Bringing wine on board

[gold1953]

1 hour ago, davekathy said:

Possibly if someone doesn't have either of the two BPs. But, why would it matter if someone had the CBP vs the PBP as posted in # 22?  

you are limited to what you get free with the basic package and may possibly pay extra for some drinks. My liquor is always taken from me and I have never had a BP. My friend who was boarding with me kept his bottles and had a BP

[davekathy]

3 hours ago, gold1953 said:

you are limited to what you get free with the basic package and may possibly pay extra for some drinks. My liquor is always taken from me and I have never had a BP. My friend who was boarding with me kept his bottles and had a BP

I guess for some but the CBP always works for us. Plenty of good selections. But we also feel that way about the limited CC HH drinks. I'm just not buying the assumption the liquor brought on at the port stop had anything to do with CBP vs PBP. 

[mayleeman]

We just assumed it was for the reason speculated--with the CDP, there is still room for the ship to profit off of upsells. 

 

Could have been as simple as the crew doing it not following instructions. And the window in which we saw the distinction being made was less than 10 mins, so they could have changed it, too.

 

Who knows? Those of you with more experience cruising are always cautioning us noobs to not bang our heads trying to figure out why any policy is selectively enforced, or not at all!

[davekathy]

12 hours ago, mayleeman said:

We just assumed it was for the reason speculated--with the CDP, there is still room for the ship to profit off of upsells. 

 

Could have been as simple as the crew doing it not following instructions. And the window in which we saw the distinction being made was less than 10 mins, so they could have changed it, too.

 

Who knows? Those of you with more experience cruising are always cautioning us noobs to not bang our heads trying to figure out why any policy is selectively enforced, or not at all!

Now that makes a huge difference from what you originally posted about no BP vs CBP vs PBP.  

[mayleeman]

No difference at all. They took liquor from the people who had no package, and they took it from people who had the CBP. They allowed those of us who had PBP to take our purchases with us after consulting ship records and writing our cabins down.

 

You asked why it would make a difference, and two of us have speculated on why they might differentiate. I allowed for the possibility that the policy might not truly be what was done by security in our case. The guys with badges did not sit down to explain it. We just observed what we observed--and went on to drink X's liquor, not ours, so in our case it would have made no difference.

 

BUT let me add, had we actually had only the CBP, it WOULD have made a difference to take my puchase away because I was regularly drinking the higher level Scotch available only with the PBP. I would have gladly consumed from my own bottle of Balvenie purchased in Barbados and allowed in my room instead of paying an upcharge.

Edited November 26, 2019 by mayleeman

[VitaminSea53]

We are on The Edge for an Italy / Greece port intensive cruise in May. I was hoping to buy wine in port to enjoy on the ship. Is it likely that my wine purchases will be confiscated when I re-board?  If it matters, I will have the PBP. 

[Jim_Iain]

On 11/25/2019 at 4:27 AM, gordylad said:

is the 2 wine take on applicable to boarding or if the cruise is port intensive can you take on extra wine?

The regulations are only on embarkation.   However we have been to many ports in Europe where they have a duty free shop in the terminal post x-ray and I noticed a number of people purchasing and bring aboard without being challenged.

[terrydtx]

57 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

The regulations are only on embarkation.   However we have been to many ports in Europe where they have a duty free shop in the terminal post x-ray and I noticed a number of people purchasing and bring aboard without being challenged.

We did this in Barcelona on a X cruise 10 years ago. The wine store was in the terminal after we went through the X-ray check point on the way to the ship.  Not one word about the 4 bottles we took with us.

[davekathy]

2 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

The regulations are only on embarkation.   However we have been to many ports in Europe where they have a duty free shop in the terminal post x-ray and I noticed a number of people purchasing and bring aboard without being challenged.

 

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

We did this in Barcelona on a X cruise 10 years ago. The wine store was in the terminal after we went through the X-ray check point on the way to the ship.  Not one word about the 4 bottles we took with us.

The Pan Am terminal is that set up that way in San Juan. 

[MEcruzr]

48 minutes ago, davekathy said:

 

The Pan Am terminal is that set up that way in San Juan. 

Just don't expect a large selection. I like sauvignon blanc... I think they had 2 or 3 to choose from. But it was super easy and convenient so I didn't complain!

[davekathy]

9 minutes ago, MEcruzr said:

Just don't expect a large selection. I like sauvignon blanc... I think they had 2 or 3 to choose from. But it was super easy and convenient so I didn't complain!

Yep. Been there done that. Haven't brought wine onboard for years since we always get the CBP as a bundled perk and being Elite. 

[MEcruzr]

26 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Yep. Been there done that. Haven't brought wine onboard for years since we always get the CBP as a bundled perk and being Elite. 

I know what you mean... but when it's that easy and convenient I will still grab 2 bottles to have in the cabin! 

[NMTraveller]

On 1/13/2020 at 7:27 AM, VitaminSea53 said:

We are on The Edge for an Italy / Greece port intensive cruise in May. I was hoping to buy wine in port to enjoy on the ship. Is it likely that my wine purchases will be confiscated when I re-board?  If it matters, I will have the PBP. 

I have never run into a problem with 4 cruises on Celebrity.  All cruises were longer than 7 days.  For the European cruises (Eastern and Western Med) we would bring back a bottle or two of wine in every port.  The same for the New Zealand cruise.  On our ABC cruise we brought back Curacao.

 

However your mileage may vary.  I was not even aware that people had to check theirs as I have not seen it in 4 Celebrity cruises.

 

I don't think that they are worried as much about the older cruisers overconsuming as they are the younger cruisers.

 

You can try it.  The worst that could happen is that you would have to check it and get it back on the last night.  We always take two bottles of wine back on the plane as we have had a very difficult time finding the same wine in the states.  Or if we did they were very expensive.  Plus drinking the wine at home brings back great memories.

 

In my experience the PBP did not matter.

 

We were on the Edge in September for a similiar but (reshuffled due to weather) itinerary.

Edited January 15, 2020 by NMTraveller

[Vagabond Knight]

I'm frugal in some ways so I can be a bit extravagant in others.  We buy the premium drink package, but if I'm paying for an all-you'd-like-to-drink premium drink package, I am not going to buy or carry on bottles I purchased at home or at a port for consumption on the ship.  Celebrity has decent enough wine, craft beer and cocktail options to keep me happy during my cruise.  The high end whiskeys, bourbons and specialty liquors we buy in port are coming home with us!

[Wine-O]

Depending on the ship, some of the wines with the premium package can be iffy.  I always bring on 2-4 bottles of wine especially for beef nights and bring a glass or two from our stateroom to the MDR.  🍷