Taking booze off ship

[arealcheapskate]

VV says there is no immigration or customs processes on domestic routes in Australia. They also encourage you to take your minibar spirits with you. 

 

We are looking at cruising as MRS in Australia with the 2 bottles of wine @ $90/day plus unlimited in room minibar refills daily on a domestic voyage (AKA Sydney to Melbourne or Melbourne to Hobar). 

 

Could we bring back 10 bottles of wine and essentially large quantities of spirits back with us? Do they open the wine bottles before they give them to you? 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 31, 2023 by arealcheapskate

[cantgetin]

On our TA in October, if you purchased wine in a restaurant, they insisted they had to open it even if they didn't serve it.  BUT if we bought it from room service or at a bar, they would sell us a bottle unopened. (we were mere Sailors)  We tried at a restaurant, and got it unopened from room service.  That was VV policy on that particular cruise.  VV does encourage rockstars to take the remnants of their bar set up with them...and it is a whole lot more than a traditional minibar that you would see in hotels or whatever.

How much we could bring in depended on citizenship and number of addresses represented--and that was dependent on the port of disembarkation. US citizens can each bring in 2 bottles of up to 1 liter in size per family.  A family is defined as the same address, so since my sailing partner and I don't live together, we would have been allowed up to 4 bottles.....but we were flying, so that presented an issue on how much we could carry.  While we did have to go thru Customs on arrival, they didn't look or ask about anything!

I have no idea what Australia allows.

[jon81uk]

Although rockstars generally can take the left over mini bar with them (as it’s only filled once), I’m not sure if as mega rockstar you could just order multiple bottles with no intention of drinking them on the ship as it might be seen as an abuse of the mega rockstar bar. 
 

Someone who has already sailed as mega could probably comment better, but personally I wouldn’t expect to be able to take away more than the equivalent of one mini bar full.

[redransom]

Just off the Christmas cruise Melbourne - Hobart - Melbourne. As its a domestic cruise there isn't anyone checking what you take off at Station Pier.

[cantgetin]

The difference for mega is that they restock the bar every day...so if there is something you want, put the existing bottle in your suitcase and another will arrive the next day!  Is that abuse?  Given what you pay for that suite, a couple bottles of something is minimal.

Another hint--some of the very high end liquors exceed the cost limit for mega.  However, the casino bar does half pours...and you can easily order 2 half pours, keeping it within the amount permitted.  I think the casino bar is the only one that does this.

[Lustate]

2 hours ago, cantgetin said:

Another hint--some of the very high end liquors exceed the cost limit for mega.  However, the casino bar does half pours...and you can easily order 2 half pours, keeping it within the amount permitted.  I think the casino bar is the only one that does this.

I will be using this on our MRS booking!

[CineGraphic]

If there's a bottle missing from your bar each day, and no sign of it being consumed, I think they'll stop replacing them. MRS or not.

[Janthere]

4 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

If there's a bottle missing from your bar each day, and no sign of it being consumed, I think they'll stop replacing them. MRS or not.

Actually we often take a bottle or two from the bar to the pool to set up a bar there for the day. We have never had an issue with it not being replaced. 

[CineGraphic]

1 hour ago, Janthere said:

Actually we often take a bottle or two from the bar to the pool to set up a bar there for the day. We have never had an issue with it not being replaced. 

And it was noticed by the crew, they can account for the bottle, but if the bottles simply disappear every day, I wouldn't be surprised if someone to starts looking into it. Sure you can take home what's left over, but for the most part it's for on board consumption. If someone starts hiding/hoarding full bottles of booze to take home, I can see them wanting to stop it.

[cantgetin]

Do you really think that if they took one or more bottles to the pool and enjoyed them thru the day that the crew was concerned about where they came from or reported them to the stateroom host?  Odds are that they disposed of the empty bottles on the pool deck and didn't return empties to the room.

You may be right that if a couple bottles disappear each day, it might be questioned, but would likely need to be pretty often to become an issue.

[arealcheapskate]

1 hour ago, CineGraphic said:

And it was noticed by the crew, they can account for the bottle, but if the bottles simply disappear every day, I wouldn't be surprised if someone to starts looking into it. Sure you can take home what's left over, but for the most part it's for on board consumption. If someone starts hiding/hoarding full bottles of booze to take home, I can see them wanting to stop it.

 

We will give it a try on this upcoming cruise - disappear the whole minibar every day and see what they do.

 

As if they would tell you off - when admittedly they encourage you to entertain and share. They may silently judge but we are going to bring a whole suitcase and bubble wrap just to find out. 

 

Spirits are horribly expensive in Australia - mainly due to taxes. Will make nice stocking stuffers and gifts for family. 

Edited December 31, 2023 by arealcheapskate

[CineGraphic]

Let us know how that works out for you.

Enjoy your cruise.

1 hour ago, cantgetin said:

Do you really think that if they took one or more bottles to the pool and enjoyed them thru the day that the crew was concerned about where they came from or reported them to the stateroom host?

No, the crew is a very close-knit community, and they all know who the rockstars are…..it would be very easy for the rockstar’s agent to find out if you were drinking every bottle from your bar outside of your cabin every day.

It will be interesting to see if they can get away with it or not, but the OP’s user name sure checks out.

[wintrev]

We were on the Resilient Lady for the Christmas cruise as rockstars. When we were told about the mini bar in our room I asked the rockstar agent what happens if you don’t drink any of it and were told that we can take the lot home. The only thing we left  in the fridge was the 4 red bull cans and 4 beers. Packed everything in our suitcase and have it here at home.

[jon81uk]

2 hours ago, wintrev said:

We were on the Resilient Lady for the Christmas cruise as rockstars. When we were told about the mini bar in our room I asked the rockstar agent what happens if you don’t drink any of it and were told that we can take the lot home. The only thing we left  in the fridge was the 4 red bull cans and 4 beers. Packed everything in our suitcase and have it here at home.

