BYOB....on the ship.

[monarchmom43]

Hi everyone. I'm a newbie here.

 

Okay what IS the true story. We are thinking about bringing our favorite alcohol in our carry on at the port before stepping on the gorgeous Freedom of the Seas.

 

I hear you can't. Before I embarrass myself.... is this true?

 

On our prior Disney cruises we were able to bring it on board as long as it wasn't like carrying on a case or carrying on a grocery store six pack of wine!

 

Thank you very much.

[aqhacruiser]

You will get a lot of responses but the RCCL answer is no alcohol of any kind may be brought onboard when you embark. Alcohol purchased in ship's shop or in ports will be delivered to your cabin on the last night of your cruise. :o Sorry!

[BobBeaSea]

This is one of those areas where, at present, confusion reigns :). On RCI, to the best of my knowledge, you have never been allowed to bring onboard hard liqour or beer for your cabin, some wine was OK as long as it wasn't on RCI's wine list. There would be a corkage fee if you took the wine to the dining room.

 

There was a time, on embarkation day, you could go to the store on the ship and buy a couple of bottles of booze for in cabin consumption. You paid a $9.00 fee for this privilege. Sadly, this ended in the summer of 2005. What used to be a civilized situation was abused by many. The deal was the booze you purchased onboard was meant for in cabin consumption only, outside of your cabin you were expected to use the ship's bars. Cruisers abused the hell out of this, not only with the onboard purchased booze but the smuggled booze as well.

 

Toss in a couple of high profile incidents involving alcohol and perhaps the cruise line's need to increase revenue and we arrive at where we are today.

 

If you want to have a drink in your cabin while getting dressed for dinner or just some quiet downtime you have 3 choices a) order from room service-out of the question, the drink has lost it's edge by the time it gets to your cabin b) go to a bar, get your drinks and carry them back to your cabin-awkward and purpose defeating c) enjoy a quiet drink in your cabin with your smuggled booze.

 

Beer drinkers could get a bucket of beer and take back to the cabin, not so bad for them.

 

Anyway, I think this is the state of where we are. Confusion now reigns on what you can arrange with a third party company to deliver something to your cabin on embarkation day. I don't know what is possible or not possible, answers are all over the map. :)

[cb at sea]

IF you are going to try this, you will probably have more luck putting your bottle in your locked, checked bags--not your carry-on. If they detect it, and decide not to let you keep it, they will call you to come to your bags and remove it.

Think about it, tho. With what you are paying for this vacation, will a few extra drink charges break the bank?

[CGTNORMANDIE]

FOR FUN AND EXCITEMENT...check out some of the previous threads on this subject...there are loads of comments.

[mikeblum]

no joking but if you have about a week and want to be amused to heck comb thru this web site and read about this very topic...it's kind of amusing...i love the one person who has the portable two wheelie thingie to carry all of the bottled water and soda on the ship...not even achohalic...a portable two wheeler to carry drinks onboard a ship... oh well...

[teajak]

This is one of those areas where, at present, confusion reigns :). On RCI, to the best of my knowledge, you have never been allowed to bring onboard hard liqour or beer for your cabin, some wine was OK as long as it wasn't on RCI's wine list. There would be a corkage fee if you took the wine to the dining room.

 

There was a time, on embarkation day, you could go to the store on the ship and buy a couple of bottles of booze for in cabin consumption. You paid a $9.00 fee for this privilege. Sadly, this ended in the summer of 2005. What used to be a civilized situation was abused by many. The deal was the booze you purchased onboard was meant for in cabin consumption only, outside of your cabin you were expected to use the ship's bars. Cruisers abused the hell out of this, not only with the onboard purchased booze but the smuggled booze as well.

 

Toss in a couple of high profile incidents involving alcohol and perhaps the cruise line's need to increase revenue and we arrive at where we are today.

