Liquor on lately???

[Planer's Edge]

Actually, I was more pointing toward the ethical considerations. It's unethical for passengers to not abide by the cruise lines' rules. It's also unethical for cruise lines' to not prominently display a change in enforcement for a practice (bringing alcohol aboard) that was customary, commonplace and acceptable in the past. They hide their alcohol policy in the fine print much like a smuggler hides their booze in their baggage.

 

I beg to differ. Their alcohol policy is in no way hidden in the fine print. It is very prominent in the FAQ's.

 

PE

[scchasgal]

Actually, I was more pointing toward the ethical considerations. It's unethical for passengers to not abide by the cruise lines' rules. It's also unethical for cruise lines' to not prominently display a change in enforcement for a practice (bringing alcohol aboard) that was customary, commonplace and acceptable in the past. They hide their alcohol policy in the fine print much like a smuggler hides their booze in their baggage.

 

How far in the past are you talking about? I have been cruising with NCL for 13 years and it has never been customary.

[pmd98052]

Where did you find the $22 number. The numbers I am finding are $51.50 for liquor ($76 for premium) and $34.50 for beer. ( http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=3566 ). I believe NCl has a package for unlimited drinks but it is limited to groups and ALL must purchase. I believe the price is less than $51.50pp/day.

 

If you scroll down on Celebrity's page you see the unlimited frozen/blended drink option is $22 per day. And yeah the NCL option being limited to large groups is kind of useless for most. I'd happily pay NCL $51 pp/day though for it if they did offer it to all.

[newmexicoNita]

Actually, I was more pointing toward the ethical considerations. It's unethical for passengers to not abide by the cruise lines' rules. It's also unethical for cruise lines' to not prominently display a change in enforcement for a practice (bringing alcohol aboard) that was customary, commonplace and acceptable in the past. They hide their alcohol policy in the fine print much like a smuggler hides their booze in their baggage.

 

I do not think any line hides the policy on alcohol. As for customary and accepted, I think you need to go back several years..The alcohol rules have been effect for some time and never hidden...If to you, this justified smuggling to right ahead but please do not be the one that comes back and bitches cause you were made to feel like a criminal or something.

 

Nita

[Jerseyboy1]

If cruiselines want to stay afloat (pun intended), then maybe they should confiscate the booze like they do at concerts. If that doesn't work well enough towards their bottom line, then deny passage. I for one want the cruiselines to make money and lots of it, because without positive cash flow you can eventually kiss your precious cruise vacations goodbye.

[Richie2pies]

Maybe I'm an alcoholic but I like to have a drink in my cabin without paying the outrageous prices on NCL. I don't want to pay their corkage fee for the cheap wine I drink. If I couldn't smuggle, I wouldn't cruise. I can afford the drinks; it's the principle of it. I refuse to pay 3 times the price for what I can drink locally for, or even more if I drink at home. for those who care, Princess allows wine legally and they rarely bother you for other booze. NCL is cheaper, but so is their product. NCL is worth the money, but you get what you pay for.

 

Cheerleaders have at it!

[pmd98052]

Princess allows wine legally and they rarely bother you for other booze. NCL is cheaper, but so is their product. NCL is worth the money, but you get what you pay for.

 

Problem is NCL is not always cheaper - you need to do due diligence and check.

 

My mum visited from NZ last summer and sailed to Alaska on Princess because they were significantly cheaper than NCL. She paid $499 for a Sept Alaska cruise out of Seattle where NCL wanted $800.

[swedish weave]

Problem is NCL is not always cheaper - you need to do due diligence and check.

 

My mum visited from NZ last summer and sailed to Alaska on Princess because they were significantly cheaper than NCL. She paid $499 for a Sept Alaska cruise out of Seattle where NCL wanted $800.

 

It is not the same this year. Sept to Alaska on princess is listed at $616 and NCL is $539.

[pmd98052]

It is not the same this year. Sept to Alaska on princess is listed at $616 and NCL is $539.

 

My point entirely - you have to check. I just looked at my usual TA and for Sept I see NCL Pearl at $669 for inside on Sept 5th and Celebrity at $599 for an inside on Sept 3rd. Princess is $634 on Sept 5th. All out of Seattle and back to Seattle.

 

Looking at NCL.com directly - on Sept 5th I see $719... Your $539 appears to me as $549 on NCL.COM on Sept 12th but its a Seattle cruise that ends up in Vancouver versus SEA-SEA which is always more expensive.

