Alcohol??

[cc waddles]

If you have a bottle of vodka or rum in your luggage that is checked to your room will they take it out or just leave it. We have two kids and thinking we could enjoy some time alone on the balcony when the 2 are in bed for the evening. I know wine is ok but just wondering about the hard stuff.

[bjkTX]

Your are NOT allowed to bring hard liquor on the ship!!!

 

They have never bothered the ones we've brought on our last 8 cruises :-)

[paul929207]

Princess prohibits carrying alcohol on board. If the find it they will take it and return it at the end of the cruise.

 

They have never found ours.

[Cruise Junky]

I love the above responses...let me reiterate you are NOT allowed to take on hard liquor, what are you even thinking???? They've never found ours either :) and I really don't think they even look that hard.

[LARGIN]

Bottle of Scotch, Bottle of Bourbon, & 8 Bottles of wine on our last cruise.. No problem.. :D:D:D

[Rob & Beckys mom]

Another reason to LOVE Princess! They treat us as the adults that we are:)! Jan

[Cruise Junky]

Bottle of Scotch, Bottle of Bourbon, & 8 Bottles of wine on our last cruise.. No problem.. :D:D:D

 

6 litres of wine, 1.75ml of Vodka, 1.75ml of Gin in checked bags. 2 bottles of champagne in carry on ... I think we're tied ;)

[cc waddles]

thanks!:)

[Cruise Junky]

thanks!:)

 

I should probably point out that Largin was on the 15 day sailing and I was on the 17 day sailing. We didn't pack all of that for a 7 day cruise :)... Now that would have been a party !

[Vexorg]

6 litres of wine, 1.75ml of Vodka, 1.75ml of Gin in checked bags. 2 bottles of champagne in carry on ... I think we're tied ;)

 

Of course they wouldn't find the 1.75mL bottles, they would only hold about six drops each! :D

[Cruise Junky]

Of course they wouldn't find the 1.75mL bottles, they would only hold about six drops each! :D

 

Oh Jesus, nice catch...let me change that to liters, not ml :)

[timh111]

8 cruises, 16 bottles over the 8 cruises....ALL made it to my cabin, No questions.... :rolleyes:

[iriemon]

I will admit I have brought booze on the ship and always found a unique way of hiding it so it is not found - sorry don't want to give secrets to the cruise companies who read these boards also - but to tell the truth what I have found is the prices that they sell the bottles for in the prepurchase is not that much more than what we pay at home, and we don't have all the hassel of packing, hoping it doesn't break, etc. For those traveling by land it is not that bad, but for ones taking airlines with all the restrictions it is not worth it. Plus I would have to talk my DW into leaving some of her clothes home so I could fit in the bottles :eek: Good luck with that one. We always have a bottle in the room but now get it through the cruise company.

[LARGIN]

6 litres of wine, 1.75ml of Vodka, 1.75ml of Gin in checked bags. 2 bottles of champagne in carry on ... I think we're tied ;)

 

We need to cruise together.. :D

[ONT-CA]

We're sure there are exceptions to the none rule...

 

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i398/M888rgaret/Exceptional.jpg

[OhioDogLover]

We have never tried to sneak anything on, but I have picked up bottles of wine just before boarding or in port, and brought them on with no questions asked. Of course, I never pick up more than a couple, maybe that's it. Maybe I just look like I need a drink.

Ohiodoglover

[cibaygirls]

As with the previous posters, I have not had a problem. Just last week on the CB I checked in 3 bottles of wine, 1 of prosecco, soda and water delivered straight to our room. Then when we were coming in from St Thomas we put 2 6 packs in DH backpack and then in Grand Turk another 6 pack.. no questions asked. We still made many purchases from the ship... needless to say it was a good trip!!!:D

[DiRon]

I will admit I have brought booze on the ship and always found a unique way of hiding it so it is not found - sorry don't want to give secrets to the cruise companies who read these boards also - but to tell the truth what I have found is the prices that they sell the bottles for in the prepurchase is not that much more than what we pay at home, and we don't have all the hassel of packing, hoping it doesn't break, etc. For those traveling by land it is not that bad, but for ones taking airlines with all the restrictions it is not worth it. Plus I would have to talk my DW into leaving some of her clothes home so I could fit in the bottles :eek: Good luck with that one. We always have a bottle in the room but now get it through the cruise company.