 

If you want to have a drink in your cabin while getting dressed for dinner or just some quiet downtime you have 3 choices a) order from room service-out of the question, the drink has lost it's edge by the time it gets to your cabin b) go to a bar, get your drinks and carry them back to your cabin-awkward and purpose defeating c) enjoy a quiet drink in your cabin with your smuggled booze.

 

Beer drinkers could get a bucket of beer and take back to the cabin, not so bad for them.

 

Anyway, I think this is the state of where we are. Confusion now reigns on what you can arrange with a third party company to deliver something to your cabin on embarkation day. I don't know what is possible or not possible, answers are all over the map. :)

Every time this subject comes up this post should be printed first. It says it all. And to the other poster it is not about the cost of the drink, it is the ability to have a quiet drink on your balcony before dinner or before bed. Not everything is about cost.

[gator582]

Maybe a suggestion for bringing a drink back to your room to make it easier to transport would be to take a couple of smaller insulated mugs. They will keep your drink cold and have covers and handles so they're easier to carry. Pack a few straws just in case. ;)

[BobBeaSea]

Every time this subject comes up this post should be printed first. It says it all. And to the other poster it is not about the cost of the drink, it is the ability to have a quiet drink on your balcony before dinner or before bed. Not everything is about cost.

 

I totally agree, for many, many of us money has absolutely nothing to do with it. I had a lot of time between cruises, finally went in Mar 2005 on Voyager. No problem, picked up some Baileys and Vodka in the ship's store, paid the fee and took it to our cabin. We both like some Baileys in our room service cofee (atrocious stuff-needs Baileys :)) early in the morning sitting in our robes on the balcony-you KNOW you are on vacation when you can do this :). The vodka was great to have in the cabin, have a nice quiet drink in the cabin while getting ready to out for the night.

 

So, for our cruise on Radiance is in Apr. 2006, from these boards I knew the "buy on board-pay the fee" routine was gone. I became a smuggler, a bottle of Baileys and Vodka. My SO's first cruise was the Voyager sailing, I explained to her that we had to become smugglers for the next one. We have a sailing coming up in May, on Explorer..I am not sure what to do now if they are cracking down.

 

In all the years I had between cruises we stayed at higher end AI's, anything you wanted to drink was available, we still bought a bottle of Baileys for our vacation mornings. :)

[amybear912]

If you are taking your own, put it in checked luggage. Try to get plastic bottles.

 

I also love the bit about the wheeled coolers...that cracks me up. What's even funnier is how often that works!

 

we took a case of bottled water on and put it in a separate suitcase - no problems there.

 

as far as having it delivered from an outside service... call and ask. sounds like it's being done on a case by case (ship by ship) basis. it doesn't hurt to ask.

[ILoveMyKids]

I saw someone bringing about 10 cases of soda onto the Freedom on 2/25. I wonder how much that saved him?? We plan our vacation once a year and like to live it up!

[rubrrick]

I saw someone bringing about 10 cases of soda onto the Freedom on 2/25. I wonder how much that saved him?? We plan our vacation once a year and like to live it up!

 

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic ILoveMyKids. Your story of soda being brought aboard is great!! The interesting thing is that crewmembers will purchase and bring back to the ship, cases of water for their own use. I guess not everyone likes the "ships" water.

 

Rick

[monarchmom43]

OP here. Thank you all for your responses.

 

Our bar bill is no concern to me. :) (Or is our casino bill! HAHA)

 

I just had seen some pictures of other cruises and on the dresser I could see some alcohol. It never dawned on me! I thought how clever of those people.

 

It looks like I'll be buying our wine onboard! Love those wine packages! ;)

 

Last year on the Explorer, we would take our bottle back to our room to enjoy. I didn't care what it looked like, because it was so nice to sit on the balconly while DD slept and we enjoyed the wine we had already purchased. :)

 

Thank you so much!

[CaesarsNcruisin4me]

I saw someone bringing about 10 cases of soda onto the Freedom on 2/25. I wonder how much that saved him?? We plan our vacation once a year and like to live it up!

