Luggage alowance 23 Kg for round cruise from Southampton?

[oAlgo]

Hi, just printed our luggage tags and I was surprised as it says that only 23kilos of weight per piece is allowed.
We´re doing back-to-back 21 days in total (both starting and ending in Southampton) and were thinking of taking more weight than that.

Also, we´ve usually always taken 2 or 3 bottles of wine each (as we´re wine snobs, haha), and never had a problem. We have some in the cabin and pay corkage to get it served in the restaurants.
I´ve now read that only one bottle is allowed per person, but not sure if this has always been the policy and never been enforced, or is this new.
On our last cruise in the Canaries last November, we took some bottles on board and bought more in some wineries we visited and some ports of call, and took them back on in our backpack that was scanned and they didn´t even mention them. We had some on board and brought the others back with us.

Edited April 27, 2023 by oAlgo

[Leomins]

The 23kg limit is per piece of luggage for the safety of the crew. You can take as many pieces as you like.

 

[Will&Hel]

23kg per item has always been the case for health and safety of crew- you can take as many cases as you wish from Southampton. One litre per adult at embarkation has also always been the case but the restriction at ports of call  has not enforced post Covid in our experience 

[yorkshirephil]

The 23kg is the limit for manual handling but as already said you can take several cases each. Some cruises can be strict with the alcohol limit but also as said since covid no one seems to bother so much. On our last cruise there was a honesty shelf but everyone seemed to be swerving it. 

[david63]

The taking of alcohol onboard at ports of call is an "honesty" thing. The official line is that any alcohol bought ashore should be handed in at the table near where you board (normally there is one or two crew members sat there looking bored!) and then collected just before disembarkation. Whether you hand it in or not is up to you - I have never seen, or heard, of anybody having it removed when re-boarding the ship but it might be a bit obvious if you tried to bring a couple of dozen cases of wine on with you! This was in force pre Covid.

 

As others have said the 23kg limit is per case but there are other limits if you are travelling by coach.

Edited April 27, 2023 by david63

[wowzz]

From a personal point of view,  would you be happy carrying your suitcase if it weighed 30 kg. ?

[zap99]

17 minutes ago, wowzz said:

From a personal point of view,  would you be happy carrying your suitcase if it weighed 30 kg. ?

We were in Malta last week. Our biggest case was just under 20kg. It is the biggest case we have. Any bigger than that, DW would struggle a bit.

[No pager thank you]

I suppose the key bit is per piece.  Providing that the cases have limited width, you will more than likely be able to fit three or four pieces in the cabin i.e., underneath the bed/s.  Hopefully this will be ample.

 

The alcohol taken on board policy has been present for some time, but usually not enforced.  This would be helpful, particularly, (and clearly only for example), one were to choose, and be comfortable in, allocating one bottle per piece of luggage, including hand luggage.  The company has better things to do on embarkation day!

 

The scanners were out in force a few years ago but they seem to have gone off this, which is again the company's choice. 

 

The only alcohol they do confiscate is that which is bought in the on board shops and, the worst that can happen is the bottle from the winery is returned at the end of the cruise. 

 

Therefore, if you like to enjoy a glass of local wine in your cabin/on balcony, particularly if not served on board, then perhaps just go ahead?

 

If you do choose for it to be served in the restaurant then there is the corkage charge which you are happy to pay, so P&O will likely be grateful for the free income, I believe £20 per bottle.

 

 

[CCFC]

[oAlgo]

The trouble about taking more cases is that we fly from Spain (where we live), and we have one piece of luggage + hand luggage allowed for our flight.
I´ll try and keep it the lowest weight possible then

About carrying it on myself, I wouldn´t mind that, maybe not 30kg, but could move 25 with no problem at all.

Thanks for all the answers.
Really looking forward to the cruise!!!

[daiB]

5 hours ago, david63 said:

The taking of alcohol onboard at ports of call is an "honesty" thing. The official line is that any alcohol bought ashore should be handed in at the table near where you board (normally there is one or two crew members sat there looking bored!) and then collected just before disembarkation. Whether you hand it in or not is up to you - I have never seen, or heard, of anybody having it removed when re-boarding the ship but it might be a bit obvious if you tried to bring a couple of dozen cases of wine on with you! This was in force pre Covid.

 

As others have said the 23kg limit is per case but there are other limits if you are travelling by coach.

Never seen a table in our 8 cruises since the COVID break. I think they have just given up on the idea.nPossibly they have found that bar sales have not been affected

[david63]

1 minute ago, daiB said:

Never seen a table in our 8 cruises since the COVID break

Definitely on Britannia last year - although at times it was not overly conspicuous!