[newmexicoNita]

Maybe I'm an alcoholic but I like to have a drink in my cabin without paying the outrageous prices on NCL. I don't want to pay their corkage fee for the cheap wine I drink. If I couldn't smuggle, I wouldn't cruise. I can afford the drinks; it's the principle of it. I refuse to pay 3 times the price for what I can drink locally for, or even more if I drink at home. for those who care, Princess allows wine legally and they rarely bother you for other booze. NCL is cheaper, but so is their product. NCL is worth the money, but you get what you pay for.

 

Cheerleaders have at it!

 

Curios, do you take your own booze to restaurants? I see you live in NJ, or I assume you do, don't you pay a similar price for a drink in a decent bar or restaurant where you live. Even here in NWA we pay close to what they charge on ships..In Dallas, L.A and many places we visit we pay as much if not more. Wine is usually marked up 2 to 3 times the cost. Do I like it, heck no, do I pay it, yes, if I want a drink.

 

Nita

[liquidfire46]

Get over yourself.

[Planer's Edge]

Get over yourself.

 

Thank you for your well thought out first post here at Cruise Critic.:rolleyes:

 

PE

[PokerDave]

Curios, do you take your own booze to restaurants? I see you live in NJ, or I assume you do, don't you pay a similar price for a drink in a decent bar or restaurant where you live. Even here in NWA we pay close to what they charge on ships..In Dallas, L.A and many places we visit we pay as much if not more. Wine is usually marked up 2 to 3 times the cost. Do I like it, heck no, do I pay it, yes, if I want a drink.

 

Nita

A restaurant doesn't have you as a captive audience but for one meal. A cruise ship has you for a week or more. I can have a drink before I go to the restaurant or wait until after. Does it stop me from ordering in a restaurant? No, but I have considerably more flexibility there than the cruise situation...

 

I think a better analogy would be a hotel that refused to let you take food into your room unless you ordered it from them. The hotel has restaurants and needs to make money, but they don't REQUIRE you to eat there.

 

And like you said they mark up a BOTTLE of wine 2-3 times but we pay it anyway. Point taken. But in order to get a bar setup you have to pay 6 or 7 times the price for liquor. $80+ for a Liter of $13 booze. If the restaurant charged $80 for the $13 bottle of wine would you buy it? Likely not... I have no issue with paying the cruise line a reasonable profit. If they charged 2-3 times the price of liquor for the bar setup I'd be happy with that, but they insist on getting the same markup that they get by the drink which I just don't agree with. Their costs don't align that way. You can bring your own wine, but pay a "corkage" fee. If there were a similar "corkage fee" for bringing on liquor that would be fine too, but they aren't consistent there.

 

They are simply taking advantage of a captive audience. Or trying too... :D

[Crusin-Suzan]

Ok we are back. It was a wonderful cruise. Want to know about the liquor??? I don't want any comments from anyone. Just giving information. They did take part of our liquor away. (my husbands) It was totally random. Our friends brought on 5 bottles of wine and a large bottle of vodka, other friends brought on 2 bottles of vodka. Only person that was called in was my husband. He had his in rumrunner containers. About 30 suitcases were searched. Only check on. Bring as much with you in water bottles as carry on, as they were not checked. We did get all the free drinks we wanted comped with Casino at Sea. Our bill was still a grand. Did get enough onboard so we could enjoy a drink on the balcony.

 

Otherwise the Pearl was great. Food was great. Any questions would be glad to answer. Just do not want to get into a negative fight.

[Planer's Edge]

We are so happy that you are proud of your accomplishment.

 

PE

[luddite]

Ok we are back. It was a wonderful cruise. Want to know about the liquor??? I don't want any comments from anyone. Just giving information. They did take part of our liquor away. (my husbands) It was totally random. Our friends brought on 5 bottles of wine and a large bottle of vodka, other friends brought on 2 bottles of vodka. Only person that was called in was my husband. He had his in rumrunner containers. About 30 suitcases were searched. Only check on. Bring as much with you in water bottles as carry on, as they were not checked. We did get all the free drinks we wanted comped with Casino at Sea. Our bill was still a grand. Did get enough onboard so we could enjoy a drink on the balcony.

 

Otherwise the Pearl was great. Food was great. Any questions would be glad to answer. Just do not want to get into a negative fight.

