Cheers embarcation port question

I was told that certain ports the first day cheers will not kick in until 2nd day. One reason I was given was the state and port rules. So why do other cruise lines not have this same rule?:confused:

Galveston and Houston are the only ports that have this exception. Princess is no longer sailing out of Houston.

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New York as well

So why do other cruise lines not have this same rule?:confused:

I was told that certain ports the first day cheers will not kick in until 2nd day. One reason I was given was the state and port rules. So why do other cruise lines not have this same rule?:confused:

Alcohol served while in Texas waters has to have been bought in Texas with state taxes paid. You won't have much choice of alcohol until out of Texas waters,

we leave in a few weeks out of NY and no cheers the first day. Then in April we sail with NCL out of NY and the first day is no problem with the cheers pkg they offer.

we leave in a few weeks out of NY and no cheers the first day. Then in April we sail with NCL out of NY and the first day is no problem with the cheers pkg they offer.

NCL will serve you with their UBP, but there will be a charge on your onboard account in the amount of the tax on the drink, which is usually less than $0.75. Certainly wasn't enough to prevent me from making full use of my Ultimate Beverage Package!

I was told that certain ports the first day cheers will not kick in until 2nd day. One reason I was given was the state and port rules. So why do other cruise lines not have this same rule?:confused:

There has been some discussion about this around here and there, but I don't know that there has ever been a solid answer. I have only examined this from the Galveston/Texas point of view, but a similar idea would apply to New York. Theories usually come in two flavors: (1) Texas requires liquor served in Texas waters pay Texas liquor tax and (2) Texas law seems to prohibit all-you-can drink offerings (disregard the 15 drink limit for this purpose).

I don't think the first theory really applies, because they DO serve alcohol in Texas waters. There's really no reason why there would be a difference between the pay-as-you-go alcohol and the Cheers! alcohol. There have been witnesses to the Texas-liquor changeover where the bars are emptied of Texas-liquor-stamped bottles and reloaded with non-stamped liquor.

The second is true. Texas does have a law against all-you-can-drink promotions. The thinking is that if you can't do all-you-can-drink in Texas, then you can't do Cheers! Set aside the it's-not-really-all-you-can-drink-since-there-is-a-limit for now.

As to why other cruise lines (i.e., Royal Caribbean) don't have the one-day black out on drink packages, it's not cut-and-dried if or how that would apply to the Cheers! package. There is room for error here. As a consequence, it appears Carnival has chosen to err on the side of caution while other lines have not.

At least, that's my theory.

Texas has a limit on the amount of alcohol in oz that you can buy in a single transaction. So even if you are on a land based festival, you still can only buy a certain amount of alcohol tickets. So, if in TX waters, the 15 drink limit is WAY over TX's limit.

After looking into it, there is a provision of the law that says that an establishment may offer alcoholic beverages as part of a hotel/motel package. Perhaps that is where Royal Caribbean finds its "loophole" to allow the sale of their drink package from day 1. Maybe Carnival doesn't like something in that exception (definition of "hotel" perhaps?)

I don't see an ounce-per-transaction prohibition, but that doesn't mean there isn't one. I do see a no-more-than-two-drinks-per-person-per-transaction rule, so there is that.

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Texas has some crazy liquor laws which is why I choose not to cruise from Galveston. NOLA is a lot more fun and doesn't impose bible belt laws like Texas does.