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Cunard Liquor Policy
I've been reading numerous threads about different cruise line liquor
policies. Can anyone tell me what the policy of Cunard is? We're leaving on the Caronia for a 14 night Baltics cruise from Southampton mid-June. I've looked at the prelim documents we received, the brochure and their web site and don't see anything about liquor. Can you bring it aboard, purchase liquor on board for consumption in your stateroom or order it from room service in bottles, not just by the glass? Thanks, Doug |
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Cunard Liquor Policy (includes Caronia mini-review)
I have recently returned from a four night mini-cruise on Caronia.
I took rum on board in my suitcase and coke in hand luggage (there's a fridge in the cabin to keep it cool). There didn't seem to be any problem with this. I brought more rum back on board from our first port of call (Guernsey). I wouldn't have minded if they had taken it off me till the end of the cruise (I was buying it to take home), but nobody seemed to mind me bringing it aboard, so I kept that in my cabin as well. On the last day my wife bought some alcohol from the duty free shop on board. I think that the scheme is usually that you order it, and they deliver it to your cabin on the last evening, but given it was the last day, we were allowed to take it with us. The duty free price for a litre of rum was about 6.50 GBP - BUT if you bought it for in-cabin consumption the price was more like 35.00 GBP. On a more general point, I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the service, the ship and the entertainment aboard Caronia (generally somewhat better than our also-excellent cruise on QE2). It is a small (and old) ship by today's standards (only about 24,500 GRT) but is well maintained and has some lovely public rooms - and a restaurant & ballroom big enough to accommodate everybody at once. It's a pity my wife & I have only just discovered her - because she leaves service with Cunard in November, so we probably won't get the chance to sail on her again. She does re-appear (with a number of structural improvements) as part of the Saga (over 50s) group next February - but I'm not yet old enough to be allowed to sail on her ( - or is that ) We had an outside cabin on "upper deck" - which was reasonably large, with a good bathroom. Being on upper deck was very convenient for the restaurant and pursers desk. It also meant we had a higher than average ceiling (given it was on a deck with public rooms). I had a friend on board who had taken two cruises in cabins on A deck (two decks below us). His first cabin had been quite acceptable, but his second one was more amidships and suffered from engine noise. Personally I would recommend Main deck or higher (the suites look good if you can afford them). The vast majority of the passengers on board were British (like us) with what seemed to me to be a few French, a few Germans and a few Americans (and practically no children). We were only on a short cruise but the entertainment was very good (perhaps they had tried to pack in more than 4 days of usual entertainment on a longer cruise). On one hectic day I think my planned evening activities consisted of 1) classical concert in the Garden Lounge 2) dinner in the restaurant 3) ballroom dancing in the Ballroom 4) Song & dance show from the excellent on-board troupe in the Ballroom 5) more dancing 6) Comedian in the Ballroom 7) Pianist in the Picadilly Club (although it was unfortunately too small to fit in all the people who wanted to attend, so I had to miss it) 8) Disco in the Picadilly Club Good points of our cruise included: A restaurant big enough for everybody - so you can go for dinner at any time between 7pm & 9pm (although it makes sense to go at a similar time to your table companions if you don't want to be eating different courses at different times). Excellent dining room service - although being at the captain's table probably helped with this ) The Tivoli restaurant has excellent food and service (It's an intimate Italian restaurant for alternative dining - book up early during your cruise; there's no extra charge, but I believe you are only allowed to book once per cruise). Garden Lounge - a beautiful, relaxing room with 270 degree views The Ballroom - with a reasonable dance floor & comfortable seating. This room gets used for most entertainment (dancing, shows, lectures, etc). Sight lines are not as good as in a proper theatre, but they're better than in the Queen's Room on the QE2. A good standard of entertainment in the evenings (not up to big-ship Royal Caribbean standards, but much better than I had expected) Ballroom dancing with gentleman hosts A proper cinema with a good selection of films, shown several times a day. The films on the TV were pretty good too (and a VCR was provided in case you wanted to borrow anything special from the video library). A pleasant library - open (I think) 24 hours per day, with an honesty system A well equipped computer room, with internet access, word processing and games (although I didn't try it, so I don't know about the speed or cost of internet access). A reasonably well equipped gym (for a ship of its size) A pleasant outdoor deck area at the stern Hassle-free embarkation & disembarkation at Southampton The less-good things we- The Picadilly Club was too small when hosting the jazz band or the "Name that Tune" quiz. The Lido (buffet breakfast & lunch) was very small (although you could take your meal outside if the weather was good, or into the back of the ballroom if it wasn't). However, this probably helped to encourage more people to go into the restaurant for breakfast & lunch - which was a good thing, given that Cunard have the unusual system of keeping the same table for all three meals, rather than having open seating for breakfast & lunch. If the majority of people had eaten at the buffet, it would have left their table companions with no-one to talk to. Afternoon tea was very popular, but not very well laid out - which meant that it turned into a bit of a crush at times. Even though our cabin was quite spacious, there was only one chair and no settee. The beds had a hard wooden border and were uncomfortable to sit on. The beds could be pushed together, but couldn't be made into a double bed (due to the wooden surrounds). There are a limited number of cabins which do offer a king size bed, but other than those cabins, I think the cabin lays out better with twin beds. Oh well, I ought to stop now. This just started out as a quick reply about alcohol policy, but I seem to have rambled on for a while. Andrew Pullen SS Nevasa, Easter 1973 SS Uganda, Easter 1978 (old) Oriana, Aug 1979 Century, Easter 1996 Sun Princess, Easter 1996 Mistral, Aug 2001 QE2, Christmas 2001 Nile cruise, Feb 2002 Millennium, Aug 2002 Maasdam, Feb 2003 Radisson Seven Seas Voyager, Mar 2003 Braemar, May 2003 Century, July 2003 Explorer of the Seas, Aug 2003 Oriana, Oct 2003 Golden Princess, Feb 2004 Caronia, Apr 2004 "Now Voyager" wrote in message ... I've been reading numerous threads about different cruise line liquor policies. Can anyone tell me what the policy of Cunard is? We're leaving on the Caronia for a 14 night Baltics cruise from Southampton mid-June. I've looked at the prelim documents we received, the brochure and their web site and don't see anything about liquor. Can you bring it aboard, purchase liquor on board for consumption in your stateroom or order it from room service in bottles, not just by the glass? Thanks, Doug |
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