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Sneaking alcohol on Carnival Dream??


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I like convenience. I like to have a drink on my Balcony. I'm not going to leave my cabin, run up to a bar, get my drink, return to the cabin, sit back down in my Chair on my Balcony only to have a watered down ice melted drink. And what if I want another? I've always taken a couple of small bottles for the room. Only time I've had a issue was when the DW tossed four miniatures into the luggage for me without telling me first. I bet those bottles shined like a flashlight on the x ray. The guy in the naughty room laughed and gave me my bag with the bottles inside and told me to have a nice cruise. I drink good booze. It's a couple of Pint Plastic Bottles with Plastic Caps. Most of the time I bring one unopened back home. If I could purchase a bottle for the room from the cruise ship I wouldn't bring my own.

 

 

You can purchase booze for your room. We do every cruise. It is not cheap, but when we figure what the drinks would cost from the bar we come out ahead.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Rum runners all the way. But use multiple smaller-sized ones; bigger ones are easier to detect. Also, don't just throw them altogether into one obvious spot. Stick one in a shoe. Wrap one in a pair of jeans. Stick one in your toiletries bag. Be smart about it. They may spot one but several spread out and hidden, they are less likely to confiscate all of them. They're not usually trying to go through every little thing in your suitcase on a search for booze... unless you make it obvious that you put a big honkin' bottle or bag. They typically take what's large and obvious.

 

***THAT BEING SAID, I am not guaranteeing you won't find determined staff members wanting to ensure you're not smuggling booze. You are taking a chance at them confiscating every drop so... yanno, plan accordingly if they do, and be prepared to pay the big bucks if they take your secret stash.

P.S.- Carnival typically just leaves you a letter in your suitcase saying they found it and took it. It's not a big production or anything.

Edited by PrettyPenny7
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Totally gonna vary per cruise line, ship, and staff. I literally watched people just last week buy fifths and gallons in Cozumel, and get back on the ship without checking it like you're supposed to... walked straight over to the elevators and to their rooms. I was actually pretty amused with how ballsy that was; I don't feel like I could personally get away with that.

 

Just remember you're taking a chance and be prepared for the consequences if you get caught. *shrugs*

 

A trick that has grown immensely in popularity in recent years is replacing wine with liquor, using food coloring to disguise it as wine and re-corking/re-sealing the bottle. A few years ago, it was a little-known trick and easy to get away with. They used to glance at your wine bottles and nod, then usher you on through like herded cattle.

 

However, that was then and things are different. Thanks to folks all over social media sites sharing their booze-concealing products and techniques, pretty much all the tricks are now widely known by C&BP. They aren't stupid and they know how to research social media for tips.

 

I was on a cruise out of New Orleans a few weeks ago and it seemed as if they are on a warpath to catch people doing this now. Now, they take your wine bottles and shine flashlights through the liquid, tilt the bottle in all directions and shake it up to check the consistency, look for sediment, etc. They take your sodas out of their boxes and examine every single can. They meticulously search every carry-on piece you have with you.

 

I witnessed it on embarkation day, where it took my party 2 hours to get through security and onto the ship because people were getting so throughly searched. It was 90+ degrees that day and we had small kids with us. You do the math.

 

Security personnel have been trained to know what wine looks like vs liquor during these tests (I saw some of their training posters in a search area). They will confiscate anything even remotely suspicious in a heartbeat now. It means nothing to them to take your things. It would appear that the days of being able to get away with this are over. They're cracking down hard. I just wouldn't even risk it, TBH.

 

Also need to be considerate of other passengers who have to wait excessively long times in line while these raids take place.

 

 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Speaking only for myself, I've brought a small amount of alcohol onboard every time I've cruised, and I have a 100% success record for getting it onboard. I don't do rum runners, nor do I add food coloring to anything. The real key is not to be excessive.

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  • 1 month later...

Haven't been on Carnival for a long time but generally speaking on most cruise lines you can bring two bottles of wine per state room on board. On our last cruise our travel agent sent us a bottle and some friends sent us a bottle as well so those were waiting for us. With the two we brought we had 4 bottles of wine that week. So I suppose if you wanted you could send yourself wine as well as carry wine aboard.

 

With the size of the ships and numbers of passengers I don't think cruise lines are heavily scrutinizing checked luggage for things other than for weapons or irons or other unsafe items.

 

I have friends who cruise often. They like to buy packs of 10 or 12 single shot booze bottles and distribute them throughout their toiletries, shaving kits, makeup etc. They do that just so they can have drinks on their balcony before dinner/while getting dressed etc.

 

The last time I was in Cozumel before getting back to the ship I saw a guy pour a liter of tequila into the water bladder of a backpack he was carrying. I thought that was clever asI happened to have been carrying a backpack with a bladder as well but never thought of smuggling booze aboard from an excursion. The water bottle I was openly carrying wasn't given a second look. There were lots of people openly bringing booze back but it was being wrapped, labeled and stored for them for pick up at the end.

