BYOB on Cruise Ships? You are not technically supposed to bring your own alcohol on cruise ships, but I have been on 6 cruises with two different cruise lines and have never had my alcohol confiscated. Just put it in your checked luggage. I bring along a collapsible ice chest and tip the room steward at the beginning of the cruise (and at the end) and ask him to keep it filled with ice. Always works for me. Have a great cruise!
Additional Answers and Experiences: - As a general rule, cruise ships do not allow outside alcohol an board. In instances where it is carried-on, it is generally confiscated by port security, held in bond and returned to you at the end of the voyage. If you try to sneak it in your checked luggage, the profile of the bottles is discovered in xray machines and you may have to claim your luggage on board, check the liquor into bond and thusly resulting in delays getting your bags. If you do have wine or champagne confiscated, you can usually make arrangements to have it chilled and brought to your dinner table by the ship's head wine steward for a small corkage fee.
- Confiscated bottles are generally available for pick up at a designated location on board the ship on the morning of disembarkation. Open and/or partially consumed bottles are rarely returned as they must be dumped in accordance with the Food and Drug Administration's directives.Happy Sailing!
- No, they will confiscate it. They took all ours from us when we boarded a cruise out of Miami and told us we would get it back when the cruise was over. Of course we never saw our alcohol again.
- Why not? Just don't put it in your carry-on luggage.
- On a New Zealand Cruise in January this year we were told all about not bringing alcohol on board in the pre cruise literature. After reading the exhorbitant prices on the ship's wine list ($44.80US for a $12.99 AUS bottle of Rosemount Shiraz) we decided something needed to be done. At the first port, Tauranga, we visited the bottle shop, bought 6 bottles of wine and a bottle of whiskey which went through the xray machine and no questions were asked. We then had our drinks in cabin before dinner even though not quite as good without the meal. The prices were just as offensive as the ship's habit of charging us $11.00 US per head per day for gratuities, would have been $304.00 US for the trip. We had no idea who would have received these funds, about $220,000 US for the whole ship on that trip so refused to accept the charge and tipped our stewards personally. One companion brought spirits on board in her luggage as well as champagne. No questions again.
- I can speak only for Norwegian Cruise Line because I am an employee however most all of the other lines follow the same policy. You cannot bring any hard liquor on board and can only bring wine if you are willing to pay a $15 uncorking fee (NCL's amount.) That is the official answer; unofficially you can bring however much you want but be prepared that if your bags are part of a random search and the alcohol is found it will be kept aside for you and returned at the end of the cruise.
If you have special desires and adequate advanced time, most cruise lines will gladly accommodate you without charge. They will, for security reason, not allow you to show up at boarding with the product. It will have to be ordered in by their regular vendor.
