Anyone been caught?

[rothsix]

True Canadian, eh? Just go with the crowd as market does not drive business. Sure, mine alone would not matter in the grander scale. But neither would the few bucks they'd make after openning luggage and taking (stealing) any not security related objects. Perhaps you could read the thread a little closer and note that we are not talking about security related items, which of course should be dealt with. We are discussing booze that is packed in personal luggage. Again, I have not and don't plan to do this, but I would hope that if the line found something of concern in my bag, they would contact me and ask me about it rather than remove it unilaterally.

 

You make us Canucks look bad Speechless. Another "go with the flow" Canadian. Bad customer relations does hurt business. In today's business environment, the day the company executives feel that customers are "bothering" them is pretty much the day you should sell their stock. Maybe the line I cruise with wouldn't miss the four or five cruises I'll have taken in two years, and maybe they wouldn't even miss the profits from the cruises of the people I referred. Perhaps they wouldn't even notice the dozens of people I have "talked" into cruising throughout the continent, but I would venture to say that if they knew, they would not like the news. I'm sure that you have heard about the happy customer vs. unhappy customer and how much the cost is.

 

I guess we'll just wait until the Canadian government gets into the cruise business, then it will all be ok, eh?

 

Derrick

[Speechless]

Okay seriously........would you like a hug?

[UberCruiser]

No one that I know has ever been removed from a boat for trying to bring liquor on board. The cruise lines put the legalese into their rules to scare the straights - remember "A lock only keeps an honest man honest."

 

Now, a real risk is that the cheap plastic flask that you bought blows a seam during the airplane flight and soaks your clothing with dark rum, even though it was packed inside of a zip-lock bag, inside of a shaving kit. :eek:

 

The voice of experience.

 

Cruise on!

[bUU]

The cruise lines put the legalese into their rules to scare the straights

That sounds like tacit support for the "non-straights" to continue showing a lack of integrity and continue to knowingly violate agreements they freely entered into. That seems like an anarchistic and rather self-motivated perspective, one I cannot see any merit in. As a guest of RCI, clearly, you should either buy your liquor on-board, or pay the corkage fee, depending on what your host prefers.

[UberCruiser]

I apologize if I have offended you with the comment. Perhaps my intended meaning was lost in a flippant remark.

 

Having been on many cruises and also working in the insurance / loss management industry for several years, I agree that the boarding agreement is a contract that the cruiser accepts by paying the fare and boarding the ship - albeit a contract of adhesion that a domestic court may have issues with.

 

I also believe that the content of the contract is worded to help limit the cruise line's liability in the event of an alcohol related incident on board. They need to be able to show a policy of limiting the drinking on board the vessel. Using cruise cards gives them the ability to monitor the bar consumption, but unregulated carry-on would be an issue. By making a show of confiscating liquor from the passengers who try to carry in with their hand luggage, they are able to further demonstrate a policy of not allowing unlimited consumption on the ships. By not searching the checked baggage, which may be construed as requiring an extraordinary effort on the part of the cruise line, the lines gracefully sidestep alienating their passengers. Also, the dock-side baggage handlers in most ports are not employees of the line - they are local union laborers, and there is a gray area of responsibility and accountability. There would never be time or equipment available to scan the luggage once it has been lifted onto the ship.

 

If the cruise lines were only interested in protecting their profits, they would not allow the passengers to bring any form of drinks onto the vessel (alcohol or otherwise). My family's consumption of soft drinks has always been much greater than our liquor tab. I have actually only carried liquor onto the ship once, with less-than-stellar results (see prior post).

 

I pray that I am never limited in my enjoyment of a cruise by whether or not I can get a good stiff drink.

[bUU]

Liability is surely a perspective I didn't consider with regard to possible foundations for these terms and conditions, but it sure makes sense.

[cruisin from florida]

On the Explorer a couple of years ago we brought bottled water and diet soda as well as a few nice bottles of wine, in a carry-on. We drank some of the wine in the room, and took other bottles to the dining room. We were never charged a corkage fee. We also bought some liquor in the ship's store and paid the $9 or so consumption fee.

 

We spent plenty in the bars. But we have paid a fair amount of money to have a cabin/balcony pleasant enough to spend time in, and it's nice to have a quiet drink before dinner in our cabin or on the balcony.

 

So for us it's not totally about saving money, although to pay $5-$6 for every drink for a week could get steep. It's also about being able to have a beverage in the cabin instead of the bar.

 

mjh

[Eleazar]

In my albeit limited experience policies vary from line to line in a BIG way. On a Crystal cruise around Italy, we were in a group where there was never a question about wine.

 

I personally bought 7 bottles from a vineyard in one of our ports of call and openly brought them on board with no questions ever asked. Others at our table also bought wine while in various ports.

 

In fact, one evening we had a serious tasting at the table, 3 bottles our dinner group had bought in port and a 4th from the ship. They opened the non-Crystal bottles without question (no corkage fee and we even shared some with the sommelier as we debated the various merits of each wine). I have no doubt Crystal would have preferred to sell us four and not one bottle that night but we consistently had two bottles a night among our table of 6, sought out the sommelier's recomendations for wines to try in our price range, and we all left him a good end of cruise tip. Good service and a knowledgeable sommelier sold them more wine than a "no booze brought on board" policy ever would.

[oscarmoraz]

Been there done that! lol

[Kalos Orisate]

I take liquor on board every cruise. I empty a 1 or 2 liter soda bottle and fill it with liquor. Put it in zip lock and put in my carry on bag. I also buy minatures and put them in my checked bags at various locations. Buy pints of liquor on the islands (with plastic caps) and carry them on in my pockets.

That's a lot of liquor for a 7-10 day cruise...

