Including:
3. “We’ve got a drinking problem.”
As the abundance of phrases like “three sheets to the wind” (meaning
very drunk) and “splice the main brace” (an order to drink, delivered by
a commanding officer) suggests, drinking and sailing have long gone
together. And they continue to do so today. “Cruising is vacation,” says
Colleen McDaniel, managing editor of consumer site CruiseCritic.com.
“People like to relax, try the drink of the day, sample some wines or
enjoy some celebratory champagne.
While some small luxury cruise lines like Regent Seven Seas, Seabourn
and Chrystal Cruises are essentially open bar, mass market lines treat
booze as big business. Since on most cruise lines, food and some
nonalcoholic beverages are included in the ticket price, it’s that much
more urgent that they make some profit off the booze. Ships sell drinks
with restaurant-style mark-ups or through all-you-can-drink packages.
(Carnival’s Cheers program costs $42.95 a day, although they do cut
people off after drink number 15.) When CruiseCritic polled readers in
2011, more than a fourth of respondents said they typically spend more
than $200 on drinks per cruise. (The average cruise lasts seven days.)
The trouble with drinking on a ship, some say, is that many cruises have
instituted policies that prohibit passengers from bringing aboard
bottles (either from home or purchased ashore). That means passengers
are stuck paying the ship’s prices. Royal Caribbean, for instance, does
not allow guests to pack beer or liquor. While it does permit two
bottles of wine per room, a $25 corkage fee applies for each bottle
consumed in a public area. Experts say some passengers have responded to
the policies by trying to sneak past them. But when contraband is
found, typically when bags go through the security screener, it’s
confiscated.
Royal Caribbean didn’t respond to requests for comment. The Cruise Lines
International Association says such policies help crews make sure
overzealous passengers don’t end up too drunk.
