Customs at Ballentyne Pier boarding Millenium?

[quiescentlyfrozen]

Bear with me. This is going to be a long weird one, plus I've never cruised so I really have no idea where to even start making my educated guess :-)

 

Fiance and I were planning to buy a bottle of wine for everyone in a group who will be sailing with us. However, all guests are US citizens, and most will be in Canada for less than 48 hours, and fiance has done some research and found info about how if you leave Canada and have alcohol and you've been in Canada for < 48 hours you need to be able to show a receipt. (At the same time, most guests are arriving the night before to be safe, so the airport-to-pier direct customs option doesn't work)

 

So the first question is whether we'd actually need to give everyone receipts with their gifts of wine (tacky!) to get them through customs and onto the boat.

 

The second question revolves around home-brewed wine... fiance and I were thinking of giving gifts of home-made wine that a friend of ours (in Canada) brews, because he makes AWESOME wine. But he's not going on the trip with us, so we'd be giving people home-labeled wine with no receipt that could even go with it... and my friend started his batch about 2 months ago so I doubt he has a receipt for the kit if that would've worked in the first place.

 

So wondering if anyone has an idea - IF my guests definitely DO NOT need receipts for the store-bought wine -- whether the "home made" aspect would raise flags. I don't want customs or Celebrity demanding they open the bottles in fear it's liquid explosives or anything! So if that the lack of receipt is fine but customs/security will have a problem, we don't want to go that route.

 

And for that matter... let's say one wanted to be unscrupulous and bring 4 bottles instead of 2 - ie two in carryon and two in luggage. (Many dessert wines as we fancy come in smaller bottles!). Will we have to declare 4 bottles to customs anyways and thereby have Celebrity obviously aware that we're going to bring on more than we're allowed?

 

Sorry all, I know this is a weird question and a long shot... just hoping there's someone out there on CC who has any info or ideas re: how this all works!

[kitty9]

You don't go through any Customs when first boarding the ship in Vancouver. Don't know where you got the idea that Canadian Customs will be in the cruise terminal at the start of your cruise, but that's not true. The only place we went through Canadian Customs was at the Vancouver Airport.

 

Personally, I would never bring any kind of home brewed alcohol on a cruise ship. And remember, they will xray your large bags, so the bottles will be seen in your checked luggage.

 

Everyone in your party will have to carry on the wine themselves. If you try and do this, the wine will be taken and kept until the end of the cruise.

[Wine-O]

I usually carry on 4-5 bottles of wine in my roller carry-on during embarkation, and my wife carries 2 in her carry-on. You go thru security/x-ray at the port during embarkation, but they are just looking for guns and knives and the like. No security when you board the ship -- you are only greeted with a glass of champagne. Maybe I've been lucky. :)

[c-to-sea]

It is true that you won't be dealing with Canada Customs at Ballantyne pier. However, you

will be dealing with US Border Services (Customs and Immigration) before boarding to

be precleared for arrival at your first port of call in the USA (Alaska). Therefore, the

regulations concerning alcohol are those of the US Border Services and nothing to do with

Canada Customs. You don't indicate where you are actually coming from but if you are

entering Canada from the USA, you will have to declare any alcoholic beverages to Canada

Customs at you first port of entry to Canada (either airport or border crossing) and

comply with Canadian regulations then and there.

IF you are getting the wine in Canada, this would not be an issue. I suggest you check with both these

agencies as to what is allowable and not rely on information from this website, as it is

not official (see post above).