I've heard that cruise lines are also tightening up recently. I'm about to take my first cruise on Royal Carribean towards the end of the month.

What should I expect? Are there forbidden items, and if so, what would those items be?

I'm hoping things like small knives/pocket multitools, scissors are ok, for the convenience.

Since you can pick up a steak knife at dinner any night, I would assume that anything smaller then that would be allowed. I believe they are looking for explosives and guns and the rest.

the checks were cursory on the 2 i've been on since 9/11. seemed like they were for show . but more than in the past.

they wanted a picture id (we used copies of our passports rather than take drivers licenses ashore). i'm not sure that the xray machines were on.

Accepting photocopies of passport pages cracks me up (not you carrying them, but the ship accepting them to get back on). Any seven year old can change out the picture with any free photo editing software that even a playschool computer comes with.

Like using a metal detector they forgot to turn on, it's all for show.

cordelli is right. Cursory is the word.

I've done two cruises since 9/11, both on Royal Carribean. Bahamas (Sovreign of the Seas) last October, and the Voyager of The Seas last month. Both times hand bags were sent through x-ray/scanner and we had to walk through a metal detector. I had a buch of electronics,(Compaq Ipaq, MP3 Player, video recorder, wall wort power adapters) and a corkscrew (!) in the hand bags and didn't get the hand search that I got at the airport.

I think they're pretty much only looking for guns.

Thanks for all the inputs.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by cordelli:
Accepting photocopies of passport pages cracks me up (not you carrying them, but the ship accepting them to get back on). Any seven year old can change out the picture with any free photo editing software that even a playschool computer comes with.

Like using a metal detector they forgot to turn on, it's all for show.</font>

I don't know if all the cruise lines have the same security procedure but I returned from a Carnival cruise last week and this is what they were doing: They take a picture of you which is linked to your sign & sail card and everytime that you reboard the ship you have to slide the card through a machine and they see the embarkation picture on a monitor.Of course, it has to match to your face to board the ship.

I recently cruised on Celebrity and they used the same card/picture system. We also went through (as did our bags) a security machine whenever we reboarded at a port.

Siliconengineer, what ship will you be on? I have booked RC's Adventure of the Seas for Sept 8th sailing (cabin catagory D9) and can't wait!

Just curious, did any of you book your cruise on the web or through a travel agency?
I am just not sure if I got the lowest rate available....

Belle,

I'll be on Vision of the Seas, 8days/7nights from San Diego to the Mexican Riviera.

Booked through a Florida travel agency that my sister-in-law has used. Price ranged from $389 to $509, not including $159 in taxes.