First time cruisers with alcohol query

Hi we are going on the maiden voyage, and ours, of Carnival Magic in May. Having never cruised before we were wondering what is the rule of bringing your own alcohol on board. We are stretched with the budget as is and cant really afford too much expense on the cruise

Bringing on alcohol is forbidden. If found, they will take it from you and either throw it away or keep it until the end of the cruise. Many have tried smuggling, but cruise lines are getting really, really savy on finding any alcohol in bottles or whatever. They xray all bags before they are delivered to your cabin, and they xray all carry on bags also. So bringing on alcohol isn't as easy as it once was.

Google Rumrunners

Carnival allows you to carry one bottle of wine per adult.

Any alcohol in the original sealed container will be retained and returned the last night. Any other alcohol will be discarded - both the alcohol and the container.

Google Rumrunners

Plastic water bottles work well too. Most cruiselines allow a small amount of bottled water or soda to be brought on the ship.

Plastic water bottles work well too. Most cruiselines allow a small amount of bottled water or soda to be brought on the ship.

xray machines can see them .. and are know its there, but often will allow you to smuggle small amounts.

Carnival allows 12 sodas or water per person .. in your carry on only .. so its hard to put them in your checked luggage and get them on at times.

Carry on all your own water, soda and wine/champagne (1 bottle per person). If you check it you run the risk of having it confiscated!

Hi we are going on the maiden voyage, and ours, of Carnival Magic in May. Having never cruised before we were wondering what is the rule of bringing your own alcohol on board. We are stretched with the budget as is and cant really afford too much expense on the cruise

I know much is said pro and con about sneaking alcohol on board. We sailed on the Spledor in March for 7 days, and were on a limited budget. We ordered run runner, they are flexable bladder type containers, despite what people say, the "new" xray machines do not pick them up. we also went on ebay and ordered amber colored bottles, they look like shampoo bottle. they are new. we packed a suitcase full of our toiletries. and threw a few of these bottles, full of alcohol in with our shampoo, condtioner, lotions, mouthwash, flatiron, perfumes.. and as you can imagine those bottle from ebay just blended in. and when you think about how many bags are going threw xray, unless its screaming heeeeey im an alcohol bottle it is easy to not notice them. we ended up with a 60 dollar tab for seven days on our ship. :D

we took a bottle of vodka, segream 7 and captiain morgan and refilled in puerto vallarta at walmart.

on the not so sneaky side. a guy in front of us had put a 30 pack of beer in his carry on. it went threw the xray machine and the carnival guy asked what kind of soda he had in the bag, the passenger smiled and said coke. the carnival guy smile and said have a great cruise...haah.

here is the link to the type of bottles im talking about

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-16oz-Plastic-Amber-Bottles-Body-w-Black-Disc-Cap-5-/370435319587?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item563faa6723

I know much is said pro and con about sneaking alcohol on board. We sailed on the Spledor in March for 7 days, and were on a limited budget. We ordered run runner, they are flexable bladder type containers, despite what people say, the "new" xray machines do not pick them up. we also went on ebay and ordered amber colored bottles, they look like shampoo bottle. they are new. we packed a suitcase full of our toiletries. and threw a few of these bottles, full of alcohol in with our shampoo, condtioner, lotions, mouthwash, flatiron, perfumes.. and as you can imagine those bottle from ebay just blended in. and when you think about how many bags are going threw xray, unless its screaming heeeeey im an alcohol bottle it is easy to not notice them. we ended up with a 60 dollar tab for seven days on our ship. :D

we took a bottle of vodka, segream 7 and captiain morgan and refilled in puerto vallarta at walmart.

 

on the not so sneaky side. a guy in front of us had put a 30 pack of beer in his carry on. it went threw the xray machine and the carnival guy asked what kind of soda he had in the bag, the passenger smiled and said coke. the carnival guy smile and said have a great cruise...haah.

here is the link to the type of bottles im talking about

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-16oz-Plastic-Amber-Bottles-Body-w-Black-Disc-Cap-5-/370435319587?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item563faa6723

I meet someone on a cruise who was a supervisor for port security who laughed when I said there are people who think the rum runners are invisible. She was like what do they really think we cant see liquids .. and watching for explosives?? btw rum runners have been caught ..and conficated.

If you smuggle with non original containers, they are disposed of, you dont get them back.

People assume if they get away with smuggling, the xray machines cannot see the liquids... rather than the people at the port dont have to time to confiscate every single thing smuggled... due to lack of manpower. not because the liquids are invisible.

