Cruise running out of alcohol..

[Velvetwater]

I was just discussing the no alcohol cruise thread with my husband and we had a bit of a laugh about our cruise on the Carnival Vista in August 2016.

 

I'll set the scene:

-New boat, Inaugural season in the hot Mediterranean

-large amount of Brits on board (sailing from Barcelona)

-large amount of Brits bought drinks package

-Many on board not sailed with Carnival before

-long cruise of 12 days with 4 sea days

 

All this amounted to the ship running out of Rose wine, Pina colada mix, Strongbow cider, various lagers and other bits which caused a small uproar.Hubby and I were fine as we did not have the package and were a bit obsessed with the new brewery on board and other cocktails and mixers. We were amused that Carnival was not prepared for the amount of drinking Brits would do on a longer cruise.

 

Has this happened to anyone else on a ship?

[spookwife]

not quite as bad, but Galveston cruises are only allowed to use Texas stamped stuff until they get a certain point out. when there are delays leaving( it gets a tad bit foggy at times) they can and do run out of the el cheapo beer and cannot open the full bar yet. it does tend to annoy the Texans( they like too drink too)

 

we won't mention the horror of running out of limes......

[calliopecruiser]

A friend of mine had that experience with a cruise that traveled up the west coast of Africa -- they ran out of some alcohol, as well as some regular foodstuff (mostly fruit). I believe they were delayed because they had to move off their typical course because of weather, and it was a row of sea days where they could not replenish.

[George C]

Rccl normally runs out of most decent wine

[gooch47]

We were on a circumnavigation cruise of Australia and they ran out of wine before the first stop. I don't know if they hadn't stocked up or if we drank it all.

[navybankerteacher]

I’ve never experienced anything more dramatic than a ship running out of my favorite Cabernet.

 

I did experience what almost amounts to the opposite: the Lido and MDR on a T/A ran out of tomato juice - but the bars retained their supply , so no one failed to get a needed Bloody Mary.

[14thmed]

Must have been a lot of Wisconsin people on those cruises!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Velvetwater]

Just had another memory of our Royal cruise out of Southampton the same year (this one was 95% Brits).

 

We drank them out of the 8% Belgian beer by day 5. :)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Oh Yes

I think it was around 2000. We were taking a 21 day cruise from Seattle to Ft Lauderdale. The longshoremen were on strike on the west coast. The Amsterdam had just completed he season's Alaskan run. The longshoremen would only off load luggage and put luggage on the ship. Absolutely no supplies were loaded -- no alcohol -- no food, etc. Nothing loaded onto the ship when we got to Vancouver, I forget the port in Oregon, San Francisco or LA. The only things that came onto the ship in LA were new passengers and the Noro virus -- and really they didn't even call it that back then as they knew very little about it.

Back then HAL allowed passengers to bring alcohol onto the ship as well as buy it in the ship's shops to take back to your cabin. We stopped in the shops and bought 3 Vodkas to take back to lour cabin.

After LA our next stops were in Mexico. HAL knew that sending supplies down to those ports it would disappear. And back then HAL did not have contracts with Sam's Club etc. to buy food.

By the time we went through the Panama Canal the Virus was spreading fast in spite of all the cleaning, a lot of alcohols were gone, wine was going down fast, food choices were getting slim.

When we got to Curacao, the CDC came on board and handed out massive packets for each passenger to fill out concerning where they had eaten breakfast, lunch, dinner and exactly what you had eaten. Thankfully I had been saving our menus, so that was easy for us.

We only had about 3 more ports before we got to Ft Lauderdale. Only rum was left to make drinks. A small wine list was brought to the table each evening with about 10 choices and a discount. Dinner choices were down to 3 each evening. Fruits were gone, vegetables -- not much choice, no eggs. It was slim pickings.

Sure glad we had that Vodka locked up in our cabin for a good drink after dinner.

[Kartgv]

Before DH and I met, he took his first cruise with a good buddy, on the Starward in 1978. Towards the end of the week, their favorite bartender had to round up all the Jack Daniels that was left on the ship and brought it to their favorite bar. They finished the last bottle on the last night.

