Trueblueky Posted June 22, 2023 #1 Share Posted June 22, 2023 DW and I take several medications. We plan to stay in Spain for a while after the cruise. What do you do with medications? I figure to bring 4-weeks, just in case. What do EU and Spanish require? Bringing original pill bottles doesn't make sense. Do you need copies of prescriptions? Photos of bottles? Is reentry to US an issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAYA Posted June 22, 2023 #2 Share Posted June 22, 2023 I can only report on my own experience last year when I contracted COVID on a river cruise and had to spend an extra week in Amsterdam before flying back to the US. I brought 7-day pill boxes for three weeks for a planned 2-week trip. The pill boxes had mixed prescription pills and supplements (vitamins, probiotics, etc.) in them. I also brought a printed list of all of my medications. It wasn't practical to bring the original bottles with me. I had no problem with customs and security carrying them in my carry-on bag in both directions. I ran out of one of my prescriptions overseas and wished I had a printout of the prescription from my doctor with me, but my doctors typically transmit the prescriptions electronically to pharmacy and don't hand out printed prescriptions unless one makes a special request. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi13 Posted June 22, 2023 #3 Share Posted June 22, 2023 3 hours ago, Trueblueky said: DW and I take several medications. We plan to stay in Spain for a while after the cruise. What do you do with medications? I figure to bring 4-weeks, just in case. What do EU and Spanish require? Bringing original pill bottles doesn't make sense. Do you need copies of prescriptions? Photos of bottles? Is reentry to US an issue? Personally, I prefer to research the requirements rather than follow the recommendations of others, who may, or may not have checked the requirements. I use the UK & Canadian Foreign Office websites, so I expect the US provides a similar service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KnitPicker5 Posted June 23, 2023 #4 Share Posted June 23, 2023 I misunderstood the title. I thought TA meant transatlantic and the thing that would be different from other cruises is that you may have several 23 or 25 hour days. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trueblueky Posted June 26, 2023 Author #5 Share Posted June 26, 2023 On 6/22/2023 at 10:58 PM, KnitPicker5 said: I misunderstood the title. I thought TA meant transatlantic and the thing that would be different from other cruises is that you may have several 23 or 25 hour days. TA means Transatlantic. Leave from Florida, arrive in Spain, stay a while, fly back to Florida. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-Airbalancer Posted June 26, 2023 #6 Share Posted June 26, 2023 11 hours ago, Trueblueky said: TA means Transatlantic. Leave from Florida, arrive in Spain, stay a while, fly back to Florida. I thought a TA meant fly to the EU stay for while and than take a ship back to NA 😁 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Hlitner Posted July 1, 2023 #7 Share Posted July 1, 2023 I will give you some anecdotal info based on dozens of TAs and other air trips to and from Europe. While we agree with Heidi13 , we seldom concern ourselves with bringing our drugs on cruises to and around Europe. That being said, I will emphasize that we do not carry any kind of narcotic product...that being a big concern in many countries. We usually have all our prescription drugs in original bottles which do have the usual prescribing info that will satisfy most authorities. On probably 100+ trips to Europe (over many years) nobody has ever even asked about our prescription drugs. Since our European trips are generally about 2 months (give or take) we often carry a 3 month supply of prescription drugs and some OTC products. I would again stress that none of our script drugs contain narcotics. Taking any kind of narcotic on an international trip does require extra research and extreme caution. One other caution is about any drug that contains "Sudafed" (pseudoephedrine). This drug is prohibited or restricted in various countries around the world (although it is OTC in the USA) and is also contained in many other OTC products. As a simple example, it is illegal to bring any pseudoephedrine product into Mexico, Japan, etc. Hank 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CruiserFromMaine Posted July 12, 2023 #8 Share Posted July 12, 2023 When we went to Turkey last month, we were advised to bring “letters of medical necessity” from our doctors for all prescription drugs, which we did. The letters were easy to get. I will add that nobody ever asked for them or even looked to see what we had for drugs. But, I realize that’s just one data point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoloAlaska Posted July 14, 2023 #9 Share Posted July 14, 2023 On 6/22/2023 at 8:29 AM, Trueblueky said: DW and I take several medications. We plan to stay in Spain for a while after the cruise. What do you do with medications? I figure to bring 4-weeks, just in case. What do EU and Spanish require? Bringing original pill bottles doesn't make sense. Do you need copies of prescriptions? Photos of bottles? Is reentry to US an issue? Bring original bottles is the best practise on all international travel. One tip is you can always ask your pharmacist for a smaller bottle with the label on it. Have your pharmacist dispense one month of each of your meds before you leave and your set to travel. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meander Ingwa Posted July 15, 2023 #10 Share Posted July 15, 2023 Using original bottles absolutely does make sense. Most travel experts and the CDC advise to do so, some countries require it. Bottles are important for control of humidity and light . The script on the bottle has important information including pill count in cases of emergency where you are not able to give answers The rules are in place and even though authorities may not ask or look for them, when they do, best have things correct. You never know who is on your flight and when authorities may desire inspection, perhaps based on intelligence or a drug dog alert Ask your pharmacist for smaller bottles. Ask your doctor for travel exemption if you exceed your refill cycle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now