Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Just how cheap is alcohol in St. Matrin?

Frank12

By Frank12,
in St. Martin/St. Maarten

Recommended Posts

Frank12

Frank12

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Did anyone catch the price of cigarettes in these discount stores and what brands they carry?

 

Thanks

Donna

 

Friendly's had Marlboro's for $13.00 a carton.

They had a pretty large selection of smokes if I remember correctly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
boating girl

boating girl

Posted
Posted
Frank12: liquor is definitely cheaper on St. Martin than on the cruise ship. We were ther last week on the Solstice & I bought 1 litre of Johnnie Walker Gold Label 18yr old scotch for $40. The ship wanted $65. We bought it at Caribbean Paradise way up Front Street-it was the cheapest since we checked every store along Front Street & walked back to get it. Wait until you hit the island.

 

Did they confiscate it when you reboarded and hold it til the end of the cruise or were you able to take it to your stateroom?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Frank12

Frank12

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Did they confiscate it when you reboarded and hold it til the end of the cruise or were you able to take it to your stateroom?

Yes, They will keep it until the last night of your cruise. If you want booze for your room, just bring a bottle in your checked luggage when you board.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
Honeymoon99

Honeymoon99

Posted
Posted
While looking at the TSA site I discovered something I did not know about transporting alcohol in airliners:

 

Carrying Alcohol In Your Checked Baggage

 

"Please note, you can’t take alcoholic beverages with more than 70% alcohol content (140 proof), including 95% grain alcohol and 150 proof rum, in your checked luggage.

 

You may take up to five liters of alcohol with alcohol content between 24% and 70% per person as checked luggage if it’s packaged in a sealable bottle or flask.

 

Alcoholic beverages with less than 24% alcohol content are not subject to hazardous materials regulations."

 

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/assistant/editorial_1189.shtm

 

 

I had no idea there was a five liter limit - I know lots of people who have transported more than that, thinking they just had to deal with possible customs tax. I wonder if this is ever enforced?

 

 

Yes I can speak from experience that the TSA rules are enforced. I was in St.Maarten 2 years ago and bought a bunch of liquor and packaged it really well in a box. I paid customs tax, and thought that was that. Boy was I wrong. They paged me to the airline counter after I checked in and had been through security. They told me that they had to remove 2 or 3 bottles from the box. I begged them to put it in another bag or let me ship it...nope...they had to dispose of it. LoL yeah right...you mean drink it themselves. Needless to say, they didn't repack the box and the bottles were able to move around. I got back here to Tucson AZ from San Juan and I had 1 or 2 broken bottles and a soaked box. I was pieved! The moral of the story is just be careful how many bottles you package in any one given suit case.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
gtaylor

gtaylor

Posted
Posted
<snip>

I was in St.Maarten 2 years ago and bought a bunch of liquor and packaged it really well in a box. I paid customs tax, and thought that was that.

<snip>

 

I'm a bit confused here.

 

St. Maarten certainly doesn't collect a tax on liquor (or anything) when you leave, and you don't pay duty (your customs tax?) until you arrive at Customs returning to the United States or a Possession.

 

Did you pay the tax getting off a ship in San Juan? I don't think that I've ever heard of Customs assessing duty on anyone with any reasonable quantity of liquor there, and very rarely even arriving back in the USA proper.

 

If this happened checking in at the San Juan airport to fly home, I'm not aware of anywhere to pay duty, as you're already back in the US.

 

If you had more than the allowed five liters or if you had picked up something like Bacardi's 151 there in San Juan, that's a problem, but seemingly unrelated to the duty you paid somewhere.

