Smuggling

I'm curious, is it possible to bring your own alcohol on board the boat. Has anyone tried and got away with it. What are your suggestions for success.

Thanks

Page back a few sheets here, you'll find lots of discussion on this subject.

Bottom line is: Yes, you can usually get away with it, although results vary by cruiseline.

Like with everything here, though, if you are planning on doing this on a specific cruiseline you'll get much more useful information by asking on your dedicated message board here at cruise critic.

Just make sure to say "ship" instead of "boat", though.

I just got off the AOS and shared a room with two other girls. We each brought 5 bottles of liquor in our suitcases. Never put it in your carry on or they will take it. I wrapped my bottles in bubble wrap, then thin foam, then put in very large zip lock bags and packed among my clothes.

One girl was not so lucky and her bottle of red wine broke and stained all her clothes. Fortunately, the ship laundry was able to salvage everything. Unfortunately she had packed it on the bottom of her suitcase with no protection.

Also, when you buy liquor in port it's hit or miss if they will take it from you when you reboard. On a 10 day cruise, there were more than two times they did not have the alcohol check going on and we brought our liquor back to the room. We did not intend to drink it though.

You can also buy liquor on the ship for very cheap but on AOS there was a $9.50 consumption fee. Still cheap though.

Adventure of the Seas 05/02/04

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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Just make sure to say "ship" instead of "boat."<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Especially when you are watching re-runs of "The Love Ship."

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Put "Cruise Critic" in e-mail subject line: tomcarten@hotmail.com

Ditto the above message. Not in your carry on. My wife and I packed 3 bottles of wine in our bags on Royal Caribbean with no problem. As a matter of fact, I left the bottles, one at a time, in our ice bucket and our maid (steward) filled the buckets with ice each morning. Semper Fi

till Carnival Conquest - 07/04

RCCL - Rhapsody of the Seas - 02/03

In 2003 we did back-to-back cruises on the Sea Princess out of San Juan. Between cruises we waited on the ship at the top of the gangway for friends who were joining us on week 2.

At the San Juan port there was liquor store you could go in to after you cleared x-ray and check-in. Many people were buying liquor there and bringing it aboard.

As people boarded, some were carrying liqour boxes and there was a guy at a table checking them as they came in. He confiscated many of the boxes entirely. On some, he just remeoved a bottle or two. It was as if he was distinguishing between liquor sold by the ship and those brands that were not. If the ship sold, he took it. That's just my speculation from what I saw.

One thing that did not happen was, he did not open any carry-ons. If the liquor was inside, it would have made it on board without a problem.

So I guess it depends on the setup at each port and if you are not familiar with it, it's best brought aboard in a suitcase.

'89 Commodore/Caribe I

'92 NCL/Westward

'96 NCL/Seaward

'99 RCI/Rhapsody Of The Seas

'00 RCI/Legend Of The Seas

'01 Princess/Ocean Princess

'02 RCI/Vision Of The Seas

'03 Princess/Sea Princess, back-to-back

'03 Princess/Sea Princess

'04 Hawaii, 2 weeks on land

TAHITIAN PRINCESS 02/11/05

I have brought champagne in my carry-on for every single one of my 15 cruises out of various ports, (Miami, San Pedro, San Juan, Barcelona, Sydney, etc.) and have never once had anything confiscated.

Might be different for hard liquor, but nobody has ever inspected my carry-on luggage.

T