Are all foodstuffs banned in overseas ports?

I realise that you can't take fresh food ashore when in overseas ports, but can you take commercially packaged foodstuffs.eg. tube of Pringles, chocolate bars, nuts, etc which you can buy onboard at 'la shoppe'?

With full day excursions starting early, it's not always possible to buy something ashore before trekking about. There are very limited "corner stores" and/or you may not have the right currency. I don't particularly want to buy/ eat food ashore. I'm thinking in particular about Tonga & Samoa.

Thanks if you can help with this one.

I realise that you can't take fresh food ashore when in overseas ports, but can you take commercially packaged foodstuffs.eg. tube of Pringles, chocolate bars, nuts, etc which you can buy onboard at 'la shoppe'?

 

With full day excursions starting early, it's not always possible to buy something ashore before trekking about. There are very limited "corner stores" and/or you may not have the right currency. I don't particularly want to buy/ eat food ashore. I'm thinking in particular about Tonga & Samoa.

Thanks if you can help with this one.

We have taken sealed water bottles and snacks with us off the ship without a problem - the water bottles are promoted and sold by the ship as you are leaving. The only barrier you have to get through in my experience cruising in the Pacific is the security on the ship before you go ashore - you do not get searched again on the pier - at least in Tonga and Samoa to my memory.

If you open the food and drinks ashore do you then have to eat or throw away before getting back on the ship

The cruise lines are generally not so concerned with food brought on the ship (RCCL does have restrictions on drinks, as do others). Particularly if it's packaged food, or if it came off the ship, it's unlikely to be an issue to bring it on.

We were on a cruise to Tonga & Fiji on Pacific Star out of Auckland which carried over 600 Chinese NZ pax. These people were blatant in taking food from the buffet off the ship including piles of fresh cut fruit, muffins, pastries etc. I don't know why they weren't pulled up but nobody stopped them. :mad:

Because Allan is gluten free we've often taken pre-packaged muesli bar-type snacks off the ship to nibble in port in case he can't find anything else suitable. We've also brought them back onboard again unused without a problem. :)