 

A few years ago I bought some scotch on board for a good price. I don't know about other cruise lines but RCL stores it and then delivers it to your cabin the last night. I was surprised to see it in my cabin about 4 pm the last day. I don't know what the rules are but I tapped into it and it fueled the last night activities. I've done that a few times and I've talked to a few people who've done that on back to back cruises for their second week.

Edited by mac66
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It's actually not as difficult to smuggle on your own booze, you just have to be crafty about it. I suggest searching "liquor smuggling" on Amazon and you'll see some super creative methods of doing so. Now you aren't going to get a huge amount onboard, but you'll be able to get a week's worth of good Scotch, bourbon, etc. for sipping. We do that all the time, so don't let anyone else make you feel bad. Why do we "sneak" on our our liquor? Because the brands served onboard are unacceptable to us.

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It's actually not as difficult to smuggle on your own booze, you just have to be crafty about it. I suggest searching "liquor smuggling" on Amazon and you'll see some super creative methods of doing so. Now you aren't going to get a huge amount onboard, but you'll be able to get a week's worth of good Scotch, bourbon, etc. for sipping. We do that all the time, so don't let anyone else make you feel bad. Why do we "sneak" on our our liquor? Because the brands served onboard are unacceptable to us.

 

Well my last cruise was a few years ago, but back then i did the exact same thing, and nether had a problem with it. I cannot judge the situation today, but based on the comments on this thread, i find it rather intimidating that there are controls that harsh. Even though we brought a bit of our own alcohol, we still spend a lot of money on board. So i really dont see the problem for the Cruise Lines.

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I remember our friends smuggling whiskey in white mouthwash bottles, it worked !

 

Only kicker was it tasted like mint whisky ,need to figure out how to get the mint flavor out of the bottle.I'm sure they were scope bottles that were not see thru.

We didn't really care about the flavor once we had a few at the bars. Go figure.

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Well my last cruise was a few years ago, but back then i did the exact same thing, and nether had a problem with it. I cannot judge the situation today, but based on the comments on this thread, i find it rather intimidating that there are controls that harsh. Even though we brought a bit of our own alcohol, we still spend a lot of money on board. So i really dont see the problem for the Cruise Lines.

 

Think of it as sneaking snacks into a movie theater- the theater operator gets most of his/her profit from the concession stand and very little from the movie itself, so everything that is brought in affects the bottom line. Same thing with the cruise line, bar sales is a large profit center for the cruise line. There is also the issue of the cruise line being held accountable for drunken passenger behavior which is harder to control if the passengers have their own supply. And it really doesn't matter if you reply "but we wouldn't spend any more if we didn't bring our own booze because we just wouldn't drink any extra" because that is irrelevant, the cruise line is entitled to the profit from all of the booze that you consume onboard and you agreed to abide by the rules when you signed the contract. Personally, I don't care what you do- until it affects me, and smuggling booze does affect me. CCL has modified it's carry on liquid policy to combat those bringing on illicit hootch. Based on what I've read on CC the next thing that is likely to be affected is the bottle of wine that each adult is allowed to bring onboard because I see more and more people advocating for emptying the wine and filling it with liquor. Once too many people start doing that CCL will end that, too.

 

And as far as not having your "brand", meh, rough it for the week or find a cruise line that does carry your brand.

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Think of it as sneaking snacks into a movie theater- the theater operator gets most of his/her profit from the concession stand and very little from the movie itself, so everything that is brought in affects the bottom line. Same thing with the cruise line, bar sales is a large profit center for the cruise line. There is also the issue of the cruise line being held accountable for drunken passenger behavior which is harder to control if the passengers have their own supply. And it really doesn't matter if you reply "but we wouldn't spend any more if we didn't bring our own booze because we just wouldn't drink any extra" because that is irrelevant, the cruise line is entitled to the profit from all of the booze that you consume onboard and you agreed to abide by the rules when you signed the contract. Personally, I don't care what you do- until it affects me, and smuggling booze does affect me. CCL has modified it's carry on liquid policy to combat those bringing on illicit hootch. Based on what I've read on CC the next thing that is likely to be affected is the bottle of wine that each adult is allowed to bring onboard because I see more and more people advocating for emptying the wine and filling it with liquor. Once too many people start doing that CCL will end that, too.

 

And as far as not having your "brand", meh, rough it for the week or find a cruise line that does carry your brand.

 

Yep. It would really be interesting to see the brouhaha that would erupt if some cruise line would remove a cruiser from a sailing if they were caught sneaking booze on board a ship. :eek: Can you imagine what that thread would look like? You'd hear every possible rationale and justification being espoused!

 

 

Tom

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Yep. It would really be interesting to see the brouhaha that would erupt if some cruise line would remove a cruiser from a sailing if they were caught sneaking booze on board a ship. :eek: Can you imagine what that thread would look like? You'd hear every possible rationale and justification being espoused!

 

 

Tom

 

Most cruise line contracts allow this eventuality although I don't know that any of them would invoke it.

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  • 2 months later...
I've done extensive reading through the webs and can't decide if it is worth it. I imagine they will be speeding through luggage check and throwing our bags through X-rays. What exactly can be seen? Can I just use the beverage pouches lined against the edge of my suitcase?

