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Wednesday, April 04, 2007

New Carnival beverage policy prohbits bringing onboard... a bottle of water?

Carnival has updated its policy, that till now had reasonably restricted bringing outside booze onboard, to oddly prevent bringing any non-alcoholic beverages onboard. A Carnival spokesperson declined to elaborate to us on the rationale behind the change, beyond saying that "there were some abuses of the previous policy." Now we can understand maybe preventing somebody from rolling up with, say, ten cases of soda. But even a single bottle of water?

That's right, the policy says that absolutely any soda, water, or any other drink, will be discarded without compensation if you try to bring it on a Carnival ship. The only exception is that you can bring aboard a single bottle of wine or champagne at initial embarkation.

This certainly smells like an onboard-revenue-protection plan more than anything else. Without knowing specifically what "abuses" have prompted this new policy, the plan is hard to fathom. If people were stockpiling soda and selling it onboard... then by all means Carnival should prevent it. But the draconian restrictions sure seem like using a chainsaw to cut butter!

Here's the actual text of the new policy:
  • Guests are prohibited from bringing alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages onboard. However, guests (21 years and older only) may bring one bottle of wine or champagne per person on board only during embarkation at the beginning of the cruise. A $10 corkage fee per bottle will be charged should you wish to consume this wine in the dining room or a $14 corkage fee per bottle in the Supper Club.

  • Any additional quantity of wine/champagne or any alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages will be confiscated and discarded without compensation. Guests may purchase a variety of beverages on board the ship. Alcoholic beverages will not be sold or served to anyone under the age of 21. We reserve the right to refuse the sale of alcoholic beverages to anyone. Alcoholic beverages purchased in the ship's gift shops or in ports of call will be retained by Carnival until the end of the voyage.
UPDATE: After a mere three weeks Carnival has rescinded the new policy as it pertains to non-alcoholic beverages... once again passengers can bring aboard non-alcoholic drinks like water and soda in "reasonable quantities."

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2 Comments:

Review That Cruise said...

I have got to say that does sound a little extreme. I mean a bottle of water?

And by "abuse" do they mean people walking on board with a litre bottle of say coke and they don't make as much money?

hmmm. Thats all I have to say.

4/29/07 2:27 PM  
Anonymous said...

I think it may have to do with people smuggling vodka and such in water/soda bottles...just a guess

5/27/07 10:21 PM  

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