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View Full Version : What alcohol to bring on honeymoon cruise?


Salayia
08-14-2011, 10:58 PM
OK, the "pick your poison" thread, and the fact that this is something that FH and I have been talking about, has sparked me to want to start a thread asking for advice on what alcohol to bring on our cruise next month. :cheers:

A little background:

FH and I aren't HUGE drinkers, but we drink. My favorite drink is a Midori Sour. YUM! :drool: But, they're $8.50 each plus 15% gratuity on-board the ship. :( We can bring any amount of alcohol we want on the ship in any quantities we want. I was thinking about 2 bottles of wine (champagne and something else) and then maybe 2 other bottles of hard liquor/liqueur. FH and I aren't huge beer drinkers, although I like wine coolers. But, I can forego the wine coolers on this trip, since we'd get more "bang for our buck" with hard alcohol, I think. There's unlimited "mixers" on-board the ship - i.e. juices from room service (free) or soda from the drink stations (also free). I wouldn't be able to get any sour mix, but I could make due with orange juice and sprite to mix with my Midori if, in fact, we do go that route.

OK, problem - to go into Canada (which is where we have to go to get on the cruise ship), we can ONLY have 2 bottles of wine (1.5 liters and a normal bottle of wine is 750ml), 1 bottle of hard alcohol (no more than 40 oz. A fifth is 33.8oz, so basically, one bottle of hard alcohol) or 24 - 12oz cans/bottles of beer. The total cannot exceed 45 liters. http://www.canadawelcomesyou.net/faq.html

Now, I don't know if they mean "and" instead of "or," but NONE of those requirements by themselves equal anywhere even remotely close to 45 liters, so I'm assuming that it's "and." But, since we don't want to risk having them take our alcohol, I'm going to assume that "or" means "or." (unless someone from Canada here on this forum happens to know whether it's "and" or "or" :coolblue:)

I can pretty much guarantee that FH isn't going to drink Midori the whole trip, and would MUCH prefer something like Vodka, and since we were DEFINITELY wanting to get wine on-board the ship, and we don't want to pay their extraordinary prices, I'm thinking we're going to have to buy alcohol in Seattle and then buy MORE alcohol in Canada. And it's A LOT more expensive to buy alcohol in Canada than it is in the U.S. (from what I understand).


So, the point of this thread is to ask the following questions:

1. For those who live in Canada, do you happen to know if the rule is "OR" or "AND"? In other words, can we bring 24 - 12oz bottles AND 1.5 liters AND 40oz of hard liquor?! Or is it we can bring ONE of those things, or ALL of those things, just as long as the total does not exceed 45 liters?! :confused:

2. For everyone else, what alcohols would you choose to bring? I'm pretty sure we're gonna go with champagne and a white wine or blush. But in addition to that, should we choose Midori and Vodka (my personal faves! :)), Rum and Vodka (the two easiest to mix on-board and probably more favorable for FH), or Midori and Rum, or any other combination of other alcohols? If it were you, what would you choose?! :drunk:

Smurfette
08-14-2011, 11:15 PM
If you're cruising Carnival, all you're allowed is
a bottle of wine. Everything else you gotta buy
aboard ship. Of course we sneak ours on.

I suggest you research the liquor policies on the
cruises before you end up leaving that stuff in
your car.

Salayia
08-14-2011, 11:21 PM
Disney. :coolblue:

I've done more research than any man (or woman) ever should for an upcoming cruise. I'm certain that I can bring all the alcohol that my little :heart: could want... and then some. :yesnod:

Salayia
08-14-2011, 11:24 PM
Rules from the Disney Cruise Line website:

Alcohol is permitted on board. However, be aware that any fragile items (including bottled alcohol) must be hand-carried on board in a day bag and/or carry-on bag, the dimensions of which cannot exceed 22" wide, 14" high and 9" deep. Alcohol brought on board may not be consumed in any lounge or public area. Guests who arrive in the dining room with a bottle of champagne or wine that has been brought on board will be charged a corking fee of $20.00 per bottle.

So basically, it has to be in a carry-on, and NOT in checked luggage, but there's no limit to how many carry-ons we can have... just as to the SIZE of said carry-ons. So, really, if we wanted to carry on 4 bags each, and all we had in those bags was alcohol, we could do that. We'd be wearing the same exact clothes for the entire length of the cruise and would probably be kinda stinky by the end of it, but we could do it if we wanted to! :laugh2:

Smurfette
08-14-2011, 11:35 PM
Have fun on your Disney cruise! I did NOT enjoy mines.
We were in the Cayman islands. I'm over at Cruise Critic,
you can read my review. Ugh... I went in the summer...
it was utter chaos onboard. But evenso, I gave the cruise
a full 4 stars because it takes more than a little vomit and
badazz kids to keep me from enjoying life.

What I loved: THE FOOD!

What I hated: The atomesphere - it wasn't Disneyland-like
in any way. I expected the Disneyland experience and was
sorely disappointed. People let their kids run amok, there
was no civility when dealing with the kids. They'd cut in
line on buffet, jump in the pool and splash right in your face.
It was a ship full of brats.

What I loved: The ports. I loved getting off that dammn
ship!