 

Did you end up sneaking liquor on? If so how did it turn out:):loudcry::D?

Thank you

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

If you are going to try to smuggle alcohol in your luggage make sure you do not have bottled water (or any other beverage) also in the luggage. Cruise lines will flag bottled water and it will increase the risk of finding other items.

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  • 1 month later...

I don't know, but to me 'smuggling' alcohol aboard a cruise ship is stealing from the guests that do not. Alcohol sales on cruise ships help defray the costs of running a cruise ship. If those that find saving a few bucks by sneaking booze aboard do it enough the cruise lines will have to cover the loss of income by increasing cruise fares. That's going to impact the 'smugglers' as well as those that follow the rules. Oops, I forgot, rules are for other people. Thanks rum runners :mad:.

If I come across [as one poster said of another poster near the beginning of this thread] as "being nasty" I'm not, but I am disappointed that some people feel cheating is clever. If you can't pay you shouldn't play. Stop stealing.

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Bottom line is you MAY or MAY NOT get caught. It's all about security, how backed up check in is, the port you are leaving from. Everything plays a part. Miami security might check thoroughly, Port Canaveral might not. So, you can't go by what others have done or what they have gotten away with. You just have to risk it for yourself. I have used Rumrunners with no problem. 4 of them made it through on me and in my luggage. I have brought "wine" (not) on (packed in luggage and carried on), made it through. That doesn't mean you won't get caught.

 

Just depends on how security feels that day you check in and how they feel by the time YOU get to them.

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A trick that has grown immensely in popularity in recent years is replacing wine with liquor, using food coloring to disguise it as wine and re-corking/re-sealing the bottle. A few years ago, it was a little-known trick and easy to get away with. They used to glance at your wine bottles and nod, then usher you on through like herded cattle.

 

However, that was then and things are different. Thanks to folks all over social media sites sharing their booze-concealing products and techniques, pretty much all the tricks are now widely known by C&BP. They aren't stupid and they know how to research social media for tips.

 

I was on a cruise out of New Orleans a few weeks ago and it seemed as if they are on a warpath to catch people doing this now. Now, they take your wine bottles and shine flashlights through the liquid, tilt the bottle in all directions and shake it up to check the consistency, look for sediment, etc. They take your sodas out of their boxes and examine every single can. They meticulously search every carry-on piece you have with you.

 

I witnessed it on embarkation day, where it took my party 2 hours to get through security and onto the ship because people were getting so throughly searched. It was 90+ degrees that day and we had small kids with us. You do the math.

 

Security personnel have been trained to know what wine looks like vs liquor during these tests (I saw some of their training posters in a search area). They will confiscate anything even remotely suspicious in a heartbeat now. It means nothing to them to take your things. It would appear that the days of being able to get away with this are over. They're cracking down hard. I just wouldn't even risk it, TBH.

 

Also need to be considerate of other passengers who have to wait excessively long times in line while these raids take place.

 

 

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I didn't find this to be the case on our cruise out of Miami in 2017, or the one in 2016, or the one in 2014. My husband gets twist off red wine, fills it with rum, dyes it red, and buys the heat strink seals online to reseal the bottle. They've never scrutinized our wine bottles. They don't hold flashlights up to them. They look at the bottle to confirm it's a bottle that says wine or champagne, confirm that the seal is intact, and away we go. I guess New Orleans is much stricter than Miami or Port Canaveral.

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I have had a bottle of wine and a bottle of liquor...shaken them up and found no difference is consistency, bubbles, etc. Not sure what they are looking for when they do this. And not sure how they can PROVE liquor inside a wine bottle isn't wine unless they actually open it up, and that would involve uncorking it, which could be a big problem with people that have actual wine.

 

I don't really need to go this route any longer since my child is 21 now..... but if the cruise lines would allow 18-21 year olds to drink, LIKE THEY CAN EVERYWHERE IN THE CARIBBEAN, maybe it would cut down on some of the smuggling. NOTE: and even though I may have smuggled liquor on the boat I have ALWAYS purchased an alcoholic drink package for myself. So, not really stealing.

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I have had a bottle of wine and a bottle of liquor...shaken them up and found no difference is consistency, bubbles, etc. Not sure what they are looking for when they do this. And not sure how they can PROVE liquor inside a wine bottle isn't wine unless they actually open it up, and that would involve uncorking it, which could be a big problem with people that have actual wine.

 

I don't really need to go this route any longer since my child is 21 now..... but if the cruise lines would allow 18-21 year olds to drink, LIKE THEY CAN EVERYWHERE IN THE CARIBBEAN, maybe it would cut down on some of the smuggling. NOTE: and even though I may have smuggled liquor on the boat I have ALWAYS purchased an alcoholic drink package for myself. So, not really stealing.

 

They don't need to prove anything- if they suspect it's liquor that's enough for them to hold it. Object too much and they would invite you to leave the terminal through the street exit. If you want your 18-20 year old to be able to drink onboard sail with the only cruise line that allows it- NCL.

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