No opened liquor bottles .....

[ithaca gal]

 We just returned from a four night “booze cruise“ to Cuba on the Sun. 

 It was an open bar cruise and some of us have the premium beverage package that allowed us to get free bottled water and Red Bulls and more expensive drinks. Except for the highest priced liquor, everything  was free flow, day and night. 

 

 Like us, many of the passengers went to the Tropicana for the show.  Your ticket includes a bottle of rum to be shared by every four people at the show. Many people, including us, returned to the ship with a half to three-quarter full bottle of Havana club rum.   Some people had not even opened theirs. If your bottle was not opened, you could check it in before getting onto the ship and it would be returned to you the next day.   If your bottle had been opened, it was taken from you and the liquor was discarded. You could not take it onto the ship, nor could it be surrendered for delivery the next day,  even though this was an open bar, free flow cruise!!!   I pointed this out to the employee and guest services but was told it was company policy.  I asked who would want to sneak alcohol onto a booze cruise but their policy doesn’t change for situations like this, even for “souvenir rum”. 

 

Just wanted  to let you know before your souvenir rum is thrown away. 

[LB_NJ]

Almost all cruise lines do not let open bottles of almost anything come aboard anywhere.

 

Although most all cruise lines state that their policy is that alcohol purchased in ports of call must be surrendered until the night before disembarkation it is not strictly enforced by some cruise lines/ships.

[mjkacmom]

It would never occur to me that I could bring an opened bottle of booze onto a ship, closed yes, to be surrendered until the last night.

[adam_s_allen]

I’m gonna guess that you can’t take an opened bottle of liquor through customs?

[ColeThornton]

6 minutes ago, adam_s_allen said:

I’m gonna guess that you can’t take an opened bottle of liquor through customs?

 

 

Your guess would be correct.

[ray98]

I would be obvious to me that I could not bring it back on the ship or through Customs.

[BirdTravels]

Similarly, while you can walk around your floating city with an open container, there have been people taking open containers ashore where having one on the street (or in a vehicle) is not legal. 

[ithaca gal]

2 hours ago, adam_s_allen said:

I’m gonna guess that you can’t take an opened bottle of liquor through customs?

Customs doesn’t check anything. 

[ithaca gal]

Please note that I understand you can’t take alcohol, opened or unopened, on any cruise. HOWEVER, there could be different rules for booze cruises when you are not in competition with the bars on the ship. Makes sense. 

[esm54687]

Your experience is clearly outlined on NCL.com concerning the Liquor Beverage Policy so this shouldn't have been a suprise:

 

https://www.ncl.com/faq/liquor-beverage-policy

[zqvol]

Rules on this seem very clear. Why would you expect NCL to hold an open bottle, and even more thought provoking is why would you want it back after it had been out of your control for any amount of time.

[ithaca gal]

44 minutes ago, zqvol said:

Rules on this seem very clear. Why would you expect NCL to hold an open bottle, and even more thought provoking is why would you want it back after it had been out of your control for any amount of time.

To clarify ..... I didn’t want it out of my control. I thought, mistakenly, on a cruise where there is free alcohol day and night, it would not be a issue to bring on a bottle of souvenir rum.  Just seemed

like common sense. Guess not. 

[ithaca gal]

2 hours ago, esm54687 said:

Your experience is clearly outlined on NCL.com concerning the Liquor Beverage Policy so this shouldn't have been a suprise:

 

https://www.ncl.com/faq/liquor-beverage-policy

The beverage policy is written so that people don’t undercut the ship’s alcohol sales. But all the alcohol on this cruise was free, so there was no competition. 

[mjkacmom]

27 minutes ago, ithaca gal said:

The beverage policy is written so that people don’t undercut the ship’s alcohol sales. But all the alcohol on this cruise was free, so there was no competition. 

If you brought wine on, you’d pay $15 corkage. If you took booze from the minibar or ordered it room service, you’d pay for it. If you ordered a bottle from bar service, it would cost about $100. They can still get you to pay, even with open bar. It’s nice to have some in your cabin, people will pay for that.

[esm54687]

51 minutes ago, ithaca gal said:

The beverage policy is written so that people don’t undercut the ship’s alcohol sales. But all the alcohol on this cruise was free, so there was no competition. 

OK....  clearly it's a conspiracy against you. 

[DirtyDawg]

1 hour ago, ithaca gal said:

The beverage policy is written so that people don’t undercut the ship’s alcohol sales. But all the alcohol on this cruise was free, so there was no competition. 

 

This could be a security concern rather than an economic concern. Once a bottle is opened the cruise line does not know what the liquid is in that bottle. It might be a very nice rum, but it could be something very different indeed.

 

 

Edited April 21, 2019 by DirtyDawg

[ithaca gal]

1 hour ago, mjkacmom said:

If you brought wine on, you’d pay $15 corkage. If you took booze from the minibar or ordered it room service, you’d pay for it. If you ordered a bottle from bar service, it would cost about $100. They can still get you to pay, even with open bar. It’s nice to have some in your cabin, people will pay for that.

True. But this doesn’t compare to our souvenir rum. 

[ithaca gal]

49 minutes ago, DirtyDawg said:

 

This could be a security concern rather than an economic concern. Once a bottle is opened the cruise line does not know what the liquid is in that bottle. It might be a very nice rum, but it could be something very different indeed.

 

 

Now THIS makes sense. 

[ithaca gal]

Here is what was very frustrating. After the employee confiscated  half a dozen open bottles of rum, I saw three women getting on the ship with their one open bottle of rum.  I asked how they got past the “confiscator” and they said “He told us we had to hide it until we got to our room”!   Yes, my head almost exploded. 

[luvcruzing]

Ithaca gal, I totally get what you’re saying, and I agree, it doesn’t make sense on a booze cruise.

[esm54687]

Just now, luvcruzing said:

Ithaca gal, I totally get what you’re saying, and I agree, it doesn’t make sense on a booze cruise.

So, that open bottle of "rum" is really filled with gasoline and you have 10 passengers travelling together...... at 3am the passengers decide to act and protest about cruise ships dumping waste in the ocean and coordinate 45 fires around the ship using the gas as an accelerate..... I agree, not allowing open bottles back for passengers to enjoy in their room is completely stupid.

 

Policies are in place for many different reasons and it's NOT always the most obvious. This is the real world and because of it...... understand the policies and try not to take them personally

 

 

[luvcruzing]

And yet they let the three women board with their opened bottle.

[ithaca gal]

15 minutes ago, luvcruzing said:

And yet they let the three women board with their opened bottle.

Yes. Thank you. 

[ray98]

Its a conspiracy!

[esm54687]

1 hour ago, ray98 said:

Its a conspiracy!

Careful Ray...... someone is a little sensitive about actually mentioning that.