Last week I had the pleasure of taking a cruise out of San Juan, Puerto Rico (my favorite port of embarkation) on the Carnival Victory. I got a great deal on the cruise although the airfare left a little to be desired. Eager to make up some of the money I lost on airfare I figured this would be another prime opportunity to see if I could once again bring my own liquor on board the ship. Here is how it went.
A Caveat About Bringing Alcohol Onboard a Cruise Ship
Before any of you worry about me short changing the cruise line on alcohol revenue let me say that none of the alcohol brought on board was consumed on open decks. Rest assured Carnival still got me for approximately 800 dollars, more than half of which was from alcohol ordered in the dining room, poolside or in show lounges. This alcohol was only consumed at times where I normally would have gone without.
When I get back from being in port I like to have a drink or two while get ready for dinner. I would never under any circumstances order a drink to carry back to my room; it’s too much of a hassle for me. Likewise, room service is too slow and unreliable for me to bother with drink orders since most times I would be done showering before my first drink arrived. In other words Carnival lost nothing on the deal but gained a happy cruiser.
My Plan
When I embarked on the cruise ship I planned on bringing two rum runner flasks on board filled with vodka. The plan was to carry them down to San Juan empty and fill them with alcohol purchased while in San Juan. I also counted on bringing onboard our two allotted bottles of wine we would purchase at the duty-free in the cruise terminal.
How it all went down
Since I had extra room in my carry-on we actually purchased the liquor at the duty free in the airport before taking off. Later on that evening we filled the rum runners
Just as we had planned I purchased our wine in the cruise terminal duty free which was placed in the regular plastic bags they give you. I decided not to buy any extra alcohol in the terminal because it seemed as if we had plenty. Besides those extra purchases seem to be the ones that get confiscated more often than not, so it really wasn’t worth the hassle.
However, I will say that security seemed extremely lax at the terminal on this particular sailing, odd for a Spring Break cruise. I have no doubts that had I wanted to I could have carried on a back pack full of alcohol without as much as a glance. I even had my nail clippers ready in case I needed to snip off the dreaded zip tie.
Normally, guards are at the ready with the orange zip ties which they place around bags carrying alcohol to be confiscated. I saw the guards and I saw the zip ties but what I didn’t see was another agent waiting closer to the entrance of the actual ship. The table where you check in booze which has been tagged was manned by a member of the crew but there was no security there waiting.
The line to actually enter the ship was congested and eventually a member of security did arrive to walk the line but all he did was ask what was in the duty free bag. I simply told him it was wine and he kept on moving. Two bottles of wine onboard… check.
We arrived at the cruise terminal at about 11:30 on that particular day which was late for me as I prefer being one of the first on board the ship. By 1 o’clock I was sitting poolside with a bucket of beer. We went to our cabin at 2:30 or 3 o’clock and our bags arrived shortly thereafter rum runners intact. Party time ready to commence… check.
full of vodka as well as a box of wine in my checked luggage. I had read that Carnival had taken to searching checked luggage and at one point had requested that passengers not lock their luggage (yeah right). So, of course I locked my luggage figuring that if they wanted to check my bags they could always saw of the locks at the risk of pissing off a valued customer (of course they didn’t). My checked luggage arrived at my room a couple of hours after boarding with both the rum runner and box o’ wine still intact.