Will we get called to the naughty room?

Greetings fellow cruisers... We are leaving for a caribbean cruise soon and are planning on taking a few extra suitcases of supplies for a mission that we are hooking up with in one of the ports. We will have a lot of ibuprofen and vitamins among the supplies we are taking. Will this be a problem. Should we give Princess a heads up that we are doing this?

BTW, this is our first Princess cruise and we are very excited.

Thanks!!

Shouldn't be a problem. You can have as many suitcases as you want. They are OTC and as long as they are in their original container and sealed, you're good to go. If it'll make you feel better, call Princess anonymously and ask a general "what if" question.

You're either being too vague or I'm a thick-headed numbskull. What "supplies" exactly are you talking about? If you mean liquor, yes, you'll probably get called to the "naughty room" and your liquor will be confiscated until the end of the cruise. I don't think you're talking about the usual wine allowance or additional wine, are you? Or by supplies, do you mean things a mission would need? I don't think vitamins and ibuprofen would raise any heads unless it's massive quantities.

No, no alcohol, but we will potentially have at least half a suitcase ( possibly more) full of nothing but vitamins and ibuprofen...the other supplies include candy, books etc.

Just wasn't sure it would be an issue. Everything will be sealed.

This is only our second cruise so just not sure how everything works.

Thanks again.

Oh! Okay, got it now. ;) I doubt you'd get called to the naughty room but it might save you a little trouble if you put a large note in the suitcase that says, "Mission San Miguel Supplies" on top of the stuff you're bringing. Wouldn't hurt anyway. That's a really nice gesture & one I wouldn't mind doing myself! :)

Why not call Princess and tell them your plan...perhaps Princess would be willing to contribute to your good efforts.

BTW, without some documentation that the supplies were intended for a charitable cause, there is no way that the cruise line would know that you weren't intending to sell them for a profit. Sorry to be so realistic, but it has happened. As unimaginable as it seems that such things happen, there is a news report that just appeared today: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/free-nyc-condoms-smuggled-dominican-republic-article-1.1756464

Best wishes on your charitable endeavor,

Salacia

Greetings fellow cruisers... We are leaving for a caribbean cruise soon and are planning on taking a few extra suitcases of supplies for a mission that we are hooking up with in one of the ports. We will have a lot of ibuprofen and vitamins among the supplies we are taking. Will this be a problem. Should we give Princess a heads up that we are doing this?

You will have no problem bringing these supplies onto the ship.

However, you may need to arrange in advance permission to take them off of the ship from the country you intend to leave them in.

From the Patter on a recent cruise:

"Please see the Passenger Services Desk if you intend to......land any box, package or baggage in a port prior to your disembarkation date. Customs authorities will want to inspect these items when the ship arrives in port and will not allow any other unaccompanied items to be taken or left ashore that day. You may be assessed severe penalties by local government authorities as well as any fines/penalties Princess Cruises may incur for your failure to adhere to the above requirements."

I read about a lot of people who do this type of charitable donation when they sail. In fact, the ship, and/or the crew, makes donations such as mattresses, OTC medications and clothing. I honestly think it would be best to coordinate it with the cruise line. I think it's better to be safe than sorry, and would suggest you call Princess to find out the protocol. I'd be more concerned that the officials in the country you are visiting would confiscate a bag filled with OTC drugs, as they would have no way to know they were really 'as marked'. I could be being over cautious. I love what you're doing and know that it is really a very important mission.

Maureen

You will have no problem bringing these supplies onto the ship.

 

However, you may need to arrange in advance permission to take them off of the ship from the country you intend to leave them in.

 

From the Patter on a recent cruise:

"Please see the Passenger Services Desk if you intend to......land any box, package or baggage in a port prior to your disembarkation date. Customs authorities will want to inspect these items when the ship arrives in port and will not allow any other unaccompanied items to be taken or left ashore that day. You may be assessed severe penalties by local government authorities as well as any fines/penalties Princess Cruises may incur for your failure to adhere to the above requirements."

Yes, I think the OP would certainly want to make sure that Princess informs custom officials in the country to which they're going to be making a donation... I don't think the they'd would want to be arrested for "drug" smuggling! :eek:

Aside from the problems you are likely to encounter off-loading the supplies, I don't know if you will also have a problem boarding with these supplies, either from Customs or the cruise ship, but here's a quote from the Passage Contract that clearly indicates we are limited to bringing only our personal effects on board:

"13. BAGGAGE AND PERSONAL EFFECTS, LIABILITY LIMITATIONS.

You may take a reasonable amount of luggage on board containing only Your personal effects, which shall include suitcases, trunks, valises, satchels, bags, hangers containing clothing, toiletries and other personal effects necessary for the Cruise..." copied from http://www.princess.com/legal/passage_contract/plc.jsp

Greetings fellow cruisers... We are leaving for a caribbean cruise soon and are planning on taking a few extra suitcases of supplies for a mission that we are hooking up with in one of the ports. We will have a lot of ibuprofen and vitamins among the supplies we are taking. Will this be a problem. Should we give Princess a heads up that we are doing this?

