How do I bring alcohol on board?

[Basswitche]

I know and have heard you can do it, but how? The cruise lines say they check your bags and if they find it they will confiscate it. If you fill up water bottles, don't they ask you what is in them? Help!

[Mary Jane 711]

This is what I did: I took original bottles..did not transfer to plastic. That way the seal remains intact. Less spillage. Then I wrapped the bottle in bubble wrap. Two or three thicknesses should be sufficient. Then I put into a large ziplock and sealed and another ziplocked and sealed. I used the 2 gallon size. This may seem like a lot, but actually it worked out fine for me. I packed them in my checked luggage without any problems. Even went from Florida to Calif without breaking with this technique. I hope this works for you. Enjoy!

[3x's]

The cruise line "may" check your baggage, they do not have the time nor the man/woman power to check all baggage. We always just put it in the suitcases and let it go, and have had no problems. I did however, wrap it and put it in a plastic bag, I had it in the same suitcases as our suntan lotion, sun screen, shampoos, etc. I am not sure if they did check it our or not and if they did they may have just thought it was part of the personal items. Good Luck....

[Basswitche]

Thanks for the info! Somone else suggested just bringing "airline" bottles too.

[CRUZFOOLS]

We Did The Same As The Above Post And It Arrived Fine. Don't Stress About It. Just Pack It And It Will Be There When You Arrive.

[SPI_Rick]

I think that policies and enforcement varies with the Cruise Line so you might want to post the question on your Cruise Line's message board.

 

We recently did a Star Princess Caribbean cruise (9 Jan 05). The official Princess Cruise site will tell you that alcohol cannot be brought aboard, so I did not try to bring any onboard for embarkation (but many others did with out any problems). I called room service the first night and had a bottle of Jack Daniels delivered to my room ($35). In the first port of call I bought a couple of bottles of liquor at the duty-free store. There was no problem bringing them back onboard the ship. In subsequent ports I also bought beer and wine and brought them onboard.

 

I think the cruise lines would like to discourage the practice so as to increase the sale of alcohol on the ship, but they also don't want to anger their passengers by enforcing the policies too strictly.

[mared1]

Most cruise lines will let you bring a bottle or two of champange or wine on board with no hassle.

[fuzzywuzzy]

We bought booze in St. Thomas and walked right on the ship with the bag of bottles. They never said one thing to us. We were on the Star Princess. Maybe their policy has changed? I had also brought a few of the little tiny bottles in my purse which we put in the frig in our cabin and never needed to open them. Wouldn't you know. The ship's special drinks are too good to pass up though. The chocolate banana is heavenly. Drinks are very large too - they come in small, medium and large and the medium to me is the usual "large".

[smposchman]

We brought on a box of wine. Not a problem. Not the best quality - but hey we are not picky!

[SPI_Rick]

smposchman, you are my kind of guy. There is always a box o' wine in my pantry for those days when it is just too much trouble to pull a cork.:D

[moongoddess]

:eek: AHHHH!!! okay, so i'm not a wine snob (or not much of one), but i AM from CAleeforneeya, home of some of the best and most accessible (not expensive, hard to find or buy) wine in the known universe!!!! so pleeease...there is so much good stuff out there (try viognier, or a spanish garnacha, an oregon pinot {think willamette}, or a dry rose); life is TOO SHORT to drink bad wine!!!!!!

[moongoddess]

:eek: AHHHH!!! okay, so i'm not a wine snob (or not much of one), but i AM from CAleeforneeya, home of some of the best and most accessible (not expensive, hard to find or buy) wine in the known universe!!!! so pleeease...there is so much good stuff out there (try viognier, or a spanish garnacha, an oregon pinot {think willamette}, or a dry rose); life is TOO SHORT to drink bad wine!!!!!!

[sledhead]

Just wondering, I'm flying out of Buffalo to San Juan...leaving on the Carnival Destiny...should I buy my alcohol in Buffalo and pack it in my checked baggage prior to leaving or will I have an opportunity to purchase it in San Juan and then put it in my suitcase prior to getting on the ship..I'm just concerned that as soon as I get off the plane in San Juan that I will be ushered into the Carnival transportation bus and will not have time to get anything...Any advice ?? Thanks....

[celbercrz333]

We've been on Celebrity cruises and Carnival cruises. We successfully smuggled plastic bottles of whiskey and whiskey sour mix in our bags. When you get off the ship to go home and see just how much luggage is in the port building, you will realize that they don't have time to search the bags that much when you arrive. It's staggering just how much 2,000 passengers take on board. And that's in addition to their carry ons.

[cruisin newbie]

I haven't flown since 1986 - is it okay to pack a corkscrew in your checked luggage?

