NCLA-specific question re: taking food ashore

[Toddcan]

Wonderful thread, except for the uncalled for jabs.

 

My wife and I are cruising on the PoAl in 2 weeks time, and after reading this thread, I think I just might bring along a box of ziplock bags to throw a few muffins into for lunch when we are back-packing it on some of the remote areas we are visiting.

 

We have not booked a single excursion through the ship. We have reserved cars at each port except Kona (gonna do the walkabout ourselves). We will prob not be near restaurants at lunch time on most days.

 

Although I suspect if we do a nice breakfast, we won't be so hungry at lunch, and we can just catch an early dinner.

 

Anways, thanks for the post.. I love the topic.

[mbisson]

Monte someone identifiying him self as from the Hawaii Department of Ag says is ok above,..

 

Thanks all...I think we have a definitive answer.

 

Cool, Sounds good to me. Especially since Hawaii is something we're looking at for an upcoming cruise.

 

But we might take the Sun (Fanning Isl) so I'm not going to assume it'll be OK on that ship. LOL

 

thanks Sid

-Monte

[2cruiseagain]

Wonderful thread, except for the uncalled for jabs.

 

My wife and I are cruising on the PoAl in 2 weeks time, and after reading this thread, I think I just might bring along a box of ziplock bags to throw a few muffins into for lunch when we are back-packing it on some of the remote areas we are visiting.

 

We have not booked a single excursion through the ship. We have reserved cars at each port except Kona (gonna do the walkabout ourselves). We will prob not be near restaurants at lunch time on most days.

 

Although I suspect if we do a nice breakfast, we won't be so hungry at lunch, and we can just catch an early dinner.

 

Anways, thanks for the post.. I love the topic.

 

Gallon zip-lock bags with the sliding zipper take virtually no room or weight in the suitcase and provide benefits for snacks, protection from water and protection from sunscreen leaking in your back pack. A true cruise staple in my book!

[TNlovestocruise]

Not necessarily liquor- I saw plants, shells, coconuts, etc, piled around the people (confiscated?) that scanned and looked through your possessions as you reboarded the ship. Also, for those of you who are contemplating taking food off the ship- room service will tell you it is not allowed if you give the impression you are. But, as I said before they DO NOT search what you take off the ship!

[okbeader]

This isn't an answer to the original question, but a little more info on food. We were on NCL last fall in Hawaii. When on Maui, I naturally bought a bag of Maui potato chips. I ate some of them and brought the remainder--still in the sack--back to the ship. They were confiscated "because the bag is open." I wondered if that was really a rule or if that was how the "guards" get their Maui chips! The guards also opened and smelled every bottle of water that had the seal broken. Unopened chips and unopened bottles of water were allowed back on the ship.

[dyslexic pirate]

Not necessarily liquor- I saw plants, shells, coconuts, etc, piled around the people (confiscated?) that scanned and looked through your possessions as you reboarded the ship. Also, for those of you who are contemplating taking food off the ship- room service will tell you it is not allowed if you give the impression you are. But, as I said before they DO NOT search what you take off the ship!

 

We are thinking that the way to get around all this is to take our treasures to a UPS store or the post office and mail the stuff home and not even try to take it on the ship.

[2cruiseagain]

If they could just email the sights, smells, sounds and tastes of the cruise, that would be much easier for the Hooch Police! We could save money and stay home, so they wouldn't have to worry about us taking valuable goods on board without paying the premium.

[tomluvsaida]

I just got back from a cruise on the Pride of America. In Hilo and the two days on Maui we (3 couples) took sandwiches off the ship. No one looks at what you take off the ship but they do check thoroughly what you bring back to the ship. We would order room service the night before (sandwiches and fruit). I brought baggies and put everything in the refridgerator in our room. We also took oranges and apples from the Aloha cafeteria. We felt like we had paid for lunch, would not be eating it on the ship, so took it with us. By the way, some of the touring does not have restaurants along the way!! (Road to Hana for example)

The road to Hana is a good point, I hadn't thought of that. Even if you got mega bucks to spend on lunch where are you going to spend it in the jungle? The same goes for many hikes around the islands.

Im not sure about this but can you ask for a doggie bag to go take back to your cabin when eating in one of the restraurants?

[smarterman64]

it's freestyle. Walk off with the plates, heh. I was eating in a restaurant and the show was about to start. I just walked off with my party's entire desert tray and we met up in the theather.

[tomluvsaida]

Mahalo so much for the nice little insulting jab...:rolleyes: Let's see. We don't typcially do any of the formal shore excursions. We don't care for the "herding" and we're extremely familiar with the islands. We don't need anyone to lead us around.

 

I'm perfectly well aware that I'm on vacation. I'm also aware that I paid my cruise fare and that it includes lunch. So, exactly how am I being "cheap" in wanting to take advantage of food I've already paid for? If we drive our rental car back to the ship and have lunch onboard are we being cheap? (Actually, that would be wasteful because we'd use extra, and very expensive, fuel for the extra driving.) When we stay in the islands, we often rent a house or condo, go to the grocery store, and eat in or take picnics. Is that okay because we've bought food on the islands or should we be going to restaurants instead?

 

My question is whether is it legal to take a picnic lunch with us, not whether you think we're cheap. When it's not legal (that is pretty much every other cruise we've ever taken), we do not, as others do, try to sneak food off the ship. That is wrong and, when people try to rationalize it with "trying to save money" or "afraid of the food in countries I don't know," I go into my agricultural-law fanatic mode. The laws are there for a reason and shouldn't be broken under any circumstances.