 

I was on that sailing too and security took it away from him.:p It was kinda funny actually. He had it strapped to a dolly and some RCI employees allowed him to wheel it upstairs and then security stepped in and took it ALL away from him. Other people that only had a small amount were allowed to board with their soda though.

 

Sandie

[beachlady58]

We were just on the Explorer and I brought wine on board in my checked and un checked bags. No problem. I also bought a wine packag and spent a ton of $$ on drinks so I did not consider it to be illegal. We also bought a soda card for the kid but did bring a case of H2O on board. Have fun and don't worry!:D

[AJY46]

When I go on holiday I like to buy decent whisky at the airport duty free shop. This is not for consumption on the ship but to take home for after the holiday. If we sail in Europe we can leave our purchases at the airport and collect them on our return. We are sailing on the Explorer out of New York this summer and can't leave our shopping in the UK. Will we be able to carry these sealed bottles onto the ship?

[negc]

When I go on holiday I like to buy decent whisky at the airport duty free shop. This is not for consumption on the ship but to take home for after the holiday. If we sail in Europe we can leave our purchases at the airport and collect them on our return. We are sailing on the Explorer out of New York this summer and can't leave our shopping in the UK. Will we be able to carry these sealed bottles onto the ship?

 

If they become aware of them during the boarding process, they may take them and hold them for the duration of the cruise and return them on the last night. Since you have indicated that they are not for consumption on the ship, this procedure should not present a problem to you.:)

[Zbayette]

So what do you think...is it still possible to smuggle alcohol? We're sailing Saturday and are still undecided what to do. We, too want to have a drink in our rooms before dinner. Is it best to have it in their regular bottles or to put it in something else? Also can we bring in a bottle or two of soda to have in our rooms, or will that also be subject to confiscation? We last sailed in 2004 and never experienced any problems with bringing anything on and enjoying it in our room.:( Last year we sailed on Regent's Paul Gaughin and that is looking better and better for future cruises since everything is all-inclusive.

[negc]

So what do you think...is it still possible to smuggle alcohol? We're sailing Saturday and are still undecided what to do. We, too want to have a drink in our rooms before dinner. Is it best to have it in their regular bottles or to put it in something else? Also can we bring in a bottle or two of soda to have in our rooms, or will that also be subject to confiscation? We last sailed in 2004 and never experienced any problems with bringing anything on and enjoying it in our room.:( Last year we sailed on Regent's Paul Gaughin and that is looking better and better for future cruises since everything is all-inclusive.

 

Almost anything is possible so you might be successful in your attempt to smuggle liquor onboard, or you might be discovered and the liquor confiscated. I suspect that if you try to hide the liquor in some container other than its original bottle and it is discovered, they might treat you differently than if you merely tried to smuggle the bottle of liquor onboard undisguised. Part of the reason for the crackdown by RCI was a rise in situations involving drunken underage passengers and the subsequent discovery that they had taken to filling mouthwash bottles, water bottles and other containers with liquor and smuggling them onboard. RCI has indicated that according to its policies, this type of behavior leaves the miscreants subject to immediate debarkation from the cruise. I don't know that this sanction has actually been applied to anyone, but the threat is there and it is up to you to decide how you wish to act.

[Mark_from_Plano]

We brought on a single bottle of very nice Champagne that we wanted to have with dinner one night. We packed in our checked luggage (we drove to the port, so no airline baggage handling). On arrival, once our luggage was delivered, we took it to the dining room the first night and handed it to our head waiter and asked him to chill it for us, he informed us of the $12 corkage fee (which I already knew about, but don't think he ever actually charged us for). We also purchased the wine package with dinner for the remaining nights.

 

We had absolutely no problems bringing a bottle of wine onboard to have with dinner. We didn't try to hide it from anyone and no one onboard even batted an eye. That was our experience. Your mileage may differ.

 

We actually decided against bringing more bottles onboard. I think if you don't overdo it, no one will care. If you bring in a rolling cooler, someone's probably going to stop you.