Who's been caught taking spirits onboard?

[LovesthebeachToronto]

I'm sure I read on a thread that Princess doesn't consider beer to be alcohol therefore no problem in bringing onboard along with wine (not in a suitcase but perhaps boxed up with the wine). Can anyone speak to their experience? How much beer is too much to bring on (could we get away with 24 or even 12)? Like someone said we will still have a bar bill as I love my evening martinis but just wondering how far we can go.

[bcnvcanada]

My Husband loves pisco sours and type of Pisco that I get when I fly either from Peru or Chile. It is better if you leave it in the box, though we do tape the top. Pack the box with bubble wrap. Put it in plastic bags, Tape it up, in case of breakage. Then wrap in sweaters or something to soften blows. If I was using soft sides duffle type case, I would get another box a little larger to using small items to pack around it. I have done this five times over the last two years. My cases have been dropped out of the plane- missing the belt and everything was in tact upon arrival. Wish you the best.

[bhopal21]

DDDDale,

I admire your taste in scotch. We have recently been on 2 Princess cruises, and we put our favorite beverage in half litre water bottles to avoid breakage, and put them in our checked luggage.No problem

 

I have been doing this for years. The water bottles are much stronger than rum runners and there is no chance of them breaking like glass.

 

The best thing is they are free.

 

Mike:)

[johnmik1]

Just got off the Emerald on Sunday..they were confiscating spirits bought at the ports of call and they were kept until the last day...wine was ok.

 

I also disembarked on Sunday and they were not conficating anything.People were walking up and turning the liquor in at the desk.Try walking right by as I did!Works every time.

[janina]

Never had a problem in checked luggage.:)

[Katie333]

Brought wine (acceptable in the rules) and scotch (not acceptable in the rules) onboard every Princess cruise. We've brought it in our carryon luggage at both the embarkation and occasionally from the ports. Never had a problem.

 

We don't make it obvious, but we don't go to the lengths some do to hide it either. With that said, what we bring with us is generally a small amount, sometimes not even a full sized bottle.

 

Most cruises have a voluntary 'confisication desk' where you are asked to hand in your hard liquor purchases from the port. I say voluntary because no one (from the security scanning team or otherwise) will take it from you unless you hand it in.

[lovevacadays]

I don't typically take alcohol on board but when I cruised with one of my friends a couple of years ago she put two bottles of vodka in her carryon and she had no problems. We were having martini's on the balcony long before the ship sailed!:D

[Cancun01]

Sorry to disagree but last week at port the folks in front of us at the scanner had their hard liquor confiscated under protest. They were told it would be given back on Saturday.

[Cruise Junky]

a friend of mine was on RCCL and said one of their group had a bottle of scotch taken

out of her checked suitcase. They left a note advising they had taken it as it was not allowed. Check the rules!

Claudiaj

 

Princess treats their guests like adults, RCCL like criminals. Never had a problem with Princess and have never had to hide it.

[Cruise Junky]

I have been doing this for years. The water bottles are much stronger than rum runners and there is no chance of them breaking like glass.

 

The best thing is they are free.

 

Mike:)

 

 

I bought a set of 3 rum runners, one sprung a leak and soaked a dear friend in vodka..I now stick to water bottles.

[spyro1952]

Sorry to disagree but last week at port the folks in front of us at the scanner had their hard liquor confiscated under protest. They were told it would be given back on Saturday.

 

That's why you need it in checked luggage. Sometimes you do get a hard ass going thru the scanners at embarkation. My father would bring his whole bar on board as he drank Old Fashions and needed the bitters, sugar etc but always packed it. I'm sure there are some people that do get liquor in ports and successfully get it back on board, I don't have that type of luck - I would get caught.

[Cruise Junky]

That's why you need it in checked luggage. Sometimes you do get a hard ass going thru the scanners at embarkation. My father would bring his whole bar on board as he drank Old Fashions and needed the bitters, sugar etc but always packed it. I'm sure there are some people that do get liquor in ports and successfully get it back on board, I don't have that type of luck - I would get caught.

 

I warned my husband back in 2006 on the Sea Princess that they were cracking down and don't even think about smuggling it on in port... the guy in front of us in St. Maarten had a big bottle of scotch out in the open , no problem at all bringing it back on board... my husband handed me the bag he was carrying, walked right back off and went and bought a bottle of Absolute.

[pris993]

We have never had a problem on Princess, HAl or Celebrity.

 

Once had someone ask, if the 6 pack cans I had were soda, I said yes, that was it.

 

We bring some on in our carryon and then buy more as needed in ports along the way, both wine and alcohol.

 

We don't bring a lot, just a reasonable amount for cabin use.

[Coracii]

Princess treats their guests like adults, RCCL like criminals. Never had a problem with Princess and have never had to hide it.

 

I don't know that I'd go that far with the analogy. Princess has a policy that they choose to enforce only sporadically which leads at times to people being confused over their choices. RCCL has a fairly similar policy in place but they're much more consistent in enforcing that policy.