 

"Otherwise the Pearl was great'

It's good to know that losing a bottle of hootch didn't ruin the entire trip for ya. Man, THAT would've been a sucky trip!

What did hubby drink, sans his own contraband?

[garycarla]

You can justify it anyway you want... but let me tell my story.

 

We own our business. We work hard at it, very hard. Our salary is based on our efforts and what we put into it. We have shoplifters, yup it's true! Almost every time the excuse they give us when we catch them is that "I've spent X dollars at your store thru the years so I felt I was entitled to what I took". I say, REALLY, you chose to spend that money thru the years, you chose the purchases you made at the prices we asked for the goods. No one forced you to buy and you picked the product and the quantity. How in the world does that justify what you took from us? So for me, your excuse that you buy plenty of drinks in the bar or gamble enough to support the ship is simply ridiculous and somehow gives you peace of mind from the guilt that is inside of you.

 

 

This story is NOT a direct comparison. If someone takes something from your store and does not pay, money comes out of your pocket. Understood.

 

If I want a drink in my cabin before dinner, but do not order one, then I am NOT taking anything from NCL. Your logic leads one to say non-drinkers are also taking money from NCL.

 

If on the other hand, I do have a drink that I brought onboard, then I get a drink with no upside or downside to NCL.

 

The only time that NCL takes a hit is if I have a drink INSTEAD of paying NCL for one.

 

Silly, silly comparison.

[garycarla]

Curios, do you take your own booze to restaurants? ....

 

Though this does make sense regarding the bars and restaurants, non of the local restaurants we visit have a balcony or bedroom where we would like a drink. Nor do any restaurants bring drinks to us in bed.

 

p.s. - We spend hundreds on each cruise buying drinks onboard. Many passengers spend ZERO. Maybe we should be going after them and how they are hurting the cruiseline by not drinking!

[pmd98052]

Ok we are back. It was a wonderful cruise. Want to know about the liquor??? I don't want any comments from anyone. Just giving information. They did take part of our liquor away. (my husbands) It was totally random. Our friends brought on 5 bottles of wine and a large bottle of vodka, other friends brought on 2 bottles of vodka. Only person that was called in was my husband. He had his in rumrunner containers. About 30 suitcases were searched. Only check on. Bring as much with you in water bottles as carry on, as they were not checked. We did get all the free drinks we wanted comped with Casino at Sea. Our bill was still a grand. Did get enough onboard so we could enjoy a drink on the balcony.

 

What worries me most about this is that there is meant to be security at these ports and all bags are meant to be closely scanned and examined. This is obviously NOT happening or these basic breaches would all be caught.

 

Its concerning to me that 5+ bottles of contraband get onboard at all. If honest passengers can do this imagine what a terrorist could do to a cruise ship given the apparent lack of basic secuirty.

[garycarla]

What worries me most about this is that there is meant to be security at these ports and all bags are meant to be closely scanned and examined. This is obviously NOT happening or these basic breaches would all be caught.

 

Its concerning to me that 5+ bottles of contraband get onboard at all. If honest passengers can do this imagine what a terrorist could do to a cruise ship given the apparent lack of basic security.

 

 

Sorry, but you need to deal with reality. If the bad guys wanted to do something on a ship, there are plenty of other ways to do it. Same with your local mall, or store or school, etc. To think there is anywhere near that level of security is nuts. There is no lack of basic security here, just a lack of understanding. Bags are NOT closely examined. Have you watched what they do as you board?

 

Understand that more WAY MORE is required for and needed on a plane since the plane itself could be a weapon. Rather hard to drive a cruiseship into a building. If you do some research, you will find that even in tests, there is a high rate of contraband that still gets onto airplanes, even with that level of checking.

 

Even in a prison, where they strip search people, there are weapons and drugs. And the day they start taking every single item out of your luggage and strip search each passenger is the day I do not want to be here.

 

By the way, the main reason 9/11 succeeded is that the official policy at that time was to allow hijackers to do what they wanted - NOT a lapse in security.

