Liquor allowance purchase on board

[2nycruiser]

Anyone familiar with how many bottles per person you are allowed for purchase

for U.S. customs . Will be sailing from NY porting in Virginia, Port Canaveral, Great Stirrup Cay and Bermuda. 

[ggTexasGal]

34 minutes ago, 2nycruiser said:

Anyone familiar with how many bottles per person you are allowed for purchase

for U.S. customs . Will be sailing from NY porting in Virginia, Port Canaveral, Great Stirrup Cay and Bermuda. 

Perhaps this will be helpful...

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/kbyg/types-exemptions

[Sailing12Away]

We've never been asked or questioned about how many bottles we bought on any of our journeys. Our last trip in the before times was a 10 day southern Caribbean trip, and we bought a bottle at nearly all 9 ports of call to bring home. Some were taken from us when we got onto the ship and returned the last night of the trip, others slipped through the cracks and we had in our room with us to be packed up right away.

 

Depending on the country that the trip ended in, sometimes we've been asked if we had anything to declare, other times we weren't stopped at all. When asked, we would say we have 2 bottles each in our suitcase and they would just pass us through to the next step in the process.

 

If you're trying to buy an entire case of something and treat the duty free shop like a Costco... well, that might be a completely different story.

[UKstages]

the title of the thread is a bit confusing because there is no set limit to what you're allowed to purchase onboard. and the duty free shop often has specials for "buy two, get one free" or some such... what's a solo traveler or even a couple supposed to do... because, yes, there is indeed a limit on how much you can bring into the US without paying additional duty.

 

technically, you can bring back as much as you like, as long as you declare it and pay the duty. THAT is a cumbersome process and few customs people want to go through the rigamarole, so - in practical terms - if you have three or four bottles, you just walk through and they wave you on and nobody is any wiser and nobody really cares. in my opinion, nine bottles stretches the spirit (pun intended) of the law and if they were to ask you to open your bags, they might charge you, but again, the likelihood of that happening, in my experience,  is very slim.

 

personally i don't see the allure of duty free spirits.

 

unless you're buying something locally produced in the country you're visiting, the price of the "duty free" products is often much higher than it would be back home. and on board they only come in special export sizes, so it's difficult to compare - on an apples to apples basis - duty free  prices with what you might pay in a retail shop.

 

i bought two very expensive ridiculously overpriced bottles on my last cruise: a liter of chivas regal (18 years) and a liter of hennesy v.s.o.p. cognac. but i bought these only because i was using up $200 in OBC, so they were essentially "free."

 

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by UKstages

[Sailing12Away]

1 hour ago, UKstages said:

personally i don't see the allure of duty free spirits.

 

unless you're buying something locally produced in the country you're visiting, the price of the "duty free" products is often much higher than it would be back home. and on board they only come in special export sizes, so it's difficult to compare - on an apples to apples basis - duty free  prices with what you might pay in a retail shop.

 

i bought two very expensive ridiculously overpriced bottles on my last cruise: a liter of chivas regal (18 years) and a liter of hennesy v.s.o.p. cognac. but i bought these only because i was using up $200 in OBC, so they were essentially "free."

 

It depends on the ports of call, but usually we've found great 'bargains' on land and only somewhat decent deals on the ship. But we too like to buy stuff that is native and local to the region to help us remember our journey. The only exception being Sheridans, which we cannot get back home on land. So when we run low, we always pick up a bottle of that on board.

 

Best deals we found were most recently in Cozumel. Hubby and our travel friend got off the ship specifically on a quest for booze for hubby and a shirt for our friend. He was able to get a bottle of Don Julio 1942 for around $130, which was a great deal in our eyes. Picked up some other tequila bottles for $20+ savings off what it would cost at home, and they survived the flight home without incident. We've got special travel bags to protect them in our suitcases, and tons of dirty laundry when those run out.