You're about to discover the unusual, crazy and even bizarre ways that people
smuggle alcohol onto a cruise. I'm Gary Bembridge, and this is another of
my tips for travellers. In this video, I'm going to talk about the lengths that
people will go to to smuggle alcohol on board a cruise ship. Why do people do
it? Well, simply because the cost of drinking
on board a ship is getting more and more expensive. I'm not saying that you should
be smuggling alcohol on board a cruise ship, it's just something that I've seen
happening more and more. Probably the longest, and most established, way of
smuggling booze on board is by taking existing toiletries and putting booze in
them. The most popular of these is mouthwash. What people are doing is
buying a mouthwash, emptying it out, cleaning it and putting a clear liquid
in and then using food coloring dye to make it look like an existing bottle of
mouthwash. There are some mouthwash bottles which are not clear, and those
are even more popular because it's even harder to see the product inside and, of
course, getting the colour of the mouthwash looking right is a real
challenge. Using existing toiletries, emptying them out and
replacing them is a long established way of doing it, and mouthwash
is the most popular of all of these. For those people that don't want to go as
far as using existing toiletries, there's a whole range of bottles that you can
buy that recreate toiletries. They come an empty and also have little seals
that you can then put on the top so it looks like unopened bottles. There is a wide
range of bottles that look like established and existing toiletries that
you can then fill with alcohol. Things I've come across, for example, are
sunscreen bottles, normal toiletry bottles, shampoo and you can even buy
deodorant cans which you can fill with alcohol. If you want to go a
little bit further, there are products that look like tampons. Another long,
and well established, way of bringing booze on board a cruise ship is what's
known as Rum Runners. These are basically little plastic pouches which you can
fill with booze, put a screw cap on and then slide within your existing
luggage. They are very popular and are one of the things that
people use most often to bring booze on board. The next two ways that people use
to smuggle booze on board probably verge into the Secret Service and spy type
territory, because they're recreating products which are fake. The
first of these is around luggage. One of the most interesting ones that I came
across is a rucksack. This rucksack then has secret pouches, which you can then
fill up with booze. Linked to that are those messenger-style bags
which have secret pouches, and then probably one of the more practical ones,
if you are getting on a cruise somewhere warm, are tote bags.
Within the tote bags, which look like designer tote bags
that you can buy, they have secret pouches
that you fill with booze. There's a whole range of luggage that you can
bring on board both to help you carry your stuff on board but have secret
pouches to bring in booze too. One of the most unusual, and fun, areas that I've
discovered people smuggle booze on is with a whole range of fake accessories.
There is a huge range of these, and there are companies specifically
making these fake accessories to help people smuggle booze. Some of the most
interesting ones that have come across are umbrellas, which are basically a
storage container for booze, a hair brush, cameras, binoculars,
a smartphone, power pack and shoe trees, which you can then put in shoes,
and what we would call in the UK "bum bags" or in the USA are called "fanny packs".
There's a whole range of accessories and luggage that are created to help people
smuggle booze and, as I said, it does feel a little bit like you're verging on
spy territory with secret devices that double up as something else.
One of things I found really interesting is that clearly the smuggling of booze
has become such a big thing that there are companies emerging that exist
to create products to help people smuggle booze on board. Another
thing that people use to smuggle booze is clothing. There's a range
of clothing which is designed to have various pouches where you can smuggle in
booze. There are two main areas that I came across that people are using to do
this. First of those is a bra, which has various pouches in which
you fill with booze, and then for gentlemen there are shorts which have
secret pouches. So, people are going as far as wearing the booze that they
smuggle onto a cruise ship. There are two other simpler, and more practical
ways, that people are using which probably have a higher chance of
actually being discovered and caught by the security people. First of those is
miniatures. People are buying those small miniature
bottles, the sort you often get on an aeroplane or you can buy in
various liquor stores, and they're bringing in lots of little
miniatures stuffing those around their luggage. Those then are the main
devices and techniques that people are using, but how are they ensuring
that they don't get caught? There's a couple of things that I've seen people
do, or talk about, when they're bringing
booze on board. The first thing to remember is that most cruise
lines allow you to bring on a certain amount of booze. Most cruise lines
will allow you to bring either one or two bottles of wine on board, as long
as you drink that within your cabin. If you take it into the restaurants, they will
charge you a corkage fee. So, the first thing that people are doing is bringing
that on board. The next thing they're doing is using a number of techniques to
ensure that they don't get caught. The first of those is making sure that they
spread what they're bringing around their luggage, and if they're travelling
with a couple of people they're don't put it all in one suitcase. They're
putting some in their hand luggage, some in one suitcase and some in someone else's
suitcase. They're spreading it around, so I guess even if one person gets
caught they're hoping that the other people will still get some stuff through.
The other thing I'm seeing people doing and talking about, is if they are
trying to smuggle booze on board they put in their checked baggage. Those
bags do get screened, but when you go through the personal security checks
there may be more searches of bags and people are tending to put their stuff
into the checked in bags. I am hearing that is the way that
they normally find that they are not getting caught. The other thing that
people tell me they do, if they do bring onboard alcohol in one of these ways, is
they have to drink it in the cabin and can't walk around
the ship with it. So, some people are then doing things like
bringing their own reusable water bottles and putting their booze in there
so they can take it around the ship and on excursions. I am not saying, or
encouraging, people to smuggle booze on board, it's just one of those trends that
I've seen happening more, and as I've mentioned, it's
become so big that there are companies setting up and making products to help
people smuggle booze on board. If you want a stress-free holiday
don't smuggle booze on board and buy your drinks
on board and perhaps take a look at drinks packages, although watch my other
video about when you shouldn't buy a drinks package, because you could find it
is not a good value for you at all. I have loads of other videos and tips
about cruising so why not watch another one of those right now?