BTW, this is our first Princess cruise and we are very excited.

Thanks!!

I guess what comes to mind is why wouldn't you clear this with Princess? If it isn't going to work then at least you have time to make alternative arrangements. Maybe its just me, but, the whole idea of possibly going into this effort blind strikes me as odd.

I got called to the naughty room on our cruise in March on Royal Caribbean...they look for liquids in the luggage I was told and it was their mistake after re-xraying my bag as I had no liquids..they were looking for alcohol being brought on

I would

1. have a list of supplies that are being donated in case local customs requires you to complete some import documentation

2. be sure that the mission will have no problems with local customs

Greetings fellow cruisers... We are leaving for a caribbean cruise soon and are planning on taking a few extra suitcases of supplies for a mission that we are hooking up with in one of the ports. We will have a lot of ibuprofen and vitamins among the supplies we are taking. Will this be a problem. Should we give Princess a heads up that we are doing this?

BTW, this is our first Princess cruise and we are very excited.

Thanks!!

Why don't you just ship the supplies?

I would

1. have a list of supplies that are being donated in case local customs requires you to complete some import documentation

2. be sure that the mission will have no problems with local customs

I agree. I was involved in donating school supplies to Domenica a few years ago. Advance coordination with the schools and island customs was required. We had a list of allowed items. Any items not on the list would be charged duty. The customs agent met us at the port and inspected our donations. We arranged this in advance.

:)Very generous idea!

Seems there are some persons with past experience doing this with excellent suggestions you should follow.

Perhaps Princess would contribute as well? Can't hurt to ask. :)

There are some people who would do this on their Caribbean cruises all the time and actually would discuss this (a thread was started on Floataway or was moved there), but then CC put the kibosh on discussing charitable actions like this. Too bad, else I would direct your way to these people (I think they rarely post on CC anymore because of this) to find out if there's other issues to be aware of.

As noted - the key point in all of this is customs. I can understand why in some areas you don't ship them (they may not arrive), but this is also a method used by contraband smugglers, so customs will be VERY interested in what you bring off the ship.

There are also issues with unloading multiple packages during disembarkation (especially if tendered). Plus you are basically asking Princess to provide free shipping.

With all of that in mind, it is much better to coordinate with Princess prior so they can advise you of any pitfalls and preparations you may need. It's also important to have someone from the charity meet you at the port. If they arrive early, they can pre-advise customs as well (and depending on the port, grease the wheels)

We brought a couple of boxes of stuff to our tour guide in St Lucia. He is a well known private guide on CC and an ex teacher. There were in boxes. I was told I had to store the boxes in my cabin (no problem). The day we arrived in St Lucia I was called to the room where immigration/customs meet with ship's officers where they clear the ship. I had to bring the boxes. I was told I needed to prove that I was not going to sell the stuff. What was in the box, they demanded. I said, school supplies, but feel free to open the boxes and look. I explained that I had emailed with my guide in advance of what type of things were needed and he being an ex teacher would be happy to get the supplies to the school.

So, they snidely said, you met a stranger on the internet and you are just going to "give" him this stuff. How do you know he is not going to re-sell this stuff? Who is he? What is his name? I gave them his first name. What is his last name. I said at this point I was not comfortable giving his last name and if you don't want me to donate supplies to the local school children I won't.

Well, they said, if you can have him meet us we can decide for ourselves whether he's honest. Or you can just give all the supplies to us. No, I said, I will not give them to you because at this point how do I know they will get to the school children. I'll give them to the kids at the next island.

So we are now an hour late starting our tour. Everyone else, including little kids, are waiting on the dock. I get off and find our tour guide and explain the situation.

We take our tour. On coming back our guide walks into the customs office. No one is there. He walks over to the bar and sits down with his buddy the customs guy. The customs guy leaves his drink, walks over to the ship gangway to clear our boxes. The custom guy now has to meet with the ship's officer (forget his title). They have to find the officer. I had to explain for about 5 minutes why I wanted them to use their radio to call him. This is what I was told to do when we left because at that point I said I'm leaving for my tour. Take the boxes back to my cabin if the kids on your island don't need them. I'm done wasting my time and effort. The officer comes down to meet me and the customs guy said "sure, it's okay". Now the officer has to find someone to bring the boxes down to the pier. All this took another hour of my time at the end of our tour.

Would I do this again? Probably not. If we had all just put the stuff in personal back packs and carried it off it would have been so much easier then being truthful. Trying to be kind to the local kids cost of about 2-1/2 hours of our tour and a whole lot of harassment.

Why don't you just ship the supplies?

My thoughts as well.:D

My thoughts as well.:D

Why don't you just ship the supplies?

Ironically - Customs is confusing also when you mail packages. They still need to clear Customs at the destination and there may be fees involved also (either on senders or receiver's end). I tried to send a package to my hotel in Quebec and when the package was en-route, I was informed that I was supposed to be present at Customs in Montreal at a date that I wasn't even going to be at to receive and pay a fee (let alone getting to Montreal from Quebec). This was through UPS. It turned out to be a large pain.

