Enforcement of 2 bottle cabin limit

[michaeljc70]

I am curious how Celebrity enforces the 2 bottle per cabin limit. If you board separately from your cabin mate, how would they know if you each brought 2? Or can each person only bring one?

[CHEZMARYLOU]

It's 2 per cabin. If you board separately they would probably not know if you both had 2 bottles.

[easyboy]

The quantity of allowed bottles brought on embarkation is not usually noted on doucmentations

 

 

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[Mynki]

It is not strictly enforced. If you were to pack two in your case and then accidentally forgot about them, you might then decide to purchase two more and take them with you in your hand luggage. If you did find yourself in this terrible, accidental situation, they'd never know.

[ghstudio]

and if you and your cabin mate board at different times (very common) and both of you have accidentally bought two bottles of wine due to lack of communications.....

 

It's really the honor system.....

 

Additionally, you are only allowed to bring two bottles per cabin on board at embarkation. Anything bought at a port on the cruise is supposed to be checked and held for you when you leave the cruise. Generally, it's actually hard, if not impossible, to find anyone to check the wine you purchased and they force you to take it to your room....darn! Of course it depends on where you are sailing...on booze cruises (4-5 nights in the Caribbean) they are pretty strict. If you are sailing south america, not so much....

[Beanb41]

Many ports one visits these days also use shore based security meaning that bags are not checked by onboard security personnel. Shore based security ideals are very much different from onboard security people

[gold1953]

Many ports one visits these days also use shore based security meaning that bags are not checked by onboard security personnel. Shore based security ideals are very much different from onboard security people

 

When returning from port your bags go through the scanner and bottles are taken from you . I know this from experience

[cruisinsusin]

It is not strictly enforced. If you were to pack two in your case and then accidentally forgot about them, you might then decide to purchase two more and take them with you in your hand luggage. If you did find yourself in this terrible, accidental situation, they'd never know.

 

However if you pack even one bottle in your luggage you may find yourself having to go to the naughty room to collect your bag:eek: (we had one bottle of wine in the checked bag and none in carryons and still ended up in the naughty room).

[lisiamc]

When returning from port your bags go through the scanner and bottles are taken from you . I know this from experience

 

My experience is that bottles of booze/wine bought in port are generally not taken away from us. Maybe we look well-behaved? :D

[TFLG]

and if you and your cabin mate board at different times (very common) and both of you have accidentally bought two bottles of wine due to lack of communications.....

 

It's really the honor system.....

 

Additionally, you are only allowed to bring two bottles per cabin on board at embarkation. Anything bought at a port on the cruise is supposed to be checked and held for you when you leave the cruise. Generally, it's actually hard, if not impossible, to find anyone to check the wine you purchased and they force you to take it to your room....darn! Of course it depends on where you are sailing...on booze cruises (4-5 nights in the Caribbean) they are pretty strict. If you are sailing south america, not so much....

 

When we did the NZ-Sydney a few years ago we bought 1 or 2 bottles of wine in nearly every port and no one even bothered to stop us when getting back on the ship

[eandj]

My experience is that bottles of booze/wine bought in port are generally not taken away from us. Maybe we look well-behaved? :D

 

In regards to port stops, not at the original boarding port.....

Depends on port, time of year,mood of checkers etc. In other words, nothing is constant and consistent.

 

As an experiment, DH carried a bottle of local beer in his backpack on after a Carib. island visit. He was waved onboard. Tried a bottle of wine at an Italian port and he had to turn it over to hold for our last day. Worked well, as we enjoyed it with friends at dinner. ( no corkage charged by our sweet waitstaff).

[Cruise Raider]

We went on a cruise during spring break ... it was far from a spring break crowd, though. Nonetheless, they gathered everyone's bottles they were bringing onboard. They checked them off of a list of passengers and room number. They delivered or had you claim your bottles that evening and the following morning. If you had more than 1 bottle per pax, up to 2 per room, you did not get anything beyond your limit back until the end of the cruise. This was brought up in the cruise critic connections gathering and the cruise director said 'we read cruise critic all the time'. They must have been tipped off about those abusing their policy, especially those that openly brag about it. Ooooops!!

[MagPie60]

Just bring two bottles per stateroom......and get a booze package. Good Lord.

[DENIE]

Thought about bringing 2 of our own special bottles on our Infinity cruise in September, then decided not to. We had the Classic package, and decided that if we wanted a better wine now and then, we would just pay the difference (plus 18%) and save the worry of carrying a couple bottles on board for a few hours.

[Mynki]

However if you pack even one bottle in your luggage you may find yourself having to go to the naughty room to collect your bag:eek: (we had one bottle of wine in the checked bag and none in carryons and still ended up in the naughty room).

 

Why would this even happen? It's certainly never happened to me. :)

[chemmo]

Why would this even happen? It's certainly never happened to me. :)

 

 

Happened to us on our first Celebrity cruise....we didn’t know to put the one bottle we had brought with us in hand luggage. Did not enjoy having to go the naughty room to collect, slowed down our unpacking too. Never put our wine in suitcases since.