 

We always take a bottle (or two) of our own "hard stuff", as well as wine. Not because we enjoy trying to get away with something, and not because I don't want to pay the price on board - but because Princess does not carry the brands we prefer and are used to. When they start carrying Ketel One (for example) I would be happy to pay for a bottle and not have to worry about whether I will get caught with it in my luggage, or whether it is going to get broken while in my luggage. Come on Princess - give us a chance to be honest.

[DocM4]

We have in the past packed a bottle of Gin and a large bottle of Tonic. However, we wern't flying to the port - can we still do this (in our checked luggsage) when we are flying - I don't know what the airlines position on this is.

[tulsacubfan]

We have in the past packed a bottle of Gin and a large bottle of Tonic. However, we wern't flying to the port - can we still do this (in our checked luggsage) when we are flying - I don't know what the airlines position on this is.

 

I believe you can....but the way they toss luggage around, I would make sure it is well protected....or you may end up with gin smelling clothes :)

[RMorningglory]

Thought the following may be helpful to post again:

 

This from our October 2010 Emerald Princess 10 day Eastern Carribean

 

My Experience.

The varied policies regarding BYOB is one of the main reasons I continue to book on Princess. First let me tell you my experiences on NCL and RCCL and then I will detail the Princess difference.

 

RCCL is militant about bringing ANY form of beverage aboard any of their ships, including water. They WILL find it and they are serious about looking for it.

 

NCL has been purchaced by the same group that owns the Harrah's Hotels and Casinos. This happened a little over 3 years ago and their policy has tightened up as well, even know it was a little strict in the first place. Before the sale we sailed on the Pearl and had some wine etc in a couple bags when we boarded in Miami. One of the bags never made it to the cabin. When we went to look for it we were told to go to the ship's library and guess what... there it was. We were asked if we had any alcohol in the bag. My partner pulled out one bottle of wine and said yes. They checked in that bottle for safe keeping ( we could have kept it for $15.00) and didn't ask another question. We zipped up the bag and off we went. There were 3 more bottles of wine in the bag. We did in fact feel like we were doing something naughty and it just felt wrong. We drowned our guilt in a glass of wine. ;)

 

With drinks on board these ships running from $8.50 and $20.00+ for a frozen drink with a floater it adds up fast (Believe me!!). 3 years ago I was on a 9 night RCCL Holiday cruise where we had pre-purchaced a wine package for dinner and the booze bill still ended up being almost $1,000.00 and I am not even close to needing an AA meeting with a couple drinks a day on Vacation. I bought a couple drinks for friends traveling with us but that amount was about $100/day for 2, that's not hard to do.

 

Now for the Princess Deal: The cruise line has an official policy but Does Not enforce it. They know people bring on their own beverages... we don't have to whisper it... we're not "Getting away with something naughty"... I really think that they realize that this alone is a draw to their line for those who see value in it, coupled with their style of cruising to geared to passengers simply looking to relax and unwind.

 

I have sailed from San Juan and Fort Lauderdale and the policy is the same at either. In San Juan there is a duty free in the cruise terminal. If you arrive with "Duty Free Liquor" bags and boxes there is someone there at the ship to hold them for you. If whatever is bought in the duty free is any other type of bag or box it is not even looked at. This is for LIQUOR only. Wine, champagne, water, soda and beer are not included, they can be visible and will not be questioned in any way. Liquor, as long as it is in a bag that is NOT a duty free bag will go through the scanners as well.

 

I sailed from Ft. L in October and did things a little differently. I had read about a liquor store close to the ship called "Total Wine" here on Cruise Critic. http://www.wineaccess.com/store/tota...ale/index.html We boarded the ship early, ate lunch and then hopped back off the ship to treck around the corner to Total Wine. I went on this mission equiped with 4 extra printed luggage tags and a packing tape gun. First we hit Publix where I bought a case of Water, and a 12 pack each of Diet Coke, Diet Sprite, Ginger Ale and Tonic Water, lemons and limes, some crackers and that kind of thing. I taped the 4 cases of soda together and slapped a luggage tag on what was now a single case, tagged the water, put the rest in a grocery bag and headed next door to Total Wine pushing my cart in front of me. There I bought 2 bottles of Absolute, 1 bottle of Canadian Club, 1 Bottle of Saphire Gin, 6 bottles of wine, 4 bottles of Proseco, a small bottle of port, sweet and dry Vermouth and a cocktail shaker. At the counter I asked for a couple of boxes and the guy checking us out helped us pack our $250.00 purchase in the boxes. I taped them up and tagged them as I had the water and sodas and called a local taxi from my cell phone.

