Bringing alcohol aboard

[sidekick180]

I know this question will have been asked a million times before, so I apologize for asking now, but I couldn't find the answer on here.

We are booked on one of the summer cruises, and because there is no on board credit we would like to take some drink with us to reduce the amount we spend on board. We don't drink much anyway, but at least if we can take some drink on board it will save us a few pennies.

I'm sure that someone will correct me if I am wrong, but I assume that we can both take a litre of spirits each? I drink Southern comfort and the OH drinks vodka. We would also need to take mixers with us, so can we also take soft drinks on board, and if so, how much? She uses diet coke and mine is lemonade.

Finally, if we are allowed to take these drinks on board, what are your suggestions for getting them on the ship? Should they go in main luggage or hand luggage?

I'm just worried that if we have to put them in main luggage, the bottles could get broken, soaking all our clothes. Any suggestions and advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks

 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, sidekick180 said:

I know this question will have been asked a million times before, so I apologize for asking now, but I couldn't find the answer on here.

We are booked on one of the summer cruises, and because there is no on board credit we would like to take some drink with us to reduce the amount we spend on board. We don't drink much anyway, but at least if we can take some drink on board it will save us a few pennies.

I'm sure that someone will correct me if I am wrong, but I assume that we can both take a litre of spirits each? I drink Southern comfort and the OH drinks vodka. We would also need to take mixers with us, so can we also take soft drinks on board, and if so, how much? She uses diet coke and mine is lemonade.

Finally, if we are allowed to take these drinks on board, what are your suggestions for getting them on the ship? Should they go in main luggage or hand luggage?

I'm just worried that if we have to put them in main luggage, the bottles could get broken, soaking all our clothes. Any suggestions and advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks

 

You are correct it is 1 litre of sprits each, or 1 bottle of wine each, and there is no limit on soft drinks for mixers. You can carry them on board with your hand luggage or in your main luggage.

[wowzz]

Easiest thing is just to put the bottles in your hand luggage. They hand luggage goes through scanners, similar to an airport, but the security personnel couldn't care less about your alcohol allowance  - they are more interested in knives, guns etc. 

Soft drinks again go through the scanner - again no issues  there is no theoretical maximum limit. I suggest you use a wheeled case for your hand luggage. It can be quite a trek to your cabin! 

[sidekick180]

Thanks for the advice. I will be sure to put the drink in our hand luggage. Luckily, we do have two small cases with wheels, so that will be the best option. Don't want the drink being wasted by it getting broken in the main luggage. I know that the porters are a bit more careful on cruises than the porters on airlines, but don't want to take the risk.

[Eglesbrech]

Your thread has made me smile so much, it’s just such a “”normal” question to ask after almost a year of no cruises and nothing normal.All we need now if for DaiB to come in with the list of onboard spirit prices for the good old days to be back (all joking aside the bottle prices onboard for use in cabin used to be very reasonable but who knows what will have changed if the ship is U.K. based for VAT etc).

 

Good advice from John and Wozz above. Personally we take our bottle in hand luggage and stick mixers in the case in a vacuum seal bag, small cans are less likely to burst.

 

You can ask your steward for ice and lemon each day in the cabin but it really depends on who you get / how busy they are whether they can accommodate this request or not. Doesn’t hurt to ask.

[zap99]

1 hour ago, Eglesbrech said:

Your thread has made me smile so much, it’s just such a “”normal” question to ask after almost a year of no cruises and nothing normal.All we need now if for DaiB to come in with the list of onboard spirit prices for the good old days to be back (all joking aside the bottle prices onboard for use in cabin used to be very reasonable but who knows what will have changed if the ship is U.K. based for VAT etc).

 

Good advice from John and Wozz above. Personally we take our bottle in hand luggage and stick mixers in the case in a vacuum seal bag, small cans are less likely to burst.

 

You can ask your steward for ice and lemon each day in the cabin but it really depends on who you get / how busy they are whether they can accommodate this request or not. Doesn’t hurt to ask.

I thought I would quite like to know where our 3/4 night' follow the sun cruise' was going to go. But then with 2 litres of spirits between 2 people, it doesn't really matter as we wouldn't remember much of it. How about a dress code thread😂

[kalos]

2 hours ago, zap99 said:

I thought I would quite like to know where our 3/4 night' follow the sun cruise' was going to go. But then with 2 litres of spirits between 2 people, it doesn't really matter as we wouldn't remember much of it. How about a dress code thread😂

 

The bar dress code said "black tie only".

But when I got there, I noticed other people had worn shirts and trousers too 

[ann141]

You can only drink the bottles you bring onboard in your cabin.The drink prices are reasonable compared with other cruise lines but any drinks we bring onboard we always carry on as hand luggage

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, ann141 said:

You can only drink the bottles you bring onboard in your cabin.The drink prices are reasonable compared with other cruise lines but any drinks we bring onboard we always carry on as hand luggage

And, in all honesty, no one cares if you bring the odd extra bottle or two on board.

[No pager thank you]

...and, going back to the good old days when you could explore independently, the on board scanning staff were not that bothered in taking back the odd bottle of wine you bring back on, even though the protocol is that it should be confiscated...

 

...and if they do...who cares, you get it back anyway!

Edited March 25, 2021 by No pager thank you

[wowzz]

9 minutes ago, No pager thank you said:

...and, going back to the good old days when you could explore independently, the on board scanning staff were not that bothered in taking back the odd bottle of wine you bring back on, even though the protocol is that it should be confiscated...

 

...and if they do...who cares, you get it back anyway!