[Mynki]

Happened to us on our first Celebrity cruise....we didn’t know to put the one bottle we had brought with us in hand luggage. Did not enjoy having to go the naughty room to collect, slowed down our unpacking too. Never put our wine in suitcases since.

 

Ah, I see. Didn't realise you were not allowed them in cases. :)

[Beanb41]

We always put our two bottles in our checked suitcases wrapped in clothes for extra protection and have never been called to the naughty room. THis allows us to bring two bottles in hand luggage. If we had to go to the naughty room as some call it no big deal

[Tommy3putts]

Many ports one visits these days also use shore based security meaning that bags are not checked by onboard security personnel. Shore based security ideals are very much different from onboard security people

 

 

 

We found this to be the case during our overnight stop in Barcelona on Reflection last year. There was a “duty free” shop in the terminal after security screening. We didn’t purchase anything, but the only other security to board was scanning your seapass.

[DYKWIA]

When returning from port your bags go through the scanner and bottles are taken from you . I know this from experience

 

That is not our experience on the last 3 cruises we have taken with Celebrity.

 

2/3 times on returning to port with wine / spirits on passing through the scanner security has asked us to see the person who is collecting wine and spirits (and these are returned to you on the last night of the cruise). On both occasions this collection point has been set up out of sight of the scanning point and some distance - with several options (should you wish to, we didn't) to avoid the desk altogether.

 

On our last cruise we brought back a bottle of spirits, security didn't mention anything, and we didn't spot a desk to hand it in. We weren't planing to drink it in any case as it was intended as a gift.

 

I suspect with the growing number of people on drinks packages it's no longer a problem for Celebrity with people bringing the odd bit of extra stuff on board (particularly of they know they're on a drinks package)

[shipshape sam]

Any one have any experience with the need to bring 2 bottles onboard at embarkation with the drink packages?

 

Not sure why, no matter the rule a cruise line has, there seems to be a desire to break it by some. Then, in many cases, the cruise line tightens up enforcement.

[Mynki]

Any one have any experience with the need to bring 2 bottles onboard at embarkation with the drink packages?

 

Not sure why, no matter the rule a cruise line has, there seems to be a desire to break it by some. Then, in many cases, the cruise line tightens up enforcement.

 

Yeah, I live a few minutes from one of the UK's best wine merchants. I can splurge on a couple of nice bottles that are not even close to being covered on the premium package and save several hundred dollars if I were to purchase an equivalent bottle onboard due to the high mark up. But as Celebrity allow me to bring two bottles on, there is no issue for anyone!

[michaeljc70]

Just bring two bottles per stateroom......and get a booze package. Good Lord.

 

2 bottles is fine for a shorter cruise...it doesn't go very far for a 14 day cruise for 2 people (1/2 glass per day per person). I always buy plenty of drinks on board so this isn't to replace that, it is to supplement it as leaving the room to get a drink to bring back to the room is not very convenient.

[chemmo]

Any one have any experience with the need to bring 2 bottles onboard at embarkation with the drink packages?

 

Not sure why, no matter the rule a cruise line has, there seems to be a desire to break it by some. Then, in many cases, the cruise line tightens up enforcement.

 

We have brought two decent bottles of champagne on board when hosting a sail away with friends....Even when everyone has drinks packages it seems pretty mean to ask guests to come with a full glass! It also seems silly to pay the very heavy price tag on board when you can get better quality at half the price....

 

Also agree that even with the drinks package it is nice to have drinks in the room.....

 

However, I do agree that breaking the rules can make companies tighten the rules...

[Mynki]

We have brought two decent bottles of champagne on board when hosting a sail away with friends....Even when everyone has drinks packages it seems pretty mean to ask guests to come with a full glass! It also seems silly to pay the very heavy price tag on board when you can get better quality at half the price....

 

Also agree that even with the drinks package it is nice to have drinks in the room.....

 

However, I do agree that breaking the rules can make companies tighten the rules...

 

Some of the nicer Bordeaux wines retail at around just 15 - 20% of what Celebrity charge onboard. I totally appreciate they're a business looking to maximise their profits, but the reality for me is that I just couldn't justify spending that amount. So taking a couple of special bottles onboard and paying the corkage fee (not always charged) makes a lot of sense to me personally.

 

I drink a lot of Kiwi savvy blanc at home, so it's a little disappointing to see Villa Maria examples on the premium package as this is just an everyday wine sold in pretty much every large UK supermarket. Then to add insult to injury, they sell out towards the end of a cruise and you're left with an inferior example from the classic package. Or at least that's been my experience on my last three cruises.

 

Incidentally I once had a frank and fairly lengthy discussion with a ships officer who basically said that they know passengers smuggle booze onboard but they're not overly concerned about it as they experience very little bad behaviour caused by drunks. She also stated that because so many passengers have beverage packages these days they don't see it as a threat commercially and if people are drinking their own booze as opposed to 'their' booze if they have a package there's even less cause for concern. Which, when you think about it all makes sense. She did point out that that is certainly NOT the official stance though.