 

BTW, as you obviously don't know anything about me and my DH, we are frequent visitors to Hawaii--so much so that we qualify for a permanent Maika'i card at Foodland--and spend a large percentage of our vacation dollars there. OTOH, why am I feeling like I need to justify myself to you? Anyway, I don't think it's "cheap" at all to want to legally...which is the question here...bring a picnic with us so that we don't have to stop at one of the numerous fun and inexpensive lunch places we know of on all the islands. We'd rather just pack it and go on these short port days.

 

And to everyone else, mahalo for the feedback. I fear Spleen is right, but I can't get any real info from the state websites (at least not yet). Also, we've never gone through any kind of ag check whatsoever for interisland flights, so I am hoping that that is the benchmark. I'll keep trying to get an accurate answer.

 

beachchick

 

p.s. Our DD is an adult, and rarely whines. Now my DH when he needs a little snack, that's reason enough to have a few cookies on hand.

 

Actually ordering sandwiches from room service the night before is a good idea if you are not violating any laws or ship policies taking them off the ship. I plan on doing that but fessing up to room service about what I'm doing. If it's not ok they will tell me. If it is ok they may even wrap them up or prepare something like a box lunch for travel. It doesn't hurt to ask. Another thing you need to consider is how well the food will keep in a hot, humid climate. It might be a good idea to get a thermal tote bag before going on your trip.

[beachchick]

tomluvsaida: Good input. DH and I are frequent Hawaii visitors and pretty well have tropical weather picnicking down to a science. My backpack is actually also an insulated cooler, great for my "stuff" and a few beverages. We have 3 different collapsible coolers we've taken to Hawaii, the Caribbean, and just generally travelling here and there. We always travel with multitunidous freezer ziploc bags in multiple sizes. We usually buy some disposable gladware (or whatever brand is cheapest) containers for fruit, deli salad, and crushables. We buy them once we've gotten to our first destination and then just use them for the duration of the trip (I don't do laundry in the sink, but I will wash out containers).

 

The truth is that room service is not the best source for that kind of food information. The best source is the ship's daily, the head of CS onboard, and (most important) the Hawaii Dept of Ag.

 

If it's allowed (and based on pegatha's post, it is sounding promising), it will be the first cruise we've taken (except for Norwegian Coastal Voyages) where we've been allowed to take fresh food off the ship.

 

Most posters on the boards know I'm particularly sensitive to the issue of agricultural laws. We have lived through and are living through so many crises caused by negligance, thoughtlessness, and carelessness, that I'm known as kind of a fanatic on the issue. (Oh well, there are worse things I could get riled up about I suppose.)

 

You've given some excellent tips for cruisers who aren't used to the luxury of being able to take lunch and go.

 

beachchick

[tomluvsaida]

tomluvsaida: Good input. DH and I are frequent Hawaii visitors and pretty well have tropical weather picnicking down to a science. My backpack is actually also an insulated cooler, great for my "stuff" and a few beverages. We have 3 different collapsible coolers we've taken to Hawaii, the Caribbean, and just generally travelling here and there. We always travel with multitunidous freezer ziploc bags in multiple sizes. We usually buy some disposable gladware (or whatever brand is cheapest) containers for fruit, deli salad, and crushables. We buy them once we've gotten to our first destination and then just use them for the duration of the trip (I don't do laundry in the sink, but I will wash out containers).

 

The truth is that room service is not the best source for that kind of food information. The best source is the ship's daily, the head of CS onboard, and (most important) the Hawaii Dept of Ag.

 

If it's allowed (and based on pegatha's post, it is sounding promising), it will be the first cruise we've taken (except for Norwegian Coastal Voyages) where we've been allowed to take fresh food off the ship.

 

Most posters on the boards know I'm particularly sensitive to the issue of agricultural laws. We have lived through and are living through so many crises caused by negligance, thoughtlessness, and carelessness, that I'm known as kind of a fanatic on the issue. (Oh well, there are worse things I could get riled up about I suppose.)

 

You've given some excellent tips for cruisers who aren't used to the luxury of being able to take lunch and go.

 

beachchick

Thanks. I'll let you know what happens after our honeymoon end of October -November.

[beachchick]

tomluvsaida: That would be wonderful. You'll have first-hand knowledge, which is really the only that will be definitive.

 

Mahalo in advance for the information--I'm sure everyone will be happy to know; I know we will.

 

beachchick

[lambs2]

We ordered sandwiches from room service sandwiches and chips the night before for both Hilo and our Road to Hana day in Maui for our June PoAm cruse. I had packed baggies and a collapsible cooler from hints on this board. I also had unopened water bottles and a small refreezable ice pack that I kept in our cabin fridge right at the top to keep things cool all day and that worked. Also took an extra couple pieces of fruit while we were at breakfast that morning. We did not sneak the cooler off, but carried it very openly. No one checked it and we had delightful picnics both days. After all, lunch is included for everyone on the ship , so we just took ours with us, mainly because we had such limited time to see all the sights in port and wanted to see as much as possible each day without taking the time to find a restaurant in remote spots. If we hadn't done our take along picnic we could not have seen so many different sites in both those places! On the Road to Hana we ate our lunch at Wainapanapa State Park which has the beautiful Black Sand Beach close to Hana. We did get a shave ice there from a vendor as an extra treat! In Hilo we just ate while doing VNP. The Volcano House was so full that day we couldn't have gotten in anyway, so it was good that we had other plans!