[Heidi13]

Have experienced running out of specific products, but nothing widespread.

 

Completed a full Australia season back in 77/78 and never came close to running out. OMG, could they drink! Fortunately the beer store was one of the old ship's holds.

[taglovestocruise]

We were on the Independence 15 night transatlantic last year. First port stop was day 8 and we could see several large trailers bringing on supplies. From our balcony we watched a full trailer of liquor being unloaded. Never seemed they ran out. There were over 1400 C@A drinking free cocktails non stop every night.

[OzKiwiJJ]

We were on a 21 night Mediterranean cruise on Royal Princess in September last year. By the end of the first week 25% of the wines on the MDR wine list were out of stock, and they didn't restock them before the cruise ended.

[jlb91454]

I was on the Liberty of the Seas last year and 3 days into the cruise they ran out of tomato juice.

[gooch47]

They ran out of eggs on our last cruise. It was when they were recalling eggs for salmonella. The cruise ship decided to throw away all their eggs just to be safe. We had to settle for the pasteurized eggs for the rest of the cruise.

[SadieN]

I’ve seen cruises run out of bananas. The first Australia run of the Carnival Spirit ran out of beer in a matter of days.

Best thing we ever experienced was on a 15 day Hawaii cruise. The Alchemy Bar on the Carnival Miracle went thru the ship’s supply of cucumbers, berries, and basil. Many of their drinks have those ingredients. The Alchemists really proved themselves by the end of that cruise.

[SRF]

Not to that extent.

 

But last year, Grandeur sailed from Baltimore with two partial bottles of cachaca (for making caipirihna).

 

They ran out. And did not restock at any ports.

 

And both the liquor and the drink are listed in their drink menu.

 

Pretty poor planning on the Beverage Manager's part.

[sail7seas]

A few times, I've seen them run out of limes and or lemons. Certainly no big deal.

 

This was an interesting thread. Thanks for starting it.

Edited August 6, 2018 by sail7seas

[Sue Do-Over]

I drink 'diet Mojitos' made with diet Sprite, mint and lemon/lime. The casino bar ran out of the diet Sprite and could not or would not send for some from the atrium bar. They claimed not to have an available bar server to send.

 

I had to go myself, beg them to allow me to have CANS on my drink card... and carried 6 back with me to the casino.

 

They wrote my name on them in sharpie marker and reserved them for me... it would have been ugly if I'd had to make a second trip!!

[GUT2407]

Seems to happen a lot on Aussie based cruises.

[pris993]

We always bring our own wine, no problem. l

[SRF]

I drink 'diet Mojitos' made with diet Sprite, mint and lemon/lime. The casino bar ran out of the diet Sprite and could not or would not send for some from the atrium bar. They claimed not to have an available bar server to send.

 

I had to go myself, beg them to allow me to have CANS on my drink card... and carried 6 back with me to the casino.

 

They wrote my name on them in sharpie marker and reserved them for me... it would have been ugly if I'd had to make a second trip!!

 

They gave me the same line when they ran out of cachaca at the pool bar, but I knew there was a bottle at the Viking Crown Lounge bar.

 

I asked to speak to a manager, and all of a sudden, the bottle got moved.

[maryjaden]

On the some line of thought... My sister loves cucumber martinis. After several days into the cruise the bartender said they were running short of cucumbers and they were being kept for food services only. That evening at dinner her husband requested three whole cucumbers, which they brought to them. (I am sure they wondered what he was going to do with them... ) We took them to the Champagne Bar for our martinis. The look on their face was priceless.

[leaveitallbehind]

...the horror!!!

[sail7seas]

I drink 'diet Mojitos' made with diet Sprite, mint and lemon/lime. The casino bar ran out of the diet Sprite and could not or would not send for some from the atrium bar. They claimed not to have an available bar server to send.

 

I had to go myself, beg them to allow me to have CANS on my drink card... and carried 6 back with me to the casino.

 

They wrote my name on them in sharpie marker and reserved them for me... it would have been ugly if I'd had to make a second trip!!

 

 

What good luck they sold you the ;pcans.

 

 

In your net port Did you buy some cans to have for ' insurance'?