What I hated: The fact that I choose a Disney cruise and
expected to find an adult environment. Even the movies
were lame. But that's what I get for doing a Disney cruise.
Never again.

Some advice: Get off the ship! Stay in the adult areas. Get
to the movies/shows EARLY. Take advantage of the spa.
Seriously. Save your money now and plan to get a massage
or something. It was totally worth it. Hold Nate's hand and
be in love and show PDA everywhere you go to gross out the
bratty kids! Lol. :laugh2:

Smurfette
08-14-2011, 11:42 PM
Also, I would limit your carry-ons. Lines get long and
dragging stuff behind you gets old. Esp when the cast
members are taking pics at every corner. And you'll love
the pics because the backgrounds are spectacular. We
had one carry-on a piece but our friends checked their
bags and were totally better off than we were.

More cruise advice - pack light. You'll take home so
many souvenirs!

Salayia
08-14-2011, 11:55 PM
Yes, we've got 2 spa treatments scheduled, but FH wants to schedule ANOTHER exotic rasul... even though we already have one scheduled on day 2... he wants to do it AGAIN on day 4, and maybe even day 5. :bblol: If you read all the trip reports about that treatment (or, if you've done it yourself), then you'll completely understand. ;) The other thing we're doing is a couple's villa massage. :heart:

We're getting off the ship in Victoria, BC but NOT in Ensenada. I have no desire to get off the ship there. :coolblue: Those are the only 2 port stops on this 5 day cruise.

I'm planning on one checked and two carry-ons for each of us. We're part of a cruise meet group, so we're bringing gifts for everyone in the group, so we're going to need extra room for that stuff... not to mention the alcohol that we're bringing on board. ;)

As for utter chaos, I'm sure there'll be kids, but since we don't have any, we won't be spending hardly ANY time in the kid/family areas and our cruise takes place after *most* kids have gone back to school, so we're good on that front as well. I doubt we'll have any problems there. :smile:

And I don't know about grossing out all the bratty kids... we're not exactly PDA type people. But, we'll definitely have a great time, and enjoy each other's company! :hearts: Thanks for the tips! :D

Smurfette
08-15-2011, 12:10 AM
Ladybug, I'm telling you - there was NO escaping the kids!!! :crazy:

Except in our room of course. ;) We do Carnival cruises all the time
and get off in Ensenada with NO problems. Just did one last fall '10.
We actually took the Carnival bus up to the wine tour. AWESOME BTW!

Don't be afraid of Ensenada. Los Angeles is more dangerous than
that place, I'm serious. Ensenada is a port with TONS of security.
Just get off the ship and go into the shopping area that is like 100 ft
from the ship. I promise you, you'll be safe. You literally disembark
and walk thru Papa's & Beer which is only open in the summer. Then
there's a little open courtyard and a huge shop connected to it. Go
into the little shop and bring me back a tequila dammit! And don't
forget the worm!

Salayia
08-15-2011, 12:15 AM
No, it's not that I'm afraid of Ensenada. I've been there, frankly (I used to live in So Cal... graduated HS in CA), and I don't really care if we get off the ship or not. It's just that there weren't ANY port adventures that I actually liked. The only one that interested me in the slightest was this Tastes of Mexico one where you get to make Mexican food with a chef and then eat it. But for $46 per person, we can get one HELL of a Mexican meal elsewhere and then have a little left over for other treats! ;) But we've been to wineries, we don't care to take a tour of Ensenada, we can swim in a pool for a heck of a lot less $$, and we've done horseback riding together and Nate's not that fond of it anyways. So, there just wasn't anything there that really excited me, or Nate for that matter, so we both decided to skip it and just stay on the ship and possibly do the exotic rasul... again. :wink:

Salayia
08-15-2011, 12:30 AM
Oh, and as for the craziness, other than like Christmas, or Spring Break or things like that, I'm assuming that during the school year is A LOT better than during the Summer (which is when you said your cruise was). ;)

Smurfette
08-15-2011, 12:37 AM
Well people take their kids out of school for these dumb cruises.
Idiot parents! LEAVE THE KIDS AT HOME SO I CAN ENJOY MY
EXPENSIVE DISNEY CRUISE!!!

*sigh*

Well if you're not getting off the boat then, whatever. We're
going on one last cruise before the trips are born. I'll be like
8 days from 23 weeks too! I hope my doc clears me. I'm in my
college friend's wedding - Nick and I are totally looking forward
to it. We have like 3 cruises currently booked. We just plop
down a deposit and forgetaboutit. Lol.

When is your cruise? I might be in Ensenada at the same time
and we can hang out. :urgh: Well, depending on if I lose this baby
weight. If I'm all flabby and out of shape then nope.

Salayia
08-15-2011, 08:24 AM
This is our honeymoon cruise... next month. (I can't believe it's so soon! :eek2:) And why the :urgh:?! :confused: But yeah... hanging out sounds cool sometime. :coolblue:

brendahu81
09-01-2011, 10:10 PM
Disney. :coolblue:

I've done more research than any man (or woman) ever should for an upcoming cruise. I'm certain that I can bring all the alcohol that my little :heart: could want... and then some. :yesnod:

:rofl: just my little suggestion ,you could bring some cocktail,best way to spread romantic atmosphere~:rofl::rofl: