beofotch

Hello

I am cruising on the Carnival Celebration in about a month. After reading Carnivals terms and conditions, I see that it is not encouarged to bring alcohol on board but you can bring 1 bottle of champagne/wine.

My goal is to bring aboard some beverages, preferably some liquor, beer, and cokes that will last me for most of the 5 day cruise. Do any FTers have experiences bringing aboard alcohol onto cruises and even some strategies for doing so?

Will plastic bottles explode in checked cruise luggage? How do you get beer to stay cold without a fridge in the room? Is the coke card worth it to make mixed drinks or is bringing my own coke aboard the best idea.

skofarrell

Crusied carnival twice. Both times brought aboard 5-7 bottles of wine, and a case of bottled water (we just put a luggage tag on the plastic wrapped case).

You should not have a problem putting a fifth of your favorite beverage in checked luggage. Transfer it to a plastic bottle and if you're paraniod, put it in a ziplock.

Never bothered with beer due to the issue with keeping it cold.

Coke cards are a good deal as long as you drink about 3 a day or more.

oldpenny16

I'll tell you why the cruise lines are tightening up on BYO booze....the excuse of security. The underlying cause may be fear of lost profit, but in truth most cruise lines are now seaching luggage for hard liquor. All cruise ships now do a search of luggage even to a degree greater than airlines. One bottle of wine is allowed on most ships, but not the hard stuff. If you are flying to the port of departure, the water and sodas will be a problem both to buy before boarding and shlepping along. Your room is also searched when you are away from the ship or at meals. I took the precaution of running a thread around some of the items in my suitcase and it was disturbed during the pre-boarding search. I did the same with items in some of our stateroom drawers. Same result. We've cruised more than 20 times over the years. Not complaining, but security is tighter than ever.

stc

Well, YMMV, but different cruise lines are different. I would expect Carnival to be one of the most strict given their image problems.

On the other hand, we recently (12/26/2004) watched our luggage get taken from our hands and delivered directly to our cabin with no inspection on an upscale cruise line (Sea Dream). We had a minor amount of alcohol in nips in the luggage.

Now, I've never seen a cruise line stop you from taking Coke, Water, or other softdrinks brought on board. If you take the trouble to transfer liquor to plastic bottles (dark liquids to coke bottles and light liquids to sprite / 7up bottles, etc), I suspect you will get away with it.

-STC

cordelli

I've never had a problem, but never sailed Carnival.

I also would never bring five days worth wtih me at once. Get a bottle or two or more in each port stop, there isn't any need to lug it all on board the first day. We always come back from port with bottled water, wine, and Diet cokes.

oldpenny16

You check the baggage in on the dock at a reception center and see it again in your stateroom. Everything was gone through. One woman complained that vodka she had in Evian bottles was taken. I don't know how much she tried to bring along for a 14 day cruise. Plenty? Crystal cruise ships travel the world and are very sensitive on security issues.

BamaVol

We brought a 12 pack of water aboard a Royal Carribean ship this summer with no problem. It was in a suitcase. We were also allowed to bring 4 bottles of liquor to our cabin the last morning of the cruise on the same ship this weekend.

yvrsalesgirl

I have never had a problem bringing any beverage on board - and I always have packed it in my luggage. In terms of going through bags - of course it's the same as an airplane. In terms of going through your belongings in your room - of course some of the cabin attendants do - however it's not to see if you have liquor...it's to see what other fun things you brought! Take the opportunity to wear all your jewellry if you bring it with you and USE THAT SAFE for any items you do not want your cabin attendant going through.

kevinjet

I've done many cruises and "every time", I've smuggled beer & soda's on board in checked luggage but....

The last cruise was Feb 2004 out of Galveston (7-day Elation) and the 3 cases of smuggled beer and 2-1.75l bottles of pre-mix Margarita all made it but the cold ones in a med-sized ice chest that we hand-carried onboard quickly became an issue.

Basically - we had a pre-boarding beer party in the bathroom not wanting it to go to waste. We were allowed 2 sodas or water per person for the week only to take onboard.

That medium sized ice chest then became the in-room cooler and I tipped the cabin steward 1st day to "keep it full of ice all week" then I would give him the other half of the tip at the end of the week based on his performance. He even offerred to buy beer for us at a big discount (plus tip of course) but we had plenty.

Other trips - same deal but I agree - some lines are super strict and others not quite but I do agree with the other posters - in the name of "lost revenue", not security.

It is also funny to be pool-side watching how many brands of beer folks are drinking that are not sold on the ship....it changes after ever port of call too (naturally)!

Have a great trip and "smuggle smartly"!

MeLike2Travel

I had this very question before going on my honeymoon last year. A great resource with lots of suggestions from cruisers is www.cruisecritic.com . Go to their forums and do a search, and you''ll find a good amount of cruise line-specific tips/suggestions. We ended up not bringing any aboard due to logistics of purchasing it beforehand, but learned a lot from that site.

beofotch

Is that a pun referring to Natural Lite/Ice Beer?



Great responses so far, thanks for the input. I think I am going to bring a handle of McCormick's Vodka in a plastic bottle, and some cokes in my carryon.

Keep the good advice rolling!

obscure2k

Bring on a bottle of rum, sit at the pool and order" Virgin "Pina Coladas

Avi

Princess allows wine for stateroom OR for dining room consumption. We brought 6 bottles last cruise and my husband hands a bottle to the dining room captain before we are seated. There is a $10 corking fee but the savings are fab anyway. We took them in my husbands handcarry and had no problem.

Matthewski

My family had mixed results...my brother had a bottle in his luggage, and it was confiscated for security reasons, however, I chose to wrap two presents to myself (Liquor) and put them in my luggage, they were not searched, and I saved about $1000.

yvrsalesgirl

Geez - how much were they charging for drinks?