Princess Alcohol Policy /US vs OZ

[rugbypopsie]

I have always enjoyed Princess' policy on allowing each person to bring on one bottle pp wine/champagne at each port...hate to say it but judging by the comments on the Princess forum..we are getting done again. US passengers on US ships no problem...even more liberal than one bottle...OZ passengers on OZ based ships..one bottle on embarkation and that is it.:mad:

Why is it so??

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

I have always enjoyed Princess' policy on allowing each person to bring on one bottle pp wine/champagne at each port...hate to say it but judging by the comments on the Princess forum..we are getting done again. US passengers on US ships no problem...even more liberal than one bottle...OZ passengers on OZ based ships..one bottle on embarkation and that is it.:mad:

 

Why is it so??

 

Are you sure? I know they confiscate the alcohol but the wine is usually ok. I have never had a problem.

 

It is true though that the Princess US ships are MUCH more lenient with regards to what you can take on. We took a case of beer and six bottles of wine onboard on our Panama Canal cruise. Fort Lauderdale is very easy to get things onboard.

[Aus Traveller]

On Sun Princess in August/September we could (and did) take wine on at ports of call, but we could not take beer. The Princess Patter notice stated that 'no alcohol' was permitted and many people took this to mean wine, but the sign on the wine collection desk said 'no alcohol (except wine and champagne'.

 

I read on the live thread from Dawn Princess that alcohol cannot be taken on at ports of call, but I do not know if that realy means that wine cannot be taken aboard. Maybe we need clarification before we jump up and down.

[lizzy77]

Hmmmm:p I know that I won't be happy if we can't take a bottle on at a few ports of call. We like to have a wine in our cabin before dinner and also spend plenty at the bars.

How ridiculous that they seem to think that they can change the rules in Aus only!! Imagine the stink if they did that in the States:confused:

All I can say is that I will be bringing the rumrunners that we have used previously on RCCL.

[rugbypopsie]

According to Johnno who is currently on the Dawn Princess that is what they are doing....also the Cherry Blossom cruisers nearly had a riot so the lifted the restriction until the end of that cruise but I am pretty sure its back on now.:mad:

[Aus Traveller]

According to Johnno who is currently on the Dawn Princess that is what they are doing....also the Cherry Blossom cruisers nearly had a riot so the lifted the restriction until the end of that cruise but I am pretty sure its back on now.:mad:

We were on the two cruises immediately following the Cherry Blossom cruise and there was no suggestion that we couldn't take wine on board. We did at several ports - beer also. It was OKd by security staff.

 

I would like Johnn to confirm if the policy has now changed on Dawn Princess, or whether the prohibition is on 'alcohol' (what we call spirits).

[kiwipete]

On Dawn P for the Circumnavigation of Aus in Sept it was definitely NO ALCOHOL (including wine) allowed on in any port of call after embarkation!! :mad::mad:

A lot of unhappy campers, sorry cruisers!! (especially as some of the Princess Tours were Wine Trails!!) :rolleyes::rolleyes:

[Kinkacruiser]

Seems the policy varies from cruise to cruise. It would be good to see consistency and a fair policy. A bottle of wine at each port surely couldn't make such a dent in one's drinks tab?

 

You get away with a lot more on overseas cruises, but then Aussies don't have auto tipping anymore.:rolleyes:

[Birubi]

On Dawn P for the Circumnavigation of Aus in Sept it was definitely NO ALCOHOL (including wine) allowed on in any port of call after embarkation!! :mad::mad:

A lot of unhappy campers, sorry cruisers!! (especially as some of the Princess Tours were Wine Trails!!) :rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

Hi Kiwipete,

What surprised me was that the port security on dock were doing the policing of the NO ALCOHOL including wine, for Dawn P. While on the starboard side of the ship there was no security. In Fremantle where I was deprived of a bottle of wine, I watched a small pleasure craft sail up to the hull on the starboard and saw one of the occupants pushing off the hull with their hands as the craft proceeded right along the ship. Obviously Alcohol, including wine, is more dangerous to the integrity of the ship!!

