Celebrity's alcohol policy - strictly enforced

[Aggie71]

We just returned from Radiance, roundtrip from Miami. We had a bottle of wine in our carry on but no one was checking on boarding. I think this happens in the Caribbean boarding ports. In St. Thomas I bought 2 liquors to take home, but I told them not to put it in the cardboard box. I put them in my small backpack. I knew it would show on the scanner when we boarded, but I figured the guy at the table would not see it & I would just walk by. I didn't need it on the cruise, but I didn't want to have to remember it at the end or worry it would get broken or stolen (a friend's bottle disappeared on our last cruise & they let him select something from the onboard store, but they wouldn't have had my Tiramisou liquor). When I picked up my bag from the scanner the employee told me to take it to the table. I figured there were lots of people moving through & I would just walk on by. No such luck. He pointed me out to the employee at the table. I complied with their request to take my purchases. Our friends brought on a case of beer in St. thomas, but their wives had to create a diversion so they could slip by the table. I understand this is more of a revenue issue. I'm not sure how I feel about the policy. I would never take a drink I made in my room into a hotel bar, or any other bar for that matter, but I can bring my own liquor to any hotel room. They lose revenue too. I don/'t really think it is an issue about drinking too much or giving it to underage kids. They allow them to drink wine & beer & surely you can get drunk on those. I have never seen a bartender or server cut anyone off on a ship.

Last year I asked the security people in SFO what the policy is. They said it varies by cruise line, some ask them to not allow liquor through. Then I asked on the Summit how many bottles of wine I could bring onboard & they said 1 for a special occasion. I said it was for dinner & the corkage fee would be paid, they could even hold it & bring it to my table. They said if I wanted to have a wine tasting I should set it up with the Miami office!

I told my group of friends who were going on a 12 night cruise to Alaska on Infinity in May that anything could happen. I put a couple of bottles of wine in my checked luggage & one in my carry on. They all made it through & I paid the corkage on them. One guy brought a rolling carry on that was a wine valet. It looked like any other carry on, but it had special padded slots for his expensive wines. Security saw it, but there was no procedure to take it away, either there or at the actual boarding. He went right through. He paid a corkage fee every night without any problem. In Alaska no one was checking, but then who would buy liquor in Alaska? It's not cheap so it isn't a big deal.

I think the policy is very inconsistent. This is unfortunate because like solmeone else said, you may bring the wine all the way to the ship & then it is very disappointing to have it taken away until the last night. What are you supposed to do, have your own winetasting on the last night so you don't have to carry it home?

I will be departing San Diego for Mexico on Jan 2 & I don't anticipate a problem on departure & I will bring some wine. But I know if I buy Kahlua in Mexico they will hold it until the last night. That will be fine. I'm not a big drinker, but my husband & I do like to try different beers. We would like to be able to bring a few back in ports for consumption on our own balcony. But now I'm not sure the backpack is going to work. I'm not big on breaking rules & I know the beer is against policy, but I'd sure like a set company-wide policy on wine so I know where I stand.

[BRUCENLYNN]

We have seen the same thing re: Liquor vs Wine. On our last cruise a couple traveling with us had his carry-on inspected while boarding and had two bottles of wine and a bottle of bourbon in it. They took the bourbon and left the wine for him to keep.

 

Also during our Med cruise, the duty free store on board let us purchase bottles of liquor after a few days out and take them to our room to drink. We were told this was because it was longer than a 10 day cruise. Anyone else ever heard of this?

[canderson]

Also during our Med cruise, the duty free store on board let us purchase bottles of liquor after a few days out and take them to our room to drink. We were told this was because it was longer than a 10 day cruise. Anyone else ever heard of this?

Never! But we do know that the clerks in the duty free have been known to cut pax slack in this area for no reason at all, too.

[more mangos please]

The have a corkage fee policy. If you truely can't bring it, why will they open it.

 

The truth has always been that you should only bring a modest amount in your luggage.

 

At times, they will let you take booze from the ship's booze shop directly to your room, but never if another pax is in the shop.

[canderson]

The have a corkage fee policy. If you truely can't bring it, why will they open it.

