Taking alcohol on-board

[dst87, Falkirk]

After the thread about changes to the RCI alcohol allowance I started to think about cruise lines putting these restrictions in place, but didn't want to send that thread off on a tangent.

Of course I can see the obvious reason why they wouldn't want people bringing their own alcohol on board; they want you to spend money in their bars and restaurants. However, do cruise lines mask this with some other façade of a reason, like some health and safety concern or other nonsense? Do any of their official reasons have any merit to them whatever? Or do some lines take the honest approach, or simply give no reason at all?

I can't imagine that allowing alcohol on board would make the slightest difference to my on-board spend. I might have one last drink before bed if I had a bottle in my room, but I wouldn't have had this in a bar anyway. Part of the experience I enjoyed on our first cruise was sitting in the lovely bars and having a drink. Surely nobody would bring a bottle into a bar whether it's allowed or not?

In restaurants I can see that people might want to have their own wine, but the simple answer in this case is to charge an exorbitant corkage charge, which is pretty standard anyway!

What are your thoughts on this topic?

[spartan, kent]

After the thread about changes to the RCI alcohol allowance I started to think about cruise lines putting these restrictions in place, but didn't want to send that thread off on a tangent.

Of course I can see the obvious reason why they wouldn't want people bringing their own alcohol on board; they want you to spend money in their bars and restaurants. However, do cruise lines mask this with some other façade of a reason, like some health and safety concern or other nonsense? Do any of their official reasons have any merit to them whatever? Or do some lines take the honest approach, or simply give no reason at all?

I can't imagine that allowing alcohol on board would make the slightest difference to my on-board spend. I might have one last drink before bed if I had a bottle in my room, but I wouldn't have had this in a bar anyway. Part of the experience I enjoyed on our first cruise was sitting in the lovely bars and having a drink. Surely nobody would bring a bottle into a bar whether it's allowed or not?

In restaurants I can see that people might want to have their own wine, but the simple answer in this case is to charge an exorbitant corkage charge, which is pretty standard anyway!

What are your thoughts on this topic?

The bar tenders and waiters have the same problems as publicans do at home with pre loading, why should you go into a bar to enjoy a drink and be troubled by those who have already had a skin full

They don't even notice they are getting more and more vocal then the waiters have to deal with all the verbal abuse

Better to keep things as they are

[dst87, Falkirk]

That's interesting, and a fair point.

I'm not a heavy drinker so wouldn't dream of pre-loading. I agree though that I don't want to experience that when I'm trying to have a quiet drink so it probably is for the best

[spartan, kent]

That's interesting, and a fair point.

I'm not a heavy drinker so wouldn't dream of pre-loading. I agree though that I don't want to experience that when I'm trying to have a quiet drink so it probably is for the best

I read somewhere that when RCL first started they had a fight onboard and then they decided to stop people bringing on loads of booze.

[Neil Down, Southampton]

As Max Bygraves used to say …”Let me tell you a story.”

Many years ago a group of teenagers decided to celebrate their graduation by going on a cruise. The picked Royal Caribbean and boarded carrying more booze that the ship’s bars held. For the next few days they ran riot remaining drunk for most of this short cruise. The majority of passengers were extremely put out by this behaviour and said that they would not use RCCL again.

The heads of RCCL decided that they could not allow this to re-occur and proceeded to fashion rules to govern re-occurrence. They rules were mainly to be used to stop drunken and riotous antics and were not forcefully applied but being there passengers started reading and applying them and RCCL found that their onboard liquor sales went up considerably and so the rules were more strictly applied.

Other cruise lines noticed what was happening and decided to follow suit and so the rules became more widespread. There must be a reason but I have no idea why RCCL, or RCI as we know them, have relented and allowed the two bottles of wine concession. I think that is as far as it will go. It could be that as Celebrity have allowed this concession and ads Celebrity is owned by RCCL they might have figure and information to show that it does not effect sales or similar or even that it might just reduce the amount of free wine drunk by Diamond and Diamond plus passengers but it should only be a matter of time before we find out. ……Neil

[BigMac, Glasgow]

Strangely, Cunard do not seem to have any loutish behavior or problems despite the fact that you can bring on board just about anything you want (within reason).

We always bring at least half a dozen bottles of fizz.

We also have a free mini bar every time we travel which includes 2 litres of spirits. From time to time we've even had these replaced at no charge.

Cunard do charge a $20 corkage fee, but this is often waived.

They have a very sensible policy that actually works, and everybody is happy.

Stewart