 

gary

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Honeymoon99

Honeymoon99

Posted
Posted

We were on a cruise ship, and you report to customs on the ship before you deboard and declare what you bought. I'd rather declare what I bought and have them figure out how much I owe in duties, than risk being caught and fined heavily. Here's what we bought last time 8/07 (and yes we were restocking our bar and still have a lot of this left):

 

St. Maarten:

 

Ray's Jewelry Front Street #107:

 

Midori $14.95

Sky Vodka $7.95

Amaretto $11.95

Bacardi Lt Rum $6.95

Crown Royal $14

Grand Marnier $19.95

Sheridan $16.95

Macallahan 12 year $26.95

Bombay Sapphire $10.95

Maker's Mark $20.95

Captain Morgan Private Stock $9.95

Cherry Marnier $12.95

2 Guavaberry $31.90

 

Queen's fine Jewelry - 13 Front Street

 

3 bottles of unmentioned liquor that totaled $138. I know one of them was Johnny Walker Blue.

 

Curacao - We also bought 3 bottles of local Curacao at "Senor Curacao" plus a bottle of their coffee liquor.

 

So I think we had a total of 21 bottles (between the 2 of us), some of which were duty free for that island because it was made on that island. We paid "IRT" before we deboarded of $36, which considering how much we saved was not bad (and we didn't have additional or overwight baggage fees). It wasn't until we checked our luggage at the airport, actually well after we checked our luggage, that we had a problem. I remember that they took out a bottle of Guavaberry (which cannot be bought anywhere else), and the bottle of Sky vodka. Then the bottle of light rum broke because they didn't replace the 2 bottles they took out with packing material.

 

We were not aware of any TSA regulation, as we have flown with cases of wine before. But now you guys know that yes, there is a regulation. And yes, they do enforce it. I don't remember how many bottles we were able to fit in a wine shipping box, maybe 12? But my guess is they took two out to bring it down to 10 (5 for each of us on that reservation). The other bottles were dispursed among 3 suit cases.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Honeymoon99

Honeymoon99

Posted
Posted

In case someone is wondering what you don't have to pay duty on:

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacation/kbyg/types_of_exemptions.xml

 

I happened to be on a cruise that stopped in US Virgin Islands. So we were allowed 5 litres per person duty free. Past that you pay duty and Internal Revenue Tax. So even if every bottle was only a liter and no more, $36/11 bottles overage = $3.27 bottle.

 

So my advice, stay under the 5 litres per person, unless your buying more expensive stuff. But then you have the TSA regulation to deal with if you have to fly to your final destination.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Honeymoon99

Honeymoon99

Posted
Posted

Gary,

 

What are you trying to sort out? What's your situation? Tell me and maybe I can help you. Mine was I was on a cruise ship that was a Caribbean itinerary that left from and returned to San Juan. Before we got off, Customs came on the ship for declaring your purchases. Once we paid the duty on the extra liquor, and the taxes however that's calculated, we were off to the airport where we encountered the TSA regulations of 5 liters per person. And we probably only hit the radar because we had a box filled with bottles.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
kal

kal

Posted
Posted

Airline ticket agents will most always inform the passenger to never, ever check a box of liquor. More often than not, it will get "lost" and you will never see it again. Now with TSA it's a problem placing bottles in a suitcase. If you wrap each bottle with bubble wrap (or equivalent) TSA might very well open the wrapping and not return it to it's previous condition. Thus there is an increased risk of breakage.

 

Can't carry it on the flight, can't box it separately so there's not too many options other than just bring back only a few bottles (two per suitcase). Then you run into the weight problem where the airlines will hit you with overweight surcharges for each suitcase.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Honeymoon99

Honeymoon99

Posted
Posted
Airline ticket agents will most always inform the passenger to never, ever check a box of liquor. More often than not, it will get "lost" and you will never see it again.

 

Airline ticketing agents will tell you that if you ship a box, that they are not liable for damages (I believe it's still insured if the box is lost). I have shipped boxes many a times, especially around Xmas with gifts, and have never had problems. I've also shipped wine numerous times too. Just be careful if you are packing booze together, that if it's high enough alcohol content to be regulated by TSA, that you don't pack all of it together.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sapperson

sapperson

Posted
Posted
Does anyone know if any of the liquor stores have web sites? I want to see what type of Irish Whiskey they carry (brands and ages). I have been looking and not found any websites yet. Thanks

 

 

Here's the website for the Liquor Store I always frequent in St. Thomas. Doesn't list prices, but lists brand names! Good luck:

 

www.ahriise.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...