and then had wine with lunch.  When we checked our folio that evening we had unexpected charges (since we had the drink package) for the Lido drinks including tax IIRC.  We were not charged for the wine.  The customer service staffer said it would be backed out that night but it wasn't.  We talked to the same woman the next morning and suddenly she was able to process the reversal herself.  Another reason to keep a close eye on your folio balance.

[MissP22]

Now I'm not sure what to think, but we'll be checking our tab very closely. 

[Gatorzzzz]

We had drinks in the MDR for lunch on embarkation day in Port Everglades and were charged what I assumed was local sales tax. Didn’t show up until the second or third day. It was something like $1.73. 

[hllwdcruiser]

1 hour ago, Gatorzzzz said:

We had drinks in the MDR for lunch on embarkation day in Port Everglades and were charged what I assumed was local sales tax. Didn’t show up until the second or third day. It was something like $1.73. 

Did you have the drink package?

My understanding is if you have the drink package, you've essentially "prepaid" - so there should be no taxes onboard even if you are still in port.

Just to clarify ~ I obtained this understanding from reading these boards and not from Princess. 

[skynight]

To be clear Princess sails from Ft Lauderdale, not Miami.

[skynight]

In the past when docked at Ft Lauderdale we have used the pre paid coffee package to order a specialty coffee. Never an extra local tax. But, when ordering a beverage, alcoholic or not which was charged to our on board account the local tax was added. 

 

[Gatorzzzz]

2 hours ago, hllwdcruiser said:

Did you have the drink package?

My understanding is if you have the drink package, you've essentially "prepaid" - so there should be no taxes onboard even if you are still in port.

Just to clarify ~ I obtained this understanding from reading these boards and not from Princess. 

Yes, we had the package. But as I understand the law, if you are in port, that counts as a sale by the cruise line in the locality, even if the customer has already “paid” for the drink with a package. Thus, sales tax is due. 

[voljeep]

1 minute ago, Gatorzzzz said:

Yes, we had the package. But as I understand the law, if you are in port, that counts as a sale by the cruise line in the locality, even if the customer has already “paid” for the drink with a package. Thus, sales tax is due. 

Fort Lauderdale - 2 weeks ago

 

we had the package

we had multiple beverages prior to Regal leaving port covered by the package

no sale tax was added to our account for those beverages "in port"

 

[Gatorzzzz]

 

[MissP22]

10 hours ago, hllwdcruiser said:

Did you have the drink package?

My understanding is if you have the drink package, you've essentially "prepaid" - so there should be no taxes onboard even if you are still in port.

Just to clarify ~ I obtained this understanding from reading these boards and not from Princess. 

Let us know how it works once you're aboard. 

[hllwdcruiser]

2 hours ago, MissP22 said:

Let us know how it works once you're aboard. 

I guess I have to now 😉 I do plan to do a live from ~ nothing fancy ~ I'm neither an author nor photographer.

The question is...how many drinks should we consume before leaving port to test the system? I think we will definitely need to visit some different bars with different bartenders.....🤔

BTW and off topic ~ we still couldn't find cream cheese on the East coast. The quest continues....

Edited February 11, 2022 by hllwdcruiser

[MissP22]

8 hours ago, hllwdcruiser said:

I guess I have to now 😉 I do plan to do a live from ~ nothing fancy ~ I'm neither an author nor photographer.

The question is...how many drinks should we consume before leaving port to test the system? One will do.  I think we will definitely need to visit some different bars with different bartenders.....🤔

BTW and off topic ~ we still couldn't find cream cheese on the East coast. The quest continues....

It was available at our local Walmart but only Philadelphia brand & in small sizes. 

[RNRcruisers]

Our group of four had several drinks before sailaway last month on the Regal out of Fort Lauderdale, no charges.

 

[MissP22]

2 minutes ago, RNRcruisers said:

Our group of four had several drinks before sailaway last month on the Regal out of Fort Lauderdale, no charges.

 

As it should be .