Thread: Boycott RCCL's new Alcohol purchase policy

Just off the Monarch and found out that RCCL has again changed the alcohol purchase policy in their quest to get a few more $$ out of cruisers.

They are no longer delivering purchases to staterooms on the last day of the cruise. They are now requiring passengers to pick up their purchases between 7 and 9 am on their way off the ship.

This policy also applies to purchases that were made at a port and held when returning to the ship and to purchases made late the last day when you used to be able to just take it back with you.

The pickup point for port purchases was in one place (I think the theater) and the pickup point for onboard purchases was at the store.

After finding out about this change we opted to skip the purchase because it is too much of a hassle to go and retrieve the purchases in the morning and I like to have it packed in my suitcase the night before.

We need to send a message to RCCL that this is unacceptable. I am urging anyone who normally purchases alcohol at the ship's duty free to skip that and instead purchase the alcohol at one of the ports. You will still have to go through the hassle of picking up your purchases, but at least RCCL will not be benefiting from your purchases.

It's always about the money!! Guess they were loosing too much alcohol revenue on the last night of their cruises. This way people will be forced to buy their last night party drinks at the bar instead of celebrating in their cabins for free!

I hear what you're saying about packing it in your suitcase - this makes it very difficult to do that. But as I said, it's all about the money.

Pete

It would make it a pain to have to pack it in your suitcases at the airport.

Things change quickly....

We were on Oasis just a couple of weeks ago (11/12-19). DH bought two bottles of Sheridan the last day of the cruise and brought it directly to our cabin ... all nicely boxed up.

Note: We haven't found any place in the US to buy Sheridan so that's why we go to the trouble to bring it home.

We did a B2B cruise and bought two bottles of tequila in the ship's store the first week. They delivered it to us the last night of our first cruise, so we had the bottles to enjoy in our cabin for all of the next week - wasn't suppose to be that way, but it worked our real well for us!

And that's one very good thing on Disney - you can take whatever alcohol you want with you onboard. It was funny seeing guys pulling a small suitcase with a case of beer strapped on top!

And river cruises allow you to bring alcohol onboard. So we'll be visiting the Duty Free Shop at the airport on our way to Europe next week!

Pete

Pete, another reason for doing B2B cruises!

Genius idea with B2B! and I had no idea that you could bring alcohol onto Disney! Quite the family cruise!

Purser perspective again - it's also very posible that they are doing it this way because the old way can end up with a lot of heartbreak - unless you have been the one to experience it, each cruise there are always 3 or 4 customers who end up having a drama with alcohol delivery. Maybe it got broken, maybe it didn't show up, maybe they are missing a bottle. If it's broken, sometimes it can't be replaced as for example its specialist tequila from Mexico, if the guest is saying it wasn't received it then turns into a bit of a who is telling the truth between the steward and the guest - which I'm sure you can imagine can get very awkward. It actually can get kind of messy and normally the guests realise about 11pm at night and then it can't be dealt with until debark morning, the gift shop aren't always available until late and it just leaves an unpleasant aftertaste for guests and crew involved.

Although annoying it does take out such situations occurring as everyone will sign for their alcohol then and there and the issues will be able to be resolved asap. Additionally, I doubt they would have the staff or space available to manage such an operation the night before - not to mention you are likely to get a whole lot of people not turning up as they were packing, by the pool, at the show at dinner etc and then you would just have to repeat on debark morning again.

Are you sure this is a new policy?

My experience has been in the past that if you are flying they will deliver your liquor to you the night before, especially if you are using luggage express, you have to pack it the night before. If you are not flying then they will have you pick up your liquor the morning you debark. This has been the case on the Monarch and other Royal Caribbean ships we've been on for the last few years. I think there is just to much liquor for them to deliver it all! Not to mention all the other issues as Hope mentioned above.