 

I'm always amused in these threads at how many people celebrate this one policy that Princess doesn't enforce while some of these same people lament the fact that there is another highly discussed policy here that some of these same people vehemently want enforced to the letter.

[Putterdude]

If you are going to pack a glass bottle in checked luggage I would advise wrapping it well and placing it in the middle of the bag; as recently as 10 days ago at Canada Place there was a gent behind me whose suitcase was dripping vodka and he was almost in tears.:(

[Cruise Junky]

I don't know that I'd go that far with the analogy. Princess has a policy that they choose to enforce only sporadically which leads at times to people being confused over their choices. RCCL has a fairly similar policy in place but they're much more consistent in enforcing that policy.

 

I'm always amused in these threads at how many people celebrate this one policy that Princess doesn't enforce while some of these same people lament the fact that there is another highly discussed policy here that some of these same people vehemently want enforced to the letter.

 

I have to disagree with this. Princess doesn't enforce their hard liquor policy - agreed. But Princess allows you to take wine and champagne onboard..openly.. RCCL doesn't. Princess also allows you to buy a bottle of vodka, gin, etc. for your room. RCCL doesn't. So I stand by my comment.

[Dreamer333]

I just got off the the Emerald Princess on the 12th and we carried on several bottles of wine with us.

We also had some hard liquor in our suitcase. We kept it in the original bottles and wrapped them very well in clothing and everything was fine.

 

At the ports, I saw some people carrying on some alcohol purchased and it was not taken from them. My guess is that it was because it was at the very end of the day and they were probably tired, lol. But I did see a large crate filled with bottles that they had taken to return to back to the passengers at the end of the cruise.

 

Some of the stores that sell alcohol at the ports box up the alcohol for you and deliver it to the ship for you. I'm assuming that the ship holds onto that until the last day of the cruise.

 

Hope this helps.

[Coracii]

I have to disagree with this. Princess doesn't enforce their hard liquor policy - agreed. But Princess allows you to take wine and champagne onboard..openly.. RCCL doesn't. Princess also allows you to buy a bottle of vodka, gin, etc. for your room. RCCL doesn't. So I stand by my comment.

 

Restaurants and bars generally don't allow you to bring your own food or liquor in (there are some exceptions to this), sports stadiums don't allow you to bring your own beer or hot dogs inside the stadium or arena, many theme parks don't allow outside food or beverages to be brought in. These are business decisions that they make, and the consumer decides whether they accept this business decision or not. There is nothing "criminal" in their business decision solely because you disagree with it.

[Cruise Junky]

Restaurants and bars generally don't allow you to bring your own food or liquor in (there are some exceptions to this), sports stadiums don't allow you to bring your own beer or hot dogs inside the stadium or arena, many theme parks don't allow outside food or beverages to be brought in. These are business decisions that they make, and the consumer decides whether they accept this business decision or not. There is nothing "criminal" in their business decision solely because you disagree with it.

 

I don't usually sleep in a restaurant or sports stadium for 12 nights, not sure about you. Anyway, my money is where my mouth is which hasn't been RCCL in 10 years.

[Coracii]

I don't usually sleep in a restaurant or sports stadium for 12 nights, not sure about you. Anyway, my money is where my mouth is which hasn't been RCCL in 10 years.

 

And that's your choice to make. Hundreds of thousands of other people sail happily with RCCL every year and follow their policies. It doesn't matter how many days you're a paying customer at a business, they make the rules and if those rules aren't acceptable then people need to find another establishment (which you've already done quite a while ago). Quite a few cruiselines have very strict non-smoking policies, just because someone is on the ship for a week and a half doesn't mean they should ignore that policy if they feel like it's not right for them, that's a business decision the cruiselines made and the cruiser agreed to it by booking. I'm still hoping that one day Princess will either begin consistently enforcing the policies that they have in print or just do away with them to eliminate the confusion that it can cause through their random enforcement.

[donna5]

Sorry to disagree but last week at port the folks in front of us at the scanner had their hard liquor confiscated under protest. They were told it would be given back on Saturday.

 

Out of curiosity, what was the passenger carrying the liquor in as they boarded?

[Putterdude]

These alcohol threads are a no win...but frankly one of the reasons I cruise with Princess is because of their tolerance toward bringing liquor on board. I supose if people don't like the lack of enforcement then they are free to sail with a cruise line that does just as I choose not to sail with them.

[sultan_sfo]

Topic Is: Who's been caught taking spirits onboard?

 

The responses are from those who brag about "not" being caught!

[Dreamer333]

The responses are from those who brag about "not" being caught!

 

Not sure who you are speaking for, but I can speak for myself that I was simply sharing my experience with the OP.

 

With that being said, I'm not getting into this stupid useless argument. If anyone of these boards wants to hear about other's experiences, I will gladly share mine, regardless of the judgemental accussational posters out there.

[NSWP]

I fear those who break the policy, i.e. no spirits to come on board, will eventually stuff it for the rest of us who just bring on a couple of bottles of wine in accordance with policy.

 

Just my two cents worth.