Taking food off board at ports?

[JFO23]

Is there a problem with taking food items off the ship at the ports visited?

[Keith1010]

In many ports you are not allowed to take food ashore. The cruise ship will advise in the daily program that it provides if food is not to be taken ashore.

 

Keith

[Romy40]

YES! Be careful! Ship will let you know.

[Kurbanfan]

You are only allowed to take packaged food off.

[happyone082]

We have a 9 hour excursion planned for one day. I'm hoping we can take some snacks and drinks with us...

[eh2zed]

It does differ from port to port due to varying regulations from country to country. Packaged foods are more often OK. Fruit, etc sometimes not.

[Toyz711]

which 9 hour excursions?

i did the NCL spirit in early dec, we did the lamanai and river safari..

since belize is a tender port, i knew the moment we got off the tender, the guides would be a hurry to get the bus moving. made sure to get a good breakfast before hand. i (always) have a canvas bag for the camera and stuff..the stuff being a couple bottle of water (i bring a 6 pack on the ship with me) and a soda and some packaged snacks (candy bar, crackers, whatever i had in my pantry at home). after the hour bus ride, we got to a rest spot with restrooms and water (bottled water, ok not great), got on the boat for another hour ride. at lamanai, we got lunch...with local bottled fruit sodas. plenty to eat, didn't need any of the snacks i had in my bag.

taking drinks is no problem, check with who you have your excursions booked with...food may be available.

[happyone082]

which 9 hour excursions?

i did the NCL spirit in early dec, we did the lamanai and river safari..

since belize is a tender port, i knew the moment we got off the tender, the guides would be a hurry to get the bus moving. made sure to get a good breakfast before hand. i (always) have a canvas bag for the camera and stuff..the stuff being a couple bottle of water (i bring a 6 pack on the ship with me) and a soda and some packaged snacks (candy bar, crackers, whatever i had in my pantry at home). after the hour bus ride, we got to a rest spot with restrooms and water (bottled water, ok not great), got on the boat for another hour ride. at lamanai, we got lunch...with local bottled fruit sodas. plenty to eat, didn't need any of the snacks i had in my bag.

taking drinks is no problem, check with who you have your excursions booked with...food may be available.

 

Hi Cathi,

 

We are going on the Quirigua and River Dolce excursion on the Norwegian Spirit. I believe they provide lunch, although I'm not sure what it consists of. I can't have seafood so hopefully they have some variety. We are really excited but 9 hours is a long time so I wanted to make sure we have something with us in case I'm unable to eat what they provide.

[Toyz711]

i didn't do the river part of quiriqua, just the bus to and from.

i would doubt that they would use seafood, too many people have allergies. we had some locally cooked chicken, rice/bean, a great coleslaw, some regular beans and a coconut tart, at lamanai. if you go to the quatemala boards and ask, maybe someone can tell you.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5 but things are slow over there, lately.

take bug spray for quiriqua, if you spray as soon as you get off the bus it's fine, don't wait. those 'skitters are bloody thristy.

it it really worrys you, get some of those prepacked crackers with cheese or peanut butter...just no loose meats, veggies or fruits. as much as you want to eat, you don't want to do anything that could hurt the vegetation there, it's beautiful country.

[happyone082]

i didn't do the river part of quiriqua, just the bus to and from.

i would doubt that they would use seafood, too many people have allergies. we had some locally cooked chicken, rice/bean, a great coleslaw, some regular beans and a coconut tart, at lamanai. if you go to the quatemala boards and ask, maybe someone can tell you.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5 but things are slow over there, lately.

take bug spray for quiriqua, if you spray as soon as you get off the bus it's fine, don't wait. those 'skitters are bloody thristy.

it it really worrys you, get some of those prepacked crackers with cheese or peanut butter...just no loose meats, veggies or fruits. as much as you want to eat, you don't want to do anything that could hurt the vegetation there, it's beautiful country.

 

Thanks for the advice!

 

My fiance and I (we are going on the cruise for our honeymoon) just went and bought bug spray this weekend, thinking we would need it, so we'll definitely use it now.

 

If they have foods like you had, I'll be just fine. It sounds wonderful.

 

Just 12 more days till the wedding and 13 until our first cruise! We are really excited about both!

[Toyz711]

you should be excited...have a great time!!

(and congrats)

[angelcheerleader]

pshhh rules rules rules. what are they gonna do, kick u off for good if you bring a box of cereal, im mean come on, get real

[angelcheerleader]

i just wanted to add one more post to make it 30

[JanineM]

pshhh rules rules rules. what are they gonna do, kick u off for good if you bring a box of cereal, im mean come on, get real

 

It's not a matter of someone invoking "rules" just to tick you off. There is a legitimate reason for not carrying foods off in different ports.

 

If you bring something like a banana off the ship to a "new" area, you could very bring pests that are non-native to the area. Those pests probably will not have any natural predators to keep them from destroying crops. That's how we get things like fruit flies and citrus canker that ruin crops.

 

And if you are caught you can expect THOUSANDS of dollars in fines. Foreign and American ports are deadly serious about this because it affects the livelihood of their people.

 

If you want to take something then make sure it is a food product that is pre-packaged. Things like Nabisco crackers & peanut butter, granola bars, protein and meal replacement bars are perfect.

 

To the OP - I am also allergic to shellfish, so I do carry meal bars "just in case". Be sure to carry your epi-pen and benadryl with you everywhere!

[dforeigner]

pshhh rules rules rules. what are they gonna do, kick u off for good if you bring a box of cereal, im mean come on, get real

 

The Cruise line probably will not kick you off. But being arrested at a foreign country for violating their Health, Import, Agricultural laws by someone who has the I am an American and I can do what ever I do type attitude, may be an eye opener.

[yeahbaby]

wouldn't you wanna try some of the native food in the port you're visiting? i can't wait to eat some arroz con pollo in puerto rico!

[Spriteshadow]

I'm going with my 21 month old twins, one of them is allergic to nuts AND a picky eater... even if we didn't have to worry about nuts, she just isn't up to eating everything under the sun yet. That's the problem with only having 8 teeth.

 

We had planned on taking some food from the ship each time we went ashore just to be sure we had something she could eat... the rest of us, including her brother, would have fun eating whatever we found. Ok, that sounds bad.

 

Anyway, any thoughts on whether or not they're likely to make an exception under our circumstances? It's not like we can walk up to a conch fritter sales person and "hope for the best" when it comes to feeding her...

 

 

Chantelle

[wrp96]

You can usually take prepackaged foods off the ship with you. So if your child can eat cereal, grab some of the boxes of cereal off the buffet and take that with you. If she can eat those prepackaged cheese and crackers bring some of those with you on the cruise. Things like are okay in most ports.