My Little Booze Smuggling Experiment
On this past cruise I decided to conduct a little experiment on how hard it is to bring alcohol onboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. My target was the Adventure of the Seas and my goal would be to bring onboard alcoholic beverages to enjoy in my stateroom. When I decided to attempt the experiment I had no idea what I would try to bring onboard, however I did know that it would not be wine. My reasoning was because if I wanted to have wine in my room I could just pre-order a couple of bottles for the week. I’m not out to rip off any cruise lines but I do like to make things as convenient as possible for myself. In fact, I actually did have a wine pre-order up until a week or so before the cruise, but that’s another story.
Now onto the alcohol smuggling experiment
What I did was try to bring alcohol onboard the Adventure of the Seas using three different methods. I didn’t do anything too radical such as filling shampoo bottles with whiskey or anything. In fact, none of them required much effort to set up. I also didn’t want to bring actual bottles along since it would greatly increase the weight of my luggage. What I decided on were three methods that friends have used but I have never tried. Now, lets see if any of them worked.
The Rum Runner
The first method involved me using the Rum Runner bags to smuggle alcohol onboard the cruise ship. These kits get incredible reviews on all the cruise websites but I had never used the Rum Runner kits before and wanted to see for myself if they really worked. I filled a pouch with Grey Goose packed it away in my luggage and honestly forgot all about it.
When we got up to the room our bags weren’t there, which was alarming. Many of our neighbors had already received their bags, which only made me more nervous. My first thought was they found the hooch and would be calling me down to the naughty room at any moment. Luckily after about 20 minutes our baggage arrived, embarrassment averted. I always like to have the room set up as early as possible so I opened up the suitcase to put my clothes away before the muster drill would commence. When I reached in to pull out the Rum Runner bag I was happy to see they arrived fully intact. I flipped and squeezed the bag to verify all was well and it was. There were no scratches or leaks whatsoever. The a rum runner flask
Box O’ Booze
The second method involved those pre-mixed drinks they sell in the local liquor store. In the liquor store near my home, they sell boxed drinks such as margaritas, martinis and boxed wine. I chose to pick up a box of apple martinis (which btw don’t taste very good) to pack into my suitcase. I had toyed with the idea of wrapping the box up like it were a present, thinking that even if it were discovered I would have plausible deniability. In the end I decided that was too devious and underhanded, so I decided just stash the box in my friends bag sandwiched between clothes.
When are luggage finally arrived I was really anxious to see how the Box O’ Booze made it through the trip. I know it contains a bladder similar to what the rum runner has but since it’s not designed to be reused, I wondered about durability. Upon opening the bag, I didn’t get a whiff of alcohol, which was a good sign. The next step was to look for green liquid, which I didn’t find. Finally, I pulled out the box and was happy to see it too arrived intact. I will say the box was a bit damaged (probably due to the airline) but the contents were perfectly fine. So, the Box O’ Booze also passed the test.
Carry It On
The third method I chose was to simply carry aboard an alcohol purchase from the duty free in the cruise terminal. I figure the people that work there are always mislead passengers by telling them they can carry their purchases onboard, so I may as well put it to the test. I purchased two bottles of rum as well as one of those huge cigarette cartons (I know it’s a bad habit). I stashed the two bottles in my backpack and then proceeded to walk onto the ship.
I have been on Carnival ships where they just allowed me to walk right onboard with bottles in plain site, so I never really got the feeling I was doing anything underhanded by placing the bottles in my pack. When I got to the check-in before I put my bag onto the scanner I stated there was alcohol in my bag and said the duty free said it was okay. They didn’t acknowledge anything I said and just motioned me to put the bag on the scanner, so I did. I will assume they saw the alcohol because he told me to step aside and directed me to another gentleman. This is where it gets strange. When I go over to see the gentleman he asks for the duty free bag I am carrying which contains my cigarette cartons. He then looks inside the bag and sees there is no alcohol. After that, he just motions me through not knowing that I still have the bottles in my bag. I cannot call that test a success since it was likely a fluke. Instead, I will say it was inconclusive.