 

The Taxi arrived 3 minutes later and we loaded the boxes into the trunk and took the $5.00 ride back to the Emerald Princess. The porters who came to the Taxi and when we popped the trunk told us that they knew where the party was for the next 10 days. After a few "High Fives" and a $5.00 tip we left our goodies with them and headed back aboard. This was about 3:30 PM prior to our 5 PM sail away. The boxes arrived at cabin R620 before 4 PM in-tact and undisturbed. We set our "Bar" up on top of our mini-fridge and asked our Steward for some glasses for wine. They were in the room when we got back from Muster and we made our own drinks for Sail Away.

 

We brought our own mixers in our pool bags and allocated a day's liquor to water bottles to take to the sanctuary each day. The staff up there constantly gave us glasses filled with ice and we simply poured our own. We brought a bottle of wine to Sabatini's and one to the Crown Grille and I believe were only charged corkage at one of them, though we expected the $15.00 charge at both. Not only did we bring our own bottle but asked that it be decanted, and they did it with a smile. We got Martini Glasses from Adagio and kept them through the cruise. We bought a total of 4 drinks between the 2 of us on nights when we didn't feel like moving from where we were to go fill up.

 

I would guess that in all this was a $500-700 savings. With that we did the Chef's Table, Crown Grille, Sabatini's, Ultimate Balcony Dinner and the cruise long package in the Sanctuary. We did these things guilt free LOVED having a Martini or Manhattan on our deck as the sun set each day on our FANTASTIC Princess Cruise.

 

I hope this helps and wish you all Happy Cruising.

 

CHEERS!!!! :rolleyes:

[BosoxI]

I love the above responses...let me reiterate you are NOT allowed to take on hard liquor, what are you even thinking???? They've never found ours either :) and I really don't think they even look that hard.

 

They don't look that hard and that is one thing that makes Princess so much better than RCCl or Celebrity, who practically ransack a suitcase over a bottle of wine. Just don't push your luck, as I'm sure there are limits and rightly so. We rarely finish our Elite set ups on a 2 week cruise, preferring wine to hard liquor. Nevertheless, if there's good reason to bring some whiskey on, we'll do it and Princess has never been a problem.

[NJRonbo]

Count me in as someone who has sailed with Princess over 6 times and has never had the large amounts of alcohol I bring aboard confiscated.

 

I buy bubble wrap. Wrap the bottles well and place them in a duffle bag with a tag. Goes right to the room.

 

As long as people don't openly exploit the policy -- don't walk around ship with bottles or try to blatantly bring them onboard through -- Princess has been treating us like adults.

 

It's the reason many of us won't sail the other cruise lines.

[LARGIN]

We use "Wine Diapers" to protect our bottles.. :D:D

[njadam]

If you have a bottle of vodka or rum in your luggage that is checked to your room will they take it out or just leave it. We have two kids and thinking we could enjoy some time alone on the balcony when the 2 are in bed for the evening. I know wine is ok but just wondering about the hard stuff.

 

What is the matter with you !! That's against the rules !!......umm...They didn't bother me. Just returned from a 9 day cruise on the Caribbean Princess. Packed 4 bottles of wine (they allow "2"), a bottle of Gin and two bottles of tonic. Nothing was taken away and we weren't called to the "timeout room". It was nice to have a drink on our balcony every afternoon. With that being said, it's nice to be treated as adults by Princess and it is why we will cruise on Princess again. It didn't stop me from ordering wine with dinner and a couple of after dinner drinks. I think next time I will buy a bottle of Gin from Princess for our room. It's really not that expensive and easier than worrying about "sneaking" it on. The drinks on board are in line with what you would pay in a bar or restaurant. They also offer drink specials.

 

Have a great time !!