In an effort to greatly speed up passenger boarding times, Carnival Cruise Line has recently announced that it will limit the number of beverages passengers may bring on board. According to the new rules, each passenger can only carry on a maximum of 12 cans or cartons of non-alcoholic beverages such as water, juice, or soda. The policy, which also applies to ports of call, goes into effect on July 9.
Carnival’s wine policy remains unchanged. Each cruiser over the age of 21 may still bring along a single bottle of wine or champagne in addition to their allotment of canned beverages.
Unfortunately, incidents of poor behavior during cruises have often been tied to alcohol that passengers smuggled aboard in non-alcoholic beverage bottles. As a result, Carnival and other cruise lines have long instituted bottle inspections during embarkation.
This newest policy should dramatically reduce the waits caused when officials have to inspect passengers’ luggage. In the past, many cruisers would bring their own cases of water, each bottle of which had to be individually inspected. By eliminating the cases of bottled water from the list of acceptable carry-on items, Carnival management hopes to improve boarding times by as much as 10 minutes per passenger.
In order to minimize cost and inconvenience for their customers, Carnival is allowing passengers to pre-purchase 12-packs of water for $2.99 plus tax—much cheaper than the price of $4.99 plus gratuities one would pay once the ship is underway. In this way, the company hopes to help passengers avoid some of the steep costs associated with cruising and to ensure them that the new rule is not simply an attempt to boost revenues.
With the new bottle policy, Carnival Cruise Lines aims to minimize disruptive incidents at sea and speed up check-in times. Hopefully, this will improve every passenger’s cruise experience.
