Maybe We Made a Mistake...RCCL

[jth5898]

i was on RCCL May 13 took a case of water as a piece of luggae. Just put the luggae tag right on the shrink wrap case of water. I had no problem they even keep a bucket of ice in the room for it.

[parrotthead]

We are just back from Monarch of the Seas and we ran into an interesting situation. We took our two bottles of wine, as the cruise lines informed us we could do, and they insisted on confiscating it at the dock. The "Young" man taking the wine was clueless and said check with the headwaiter but all I know is it will be kept until the last night of the cruise.

 

We checked with the headwaiter and he told us to tell our Waiter which bottle we wanted and he would bring it to our table and if we told him which we wanted the next night he would see to it that it was there. Since between us we had 5 bottles and we ended up only using 4 the first and second night, the last bottle was delivered to my son's stateroom mid morning on the Sunday.

 

We asked why the change and were told that they were revamping some alcohol policies in the wake of the latest missing passenger incident. I will say it worked very well, but they should have had the crewman taking the wine at the dock a bit better informed ( some people were quite irate and did not seem ready to go aboard and find out what was going on.)

 

Great cruise....

Copied from another thread...

here is the link to the entire other thread

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=351418

[tarheelmjfan]

I enjoy wine, beer, and the occasional mixed drink. After reading this thread for a few days, a thought keeps coming to me. Could I go a whole week without my preferred brand of beer? wine? vodka? Well of course I could!!!!!

In my humble opinion, if you can't go a week without your Budweiser, or Sutter Home or it will kill you, I think you have much bigger issues to face. Doesn't this whole thread boil back down to smuggling booze on board to save money? Yes it does----if you say it doesn't, you are simply trying to justify it to yourself, the rest of us don't buy it. If you can't face a week without your brand, or need to consume such large quantities that you need to smuggle it on board to afford the volume, you may have a problem!

By the way, anyone notice the OP with 2 posts has not been back?

 

That's a bit of a generalization wouldn't you say? Some people, including me, posted on this thread, because they enjoy something specific that the cruise line doesn't offer. We enjoy Ice Wine with dessert, while on cruises. The cruise line, at least Celebrity, doesn't carry anything similar. It's not a matter of a certain brand. It's that there's no brands availability. We are fine ordering wine off the wine list that's provided, if there's anything remotely similar. Also, not everyone smuggles. For those who do, that's really not any of my concern.

 

We don't drink wine with dinner at home. It's a little something special we do on vacation. Personally, it never occurred to me that those who have a drink preferrence have a problem. I guess I see it as possibly being the opposite. If I drank every day of my life, I probably wouldn't care what I was drinking. Then again, I don't really know, because I don't drink everyday. I won't presume to know why other's do the things they do. I think that's a good rule for everyone to follow. :)

[zotzer]

Does Holiday Inn take your wine away at check in?

 

No they don't.

 

Do they clean your room every time you leave it? Do you even *know* the name of the person/people cleaning your room every day?

 

Do they turn down your bed at night?

 

Do they have dining rooms, in which people serve you decent food, for no additional charge? Do they even have a buffet that is included (minus the continental breakfast with nasty danish and eggos?)

 

I'll take the caribbean on an RCI ship any day over a Holiday Inn. And I will probably pay less per day for my vacation.

 

Tracy

[Merion_Mom]

I highly doubt that one unfortunate incident will result in the widespread searching of suitcases to discover smuggled in liquor. Think about it: each passenger brings 2 bags, there are 2,500 pax on board equalling 5,000 suitcases. Within a few hours, these bags are loaded on board, sorted out as to floor and stateroom, and delivered. A huge task, never mind screening them.

 

If they are searched at all, and I seriously doubt if more than a small random sample are ever opened and searched, they are run through some kind of screening belt and are scanned for bombs or things like that.

 

If people think that a kid getting drunk and falling overboard is going to result in RCI making a quick decision to individually open and search thousands and thousands of suitcases on each and every cruise, I think you're being overly dramatic in the extreme.

 

For one thing, passengers can get drunk any number of ways - in port at Carlos and Charlie's, in their stateroom with liquor they've brought with them, or with liquor they've bought in port (yes, I know they sometimes catch that when you return from port but not always), with drinks that they or another passenger have bought. If the boy in question had gotten drunk at C & C's and pitched over the side, would people be anticipating RCI to impose a ban on anyone going there? That makes about as much sense. RCI has a stated policy that doesn't allow you to bring alcohol onboard, that covers a great deal of their liability; whether they dutifully screen each bag for liquor is a whole other question.

