Premier or Plus Package Tax Inquiry

[gkthorn]

Considering purchasing the Premier or Plus package on our Princess Cruise in October. Can anyone inform me if the $80 per day for Premier or the $60 per day for Plus is all taxes included?

 

Glenn

[Steelers36]

3 minutes ago, gkthorn said:

Considering purchasing the Premier or Plus package on our Princess Cruise in October. Can anyone inform me if the $80 per day for Premier or the $60 per day for Plus is all taxes included?

 

Glenn

No taxes charged.

[Rick&Jeannie]

Same as with your base cruise fare...no taxes.

[cr8tiv1]

But your $60 pre-cruise cost will have insurance added to the total.  

[memoak]

What kind of tax would there be. My state doesn’t even have a sales tax

[voljeep]

14 hours ago, memoak said:

What kind of tax would there be. My state doesn’t even have a sales tax

My state doesn't have an Income Tax - so it can't be that either

 

maybe a 'use' tax?

[skynight]

While docked in Ft. Lauderdale and some other ports a State and local sales tax is added to individual beverage purchases. Once the ship sails there is no tax. I have also experienced a local VAT tax on individual beverage purchases at Princess Cays. There are probably many other examples.

Not too many years ago, before the inclusive fares, we normally purchased the soda package while the ship was still docked waiting for the sail away. The purchase was written up manually. These manual sales slips were processed in the evening after the ship sailed. No local sales tax was ever added. I suspect that something similar would be the case when purchasing the plus/premier fare add on before the ship sails. It's also possible that adding the plus/premier fare is not considered a taxable transaction, much like booking and paying for a cruise. In my State there is no tax on the purchase of a cruise vacation.

[tetleytea]

I have no plans to ever purchase a drink package on Princess (the math doesn't compute), but on Norwegian where the drink package is included, they would charge only the tax for alcohol if you were in port stateside, but the staff would freely tell you to wait till they are out to sea.  Then no tax.  The rule of thumb was, if you are out to sea enough to open the casino, then no tax.  I defer to others on what Princess does, but that was Norwegian. 

 

[doghog]

1 hour ago, skynight said:

While docked in Ft. Lauderdale and some other ports a State and local sales tax is added to individual beverage purchases.

If true that must be a recent Princess rip off as we've never been charged a local tax at any of our embarkation or port stops with Princess, RC and Celerity. Hopefully not happening on our March 2024 Enchanted cruise out of Fort Lauderdale and any of the port stops.  

[voljeep]

1 minute ago, doghog said:

If true that must be a recent Princess rip off as we've never been charged a local tax at any of our embarkation or port stops with Princess, RC and Celerity. Hopefully not happening on our March 2024 Enchanted cruise out of Fort Lauderdale and any of the port stops.  

not a 'Princess' ripoff - you do realize that Princess does not get to keep that money for 'sales taxes' if the do collect it, right? - they get the privilege of doing all the paperwork, and sending the State Dept of Revenue a check/transfer - but they get to deduct a maximum of a whole $30 for this accounting.

 

SMH

[JGmf]

4 minutes ago, doghog said:

If true that must be a recent Princess rip off as we've never been charged a local tax at any of our embarkation or port stops with Princess, RC and Celerity. Hopefully not happening on our March 2024 Enchanted cruise out of Fort Lauderdale and any of the port stops. 

 

Depends on the port and whether there's a sales tax on alcohol while in US/state waters.  At least for NCL, I know this to be true in NY.

 

Oh, and it's about 70 cents to a $1 per drink, depending on the local tax rate.

 

Just letting you know if that dissuades you from drinking while in port or quitting cruising altogether.

[memoak]

6 minutes ago, doghog said:

If true that must be a recent Princess rip off as we've never been charged a local tax at any of our embarkation or port stops with Princess, RC and Celerity. Hopefully not happening on our March 2024 Enchanted cruise out of Fort Lauderdale and any of the port stops.  

This happens all the time. It is the port and state that is taxing the price of the drink not Princess. When everything was by the drink they would just hold everything and put them through once at sea. Not sure how this would work with drink plans

[doghog]

11 minutes ago, memoak said:

This happens all the time. It is the port and state that is taxing the price of the drink not Princess. When everything was by the drink they would just hold everything and put them through once at sea. Not sure how this would work with drink plans

 

15 minutes ago, voljeep said:

not a 'Princess' ripoff - you do realize that Princess does not get to keep that money for 'sales taxes' if the do collect it, right? - they get the privilege of doing all the paperwork, and sending the State Dept of Revenue a check/transfer - but they get to deduct a maximum of a whole $30 for this accounting.

 

SMH

 

12 minutes ago, JGmf said:

 

Depends on the port and whether there's a sales tax on alcohol while in US/state waters.  At least for NCL, I know this to be true in NY.

 

Oh, and it's about 70 cents to a $1 per drink, depending on the local tax rate.

 

Just letting you know if that dissuades you from drinking while in port or quitting cruising altogether.

We've never experiences a tax at any Florida embarkation ports or port stops as @skynight said (who I quoted) whether we've had a BP or not. Most recent was our March Celebrity Apex cruise.   Embarkation, Fort Lauderdale. Port stop, Key West. 

 

I've read on CC the tax is applied when embarking from Galveston. 

 

. 