In fact, on our last cruise, whilst our bags were scanned by port security staff when getting back on board, there was no scanning by P&O staff on any occasion.

[zap99]

23 minutes ago, wowzz said:

In fact, on our last cruise, whilst our bags were scanned by port security staff when getting back on board, there was no scanning by P&O staff on any occasion.

On our last Caribbean cruise on Brittania they had a honesty table where you could put your stuff in a bag with your cabin number to pick up at the end of the cruise. Not much on it.

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

Following on from the OPs question...

 

Are our individual allowances pooled for the cabin... i.e. can we take 2 litres between us or is it strictly 1 litre each? We want to take 3 bottles between us... 2 x 700ml + 1 x 500ml. This is under the 2 litres if we pool our allowances but if we had to stick strictly to our own individual allowances (instead of pooling them) we couldn't take all 3 bottles  one of us would have to take a 700ml + a 500ml which is then over the 1 litre.

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, Snaxmuppet said:

Following on from the OPs question...

 

Are our individual allowances pooled for the cabin... i.e. can we take 2 litres between us or is it strictly 1 litre each? We want to take 3 bottles between us... 2 x 700ml + 1 x 500ml. This is under the 2 litres if we pool our allowances but if we had to stick strictly to our own individual allowances (instead of pooling them) we couldn't take all 3 bottles  one of us would have to take a 700ml + a 500ml which is then over the 1 litre.

No one cares. The security staff really are not worried about looking for alcohol, and they are certainly not going to worry about what bottle belongs to which person. And if you put a bottle in your suitcase, that is not matched to you as an individual anyway. 

[zap99]

43 minutes ago, wowzz said:

No one cares. The security staff really are not worried about looking for alcohol, and they are certainly not going to worry about what bottle belongs to which person. And if you put a bottle in your suitcase, that is not matched to you as an individual anyway. 

I thought it was 2 litres per cabin. That will do for our 3 night cruise, but we may need to cheat a bit when on the 4 nighter🤣.

[Son of Anarchy]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

No one cares. The security staff really are not worried about looking for alcohol, and they are certainly not going to worry about what bottle belongs to which person. And if you put a bottle in your suitcase, that is not matched to you as an individual anyway. 

This has been our experience at embarkation.

[Eddie99]

Be relaxed but please don’t take the … proverbial

 

P&O used to have no limit on what you could take - but people abused the policy. So, the current limits were imposed and passengers are trusted to act reasonably and responsibly.  

 

 

[Purdey16]

13 hours ago, zap99 said:

I thought it was 2 litres per cabin. That will do for our 3 night cruise, but we may need to cheat a bit when on the 4 nighter🤣.

Extra luggage for you then Zapp 😂 , not suggesting this for everyone but I brought many years ago very strong  inflatable bottle carriers never had one brake even on airplanes luggage chucked around,  also used in our carry on luggage 😉 

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, Purdey16 said:

Extra luggage for you then Zapp 😂 , not suggesting this for everyone but I brought many years ago very strong  inflatable bottle carriers never had one brake even on airplanes luggage chucked around,  also used in our carry on luggage 😉 

Boxes of wine survive very well in suitcases that go through the hole in the wall. Just saying!

[zap99]

3 hours ago, Purdey16 said:

Extra luggage for you then Zapp 😂 , not suggesting this for everyone but I brought many years ago very strong  inflatable bottle carriers never had one brake even on airplanes luggage chucked around,  also used in our carry on luggage 😉 

We don't drink much, so a couple of bottles of wine is about the most we take. If we get a ' free ' drinks package perhaps a few more. It would be rude not to. We have never purchased an alcoholic drinks package. Normally a soft drinks package and coffee. A cocktail, a glass or two of wine and a brandy to help me sleep is about tops. DW don't drink much, the odd glass of wine or/and a Bailey's. I couldn't be bothered to smuggle booze on board. Some of the conversations a dinner with our transatlantic friends seem to revolve around the booze smuggling paraphernalia that they have found. I always wonder why folk spend £5000 on a cruise but smuggle a couple of bottles of Jim Beam. If that's what they like to do, good luck🍾🤣

[Purdey16]

We’re not really hard stuff drinkers but we like to take our port with us and have a glass while getting ready for dinner or to go with cheese and biscuits on balcony at lunchtime and just a bottle of champagne when we first board to drink while I’m unpacking, but as we all know drink prices are reasonable on P&O , we’re not heavy drinkers and could never get my money’s worth if we brought a drinks package.

[zap99]

9 minutes ago, Purdey16 said:

We’re not really hard stuff drinkers but we like to take our port with us and have a glass while getting ready for dinner or to go with cheese and biscuits on balcony at lunchtime and just a bottle of champagne when we first board to drink while I’m unpacking, but as we all know drink prices are reasonable on P&O , we’re not heavy drinkers and could never get my money’s worth if we brought a drinks package.

If you drink a bottle of champagne when you are unpacking, how do you remember where you put it all. I'm not very good at unpacking so I an told " Don't touch anything. Go out on the balcony and don't get under my feet". I can live with that kind of disrespect.🤣

[rumbalizw]

I take the pre mixed cans of gin and tonic, and mini bottles of fizz, for ease of use . They don't even add up to a litre each . However, I caused great offence in another site when I mentioned this once 😁

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

I am taking a bottle of my favourite whisky (Tomatin) and some Disaronno for my better half 🙂

 

I don't plan on bringing any of it home 😉 

[ScratchTheRat]

Hi all, 

 

What are the current rules for bringing on alcohol and also non alcoholic drinks?