In practice, that's exactly how they've treated it on all of our Celebrity cruises. However, we've noted recently that they've got this wording "approved vendor" or somesuch in one of their online documents that discuss this. For all practical purposes, they've been treating pax as "approved vendors" when it comes to wine, and allow them to bring it along.

[dileep]

Also during our Med cruise, the duty free store on board let us purchase bottles of liquor after a few days out and take them to our room to drink. We were told this was because it was longer than a 10 day cruise. Anyone else ever heard of this?

 

On our 14 day Baltics cruise last year the salesman in the duty free liquor store was actively encouraging people to buy liquor and take it to their rooms.

[dileep]

Weird - we sailed on the Millie late Oct/early Nov and there was no problem at all. Our steward brought the wine to the dining and the sommelier graciously served us and collected the corkage fee! Wish they'd get it straight.

 

We were on the Connie last May and we saw at least 2 case boxes sitting outside staterooms along with luggage being delivered to the rooms on the first day. The boxes even had red wine glass shaped fragile stickers!

[TechKnowBabble]

During our first two cruises, we did smuggle Gin and Vodka aboard in our carry-ons. We actually purchased leak proof plastic bottles and transferred our booze to those bottles. This was strictly for use in our suite. We did not have any problem with boarding on both Mercury and Century.

 

For our last two cruises, we purchased the Bon Voyage Liquor Packages, and really liked the convenience of having them in our suite shortly after we arrived. During our 10 night cruise on Galaxy in Oct., we ran out and our butler obtained another Bon Voyage Liquor Package for us to have in our suite. Since each package comes with 6 cans of soda, we had a number of unused cans of ginger ale in our cabin :D. For the convenience, the price of $50.00 per package isn't all that bad, because the bottle is a litre rather than the American fifth, you get 6 cans of soda, and the nut and mix package is quite generous. [We have three of those nut packages sitting unopened in our pantry. :D]

 

We have already ordered our Bon Voyage Liquor packages for our Jan. 2nd. 11 nighter on Mercury. We like the convenience and the fact that we don't have to smuggle and even lie when embarking.

 

thanks for the advice...I am going to order that package so my boyfriend can enjoy a few drinks in our cabin over our voyage since I really can't partake in drinking anymore. From what I comprehend from the conversion I tried online that a litre is equal to 32 oz...did I do that correctly?? Does the package automatically come with ginger ale or can you select what you want?

[newmexicoNita]

I returned from my first Celebrity cruise (and first real cruise) several days ago - Constellation 12/3/05 - and was extremely disappointed to find that Celebrity is indeed enforcing their policy for bringing alcohol aboard. After reading so many posts here stating that this policy is not enforced, I proceeded to tell DH and our friends that we would able to buy some alcohol before boarding and take it on with us. Boy, did I feel crappy when our friends bought some wine (that they wouldn't otherwise have purchased) only to have it taken until the end of the cruise.

 

Not only did we have all our bottles taken away, we were not allowed to have them brought to dinner. Here is what happened: We arrived around 6:00pm and purchased wine and some liquor from the duty free store at the terminal. We were allowed through security just fine, but at the end of the gangway, there was a table set up with a staff person stopping everyone and asking if we had any alcohol. He even went so far as to stop one woman that was carrying a plastic bag from the duty free store so he could inspect it (she told him it was only soda, but he trotted over and had her open the bag to prove this.) Now, if we had known we needed to be sneaky, we could have put the bottles in our carryons and lied to him, but I'm not much of a 'rule breaker'. I truly had the impression that it wouldn't be a problem. To make matters worse, he said that we would get our bottles back at the end of the cruise - when I questioned this, he very firmly reinforced the ship's policy. So I asked him how there could be a corkage fee in the dining room if no one is allowed their wine until the last night of the cruise. He told me to speak with Guest Relations if I had a complaint. I'll admit I didn't do this because I'd feel strange using Cruise Critic as my resource to counter the posted Celebrity policies.

 

Even if I had wanted to be sneaky and lie about my alcohol (basically leaving it to drink in our room, not with dinner), what about those folks I have read about that bring special bottles of wine from home to consume with dinner? How would you get around the 'not until the end of the cruise' policy? For all you Celebrity veterans, did I miss something in the previous postings that would have eliminated this misunderstanding?