Conclusion
So, there you have it. I attempted to carry alcohol onboard the Adventure of the Seas three separate ways. All three methods were successful but I have confidence in some more than I do others. Personally I would rank them in the following order, Rum Runner, Box O’ Booze and the Carry On method. In fact, I can honestly say I will probably never cruise without a rum runner flask
Update: This is a bit of a follow-up to my first post about sneaking alcohol onboard a cruise ship. If you missed it, check the archives (there are lots of good posts there) or simply click here.
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Comments
The reason I did the smuggling experiment was to see if these methods that I read so much about worked. While things like water bottles and boxes of wine do work at times the rum runner was by far the most endorsed method that I ran across. I just wanted to see if it actually worked, since I didn’t want to endorse anything I hadn’t tried myself.
I have been on over 15 cruises from Princess to Royal Carribean, Celebrity and lastly Norwegian. Each time, I take a 6 pack of propel (blue bottles)empty it but leave it in the 6 pack holder. Then I fill each bottle with whatever booze we want. We pack this in our regular luggage and have never been caught. I have also done the stop in port and fill a water bottle with any clear alcohol to walk on board with no problems with any cruise line EXCEPT believe it or not a short 3 day bahama cruise on Norwegian. They had a guy shaking water bottles!!! He took my water bottle (Stoli’s) and said You cannot take this on board. He shook my husbands-and said you can take this.(Water) APPARENTLY, vodka bubbles-water does not. WHO KNEW? So, lesson learned. Lost a nice bottle of vodka too. Before anyone judges me too harshly, I buy drinks every day on board…I just like sitting on my balcony enjoying the peace and tying one on without any hassles!
Thanks for the tip, I had no idea about the vodka bubble thing. Don’t worry about anyone judging you, you’ll just end up driving yourself crazy. I almost always carry alcohol on board the ship and still manage to rack up a small fortune in bar bills. I buy drinks in the lounges, at the pool and in the casinos but drink my preferred beverage in my cabin. In the end we all win.
Just came back from are cruise from January 10th-17th, 2010 I purchased the RumRummer Flasks and was able to bring on 3.5 liters of vodka and 1 liter of rum with my rumrunner flask. We packed them in are checked luggage and in are carry on and walked right though with out being questioned. Well worth the investment. My Broher went the week before on NCL and had the same results. GREAT PRODUCT.Drinks on Carnival are 6.00 for a beer and approm 8.75 mixed drinks.
Thanks for the report. I definitely thing Rum Runner are one of the best investments a cruiser can make, they pay for themselves 10 times over in just one cruise.
First time cruiser leaving in a couple weeks… What about carrying bottles in a pocket of cargo pants/shorts? If a bottle is small enough to fit in a large pocket, would that work? Or do you get scanned like an airport?
T.I. & trace, thanks for the great info. Leaving on Carnival next Sunday out of Galveston and will take the Rum Runner and Propel six-pack. Any advice on darker booze, like Jack Daniels? That’s my drink of choice and I’m not sure if it makes a difference in the high tech scanners or not…
Should I put my alcohol in water bottles or just put the whole bottle just into my suitcase?
But I like that rum runner idea, where can I get that?
It really shouldn’t matter what you put in the Rum Runner. The scanners will be looking for bottles so any booze you use will be fine.
I wouldn’t bother with the alcohol in water bottles. If for some reason they found them it would make you look far shadier than if you just shoved the entire bottle in your luggage. The best way to avoid any detection is to use the Rum Runner since it would avoid detection altogether unless for some reason they decided to do a manual search, which shouldn’t happen unless they detected something else (like a full bottle) in your luggage.