Hi we are going on the maiden voyage, and ours, of Carnival Magic in May. Having never cruised before we were wondering what is the rule of bringing your own alcohol on board. We are stretched with the budget as is and cant really afford too much expense on the cruise

What cruise line are you taking? Although they all have rules against bringing alcohol, some lines are known to be stricter than others.

What cruise line are you taking? Although they all have rules against bringing alcohol, some lines are known to be stricter than others.

OP is on Carnival

We sailed out of San Juan on Destiny 3 times. No problems when we purchased 4 bottles of booze in the duty free shop there, placed them in our carry on bags and proceeded onto the ship. I had done my research and packed a mini blender and we had our own bar in our room. Room steward never said a thing :)

a co-worker of mine just returned from a Princess cruise and said he was able to smuggle a few bottles of liquor in his luggage. Good luck!

What cruise line are you taking? Although they all have rules against bringing alcohol, some lines are known to be stricter than others.

Monica, in their post they said they were on Carnival.

a co-worker of mine just returned from a Princess cruise and said he was able to smuggle a few bottles of liquor in his luggage. Good luck!

The OP is on Carnival, not Princess. Every line has a different policy and enforce their rules differently.

Thank you all for your helpful info and replies. We will take it " on board". Figuratively speaking only. thanks again

Hi all! We are first time crusiers and I also am interested in finding out how to get alcohol on the boat. I have heard stories of people having no problem, and then I have heard of 2 people having a 700$ bar tab by the end of 4 days!!!! That is what worries me the most is all of the alcohol chargers.

So does anyone know what a drink costs? If you do I would love to know! Beer (bottle or draught) wine, liquer and mixed drinks... And if no one knows that then maybe you could tell me if the prices are listed on menus and such.... Basically we don't have a ton of money to blow while on the cruise but i also don't want to waste all of my time asking about prices while i'm trying to enjoy my vacation.:rolleyes:

Prices will depend on the cruise line. On Princess a gin and tonic or a scotch and water is $4.95 plus 15% tip or $5.70.

we went on our first cruise in November, and I went to starbucks and bought one of their empty boxes of coffee. I took the bladder out of the box, put 1 bottle of voldka in it, then in a ziplock bag and checked it in my luggage with no problems. Plus the make shift "rum runner" was only the price of a cup of coffee $1.49.

I've been thinking about smuggling booze a lot, trying to figure out ways to avoid confiscation. I was thinking about cleaning out shampoo bottles (like, super sterilize) and putting it in there. Or even medicine bottles. Do the scanners just look for liquid, or specifically for booze? Because if it is the former than anything that is supposed to hold liquids originally should be fine.

I know you can take a certain amount of N/A drinks on board, but do they have restrictions for toiletry sizes? AKA would it be a problem if I took a full sized "shampoo" bottle in my checked or carry on luggage?

I've been thinking about smuggling booze a lot, trying to figure out ways to avoid confiscation. I was thinking about cleaning out shampoo bottles (like, super sterilize) and putting it in there. Or even medicine bottles. Do the scanners just look for liquid, or specifically for booze? Because if it is the former than anything that is supposed to hold liquids originally should be fine.

 

I know you can take a certain amount of N/A drinks on board, but do they have restrictions for toiletry sizes? AKA would it be a problem if I took a full sized "shampoo" bottle in my checked or carry on luggage?

Back in high school, we used large-size mouth-wash bottles to sneak alcohol around. A little blue or green food coloring in your vodka and voila! No one will ever know! Unless someone thinks your penchant for an extremely minty-fresh mouth is odd.

Back in high school, we used large-size mouth-wash bottles to sneak alcohol around. A little blue or green food coloring in your vodka and voila! No one will ever know! Unless someone thinks your penchant for an extremely minty-fresh mouth is odd.

That's a great idea! Haha how hysterical that we have to resort to high school gags just to save a bit of cash!

Honestly, we have NEVER had trouble getting alcohol on board. The screeners for carry ons work for the government (or their contractors), not for the cruise ship and truly seemed to just not care how many bottles we were "allowed" by the cruiseline. We have carried more than one bottle of wine apiece quite openly and have never had any taken from us. I have to wonder if this will vary from port to port as much as cruiseline to cruiseline. We have always boarded in Galveston.

I would really urge people to not use shampoo bottles or mouthwash containers. It is extremely difficult to get all the taste out.

But I suppose if you reserve those things till after you've had a few drinks already, you won't even notice.

Another possibility is Carnival does offer bottle service in your cabin. If i remember right when we were on the Valor we ordered a bottle of Appleton Estate Rum online long before we set sail. I believe it was $40 which is double street price but it was still cheaper that getting them at the bar. Also tip your bartenders extra, by the middle of the week our drinks were nice and stiff and several times the bartenders "forgot" to charge us for our drinks.