 

Edited September 13, 2023 by doghog

[skynight]

2 hours ago, doghog said:

If true that must be a recent Princess rip off as we've never been charged a local tax at any of our embarkation or port stops with Princess, RC and Celerity. Hopefully not happening on our March 2024 Enchanted cruise out of Fort Lauderdale and any of the port stops.  

Not a rip off. I can tell you for certain that if you purchase a beverage while the ship is docked in Fort Lauderdale that Princess is required to collect Florida State sales tax which I believe is 6%. This amount is added to the Princess' beverage price which includes Princess' 18% beverage service charge. Princess then has to submit the collected amounts to the State retaining a small collection fee which is certainly way less than what it cost Princess to collect the tax and submit the funds to Florida. It is NOT a Princess rip off. A similar situation occurs at Princess Cays on the purchase of beverages or a gift at the gift shop. Princess is required by the Bahamas to collect a VAT tax and submit it to the government. On your 2024 cruise if you purchase a beverage while the ship is still docked in Ft. Lauderdale you will be charged Florida State sales tax.

When Princess sells a fare that includes beverages then that sale is made in California. Thus no Florida sales tax. 

[eqj60]

I believe there was also a similar tax while in ports in Spain. 

[memoak]

1 hour ago, eqj60 said:

I believe there was also a similar tax while in ports in Spain. 

I have also seen it in Hawaii

[deliver42]

It's also the same for cruises out of Galveston.

[doghog]

3 hours ago, skynight said:

Not a rip off. I can tell you for certain that if you purchase a beverage while the ship is docked in Fort Lauderdale that Princess is required to collect Florida State sales tax which I believe is 6%.

I wonder why Celebrity and RC don't and their headquarters is in Miami. Even on the private islands. Our 2024 cruise was booked with Princess Plus. 

Edited September 14, 2023 by doghog

[MacMadame]

3 hours ago, doghog said:

I wonder why Celebrity and RC don't and their headquarters is in Miami. Even on the private islands. Our 2024 cruise was booked with Princess Plus. 

Maybe they just eat the sales tax. Some companies do that for various reasons.

 

[beshears]

It has been a while since I have been on Cruise Critic and I am planning on ordering one of these packages, but that is not my question, and perhaps someone on "this" forum will be able to help me.

My question, WHERE do I start a new question under Princess forum? I have looked more than one time at the very beginning of all these current questions that different ones have posted, and I don't see the area where a new question can be started, as I always seen it at the very top of all the questions before?

[luv2kroooz]

13 hours ago, tetleytea said:

I have no plans to ever purchase a drink package on Princess (the math doesn't compute), but on Norwegian where the drink package is included, they would charge only the tax for alcohol if you were in port stateside, but the staff would freely tell you to wait till they are out to sea.  Then no tax.  The rule of thumb was, if you are out to sea enough to open the casino, then no tax.  I defer to others on what Princess does, but that was Norwegian. 

 

You might recompute your math. NCL charges a higher base fare just for the right to have the opportunity to have a drink package. Then they charge $21.80 per person per day for drink package service charge, plus the current $20 per person per day DSC. For $60, all included with Princess and the beverage package is far more inclusive on Princess. Plus, we use our TA OBC and shareholder onboard credit to offset part of the cost of the Princess package onboard. You can't do that on NCL. It really is no more expensive on Princess. It is all in the confusing marketing.

[skynight]

3 hours ago, beshears said:

It has been a while since I have been on Cruise Critic and I am planning on ordering one of these packages, but that is not my question, and perhaps someone on "this" forum will be able to help me.

My question, WHERE do I start a new question under Princess forum? I have looked more than one time at the very beginning of all these current questions that different ones have posted, and I don't see the area where a new question can be started, as I always seen it at the very top of all the questions before?

At the top right of the main Princess page there is a box to start a new topic.

[skynight]

10 hours ago, doghog said:

I wonder why Celebrity and RC don't and their headquarters is in Miami. Even on the private islands. Our 2024 cruise was booked with Princess Plus. 

They are submitting local taxes where required. They would face big trouble if they did not. You are paying. You just don't see it. I would imagine that they have systems in place to identify the amounts due and submit according to the required tax laws.

[BamaVol]

18 hours ago, JGmf said:

 

Depends on the port and whether there's a sales tax on alcohol while in US/state waters.  At least for NCL, I know this to be true in NY.

 

Oh, and it's about 70 cents to a $1 per drink, depending on the local tax rate.

 

Just letting you know if that dissuades you from drinking while in port or quitting cruising altogether.

I just checked my folio and we were charged 8% for a drink purchased while docked in Juneau, AK.  It was about a buck and a half. 

[doghog]

2 hours ago, skynight said:

They are submitting local taxes where required. They would face big trouble if they did not. You are paying. You just don't see it. I would imagine that they have systems in place to identify the amounts due and submit according to the required tax laws.

If you say so. Way above my paygrade.  All I know is when I sign the receipt (with RC) for our dinks the receipt does not list tax. Two line items. The cost of the drink and gratuity. Haven't signed one in years with Celebrity as we get the BPs. That's why I negatively commented about the tax with Princess. So with Princess your drink receipt will have three line items on it? Drink cost, gratuity and tax. Doesn't matter as we have the BPs for our future Princess cruise. 

 

I've read on CC the tax is applied when embarking from Galveston. At least with RC. So three line items on the drink receipt.