I ended up giving my credit card to UPS and they charged me $50 for some dog food I was sending to the hotel. Not something I would expect to pay customs on but I had to. I was just thankful they agreed to get it through customs for me and send it to the hotel and that I didn't have to go a couple of hours out of my way to pick up the package.

We brought a couple of boxes of stuff to our tour guide in St Lucia. He is a well known private guide on CC and an ex teacher. There were in boxes. I was told I had to store the boxes in my cabin (no problem). The day we arrived in St Lucia I was called to the room where immigration/customs meet with ship's officers where they clear the ship. I had to bring the boxes. I was told I needed to prove that I was not going to sell the stuff. What was in the box, they demanded. I said, school supplies, but feel free to open the boxes and look. I explained that I had emailed with my guide in advance of what type of things were needed and he being an ex teacher would be happy to get the supplies to the school.

 

So, they snidely said, you met a stranger on the internet and you are just going to "give" him this stuff. How do you know he is not going to re-sell this stuff? Who is he? What is his name? I gave them his first name. What is his last name. I said at this point I was not comfortable giving his last name and if you don't want me to donate supplies to the local school children I won't.

 

Well, they said, if you can have him meet us we can decide for ourselves whether he's honest. Or you can just give all the supplies to us. No, I said, I will not give them to you because at this point how do I know they will get to the school children. I'll give them to the kids at the next island.

 

So we are now an hour late starting our tour. Everyone else, including little kids, are waiting on the dock. I get off and find our tour guide and explain the situation.

 

We take our tour. On coming back our guide walks into the customs office. No one is there. He walks over to the bar and sits down with his buddy the customs guy. The customs guy leaves his drink, walks over to the ship gangway to clear our boxes. The custom guy now has to meet with the ship's officer (forget his title). They have to find the officer. I had to explain for about 5 minutes why I wanted them to use their radio to call him. This is what I was told to do when we left because at that point I said I'm leaving for my tour. Take the boxes back to my cabin if the kids on your island don't need them. I'm done wasting my time and effort. The officer comes down to meet me and the customs guy said "sure, it's okay". Now the officer has to find someone to bring the boxes down to the pier. All this took another hour of my time at the end of our tour.

 

Would I do this again? Probably not. If we had all just put the stuff in personal back packs and carried it off it would have been so much easier then being truthful. Trying to be kind to the local kids cost of about 2-1/2 hours of our tour and a whole lot of harassment.

This comes under the "no good deed goes unpunished" banner. I can see them being careful because of the actions of a few, but in the long run it would mean that needy kids aren't being helped.

It's a lot easier when you are dealing with a registered charity than a private individual. As noted, also sometimes the customs officers are just looking for a little extra income.

We brought a couple of boxes of stuff to our tour guide in St Lucia. He is a well known private guide on CC and an ex teacher. There were in boxes. I was told I had to store the boxes in my cabin (no problem). The day we arrived in St Lucia I was called to the room where immigration/customs meet with ship's officers where they clear the ship. I had to bring the boxes. I was told I needed to prove that I was not going to sell the stuff. What was in the box, they demanded. I said, school supplies, but feel free to open the boxes and look. I explained that I had emailed with my guide in advance of what type of things were needed and he being an ex teacher would be happy to get the supplies to the school.

 

So, they snidely said, you met a stranger on the internet and you are just going to "give" him this stuff. How do you know he is not going to re-sell this stuff? Who is he? What is his name? I gave them his first name. What is his last name. I said at this point I was not comfortable giving his last name and if you don't want me to donate supplies to the local school children I won't.

 

Well, they said, if you can have him meet us we can decide for ourselves whether he's honest. Or you can just give all the supplies to us. No, I said, I will not give them to you because at this point how do I know they will get to the school children. I'll give them to the kids at the next island.

 

So we are now an hour late starting our tour. Everyone else, including little kids, are waiting on the dock. I get off and find our tour guide and explain the situation.

 

We take our tour. On coming back our guide walks into the customs office. No one is there. He walks over to the bar and sits down with his buddy the customs guy. The customs guy leaves his drink, walks over to the ship gangway to clear our boxes. The custom guy now has to meet with the ship's officer (forget his title). They have to find the officer. I had to explain for about 5 minutes why I wanted them to use their radio to call him. This is what I was told to do when we left because at that point I said I'm leaving for my tour. Take the boxes back to my cabin if the kids on your island don't need them. I'm done wasting my time and effort. The officer comes down to meet me and the customs guy said "sure, it's okay". Now the officer has to find someone to bring the boxes down to the pier. All this took another hour of my time at the end of our tour.

 

Would I do this again? Probably not. If we had all just put the stuff in personal back packs and carried it off it would have been so much easier then being truthful. Trying to be kind to the local kids cost of about 2-1/2 hours of our tour and a whole lot of harassment.

Thank you all SO MUCH for all the information!! We will definitely be calling Princess just to cover the bases. I just talked to our dog/house sitter this morning and he just finished going through something similar on a mission trip to Peru and he also told, the more documentation, the better!! So I will get right on that!! Again, Thanks so very much. :) It is always good to have others help you think outside the box as far as issues that could come up.

What a story.

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app