[bazzaw]

Looks fairly clear to me what the "official" Princess policy is - both for Oz and US based ships. ----

 

 

 

What actually happens onboard - and/or what passenger's perceptions of what actually happens onboard is another matter.

 

Barry

[The_Big_M]

Looks fairly clear to me what the "official" Princess policy is - both for Oz and US based ships. ----

 

 

 

What actually happens onboard - and/or what passenger's perceptions of what actually happens onboard is another matter.

 

Your last comment is quite relevant, unintentionally.

 

The reason is your first comment, that this policy is for US and Australian ships, isn't correct. The policy you have quoted is for Australian passengers, but is not the policy for US passengers/ships. Princess make this difficult to ascertain due to their wording and the way they localise sites for different regions.

 

Attached is the screenshot from their US site, but the relevant text is:

 

A member of the ship's security staff will be at the gangway to assist passengers with the storage of their alcoholic beverage purchases. The only exception to the above rule, is that passengers are permitted to bring one bottle of wine and/or champagne per person purchased in a shoreside location onboard. If the wine and/or champagne is brought to the dining room for consumption, a $15.00 per bottle corkage fee will be applied to the passenger's shipboard account. We prefer that passengers bring wine/champagne no larger than 750ml, however, magnums are acceptable. Wine in a box is not encouraged.

[bazzaw]

Hmmm - I can only find one Princess website - but I am aware that some websites detect where you are and redirect you - so perhaps that is happening.

 

HOWEVER - I really fail to see any differences between what you have posted and what I have posted. Both "policies"say you may only bring one bottle of wine/champagne onboard. Neither says WHEN that may be - on initial boarding or in every port. The fact that they do not say WHEN does not mean that it is allowed in every port.

 

Perhaps these rules have been written deliberately "vague" ? - hence the anecdotal confusion with apparent differences even between Oz based Princess ships.

 

Barry

[The_Big_M]

Hmmm - I can only find one Princess website - but I am aware that some websites detect where you are and redirect you - so perhaps that is happening.

 

Yes, Princess and CCL brand web sites do this. You can see that in your screenshot it has put the Australian and NZ telephone numbers at the top of the screen; that wouldn't be appropriate for US cruisers. Equally if you price the cruises you will see they come up in local currency; again that wouldn't be appropriate for US cruisers - it will come up in their local currency.

 

I'm not a fan of the way they do it as it isn't made clear. It's a bit like Apple products; it simplifies things to the lowest common denominator - only one web site in this case, but the usual trade-off is that important information is hidden away and/or unable to be found and customised.

 

HOWEVER - I really fail to see any differences between what you have posted and what I have posted. Both "policies"say you may only bring one bottle of wine/champagne onboard. Neither says WHEN that may be - on initial boarding or in every port. The fact that they do not say WHEN does not mean that it is allowed in every port.

 

Basically, the local operation have customised the US policy. I'll highlight the specific difference.

 

US version:

Alcoholic beverages sourced from shore-side and brought onboard, no matter where sourced, will be collected at the gangway for safekeeping and will be delivered to the passenger's stateroom on the last day of the cruise...

The only exception to the above rule, is that passengers are permitted to bring one bottle of wine and/or champagne per person purchased in a shoreside location onboard.

 

AU version:

To ensure the safety and comfort of all on board, we wish to advise that passengers are permitted to bring one bottle of wine/champagne for personal consumption. Duty and tax-free and personal alcohol purchased shore-side, must be surrendered by passengers at embarkation or prior to boarding in any port.

 

US cruisers can bring on one bottle of wine/champage at each port. AU cruisers can bring on one bottle of wine/champagne for entire cruise.. The US version does say "shore-side" which means any port and thus means every time, which has always been the case as rugbypopsie said. Princess AU have re-worded the part of it to say only one can be brought onboard. While it's not great wording, as you say it doesn't say when, practically this is on initial boarding rather than it being able to be done at any port.

[bazzaw]

US cruisers can bring on one bottle of wine/champage at each port. AU cruisers can bring on one bottle of wine/champagne for entire cruise.

