Taking Wine & Water to the Ship

[jan can]

Since we are allowed to take wine and bottled water on HAL cruises, how we expected to bring it on board? I'll likely not pick up more than 4 - 6 bottles of wine and maybe 1 or 2 flats of water.

 

With the wine, should I pack it in my carry-on or is it safe to pack with my clothes? The former could be rather heavy; the latter feels a little like gambling with a soaking for other things inside with it. How have others done it.

 

With the water, if I taped the two or make even 3 flats together, is this counted as one of your luggage? Would I have to use one of my luggage tags?

 

If I were coming directly from home I'd be tempted to bring an extra suitcase to just roll the water and wine on. A spare suitcase isn't an option this trip.

 

If this question has been asked a zillion times, please just point me the link. Thanks.

[jimgev]

Although HAL does not place any limits on these items, logistical factors do come into play. They do add up rather quickly in matters of weight.

I bring wine aboard but try to figure on purchasing some at ports of call rather than bringing all aboard at initial embarkation.

I am not a believer in bottled water. Fresh ice water is supplied daily to the cabins and that is what I drink.

If you choose to bring your own water you might also consider resupplying at ports of call.

I am OK with placing a few bottles of wine in my luggage as long as the bottles are well wrapped and are in a hard shell piece of luggage. Otherwise, I just carrry them aboard in a wine tote.

[smtcan]

We picked up a case of wine in Fort Lauderdale before our cruise, taped it up, added a luggage tag and left it with our suitcases. It was delivered to our cabin with no problem.

Sheila

[tlbuckingham]

I would definitely not take it on your carryon luggage (sorry but I'm paranoid). If you do take some on, put in in your luggage that will be handled by baggage claim. I have not had a problem with that.

[rochelle_s]

jan_can,

 

There is no limited to the number of pieces of checked luggage you can bring onboard. Therefore you would not need to tape the water together, just put a luggage tag on each one. There will be plenty of extra tags at the pier.

 

If you are looking at Total Wine for your wine purchases they are used to cruise ship passangers and should be able to pack up the wine nicely for you. Once again just put a luggage tag on it and it will be delivered to your cabin.

 

Rochelle

 

Rochelle

[serendipity1499]

Agree with jimgev & see no need to bring our own water..

We only drink the Ships water, which is so much purer & much better tasting than our water at home.. At home we drink only filtered water..We take an empty water bottle with a thermal wrap with us...If we have a port day scheduled, we fill our bottles up the night before using HAL's tap water...Put it in the Ice bucket overnightt...

 

As far as wine is concerned, we have no problem going to our local supermarket & purchasing a few bottles of wine since we drive to the Port....We'll either carry it on board or put it in a box which is well padded, get a luggage tag from the porter & give it to him with our checked luggage..We also have purchased wine in many ports..

Lots of People who fly to the Port, Pre-order a case or two of wine thru Total Wine in Ft. Lauderdale..There are many Total Wine Stores throughout Fla.

http://www.wineaccess.com/store/totalwine-fortlauderdale

They take a cab to the ship but ask the cabbie to make a brief stop at Total Wine, (take their address with you) in order to pick up their pre-ordered & pre- packaged wine..Understand it only takes only few minutes to pay for it & be on your way to the Port....You can get a luggage tag from the porter & check it in with your luggage..

We take our return address stickers with us to slap on extra luggage tags..

Hope this helps..Cheers..:)Betty

[Boytjie]

On the last cruise I had a couple of boxes as part of my luggage, one was a case of wine. I printed labels with my name and cabin number, ship's name and date and slapped a few on each box then I put clear tape over the labels. I did not add luggage tags to it and they were fine with how it was labeled. Everything made it to the cabin OK except for one bottle of wine that broke.

[Harry1954]

Bring wine onboard makes sense as the wine list is somewhat limited and you can save some money to spend on other needs. However, the water issue seems a bit of a stretch - the tap water is very good.

harry

[kimbacat16]

Can wine be bought at duty free shops and used while onboard ships ? We are going to be in Barcelona in April and want to know also if it is cheaper to buy from a duty free shop at the airport or wait until we get to the cruise terminal ? Thanks for any assistance.

[jan can]

Thanks for all the good advice. Since the Comfort Suites is near Total Wine (reported in another post by Rochelle), I'll be making a trip there for a few bottles.

 

You convinced me to forget the cases of water. Forgot that the water will be filtered on the ship. Water at home tastes awful so we're in the habit of buying it by the 5 gallon jug. Even when we travel by car we carry 3 or 4 gallons of filtered water from one location. Seems to help avoid stomach upsets. We both drink lots of water.