The internet is full of “cruise hacks” for how to sneak alcohol on board a cruise ship.
Sure, it can be tempting to try them, since alcoholic drinks and beverage packages can be expensive cruise add-ons, and passengers are typically only permitted to bring one bottle of wine on their voyage.
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But don’t make the mistake of thinking that cruise lines aren’t well aware of common tricks passengers use to try to smuggle liquor onto the ship.
Carnival Cruise Line recently stepped up its efforts to combat alcohol smuggling and its brand ambassador, John Heald, has warned his more than 600,000 Facebook followers that the cruise line will ban passengers who are caught sneaking alcohol on board.
Cruisers should also be aware that Carnival actively monitors social media sites and even catches passengers with plans to smuggle alcohol before they arrive at the cruise terminal. Showing off on social media about breaking cruise rules could land you on Carnival’s “Do Not Sail” list.
One would-be Carnival cruiser recently wrecked their vacation plans by posting a TikTok video about a peculiar method they planned to use to sneak alcohol on board — a “hack” that left the cruise line’s brand ambassador scratching his head.
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Carnival’s Cheers beverage package, which includes alcoholic drinks, costs cruisers more than $80 per day.
Image source: Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival passenger tries to sneak powdered alcohol onto cruise ship
“Good Wednesday morning and I hope you are happy, and yet I know one person is not because she posted a [TikTok] video saying she was going to smuggle alcohol on the ship,” the brand ambassador wrote in Facebook post.
Heald noted that it’s not uncommon for passengers to post about alcohol smuggling plans, but the method this passenger attempted to use was an unusual one – powdered alcohol.
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“Yes indeed, powdered alcohol, which apparently Mrs. Smuggler thought she could get on the ship dispensing with her need to empty and fill bottles of mouthwash or spend money buying a smuggling sanitary product, both of which for a period years ago may have worked but is something we now are very much aware of. So, don’t even bother trying.”
Carnival is well attuned to alcohol smuggling methods like repackaging mouthwash or using fake tampon flasks, but powdered alcohol isn’t one that the cruise line’s brand ambassador often hears about from his colleagues.
Powdered alcohol puzzles Carnival’s brand ambassador
“However, powdered alcohol, wow, that’s a new [one to] me. Uncle Google tells me that it allows people to simply to mix sachets of vodka/rum/margarita into our water. Mixed into your breakfast grits or possibly on top of your chocolate melting cake, under the table if necessary,” Heald suggested.
As he often does, Heald shared his own witty take on the bizarre approach to booze smuggling.
“Isn’t it brilliant? There’s now no reason why you cannot get secretly tipsy, be it during a dull Zoom work meeting, at your desk at lunch, anytime, anyplace,” he joked.
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Heald couldn’t imagine that powdered alcohol could really be something that many cruisers would think is worth bringing along on their vacations.
“Honestly when I read this kind of thing and what people do, I think we are all doomed. For what it’s worth, I am sure Mrs. Smuggler was one of only a few who would do this. I would imagine that powdered alcohol is [not] something anyone reading this would ever consider. Not when it seems to reduce one of life’s great pleasures to the status of eating a packet of instant noodles,” Heald pointed out.
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