 

No! :) You are reading between the lines to come up with that - it does not say that at all. :)

 

As I said in my last post - BOTH versions say that you can bring on one bottle of wine/champagne. NEITHER versions say WHEN. I think that you are being influenced by either what you have heard or actually experienced yourself -- BUT, the rules do NOT say "at each port".:) Nor do they say "on boarding on initial departure"

 

Barry

[bazzaw]

Interesting thread . I have never sailed on a Princess ship - so I have no idea what actually is allowed re the bringing of "booze" onto their ships , either US or OZ based. But I do know that their policy(s) are poorly written and are arguable. I also know that if I didn't frequent this Forum and was a first time Princess cruiser, I would interpret both US and OZ "rules" to be that I was only allowed to bring one bottle of wine onboard - but I would be unsure as to exactly when I could do that. - I would therefore attempt to ask Princess.

 

P&O UK are much clearer with their policy - and are quite tolerant. In fact, on our recent 2 cruises , we were allowed to purchase duty free Whisky/Gin etc - and take it back to our cabin for consumption. This is not in accordance with their policy as shown below - and I suspect that they only did this on the long RTW cruises . I cannot imagine them doing this for 14 day cruises to the Med - but who knows!! :)

 

 

Barry

[The_Big_M]

US cruisers can bring on one bottle of wine/champage at each port. AU cruisers can bring on one bottle of wine/champagne for entire cruise.

 

No! :) You are reading between the lines to come up with that - it does not say that at all. :)

 

You omitted the second part of the explanation where I wrote that the US site does say that - it can be brought on shoreside which is each port. And I did say the AU one modified the original and was not written well so did not say when - however, that is the wording to support their new practical application, which is what rugbypopsie complained about.

 

This isn't a debate about the wording, but as rugbypopsie started this thread about, that Princess AU recently changed their policy. The wording is different on each site which I provided to confirm they are advising and applying different rules in each region, since you had said they were the same.

[alba100]

This isn't a debate about the wording, but as rugbypopsie started this thread about, that Princess AU recently changed their policy. The wording is different on each site which I provided to confirm they are advising and applying different rules in each region, since you had said they were the same.

 

I can confirm the above.

The Australian/NZ terms and conditions now allow you to take a bottle of wine or champagne aboard ... "on the day of embarkation"

 

By going on to the American site via a proxy server, you will find that US cruises are allowed to carry on a bottle of wine or champaigne at each port of call.

 

When I raised the issue with Princess I was told the policy had not changed, but in the past individual ships may have adopted a laxer policy.

All nonsense of course, as the practise was to allow one bottle per port, but I don't have the resourses to fight them.

 

If you want to raise the issue with Princess, the e-mail for their public relations people is cust.relations@carnivalaustralia.com

If enough of us complain, perhaps they will get the message, we are not happy. I don't know whether it is significant, but back in June when I had some issues, I dealt direct with Princess public relations, now they have disappeared and we deal direct with Carnival PR

 

But the fact remains, Australian/NZ cruises have different Terms and conditions to US cruises.

[bazzaw]

Sigh!!!

 

The Australian/NZ terms and conditions now allow you to take a bottle of wine or champagne aboard ... "on the day of embarkation"

 

By going on to the American site via a proxy server, you will find that US cruises are allowed to carry on a bottle of wine or champaigne at each port of call.

 

Can somebody please point me towards any official policy statement by Princess that explicitly says or uses the words "on the day of embarkation" or "at each port of call".

 

The fact that these things may indeed have happened on Princess ships either now or in the past does not mean that it is official policy of the cruiseline. Big M claims that the US policy, which refers to wine purchased onshore (is there any other way of obtaining wine?) , automatically means that wine can be brought on at each port - but is simply taking an inference. ie reading between the lines.

 

More important (as far as I am concerned ) is not any perceived difference between what happens in the US compared to Oz -- BUT is the difference that appears to be happening between the various Oz based Princess ships. We have multiple cases of immediate past passengers claiming different situations on different ships - even different situations on the same ship at different times. All this conflicting anecdotal evidence confirms the inexactness of the policy wording on the website. ie nobody, including the ships themselves, really knows what the policy fully is.