 

BTW - they did the same thing when returning from ports - including St. Thomas, which was the last day... they took it for a total of 1 hour before delivering it to our room with the rest of our bottles from San Juan.

 

Any information would be much appreciated! Thanks!

 

OH - we did have a nice time overall (despite some rain basically everyday and other bumps along the way) and I'll post a review later.

I am sorry this happened to you, but am glad we were not the only ones. 2 years ago we were faced with the same thing and some loyalist went almost so far as to call me a liar. I think it does have to do with where you embark, seems it affects those of us embarking in San Juan more than Miami. We were able to bring a couple of 1.5 liters of wine on the Zenith just last month out of Miami. No problem. NMNita

[PatC]

Nikki

 

Just yesterday I called for the bon voyage packages to be delivered to our cabin on Summit in March. I also wanted to know what the soda was and if we could substitute. We like tonic water and club soda. I was told that they use Coke products and they don't list the exact soda to be delivered. Coke only makes Sprite (I think) and no tonic or club.:mad:

 

I didn't order the package as it would mean getting soda we wouldn't drink. I ordered 2 bottles of wine (red and white) and we'll just have to "suffer" and buy our mixed drinks when we want. Of course, I'll have my champagne and will order orange juice to make my favorites.;)

 

Have a great cruise.

 

Pat

[TechKnowBabble]

Nikki

 

Just yesterday I called for the bon voyage packages to be delivered to our cabin on Summit in March. I also wanted to know what the soda was and if we could substitute. We like tonic water and club soda. I was told that they use Coke products and they don't list the exact soda to be delivered. Coke only makes Sprite (I think) and no tonic or club.:mad:

 

I didn't order the package as it would mean getting soda we wouldn't drink. I ordered 2 bottles of wine (red and white) and we'll just have to "suffer" and buy our mixed drinks when we want. Of course, I'll have my champagne and will order orange juice to make my favorites.;)

 

Have a great cruise.

 

Pat

 

thanks for the information. I know my boyfriend would drink Coke or Sprite or ginger ale. I just thought if we could choose he'd prefer it. No sweat. Thanks for sharing. I LOVE this place. Where else could you find such a wealth of information and friendly people

 

I'm sure we will enjoy every moment of our cruise. I can't think of anything on the cruise that would make it LESS pleasant than being home in Baltimore in freezing temperatures :D

 

Hope you enjoy yours as well!!

[SheilaNC]

Strange. I ordered the Bombay Sapphire package for our Med. cruise for my husband and ordered Tonic as the soda with no problem. In fact, 2 cans are sitting in our frig. because I didn't drink them and thought we might drink them waiting in the airport....so they came home as precious souvenirs :)

[tarheelmjfan]

I really don't see why they would have a problem with passengers bringing on wine. As I mentioned earlier, we took a few bottles on our Century cruise. We didn't take that much, & ended up purchasing a few bottles from the ship at dinner. We made a mental note of those we ordered & checked the prices when we got home. The mark up was about $15. Coincidentally, the same amount that is charged as the corkage fee. At least in our situation, they weren't losing any money on us bringing our own vs. ordering from them. We didn't drink any in our cabin though.

[canderson]

Nikki

 

Just yesterday I called for the bon voyage packages to be delivered to our cabin on Summit in March. I also wanted to know what the soda was and if we could substitute. We like tonic water and club soda. I was told that they use Coke products and they don't list the exact soda to be delivered. Coke only makes Sprite (I think) and no tonic or club.:mad:

Ordered Bombay Sapphire and tonic as a $55 package for a friend that accompanied us on our last cruise, and there was no problem having the tonic delivered for that, so there's no reason you shouldn't be getting it if you ask for it.

[Ocean Sailor]

Considering the George Smith situation, I am not surprised that Celebrity is beginning to enforce their alcohol policy. I don't think this issue is going to go away.

[usha]

It's funny you should say that, Ocean Sailor. I was kind of thinking that, too. ...Either that or put chicken wire over the balconies?;)

[TechKnowBabble]

Considering the George Smith situation, I am not surprised that Celebrity is beginning to enforce their alcohol policy. I don't think this issue is going to go away.