 

For cheap entertainment, it's hard to beat going to the room at the beginning of the cruise where they call all passengers caught with liquor on their luggage. "Sir: We found two liters of gin in these water bottles in your luggage. Can you explain how these bottles got in your luggage ?" "I have no idea"... There were at least two dozen passengers caught on the 12/19 Norwegian Dawn sailing. :o

[Philip217]

From another board:

 

Author: Bruce Chafkin

Date: 12-29-04 20:52

 

Alcohol in cabin proponents (like me) nearly always assume that the cruise lines prohibit bringing alcohol aboard in order to protect profits. I always assumed that it was the case - even as a cruise line employee.

 

Then my employer tried a few tests. We confiscated all bottles coming onboard for one cruise (over 1000 bottles of spirits), and then let everyone bring their bottles aboard for the next. The results were quite baffling. The Bar Revenues were nearly the same for both cruises. So we tried it again. Same results.

Then we tried it on other ships in the fleet. Again same results.

 

I was able to sit in on a corporate meeting that addressed these surprising results. The Hotel Department people saw it this way:

Profit margins in the Bar are not that good these days anyway. With so many more people drinking wine now ( a high cost / low profit item) and fewer people drinking spirits (lower cost / higher profit), the main profit area these days is juices, water, and soft drinks. They proposed that we forget about alcohol smugglers and concentrate on prohibiting the smuggling of high profit sodas that Americans are addicted to (and they bring onboard by the case).

 

But the Legal Department had a completely different view on the subject. They actually had no regard for the pennies or dollars lost on a smuggled bottle of alcohol or soda. They produced a list of pending frivolous lawsuits against our company that totaled nearly a HALF BILLION dollars!! All of these lawsuits were brought by passengers who had gotten drunk in their cabins, then went out into public and 1) fell overboard, 2) fell down and broke something, 3) got into fights with other passengers, 4) were somehow inconvenienced that they thought that a lawsuit was in order.

Our lawyers pointed out that the majority of the lawsuits would be dismissed as silly. But they also gave us an estimate of the legal costs (and proposed settlements) for all of this nonsense: 50 MILLION DOLLARS.

Do you know who ultimately pays that 50 MILLION?? Passengers, in the form of higher ticket prices.

 

Then the Legal Department threw us a curve. They produced a list of lawsuits for the cruises where we allowed alcohol to be brought aboard, and compared it to the cruises where we confiscated the bottles. There were more lawsuits on the cruises with alcohol in cabins.

 

But it got more interesting still. Our attorneys informed us of the American system for judging lawsuits where alcohol is involved. It seems that in America, if you serve alcohol to the public, you are legally responsible for any and all the consequences of people getting drunk on your premises. The fact that they may have gotten drunk in their cabins is still your responsibility as well - SO LONG AS YOU DO NOT MAKE REASONABLE EFFORTS TO CONTROL THAT DRINKING.

The word REASONABLE is a very important one to the American judges who decide if the cruise line will pay MILLIONS to some idiot drinker, or dismiss his case as frivolous.

 

By actively prohibiting passengers carrying alcohol onboard a cruise ship, the company is demonstrating to the courts that it is making REASONABLE efforts to control alcohol consumption on its premises. Then when joe six-pack and his buddies drink a few cases of beer and tequila in their cabins and decide to dive into the sea from Deck 13, the cruise line is not legally and financially responsible for their deaths - and the best part - we as passengers do not end up paying for their stupidity.

 

The lawyers did suggest however, that if we really wanted to protect profits, we should prohibit smuggling of the high profit water, juices, and sodas. My bosses were a bit more reasonable and decided against it.

 

NET Profit is the actual money you have left after paying for the ingredients, glassware, storage, transportation, ice, dishwashing, cleaning, replacement of breakage, labor costs, trash disposal, licenses, handling, and taxes. Many of these costs are much higher for a ship than for a land-based hotel.

 

Average NET profit on a glass of wine = 15%

Average NET profit on a cocktail = 30%

Average NET profit on a fountain soda = 90%

Average NET profit on a can of soda = 30%

Average NET profit on a bottle of water = 50%

 

Even a big ship sells only several thousand cocktails a day, but sells tens of thousands of sodas and bottles of water in a day. Do the math.............................

 

If Cruise Lines really want to protect their profitability by stopping us from bringing items aboard, it makes far more sense to ban sodas, water, and juices than it does to ban alcohol.

 

If the lawyers are more worried about liability costs than profits, they will ban the alcohol and forget the others. That seems to be what they have done.

 

By the way, if you look at the back of your airline ticket, you will find that the airlines also ban alcohol - for the same obvious reasons.

 

Most passengers do not realize it, but ALL major American Ports are now required by the TSA to x-ray ALL baggage before it goes onboard. Thats where they find your smuggled bottles.

[bUU]

Thanks for that insight, Philip (and Bruce). It never occurred to me that the real motive may be to reduce frivilous lawsuits, but it makes lots of sense!

[Cruisin Together]

RCCL let's you buy booze (cheap) and will charge you $9.00 extra to bring it to your room. The total price is pretty close to what you would pay for it off the ship. My plan is to bring some mini bottles until I the ship store opens. It is just not worth trying to sneak in the big bottles that would be needed for 7 days.

[NCmom]

Donning my flame proof suit: I know that on these boards, Disney is not a beloved line, but Disney allows you to bring alcohol and sodas onboard without question. Even though they no longer charge for soda, I still carry on my Diet Mt. Dew. They do ask that you not check them, but carry them on. If you take a bottle of wine not purchased onboard into a restaurant, they will charge a corkage fee, but no alcohol is confiscated. BYOB and free sodas on a cruise ship--sounds like a novel idea! Course, most here will say its because they charge so much, they SHOULD do this.