 

Barry

[MMDown Under]

The management of each Princess ship knows what policy they are enforcing for their ship.

 

People, who cruise overseas on the same shipping line, know what is being enforced overseas versus what is enforced here, or an ships commencing their world cruises from Australia.

 

Yes, RugbyPopsie, We're getting done again.

 

Apart from expressing our displeasure here, we can express our displeasure by voting with our feet.

 

When are the cruise lines going to understand, that a national characteristic of Australians is giving everyone a "fair go"?

[Aus Traveller]

I have been on three cruises on Sun Princess between April and September this year and we were permitted to take wine on board in all ports of call. Near the start of each of these cruises the Princess Patter included a notice that 'no alcohol' could be taken on board and passengers I spoke to assume that included wine. At our first port of call I asked the senior security officer who was beside me on the tender if we could take wine back with us and he advised that we could. When we boarded at each port we saw that the notice on the Alcohol Collection Desk said 'no alcohol (with the exception of wine or champagne)'. Each time we showed them our wine and they nodded to us and said it was OK.

 

The only explanation I can think of (for what happened on our three cruises) is that they did not mean the word 'alcohol' printed in the notice in the Princess Patter to include wine. However, I do not know if the policy has changed in the last month or so.

 

I also don't know if the original comment on this forum about not being allowed to take wine on board came from someone reading a notice ('no alcohol') similar to the one I saw printed a few times in the Princess Patter or whether they were not allowed to take their wine on board.

 

I aso do not know what policy is being enforced on Dawn Princess.

[The_Big_M]

The fact that these things may indeed have happened on Princess ships either now or in the past does not mean that it is official policy of the cruiseline. Big M claims that the US policy, which refers to wine purchased onshore (is there any other way of obtaining wine?) , automatically means that wine can be brought on at each port - but is simply taking an inference. ie reading between the lines.

 

If that were all we had to go on, and/or were debating in law class about the wording, that statement would be correct.

 

However, the wording of both major operators is deficient in many cases, and is not the be all and end all. It reflects their policies - but I can't think of any change in the past few years where the wording has been legally exacting. It suffices to reflect their practical operational approach and that is how they appear to look at it.

 

The previous wording which was applied universally was that you could take wine on from any port, hence the wording was accurate; no inference was required. Recently, as per the raising of this thread, Princess' local policy was changed, hence why the site locally has different details from the US/other sites. The purpose of this was to limit bring onboard to embarkation only, instead of every port. Why else would they change that wording? And clearly that limitation is apparent, even though they didn't say the first port.

 

As for the claims of inconsistency, that is normal when policies change. Firstly, not everyone 'gets the memo' whenever a policy changes. Secondly, people may not think about it as it is not what they are used to, and/or the staff get tired of debating every so often as cruisers are still not so familiar so willing to let it go sometimes. And lastly, staff frequently change assignments so again until it is bedded in, there are many who will not be aware of the new policy.

 

Even though this is common within cruising, even outside cruising when policies are introduced there is often an adjustment period as it gets disseminated and awareness builds.

[rugbypopsie]

Bottom line is the current situation is confused. I have been told by Princess in the past that it is security at the port who decides but that hardly seems to make sense to me.:mad:

 

All I was trying to establish is are there different rules for US cruisers from those that apply here..surely there should not be any basis for difference.

[Aus Traveller]

Bottom line is the current situation is confused. I have been told by Princess in the past that it is security at the port who decides but that hardly seems to make sense to me.:mad:

 

All I was trying to establish is are there different rules for US cruisers from those that apply here..surely there should not be any basis for difference.

There are other differences that we know of. I have come across another one while booking a family cruise. One of our offspring announced that they have a baby on the way. Good news, but it throws our cruise plans into disarray.

 

The Australian terms and conditions state that the minimum age for a child on an Australian cruise is 12 months. The American site shows it is 6 months. When I phoned Princess I was told that it is definitely 12 months. By the way, I am talking about a Queensland coastal cruise, not one to the islands where we know that medical support facilities are limited.