 

I find it VERY SAD that the rest of us who know how to drink responsibly have to pay for the actions of those who can't control themselves.

[atb]

We are cruising out of Barcelona for a westbound TransAtlantic cruise in November. We are planning to pick up a few Spanish wines before we board - to enjoy with our predinner canapes.

Also hope to get some Friexinet (sp) to carry with us.:D

Not cases and cases - but a few - over the course of 16 days - Celebrity will be making a few bucks on our bar bill.:mad:

Just slip in the carry on - I have always carried a few bottles of water - and never had them even look at those - how can they tell the difference - a bottle is a bottle.

[TechKnowBabble]

So if I were to bring ONE bottle of the sparkling wine I like in our carryon, should I wrap that in bubble wrap or something? I'm new to packing something like that and I don't want any accidents.

[canderson]

So if I were to bring ONE bottle of the sparkling wine I like in our carryon, should I wrap that in bubble wrap or something? I'm new to packing something like that and I don't want any accidents.

Carry-on is the best solution, perhaps even a bit more so for a sparkling wine. My own solution is managed with sweat socks. They make nice bottle sleeves!

 

Remember that to break glass due to impact, the glass has to bump against another hard object. The easiest way to break a bottle is to have more than one in the same carrier without a bit of barrier. Avoid any "clink" noise between them, and you should be fine.

 

It really doesn't take much of a barrier to make it work. When packing half a dozen bottles tightly in a box to place in my carry-on case, a single sock seems to work just as well. So far, have never had a broken bottle, and I'm sure that over time, I must have transported at least 100 bottles internationally, plus another 50 or so on domestic flights for cruises.

[TechKnowBabble]

Carry-on is the best solution, perhaps even a bit more so for a sparkling wine. My own solution is managed with sweat socks. They make nice bottle sleeves!

 

Remember that to break glass due to impact, the glass has to bump against another hard object. The easiest way to break a bottle is to have more than one in the same carrier without a bit of barrier. Avoid any "clink" noise between them, and you should be fine.

 

It really doesn't take much of a barrier to make it work. When packing half a dozen bottles tightly in a box to place in my carry-on case, a single sock seems to work just as well. So far, have never had a broken bottle, and I'm sure that over time, I must have transported at least 100 bottles internationally, plus another 50 or so on domestic flights for cruises.

 

I know I'm being a little dense here, but do you mean to put the socks bunched up around the bottle, OR put the bottle IN the sock?

[BOFA]

If you read the alchol policy it says that no alcoholic beverages may be purchased ashore for consumption onboard. We were on the Galaxy for a Panama Canal cruise at the end of October 2005. I put four bottles of wine plus a bottle of vodka in my carry-on. The vodka was in plastic flasks. I was sweating bullets at security when it went through the xray machine as you would have to close your eyes not to see it. Not a word was said by security.

 

We put the wine out in the room and our cabin steward brought us glasses without being asked. The wine was for dinner and the steward delivered it to the dining room for us. Of course we paid the $15 corkage fee. They (Celebrity) really seemed to be more interested in inforcing the policy for alcohol bought in ports and the bottles purchased onboard.

[canderson]

I know I'm being a little dense here, but do you mean to put the socks bunched up around the bottle, OR put the bottle IN the sock?

When I said "They make nice bottle sleeves!", I was hoping to convey the latter. When I find it necessary to pack them in checked luggage, I'll slide one on, and then slide on a 2nd in the other direction to provide an added layer of protection.

[hajekfam]

I have only had duty free bottles taken by Celebrity and held until the last night. We picked up bottles of wine in Spain and brought them aboard for our last trans. We had no problem.

[TechKnowBabble]

When I said "They make nice bottle sleeves!", I was hoping to convey the latter. When I find it necessary to pack them in checked luggage, I'll slide one on, and then slide on a 2nd in the other direction to provide an added layer of protection.

 

I'm sorry...I just reread your post. I guess somehow my eyes skimmed over that part. Sorry. I guess I'm so excited about it all that I just can't sit still :D

 

Thanks again for your help!