Mediterranean Cruise and ability to take alcohol aboard after embarkation??

Folks:

My first Mediterranean cruise experience was aboard the Carnival Breeze in 2012. At each port of call, I was able to re-board the Breeze with a small amount of alcohol (i.e. a few beer or a bottle of wine) with no issues..... I thought it was awesome to have a few inexpensive "balcony" beers.

The departure date for my second Mediterranean cruise is approaching. I will be cruising with Royal. Just wondering if anyone who recently sailed with Royal, (in the Mediterranean and specifically on the Rhapsody of the Seas) was able to re-board the ship with alcohol .... without the alcohol being confiscated???

If this is a repeat question, could someone kindly point me to the right thread and applicable post #.

Thanks,

Dan

... re-board the ship with alcohol .... without the alcohol being confiscated???

Hi Dan,

Royal does not allow any alcohol to be brought on board, with the exception of 2 x 750 ml. bottles of wine per stateroom on the day of embarkation only. When you return from port each time, your carry-ons and shopping bags will be sent through the x-ray scanner and if alcohol is detected, you will need to surrender it until the end of the cruise. This is a fleet-wide policy so it doesn't matter your ports or the ship.

Have fun on your cruise. :)

.

Just posting to confirm LC's every word

A broadly similar policy to many other cruise lines. And RCI are very strict about it.

Other than those two bottles of wine per cabin at your embarkation port, any alcohol you take aboard will be held by the ship & returned to you at the end of the cruise.

Any alcohol "smuggled" aboard, eg in Coke bottles, will be confiscated & RCI may impose sanctions.

JB :)

OP managed to sneak it on board on CCl on his first cruise, because they do not allow it either. The answer to OP is that it is not allowed but you might get away with it, but you might not.

Brought a bottle of Sangria on the ship after a day in Barcelona. I assumed they would hold it until the last night and we would drink it then, so I didn't hide it. It was in my shopping bag when I boarded. They didn't blink and allowed me to board with it. No idea why, but we decided it was a sign that we should drink it THAT night and we did. I've never really tried to get one past them. Guess I was just lucky.

Thank you for the comments

It is totally about who is working the x-ray upon re-boarding - some are strictly by the book - others will look the other way. Random.

Hey Folks:

I am back from my Sept 16th Mediterranean Cruise and now have a definitive answer to my August 30th question (My first Mediterranean cruise experience was aboard the Carnival Breeze in 2012. At each port of call, I was able to re-board the Breeze with a small amount of alcohol (i.e. a few beer or a bottle of wine) with no issues..... I thought it was awesome to have a few inexpensive "balcony" beers. Just wondering if anyone who recently sailed with Royal, (in the Mediterranean and specifically on the Rhapsody of the Seas) was able to re-board the ship with alcohol.... without the alcohol being confiscated???)

Not that I wanted to test Royal’s strictest on their alcohol policy, but on embarkation we left the ship (after initial boarding), went to the duty free shop within the Venice Cruise Terminal and picked up another bottle of wine for the room. No hassles upon return to the Ship.

As mentioned above, I like a few balcony beer, so I took a chance and brought two cans aboard at each of our first four stops. Yes the crew were diligently confiscating 1 litre bottles (wine or hard liqueur), but didn’t seem to care about two or three cans of beer. So no hassles in bringing aboard a few balcony beer at each port. ….. not sure if the unconcerned eye was due to the trouble of booking two cans into their system (which I would never return to pick-up) or due to the Sept 19th incident….??

I thank everyone who previously replied to my question.

I think that it depends on the ship's management to a certain extent as well as company policy.

We were on a Celebrity cruise that stopped in Madeira. We bought a few wonderful bottles of Douro wine and brought it back to the ship. We made no attempt to hide it. They let us pass with the wine. We had planned to get it back on our last night and consume it at that time. Instead....we drank it that evening!

On another Celebrity Med cruise they chased me for one bottle of wine at a port stop. I had forgotten about it. Confiscated and returned on the final night.