Yep as the bar is only filled once in regular rockstar you can just take what isn’t used. But this discussion is on mega rockstar where the drinks are almost unlimited and whether it is fair use or not to deliberately reserve drinks to take off the ship that you had no intention of drinking onboard.

[wintrev]

6 minutes ago, jon81uk said:

 

Edited January 1 by wintrev

[wintrev]

Oops - just read the topic title and didn’t realise it was for Mega.

[_tacocat_]

On 12/31/2023 at 7:43 AM, CineGraphic said:

If there's a bottle missing from your bar each day, and no sign of it being consumed, I think they'll stop replacing them. MRS or not.

Nope- we kept giving our Johnny walker away because we didn’t want it, and they kept bringing us new bottles!

[CineGraphic]

26 minutes ago, _tacocat_ said:

Nope- we kept giving our Johnny walker away because we didn’t want it, and they kept bringing us new bottles!

 

Do you think the same would hold true if they took the entire bar every day, and 2 bottles of wine each day? I seriously doubt it. On board consumption, and filling a suitcase full of bottles are two different things.

[_tacocat_]

32 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

 

Do you think the same would hold true if they took the entire bar every day, and 2 bottles of wine each day? I seriously doubt it. On board consumption, and filling a suitcase full of bottles are two different things.

We did that to a certain extent- our roadie encouraged it, too.  We didn’t strip the whole minibar every day, but we got at least 4 fills out of it across 9 nights of a back to back.  Drank some, tossed most of it in the suitcases.  Certainly stuffed everything left at the end of voyage #1 into our suitcases!  We also knew we weren’t going to drink 2 bottles of wine a day, so we ended up taking probably 12-15 bottles home.  
 

We’d seen some folks talk about “buying rounds” for everyone and their mother- whether they were people they came with sailing in regular cabins or randos that they just met that night, which I think is definitely against the spirit of the inclusions. 

[cantgetin]

We were invited to a mega suite and offered anything in the bar--no affiliation with the people staying in the suite until we met them on board.  We each had some wine, and while I have no idea what the official policy is, I took it that as their guests, it was fine.  That's obviously different than buying for your 25 newest friends out and about on the ship, but my guess is that unless there is blatant abuse, whatever policy exists will not be strictly enforced.

[CruisingWalter]

On 1/1/2024 at 2:13 AM, wintrev said:

We were on the Resilient Lady for the Christmas cruise as rockstars. When we were told about the mini bar in our room I asked the rockstar agent what happens if you don’t drink any of it and were told that we can take the lot home. The only thing we left  in the fridge was the 4 red bull cans and 4 beers. Packed everything in our suitcase and have it here at home.

 

Yep, we did the same from our Cheeky Corner Suite. 🙂 

[Lustate]

What this is all basically coming down to is fair usage policy. 

 

If on the last day, you have stuff left, then, of course, take it, maybe even a cheeky extra bottle you stash away from another day that they replaced as MRS, then you welcome to it. If, however you clear out the bar into your case daily, letting them restock it, and then doing the same over and over, then its not fair usage.

 

Its very clear on the website that the bar tab is to "Revel in exclusive access to complimentary drinks and bottles of wine around the ship with a daily bar tab (with reasonable limits, of course).", and the in room bar is to "Toast every moment—from sundrenched days and smooth sailing to spectacular sunsets and epic evenings—with the endless, in-suite bar of your dreams."

[arealcheapskate]

Fair enough. 

 

Sounds like tacocat had about the same experience I'm planning - not too overboard but I mean they did end up with 12-15 bottles of wine + mini bar bits and pieces

 

If you really wanted to take it overboard and get 5x moet 375ml each day for a 7 day voyage you'd be getting around $1200USD in champagne. 

 

I highly highly doubt that anyone would say anything. Quiet judgement yes. Actually doing anything, no. 

Edited January 4 by arealcheapskate

[Lustate]

13 hours ago, arealcheapskate said:

Fair enough. 

 

Sounds like tacocat had about the same experience I'm planning - not too overboard but I mean they did end up with 12-15 bottles of wine + mini bar bits and pieces

 

If you really wanted to take it overboard and get 5x moet 375ml each day for a 7 day voyage you'd be getting around $1200USD in champagne. 

 

I highly highly doubt that anyone would say anything. Quiet judgement yes. Actually doing anything, no. 

 

But it's not a "mini bar." lol You getting half bottles of each (or full size in some cases). 25 shots in a sitting is deadly (had to google that lol) when you walking about the ship tipsy after consuming a minimum of 22 shots from the bar(each), plus the wines etc your the walking dead by day two. lol

Nah, on a lesser joke, most likely the only thing that would happen is the crew will think you a bit scabby, and the other MRS, who are just enjoying the holiday and not trying to stockpile for the back, will keep a distance. 

[arealcheapskate]

Just now, Lustate said:

Nah, on a lesser joke, most likely the only thing that would happen is the crew will think you a bit scabby, and the other MRS, who are just enjoying the holiday and not trying to stockpile for the back, will keep a distance. 

 

How would any other sailors know what we are doing?  I am a bit scabby - if I'm paying 10k for a holiday I'm going to milk every last dollar in value out of it. It's not like I am asking the staff to do anything extra - just restock a bar. No skin off their back. 

 

If I was really cheap I would bring all my dirty laundry too and have them wash 3 suitcases of laundry and dry clean my suit. Apparently there is an unlimited laundry benefit too. Or take 1/2 servings of premium liquors at the casino and bottle them in my cabin LOL. 

 

Anyways it will be a fun experiment and will see what happens. I shall report back next month.