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how do you pack your drinks you take onboard?

wags111

By wags111,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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GAMOM4

GAMOM4

Posted
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We just got back and we took two twelve packs of can cokes - we just put the entire packs in a suit case - it was a small suit case - and put some clothes in between the boxes - used a zip tie to lock it and sent it through with the checked luggage. There were 21 of us and everyone took their own drinks.

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jhsieh

jhsieh

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Are you talking about alcohol or water and stuff? I have been wondering about how to get water and some diet soda packed. Carnival says you can bring some onboard but I think it would take up about half my suitcase, not to mention make it heavy as hell.

 

I, too, would love to hear how others pack these types of things!!:confused:

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wags111

wags111

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i am referring to water and 12 pk of coke. i like to have a diet coke when i get up in the morning. i thought of packing them in a suitcase but wondered how much they throw around luggage. i certainly dont want them to burst. what a mess. yes, they do have drinks on the ship but thought it would be nice to have them in the room for am/pm in my jammies.

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jimboyboyer

jimboyboyer

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i am referring to water and 12 pk of coke. i like to have a diet coke when i get up in the morning...........it would be nice to have them in the room for am/pm in my jammies.

 

No need to smuggle then, you will have sodas, including Diet Coke in your cabin for your am/pm fixes in your jammies.............and your friendly cabin steward will be only too pleased to keep you replenished. :)

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wags111

wags111

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No need to smuggle then, you will have sodas, including Diet Coke in your cabin for your am/pm fixes in your jammies.............and your friendly cabin steward will be only too pleased to keep you replenished. :)

 

i didnt realize that. we were on the conquest 3 yrs ago and they didnt gave drinks in the cabin

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Baley

Baley

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My wife cannot have aspartame; that's in almost all diet drinks except for a few. So, we are planning on just carrying on a twelve pack of diet coke with spenda (one of those frig packs) with our carry-on - actually as a carry -on , not in any luggage. I hope that's OK. Otherwise , it's water, tea, and the occasional non-diet soda for her!!

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jw4jg1mg2eg1

jw4jg1mg2eg1

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We saw some people rolling their nice cold drinks on ice onto the Conquest in a large cooler. They made it almost to ship before it tipped over & ice & drinks went everywhere. They picked up their drinks & nothing was ever said to them. So, there ya go....no need to pack 'em or smuggle 'em.:D

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jhsieh

jhsieh

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I guess I'm confused. It clearly states on the Carnival website that you are allowed to bring a "reasonable" amount of non-alcoholic beverages onboard with you. Why do so many people seem to think this is smuggling? I thought "smuggling" was sneaking prohibited items onto the ship. :confused:

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ParrotRob

ParrotRob

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I guess I'm confused. It clearly states on the Carnival website that you are allowed to bring a "reasonable" amount of non-alcoholic beverages onboard with you. Why do so many people seem to think this is smuggling? I thought "smuggling" was sneaking prohibited items onto the ship. :confused:

 

Bringing non-alcoholic beverages is allowed, it's not smuggling to bring them on. It's just pointless, that's all.

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Tucker in Texas

Tucker in Texas

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Selling booze on the ship is it's biggest onboard revenue followed by shore excursions (they were double or more than what I got them for over the internet) photos and casino. If they charged reasonable prices for wine, I would be more than happy to buy it. But on NCL a few weeks ago, they were selling wine for around $7 a glass and it was only about 1/3 full. You would be hard put to find a bottle for less than $30 including tip. And that $30 bottle would be $6.95 on shore. Do the math, over 19 days, that is a significant amount of money.

 

That said, I have found the easiest thing to do for wine is boxes. Since NCL is so hard-nosed (they have been known to x-ray checked luggage--this happened to a friend of mine) and are wise to Listerine bottles, coke bottles (where she had her booze) etc., I wrapped my box wine in foil paper as a "gift" and put it in my checked luggage. This particular cruise they didn't x-ray my checked bag because it would have been "flagged" for sure as I had soda in there also. I worked on the theory that the "left hand wouldn't know what the right hand" saw and, if it was flagged, I would gladly show them my stash of Dr. Pepper. A crew member was up in the lounge returning confiscated booze the last day and he had hundreds of bottles. If you read the fine print, they don't even have to return it to you. In my carry-on I had three bottles of Dr. Pepper and they inspected those very carefully to make sure the seal wasn't broken.

 

Since this was a long cruise--19 days--I didn't want to be at the mercy of those $7 glasses of wine and $2.00 cans of cokes. A soda card was $163 plus 15 percent. I got 20 oz bottles of soda. In the past, I just put them (tightening the caps) in jumbo zip lock bags (3 to a bag), padded them with clothes and never had any problems. The bags were handled both at the airport and the cruise line so they probably were not given TLC. In January I acquired a food saver vacuum sealing gizmo and for the NCL cruise, I vacuumed sealed three bottles of coke to a bag. I cut them generously so they could be reused when I got home. In the past, when I took bottles, I would hand carry them on the plane (can't do that now) and pack them in my checked luggage wrapped in bubble wrap and in a jumbo zip lock bag. I think the vacuum sealing would work well on that, also.

 

Ironically, plain old bourbon and water type drinks were around $6 and decent brands of liquor. However, I heard they were very weak. Find a regular bartender and flip him a few bucks every now and then and that would probably increase the potency of the drinks (lol). This has worked for me in the past. Their daily special foo-foo drinks ran around $8 but included a plastic souvenir glass. I didn't see words that refills in the glass would be cheaper like I have seen on other ships but they may have been.

 

Hope this helps. If you don't have a vacuum sealer thingee, find a friend that does and go get a roll of "bags" at WalMart and have at it.

 

Tucker in Texas

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dec2007w3boys

dec2007w3boys

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Carry it on or check it with your luggage. From what I have read on cc, either is fine and acceptable. We plan on checking a small suitcase on wheels with some water, diet soda, and juice boxes for 6 of us, including kids. I have read where people leave the water in the case and put a luggage tag on it. Have a great trip!:)

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neatokimmo

neatokimmo

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I have a small soft sided cooler that holds 12 cans and about 8 water bottles. I just check it with my luggage, it's the kind that has a heavy duty plastic inside liner.

 

The first time I used it, no issues. The second time, a Sprite bit the dust but it was all in a plastic bag so it didn't leak beyond the bag. I wouldn't put clothes in with them and I would make sure your carrier is waterproof.

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crystalblue0610

crystalblue0610

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We're taking drinks and water and we were just going to pack it at the bottom of our suitcases just so we wouldn't have to worry about a cooler.

 

But like OP said, is the luggage tossed around because we wouldn't want anything to pop and get all over our stuff.

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