Dumb question from a newbie

[tha sista]

are you allowed to do this? i guess so if everyone was, i heard that they take away all drinks and such if they find it in your bag. is that just for alcohol?

Alcohol is the only thing that will be confiscated if found...

[caryndisneydiva]

wow, this is great news! thanks!!!!

[Weinercruisers]

I agree with the second suitcase. DH and I did this on our last cruise. I am a Diet Coke addict (fist step, I know) and I knew that I was going to drink a lot of soda. I did not want to pay for one glass (that is not even a full can) what I could buy a 12 pack for. We put two 12 packs in a suitcase and checked it with our luggage. When the cruise was over we put that slightly smaller suitcase into our other bag and packed it as normal. Worked out great.

Oh, we also packe a travel cooler that folds up. Instant Ice chest! all was good! :cool:

[patches12]

Are there small refrigerators in the cabins? Is there an ice machine or ice bucket like at a hotel? If there are refrigerators, are they empty or do they stock them at my cost?

[LostAgain]

On the Mariner there are small refrigerators. They are stocked (at your cost, of course) but we asked our room steward to empty it.

[karen&roy]

Are there small refrigerators in the cabins? Is there an ice machine or ice bucket like at a hotel? If there are refrigerators, are they empty or do they stock them at my cost?

 

They have an ice bucket in the room which they fill but there is no ice machine for you to refill it. We always need more ice so bring a small collaspable cooler and have your room steward fill it everyday :)

[rjhunter]

I don't know if the water had anything to do with it or not, but on our first (and thus far, only) cruise, I was horribly sea-sick. I certainly don't think the water caused it! But, as others have mentioned, they do use the same water in everything - coffee, tea, lemonade, concentrated juices, etc.

If for some reason you don't like the taste or it doesn't sit well with you, you don't have a lot of choice except to buy canned drinks - which I finally had to break down the last morning and have a Sprite with my saltines! Yes, it was about $2.50. I think that was the price listed on the price sheet in our room. And it was room temp as there was no fridge.

At that point it was also nectar from the gods! :D But as we consider planning another cruise I'm preparing to take along a few cans or bottles of Sprite and some bottled water - even if it does come from my home tap!

A few of the people we were with bought some sodas while we were in port and had no trouble bringing them aboard. I only wish I'd had the same idea then.

It's definitley a to each their own thing, but if you like certain drinks or don't like certain drinks I think you should consider it. You can only drink free fruit juice and lemonade for so long. Or at least, I could only do it for so long.

 

 

I should add - I also always take bottled water (or water from home) with me to the beach. I'm sure the water there is fine, but it just doesn't taste like home. And a lot of times I can taste way too much chlorine in it which gives me headaches. I don't know why I didn't consider this when we were cruising, but I didn't plan the trip and didn't know what to expect. Now I do and I'll be bringing my drinks with me! :-)

[Tagging Along]

Bringing water or soda on-board -- to me, it's not worth the hassle and little bit of money you save.

This type of comment does not make sense to me. What is the hassle?

 

Luckily, like us you are not flying. I consider this a HUGE bonus of driving to the port. I did take a case of water and I was very glad I did! The water may taste okay to most people, but it also still has enough salt in it to cause my mother's ankles to swell... they were huge! She switched to drinking my water and this helped some. I went ahead and packed a separate suitcase with a case of bottle water, 12 diet cherry pepsi & 12 pak of diet ginger ale. This really is not a "hassle" since you drive up and a porter takes all your bags and then your cabin steward puts them in your room.

 

The only "hassle" you have is having to print an extra luggage tag for the suitcases or putting the bags in your car. I say, take all that you want!!! It saved a LOT of money & I guess this was more important to us than bringing an extra suitcase.:D

 

 

Alcohol is the only thing that will be confiscated if found...

 

Okay, so we also took our own liquor and here I know we saved a WHOLE LOT of money. Possibly because we had a balcony cabin which we loved, I wanted to cut some corners for us here.... to each his own right?

We used the Rum Runners you can read about on these boards (or go to www.rumrunnerflasks.com these are great for using through airlines too!)

We also took some wine. All the liquor should be packed in your check in luggage and we put the zipties on all our bags and everything just came to our room like everyone said it would. Note: We were on Carnival. I do not know but I hear that RCL is more strict. I highly recommend the wonderful juices on the Lido deck to make your own Drink of the Day. Yum!

Are there small refrigerators in the cabins? Is there an ice machine or ice bucket like at a hotel? If there are refrigerators, are they empty or do they stock them at my cost?

There was a refrigerator in our cabin, but it was locked and we never even bothered asking for the key. I'm sure it's at your cost like any other hotel mini bar. We brought a soft sided cooler that our cabin steward filled every day to keep our water & drinks cold and he also filled our ice bucket (small) in our room. In our hallway was a door that said "Pantry" it was unlocked and there was the ice machine inside. You can get ice yourself whenever you want you don't HAVE to wait for the cabin steward.

 

Have fun! Just do what works for you. I am glad I brought all that I did and I will do it again. Especially my bottled water!! For us it was NO hassle at all, and I KNOW it saved us lots of money. And that extra suitcase was somehow completely full when we returned. I guess we bought more souvenirs than I realized...