Im leaving in 3 days for a 6 day 5 night cruise on gradeur of the seas with Royal Caribbean. Im 22 and im going with 5 other 22 and 21 year olds, do you think they will be more likely to check our bags for alcohol as seeing we are younger and would probably more willing to try and sneak alcohol on? Also, I have already thuroughly cleaned out an Axe body wash bottle (which is black) to try and bring some whiskey on board. I figure if I packed it with my other toiletries it will be less noticable and less likely to be checked. Does this sound like a good idea? Im, also interested in using the rum runner but I heard that some cruises are starting to implement alcohol scanning devices when checking luggage (however that should work, sounds kind of impossible to detect to me) that would make using the body wash and rum runner inefective. Whats your thoughts?
No one is mentioning Carnival Cruise lines!! Im going on a cruise in June and i need to know if anyone has tried to sneak anything on board with them, and how it went. My BFF got away with a bottle of Vodka in 06 or 07 in her luggage but that was Royal Caribbean.. Althought, someone above did mention that a mixed drink on Carinval is $8.75, which isnt bad considering i pay about 12 or so in clubs/lounges.
(its me again..) BUT my co worker went on a cruise and her liquor bill was $500.00!! Im not trying to spend that much on alcohol.. LOL
I smuggled a fair amount of booze onboard my last cruise and still ended up with a total bill over 1000 dollars. Although, I didn’t break down how much of that was alcohol and how much was spent in the casino.
Yes, drink prices have gone up. I just got back from a Carnival cruise about a week ago and brought booze onboard with me. I will posting about that smuggling experience tomorrow, so stay tuned.
DB,
I have been on several Carnival Cruises out of Long Beach and San Diego and the rum runners have worked every time. It is by far the most effective and least problematic way to do it. Like anything else in life, as long as you don’t overdo it with the amount of booze you try to sneak on, you should have no problem at all.
Happy sailing.
I’m going on royal caribbean next month and was thinking about trying the rum runner flask. Is there something special you are suppose to do to make sure it isn’t detected, like wrapping it in clothes?
I wrap everything in clothes. I never really did it as an additional measure to avoid detection, I do just in case something would happen to the Rum Runner itself. They seem to be pretty indestructable but on the off chance that a bag would puncture I’m hoping that a few layers of T-shirts would at least partially mitigate any damage. Haven’t had to test this theory as of yet but I do it anyway.
[...] Update: On my last cruise I experimented with sneaking alcohol onboard the cruise ship. If you want to see how it went, you should read this post. [...]
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Great story. Thanks for sharing it. I got married on Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur of the Seas in 2005. I don’t know if it was our wedding party boarding early or what, but being my first cruise and not knowing what I was doing, I loaded up a spare suitcase with 2 cases of beer, and got it on board no problem. The only run-in I had with security was when our neighbors called the ship’s mod squad on us on our wedding night (I’m proud to say). The boat was rocking that night. Then the very next year, 2006, I cut back to a box o wine and thought I was being smarter and conservative. But no, they found the box and bladder bag of wine. I had to take the walk of shame down to that conference room, open my luggage, and hand it over till the end of the cruise. So I’m not so sure the Rum Runner flask is a sure thing anymore. On our 08 cruise, I did the 16 oz. water bottle in the carry on backpack with clear tequila and/or rum with no issues. They scan the backpack at every port on return and I’m sure they see it. But everyone’s got water bottles. It’s the Caribbean. You’d look suspicious if you didn’t. And they’re not going to open everyone’s water to smell it. Size probably matters. Liter and larger bottles probably look a little out of place in a back pack or checked luggage. But I wouldn’t place any liquids in checked bags anymore. Liquids are now an increased security threat according to homeland security guidelines. I will say they really seem to be taking security seriously and they’re looking out for our safety not just busting us small time bootleggers. Last year they held my suitcase up because of a small 2″ blade NRA pocket knife in it. It’s my favorite tool and it’s always in my left pocket. I didn’t think it was a big deal. The rules say you can take up to a 3″ pocket knife but maybe that’s measured open, handle and blade. And it wasn’t in my carry on. It was checked. But I guess on a ship, checked bags are no less of a security risk than carry on. Have a safe and happy cruise. That’s what it’s all about.