Costa and Bootleg Alchohol Brought Aboard

[DaveB]

Hello all.. It has been about a year since our last Costa cruise. We will be doing the Mediterannea the week before Christmas.

 

Anyhow, when we cruise, including our last Costa cruise, my wife and I pack a hardsided Samsonite full of Champagne, and various other goodies. We check this suitcase in, and have it sent to the room..

 

However, I have been hearing from friends that RCCL and NCL have started cracking down on people bringing alchohol in their checked baggage.... to the point where they have had their bootleg alchohol confiscated. I was wondering if Costa was doing the same?

 

Any help from anyone that cruised Costa within the last few months would be appreciated!!

[cruisingtheword]

Hello all.. It has been about a year since our last Costa cruise. We will be doing the Mediterannea the week before Christmas.

 

Anyhow, when we cruise, including our last Costa cruise, my wife and I pack a hardsided Samsonite full of Champagne, and various other goodies. We check this suitcase in, and have it sent to the room..

 

However, I have been hearing from friends that RCCL and NCL have started cracking down on people bringing alchohol in their checked baggage.... to the point where they have had their bootleg alchohol confiscated. I was wondering if Costa was doing the same?

 

Any help from anyone that cruised Costa within the last few months would be appreciated!!

 

My husband and I were on the 17 day Magica transatlantic cruise last May. We had liquor in 750 liter plastic bottles (they were flat and easy to pack). We wrapped them in paper towels and put them individually in gallon sized zip lock bags and placed one in each of our 4 checked bags - all of them got through with no problem. We also bought liter bottles of coke on board during our stop in NYC in shopping bags - again with no problems.

 

Susan

[joetrizeo]

Smuggling booze is still no problem. Perhaps the 'crack down' is particular to rccl and ncl.

 

In any event my advice to you is to not pack all your booze in its own suitcase with nothing but booze in it. THAT might draw suspicion and have to confiscate. Instead divvy it up and put a little in every suitcase. Again, 1 or 2 bottles is no problem but a full suitcase, well that might be a little hard to 'let by' (if they find out of course)

[carrribeansol]

We sailed in March and hid vodka, gin, irsh mist in our suit cases. It was out in plain site the entire trip. We never had a problem. Our last NCL trip many had theirs confiscated. I do not thing Costa has the screening abilities of the other ships that sail year around from the US.

[Brian Raine]

On the Fortuna , earlier this year, we were allowed to purchase duty free alcohol on board and take it away with us to our stateroom. This is the first time this has ever happened on any of our cruises. This possibility negates the need to "pre pack" supplies, as the cost of the "tipples " we like were very reasonable, cheaper than some of our ports of call.

[Dogface]

You said that they had duty free on board. Was it comparable to airport duty-free prices?

[Brian Raine]

Dogface. "Duty Free" is a misnomer in Europe each country has different levels of "TAX" on alcohol, France and Italy are relatively cheap in comparision to the UK. So "duty free" should read tax free , the overall prices were lower than the airport prices although there was not the wide variety available, basically white rum/some whiskeys/Italian liqueurs/brandy/rum. The big plus is you do not have to carry all that weight from the airport or pay the high prices charged onboard.