By Barry Vaudrin
I may not be the best author to write an article like this because my focus during a cruise is not how much alcohol I can drink, rather, my focus is to enjoy the vacation, the entertainment, the food and the ports. The following is my best advice for attempting to “buck the system” and getting drinks on a cruise.
1. In your “checked” luggage, pack boxed wine
Choose your favorite alcohol and pack it in your checked luggage. Be sure not to check bottled liquor, rather, find your alcohol of choice in a box. If your favorite alcohol is not offered in a box, rinse out a milk or juice container, and fill it with your favorite drink. Again, pack this in your checked luggage.
2. Pour your favorite liquor in a Listerine plastic bottle
If you’re going to sneak booze on a cruise, pour your favorite booze into secured containers like a Listerine bottle or shampoo bottle to mask the contents of the bottle. Even “checked” luggage sometimes gets “checked” by security before embarkation, so you’ll have a better chance of sneaking booze on a cruise if you cloak it in a common container to fool the security officer assigned to go through your bags. There are also Cruisin and Boozin flasks (watch the video).
3. Where can you find “Free Alcohol”?
I think a misconception of travelers is that the cruise line will greatly over-charge for alcohol beverages. When you get onboard, most likely you’ll soon discover the price of drinks, is about the same as what you might expect at a local bar back home. So when you figure out that no matter what you choose to do, it might be more cost-effective, to simply buy your alcohol onboard to avoid potential issues like leaking bottles of alcohol in your luggage, or being discovered by security and losing your masked alcohol completely.
4. Purchase a drink card package onboard the ship
Each cruise line has figured out that many passengers like to enjoy a good drink during their cruise vacation, so they often offer special, discount, drink cards that you purchase once you board the ship. These drink cards give you a way to easily budget what you spend on drinks. I’ve seen some invoices at the end of a cruise where passengers had unknowingly racked-up thousands of dollars purchasing drinks, so a special drink card comes in handy.
5. Attend the Captain’s Welcome Aboard Party
Ok, free drinks are offered at the Captain’s welcome aboard party. Usually the drinks offered are wine, champagne, and orange juice with alcohol – mimosa. Also, you might be able to enjoy free alcohol at the Captain’s Gala Dinner Reception.
What ever happen to Royal Caribbean’s Nordic Prince? Find out here with this video.
Barry is the Host of Cruising Authority, a talk show about the cruise industry.
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