[oregon hick]

Seems like NCL is pretty strict on bringing alchohol on board. When we cruised on Windjammer, we filled up water bottles with vodka-- but of course that is a totally different type of cruise.

 

We are NOT cheapskates, but we'd like to have cocktails on our balcony. I mean after all-- it is our vacation, right?

 

We did purchase a bar set up for our cabin, but was wondering how strict NCL really is??

[LHT28]

I haven't flown since 1986 - is it okay to pack a corkscrew in your checked luggage?

 

Yes as long as it checked luggage.

[herewego]

We had friends - 3 sets on 3 different NCL ships who had some in their checked luggage - not a lot just one bottle. Anyway 2 of the 3 got theirs taken out while the third's arrive untouched - luck of the draw maybe?

 

I heard about replacing it in mouthwash bottles and then resealing, how would one reseal?

[sledhead]

Just got off the Destiny...May 8-15...absolutely no problem bringing booze on board...as long as its in your carry on and you dont flaunt it in their face..it was almost comical how they didint care.we also had a 2 bottles in our checked luggage...they were even selling it right outside the security check in at San Juan and we just tucked it inside our carry on !!....the staff on board and the security people were awesome...not nosy what so ever ...we still dropped a wack of cash at the bars but to have a couple of rum and cokes on our balcony as we sailed away everynight was perfect..this could obviously be different from cruise line to cruise line but we had no probs..

[WeCruiseForFun]

We don't drink much alcohol, but we do smuggle 12 packs of soft drinks onboard. The last time we were boarding, my 7 year old announces "that suitcase is just full of cokes!" She loved it, because she got a lot of laughs from the ship's crew. We usually buy the coke stickers, but I just don't always want to get dressed and walk down to the bar when I want a soft drink with my room service meal.

[nkpeeps]

We have been on several cruises. if you are first boarding you can usually bring on what ever alcohol you like. When you buy it at one of the ports, they may take it away from you as you reboard. if you just keep it out of plain sight you they may not bother you. Reboard with a crowd also it helps if they are backed up.

 

Eric

[TSCOTT]

We have been on 3 prior cruises (2 on Celebrity and one on RCCL) and have never had a problem bring our own "spirits" on board. We also bring a corkscrew just in case there isn't one available on the ship.

[AnDeNo.UK]

Just wondering, I'm flying out of Buffalo to San Juan...leaving on the Carnival Destiny...should I buy my alcohol in Buffalo and pack it in my checked baggage prior to leaving or will I have an opportunity to purchase it in San Juan and then put it in my suitcase prior to getting on the ship..I'm just concerned that as soon as I get off the plane in San Juan that I will be ushered into the Carnival transportation bus and will not have time to get anything...Any advice ?? Thanks....

 

We sailed T/A from San Juan in April of this year.........after 'ckecking in', we went to the duty free shop............hubby purchased, 4 btls liquer, 3 btls wine, & a 6 pack of pepsi...............the bottles were packed into a carrying box.......we walked onto the ship with no problems at all :D

[dbause]

We have done about everything in 15+ cruises. Emptied Water Bottles and filled with Vodka. Actually took cases of beer in a separate suite case. We normally take 2 of those large Seagrum 7 bottles that are plastic. I put in a plastic bag and put in with our clothes. Have also taken other liquor the same way. I honestly do not think they look. If you buy liquor on one of the islands, and want to drink it on the ship, DO NOT let them put it in those boxes they use. Put it in a bag. We have just walked back in with the liquor. If it is in those boxes, they take it when you reboard. We just act as if we have nothing out of the ordinary and normally walk on thru with everything else we purchased. We have only been stopped once & acted dumb

 

Carnival will allow you to take cases of bottled water and also allow you to bring your own wine. I have actually seen people with a case of wine on one of those things you use to roll your luggage (don't remember what they are called but like a small hand truck. I normally carry my own wine. They say they will charge you a $10.00 corking fee, so I just open the bottle in my room. I have never been charged, although I did have one waiter tell me that he was suppossed to charge me and my reply was that I was supposed to tip them at the end of the cruise. Needless to say, I was not charged

 

We are cruising the Valor the week of Halloween. We plan to take 2-3 cases of beer in those plasic bottles like they sell on board. We always take one of those plastic folding coolers and our cabin steward makes sure it has ice each morning, for a cash donation

 

Are you headed on a cruise

[direfun2000]

We are on Caribbean Princess for a Halloween cruise out of FLL. We are flying in the day before. I plan on buying 2 cases of beer there. Was considering a roll on cooler that looks like those small suit cases and rolling it on board as a carry on...good idea?