Back to back cruises - taking alcohol aboard

[Monkeygirl2]

Hi, looking for some help and/or best practice re back to back cruises. We have 3 b2b cruises out of Miami all with Royal Caribbean. Our first cruise is to Cuba so we will be bringing at least 4 bottles of rum back with us. We would expect to be able to put this in our luggage rather than carry it through. We also expect to get one or 2 other bottles of spirits at our other ports of call. Do the cases get scanned and could the booze get removed or queried?

Also, any tips for smooth swap over days. Anticipating having to wait around in the terminal or ideally handing our bags in and then getting transportation into Miami for a walk around

thanks

Pam

[Merion_Mom]

Their policy is that they will take all of those bottles, label them with your cabin number, and return them to you on your final night on board, at the end of cruise #3.

 

My advice:  Take pictures of EVERYTHING you hand over.

 

Your luggage never leaves the ship after you board until the end of cruise #3.  If you don't have the same cabin, your cabin steward will move everything for you.  Everything on hangers will be carried on the hangers to your new closet.  You put everything else in your suitcases and they move those to your new cabin.

 

If you wish to go ashore in Miami in between cruises, they will give you an "In Transit" card and explain the process to you.

 

When you board cruise #1, during that cruise, go to Guest Services and verify that you are on the consecutive cruisers list.

[shorehaven]

On a b2b can we take two bottles of wine onboard for each cruise when we originally board?  Would be happy to hand two over and get back for second cruise.

[Ourusualbeach]

3 minutes ago, shorehaven said:

On a b2b can we take two bottles of wine onboard for each cruise when we originally board?  Would be happy to hand two over and get back for second cruise.

 

That’s correct.  Sometimes they take the extra 2 bottles and hold them for you and sometimes they don’t.

[TravelerThom]

5 hours ago, Monkeygirl2 said:

Hi, looking for some help and/or best practice re back to back cruises. We have 3 b2b cruises out of Miami all with Royal Caribbean. Our first cruise is to Cuba so we will be bringing at least 4 bottles of rum back with us. We would expect to be able to put this in our luggage rather than carry it through. We also expect to get one or 2 other bottles of spirits at our other ports of call. Do the cases get scanned and could the booze get removed or queried?

Also, any tips for smooth swap over days. Anticipating having to wait around in the terminal or ideally handing our bags in and then getting transportation into Miami for a walk around

thanks

Pam

Are you are B2B on ship #1, then B2B on ship #2 and then B2B on ship #3, or are you B2B2B on one ship or are you doing ship #1 followed by ship #2 followed by ship #3. I suspect the last. 

 

Assuming you you are on 3 different ships this will be “interesting”. RCI does X-ray checked baggage and it is probable that enclosed liquor will send the bag to the “Naughty Room”; it will be easier to declare it up-front, turn it over and HOPE that you get it back. Do you really want to do this several times?

 

US Customs rules are pretty complicated, but basically every person over 21 gets duty free entry for 1 liter of alcohol once every 30 days. A second liter duty free is allowed from Caribbean Basin Initiative countries, but Cuba is not a CBI country. Additional duty free liquor is allowed in from the US Virgin Islands.  BUT if you have returned to the US each subsequent trip within 30 days has a limit of 150 ml of alcohol. US Customs Agents have the authority to not charge duty for small overages but this is getting complicated fast. 

 

Added to all of this is that each liter is a kilogram not counting the bottle. Not sure if you are staying in Florida before heading back to England, but if you are note that Florida has some of the cheapest liquor prices in the US. 

 

Given issues with RCI, US Customs, weight and breakage my advice would be don’t buy anything unless it is something special that you can’t get at home. IMO it is just not worth the hassle. 

[Monkeygirl2]

Hi Thom

thanks for the detailed reply. We are on 3 different RCI ships. I agree it sounds a hassle. At the Cuba presentation someone asked a question about B2B cruising and they said " no problem" but didn't give any detail on how it would work in practice. The same person also asked about how much duty she would have to pay if she took more than a litre of Cuban rum through but they just shrugged. We had 4 bottles but there were no customs people around anyway

 

i will ask at guest services when we get onboard and post about how it went when we get back

 

thanks again

Pam

 

 

 

 

[shorehaven]

17 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

 

That’s correct.  Sometimes they take the extra 2 bottles and hold them for you and sometimes they don’t.

Thank you for the info.

Will take 4 bottles aboard in our carry-on and see what happens.

[Cruisin Broad]

20 hours ago, Monkeygirl2 said:

Hi, looking for some help and/or best practice re back to back cruises. We have 3 b2b cruises out of Miami all with Royal Caribbean. Our first cruise is to Cuba so we will be bringing at least 4 bottles of rum back with us. We would expect to be able to put this in our luggage rather than carry it through. We also expect to get one or 2 other bottles of spirits at our other ports of call. Do the cases get scanned and could the booze get removed or queried?

Also, any tips for smooth swap over days. Anticipating having to wait around in the terminal or ideally handing our bags in and then getting transportation into Miami for a walk around

thanks

Pam

I don't know if it was here on Cruise Critic or somewhere else, but I've read to check with the Concierge as to whether they can arrange to have your bags transferred from one ship to another.  It appears that some people have had success with the cruise line transferring their bags and others haven't.  My friend and I are doing a B2B from Allure to Navigator in February and would love to be free of our luggage on the day we transfer from Allure to Navigator.  

[smc99]

On 11/11/2018 at 11:28 AM, shorehaven said:

Thank you for the info.

Will take 4 bottles aboard in our carry-on and see what happens.

 We have always taken two bottles of wine in our carry-on. They’ve never checked as to what cabin number those bottles are going to, so I don’t know why you and whoever you’re traveling with couldn’t carry two bottles in each of your carry-ons. 

 I’ve never tried that, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work. 

[shorehaven]

3 hours ago, smc99 said:

 We have always taken two bottles of wine in our carry-on. They’ve never checked as to what cabin number those bottles are going to, so I don’t know why you and whoever you’re traveling with couldn’t carry two bottles in each of your carry-ons. 

 I’ve never tried that, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work. 

 

Point taken but I was enquiring about back to  back cruises, not trying to outrun the booze police!