[daiB]

4 hours ago, No pager thank you said:

I suppose the key bit is per piece.  Providing that the cases have limited width, you will more than likely be able to fit three or four pieces in the cabin i.e., underneath the bed/s.  Hopefully this will be

 

The alcohol taken on board policy has been present for some time, but usually not enforced.  This would be helpful, particularly, (and clearly only for example), one were to choose, and be comfortable in, allocating one bottle per piece of luggage, including hand luggage.  The company has better things to do on embarkation day!

 

 

 

The only alcohol they do confiscate is that which is bought in the on board shops and, the worst that can happen is the bottle from the winery is returned at the end of the cruise. 

 

 

 

Even this last paragraph was not true on Iona recently on both cruises I saw people carrying boxes of duty free very early in the cruise.  ?????

[daiB]

3 minutes ago, david63 said:

Definitely on Britannia last year - although at times it was not overly conspicuous!

Well our experience was on Aurora, Ventura and Iona. It is also the case that in most ports the scanners are shore side where they do not care about bottles of booze. And in most the Duty Free shop is on the ship side of the scanners.

Edited April 27, 2023 by daiB

[wowzz]

11 minutes ago, oAlgo said:

The trouble about taking more cases is that we fly from Spain (where we live), and we have one piece of luggage + hand luggage allowed for our flight.
I´ll try and keep it the lowest weight possible then

About carrying it on myself, I wouldn´t mind that, maybe not 30kg, but could move 25 with no problem at all.

Thanks for all the answers.
Really looking forward to the cruise!!!

But surely you are limited to 23kg on the flight from Spain ?

[david63]

1 minute ago, wowzz said:

But surely you are limited to 23kg on the flight from Spain ?

Not if you fly business class (can you fly business class from Spain?)

Edited April 27, 2023 by david63

[oAlgo]

Not business, but flight from Malaga with Wizz allows 32kg, and flight back 25kg.
I was never thinking on bringing 32kg, but 25-26 including a couple of bottles of wine each.

I did know about the corkage fee of 20 Pounds, and have no problem with it. 

[wowzz]

3 minutes ago, david63 said:

Not if you fly business class (can you fly business class from Spain?)

Of course you can.  (BA/Iberia) You will be allowed two suitcases, but each case cannot weigh more than 23kg.

[wowzz]

1 minute ago, oAlgo said:

Not business, but flight from Malaga with Wizz allows 32kg, and flight back 25kg.
I was never thinking on bringing 32kg, but 25-26 including a couple of bottles of wine each.

I did know about the corkage fee of 20 Pounds, and have no problem with it. 

Thanks for putting me right about Wizz - never knew that.

However,  as I will never fly with Wizz due to their terrible customer service, I will not avail myself of their generous allowances. 

[snaefell]

On our last trip on Britannia in 2018 they did scan bags on returning from shore excursions & confiscated bottles,something they hadn't done on our previous trip on her

[Yorkypete]

6 hours ago, wowzz said:

Thanks for putting me right about Wizz - never knew that.

However,  as I will never fly with Wizz due to their terrible customer service, I will not avail myself of their generous allowances. 

Won't fly wizz air due to bad customer service but will cruise P&O with their excellent customer service?Have you flown Wizz air before?

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by Yorkypete

[Windsurfboy]

On 4/27/2023 at 2:38 PM, wowzz said:

Of course you can.  (BA/Iberia) You will be allowed two suitcases, but each case cannot weigh more than 23kg.

 

BA allows up to 32kg per case , gold executive club members, 3 cases at 32 kg in business. 

[wowzz]

7 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

BA allows up to 32kg per case , gold executive club members, 3 cases at 32 kg in business. 

Yes, sorry. Mea culpa.

[True Devonian]

On 4/27/2023 at 2:38 PM, oAlgo said:

Not business, but flight from Malaga with Wizz allows 32kg, and flight back 25kg.
I was never thinking on bringing 32kg, but 25-26 including a couple of bottles of wine each.

I did know about the corkage fee of 20 Pounds, and have no problem with it. 

I was wondering why you are happy to pay £20 corkage charge along with the inconvenience of carrying bottles of wine on board when you can buy wine starting at under £20 a bottle.

[wowzz]

18 minutes ago, True Devonian said:

I was wondering why you are happy to pay £20 corkage charge along with the inconvenience of carrying bottles of wine on board when you can buy wine starting at under £20 a bottle.

You could argue that a bottle of wine costing £10, plus the £20 corkage, would be better than any of the £30 wines on the P&O wine list.