[pmd98052]

Sorry, but you need to deal with reality. If the bad guys wanted to do something on a ship, there are plenty of other ways to do it. Same with your local mall, or store or school, etc. To think there is anywhere near that level of security is nuts. There is no lack of basic security here, just a lack of understanding. Bags are NOT closely examined. Have you watched what they do as you board

 

I'm not claiming airline security is any better - (For carry on's it maybe but not for hold luggage even on planes). I just find it strange (and concerning) that luggage with large amounts of contraband gets past cruise ship screening on a regular basis - The odd bottle sure - But cases with 5+ bottles? Really?. I'm surprised cruise ships are not a more frequent terrorist target given the soft security. Blow up a plane and impact a few hundred. Blow up a packed mega cruise ship in the middle of the ocean and you have a much more dramatic impact. Thus it concerns me that this much contraband goes completely undetected.

 

Getting caught is random - It shouldn't be.

 

Note: sinking a new mega cruise ship could easily result in a greater loss of life than all casulties in 9/11.

[erdoran]

Though this does make sense regarding the bars and restaurants, non of the local restaurants we visit have a balcony or bedroom where we would like a drink. Nor do any restaurants bring drinks to us in bed.

 

p.s. - We spend hundreds on each cruise buying drinks onboard. Many passengers spend ZERO. Maybe we should be going after them and how they are hurting the cruiseline by not drinking!

 

I've made that point as well--totally separate from the issue of obeying/disobeying rules---most of the anti-smugglers say that people are "stealing from" or hurting the cruiselines by bringing their own booze--the assumption is, I guess, that for every drink you have from smuggled booze, you buy one fewer from the cruiseline. I don't necessarily agree with that personally, but there is no objective data to determine how many fewer drinks smugglers buy because they have their own "free" booze.

 

Agreed with GaryCarla--by that logic then the non-drinkers, and people who buy fewer to zero drinks because they object to the price are also hurting the cruiselines equally. In addition, the people who book shore excursions from any vendor other than the cruise company (did I hear mayachan off in the distance? or that tour in Belize that people rave about, I forget the guy's name) are also hurting the cruiselines, and more directly because for every tour you buy ashore, that's one fewer for NCL. And it's generally sanctioned to bring aboard your own soda & bottled water so you don't have to buy overpriced sodas or expensive bottled water before you go ashore--that, too is directly hurting cruiseline profits. In fact, I would guess that all these LEGITIMATE activities have MORE effect on the bottom line than liquor smuggling does!

[pmd98052]

Agreed with GaryCarla--by that logic then the non-drinkers, and people who buy fewer to zero drinks because they object to the price are also hurting the cruiselines equally. In addition, the people who book shore excursions from any vendor other than the cruise company (did I hear mayachan off in the distance? or that tour in Belize that people rave about, I forget the guy's name) are also hurting the cruiselines, and more directly because for every tour you buy ashore, that's one fewer for NCL. And it's generally sanctioned to bring aboard your own soda & bottled water so you don't have to buy overpriced sodas or expensive bottled water before you go ashore--that, too is directly hurting cruiseline profits. In fact, I would guess that all these LEGITIMATE activities have MORE effect on the bottom line than liquor smuggling does!

 

Anyone doing these things is causing the cruise line signifcant revenue loss. On the soda thing though - officially isn't policy that you are NOT allowed to bring this onboard? I know they don't appear to enforce it but I thought the small print didn't offically allow soda either?

[luddite]

I've made that point as well--totally separate from the issue of obeying/disobeying rules---most of the anti-smugglers say that people are "stealing from" or hurting the cruiselines by bringing their own booze--the assumption is, I guess, that for every drink you have from smuggled booze, you buy one fewer from the cruiseline. I don't necessarily agree with that personally, but there is no objective data to determine how many fewer drinks smugglers buy because they have their own "free" booze.

 

Agreed with GaryCarla--by that logic then the non-drinkers, and people who buy fewer to zero drinks because they object to the price are also hurting the cruiselines equally. In addition, the people who book shore excursions from any vendor other than the cruise company (did I hear mayachan off in the distance? or that tour in Belize that people rave about, I forget the guy's name) are also hurting the cruiselines, and more directly because for every tour you buy ashore, that's one fewer for NCL. And it's generally sanctioned to bring aboard your own soda & bottled water so you don't have to buy overpriced sodas or expensive bottled water before you go ashore--that, too is directly hurting cruiseline profits. In fact, I would guess that all these LEGITIMATE activities have MORE effect on the bottom line than liquor smuggling does!

 

And,....bank robbery is about money.

[erdoran]

And,....bank robbery is about money.

and the relationship between bank robbery and smuggling a bottle of liquor onto a cruise ship is ?????