Carrying alcohol on board

[JerseyJ24]

I know this has been addressed before, but my cruise is less than 2 weeks away and I don't have the time to sift through past posts. Is it possible to "sneak" a case of beer in my checked luggage??....and if it is, would bottles be less likely to set off metal detectors than cans?? Thanks.

[phinfan63]

Not sure why no one has answered this post but I will attempt to do so. First, let me say I have not actually cruised yet but have been reading these boards for several months. From everything I have read, it is not a problem to smuggle booze in your carryon. Not sure about the can vs bottle though , it seems like it could be dangerous with bottles in case they sling your luggage around and they break. Not sure I would want to take the chance.

 

Good Luck and Happy Sailing!

[lmondrop]

The last cruise I went on I put two bottles of har dliqour in my suitcase. No one even found out. on my next cruise I am bringing on a couple of bottles of liquor. As long as you pad them and layer them so they don't break it will be find.

[NJsharon]

Okay, silly question here, but if you take cans on board... how do you keep them cold? Do you just get ice from room service & put 1 or 2 in the ice bucket at a time?

 

Just the thought of warm beer or soda doesn't sound too good.

[kimjoe]

I have done it a ton of times. Mostly hard liquor. And a couple bottles of nice wine wrapped in plastic bags and put safely in between clothes.

I havent done too much beer, since that is one of the cheaper priced drinks on board. The martinis is where they get you, so I try to make a couple of my own before we head on out for the night! Also I pack a couple of cans of coke to mix with. They charge quite a bit for a can of coke. Hope this helps a little!!

Kimjoe

[randykaye]

ok, let me tell you! I read everything i could find about sneaking on alcohol, and we just got back from the celebration and snuck on everything every easily. We had a collapsable cooler as my husbands carry-on, full of our cokes, 7-up, orange/pineapple juice as our mixers, and a 6 pack of water bottles. Cause you are allowed to take some cokes and water! plus our bottle of wine which is legal to carry-on, for our anniversary. Now-some of the water bottles were filled with my rum and we had 2 nestea iced tea bottles that had Seagram's V-O whiskey in it. But no one ever even asked what was in the ice chest, asked to see inside it or even made one comment! It went through the metal detector just fine!

Now in our 3 suitcases, we had a multitude of stuff hidden. there was a

6 pack of coors light cans rolled up inside several t-shirts throughout the suitcase. we had the rest of the whiskey in the original big plastic bottle

in a plastic bad in case it leaked, we had a little plastic original bottle of Malibu rum, and a 1 liter of Seagram's 7 in it's actual bottle. all wrapped in a towel and put in plastic bags. if we got caught, we knew they would just take it, & hopefully give it back at the end of the cruise!! And we at least had the stuff we had in the carry-on. we were kinda worried when our friends luggage got to them before ours, but it was all there. they were locked and no one was the wiser, or they just didn't really care. We had a wonderful room steward Lilya, who we tipped 20 bucks right away, she was always refilling the ice chest a few times during the day, mostly with out even a reminder from us. she never said anything, the only alcohol visible to her was the beer cans, which we could have bought their bucket of beer and just brought them back to the room, who is to say we didn't. the rest we just mixed in our insulated cups and went to the pool!! We still spent plenty at their bar, it wasn't always convenient to go ot our room to make a drink, like during the shows!! THey had this fruit punch that was delicious mixed with my rum by the way!! Thanks for all the hints we learned from everybody here, we wouldn't have been brave enough to try that with ya'll advice. I did save us alot of money on the ship!!

[sea_u_onboard]

Ask the steward for a plastic bucket (they have them at the bars). Have him/her fill it with ice or ask where the pantry is and get it yourself.

[kodiac]

We usually pack our liquor in plastic bottles so they don't break.

 

Never tried to place cans of beer in our checked luggage but have cruise in the past with many cruise critics that did this.

 

What we did do last time is carried beer on with us. We placed our beer into our bookbag with our wine. No questions were asked at all.

 

Kodiac :)

[NewCruzer1]

I work part-time in a liquor store. Virtually every category of liquor -- vodka, bourbon, blended whiskey, rum, tequila, et al -- have brands and sizes that you can purchase in plastic bottles. So, there's no need to 'sneak' it in water bottles. Just buy it in plastic and pack it among your toiletry bottles in your checked bags. If you live in a state that allows liquor shipments (there are only about a dozen), see if any of your retailers have any styrofoam wine/liquor shippers for protection of any glass bottles.