 

I'll be on the Serenade on 6/4 and will bring our customary one bottle of liquor in checked baggage. Who wants to bet me that it makes it to our stateroom just fine? To the OP: wrap your fine wine and champagne in bubble wrap, put in your checked baggage, and don't worry about the 2 bottle limit. I'm sure you'll be just fine - and the worst that will happen is that they'll keep all but two bottles for you until the end of your cruise. And I would bet dollars to donuts even that won't happen.

Your post is quite logical, Travelgrrl.

 

Here is my "take" on the situation: Royal Caribbean has always used alcohol sales, both in the bars and off the wine list at dinner, as a major profit center. The wines in particular have a HUGE (one might even say DISPROPORTIONATE) markup.

 

RC will use this tragic death/incident as an excuse to "clamp down" on "smuggling" in the name of "safety."

 

Somehow, not allowing passengers to carry on their own beverages will result in less drinking and less drunkenness.

 

No.................not allowing passengers to carry on their own beverages will result in higher profits for Royal Caribbean.

 

As a cruiser, I am sad. :( As a stockholder, I am glad. :D

 

Carol, the schizophrenic

[wrp96]

As a cruiser, I am sad. :( As a stockholder, I am glad. :D

 

Carol, the schizophrenic

 

Nice sig. Carol. If that's true, sort of glad I'm not sailing with you this summer after all.;)

[just4kixx]

 

As a cruiser, I am sad. :( As a stockholder, I am glad. :D

 

Carol, the schizophrenic

 

You are too funny carol... sure you don't want to change sailings and join us 8/17/07?

 

A~

[Merion_Mom]

Alas, my fellow Philadelphian, with two kids in college, it's too close to departure dates for the fall semester. Early to mid August just work better for us.

 

But YOU could change................:)

[Parisgrandma]

I appreciate all of the info on the wine/liquor policy. We'll bring a couple of our favorite St. Emilion's and see what happens.

[cruise cruise cruise]

I know this thread is a few weeks old, but I said I would share the response I got from C&A regarding the 2 bottle of wine allowance, when recieved. It is as followed

 

To Whom It May Concern:

 

Thank you for your e-mail. We apologize for the delay.

 

We do not allow guests to bring their own beverages onboard. This

includes: liquor, wine, champagne, beer, soda, bottled water, or self

produced products (example: home made wines).

 

Alcoholic items packed in guest luggage or taken onboard via the

gangway will be confiscated.

 

Thank you for choosing Royal Caribbean International.

 

Doris Wilhelm

Customer Service Representative

[mattsmom]

I wrote this on another thread but will add it here also. We just came back from the Grandeur and a wonderful trip out of Baltimore. We packed in our CHECKED luggage 3 bottles of wine and 20 diet cokes or so. We also carried a bottle of wine on board from port in Cozumel and Port Canaveral . All of this went through fine. We also had a nice bar bill mostly from drinks of the day.

[HurricaneSally]

Did they run out of eggs?

[MortgageChick]

In 15 cruises I have yet to have liqour confiscated out of my checked luggage.

 

Oceanbreeze -October 1995-5 night W. Caribbean

Destiny -May 1999-7 night Eastern Caribbean

NCL Majesty- August 2000 -7 night Bermuda

NCL Sun-November 2001-13 night Repo Boston to MIA

Paradise-May 2002- 10 nights S Caribbean

Carnival Legend-Sept 2002-15 night Transatlantic Crossing

Royal Olympia Voyager-Feb 2003-15 night Amazon River

Rotterdam- June 2003-7 night Canada-New England

Enchantment of the Seas-Sept 1 2003-5 nights Cozumel and Belize

Costa Mediterranea- December 14 2003 Western Caribbean

Oosterdam-March 14th 2004- 7 nights Eastern Caribbean

Westerdam Nov 12 2004- 17 nights Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale

Mercury Feb 7 2005- 11 nights Mexican Riviera

Summit Sept 16 2005 – 14 Nights Vancouver-Alaska-LA

Galaxy Dec 29th 2005-11 nights Panama Canal

Carnival Victory June 13 2006- Canada New England

RCL Jewel of the Seas- Oct 31 2006- 12 nights Boston-Bermuda-S Caribbean-FLL

Carnival Spirit April 2007- 12 nights to Hawaii

Navigator of the Seas November 5 2007- 13 nights Southampton to FLL TA Crossing

[threeofus]

Sorry, excuse me, except for Princess who allows cases of wine to be brought on board.

 

Yes that is true. We did the 11 day panama trip and brought 8 beautiful bottles on board. Cabin attendant brought us a couple of wine glasses...and that was that.

 

Bringing wine on board is not the cause of the problem. Nor will keeping the wine off solve the problem.

It's a financial decision - IMHO.