Tag: Alcohol Smuggling

8 Ways to Sneak Alcohol onto Cruise Ships and into Stadiums

It’s 2013, soon to be 2014, and security getting onto cruise ships and into stadiums/concerts is tighter than ever. Luckily, the research and development teams throughout the world are developing new products to help you sneak alcohol onto cruise ships and into stadiums without getting caught. $15 signature drink in a Carnival glass? $10 beers at the stadium (some college stadiums don’t sell any booze…the nerve)? All problems of the past thanks to these 20 ways to sneak alcohol onto cruise ships and into stadiums. Mind you, some of these are more clandestine than others – be wise when smuggling your hooch and use common sense on whether it’s worth the heat from security. In most cases, they’ll just toss out your booze.


1) The Rum Runner Flask Tried and true – especially for cruise ships. Put a few of these among your liquids in your checked bags, and 9/10 times they’ll sail through the security checkers. They have only a few hours to check thousands of suitcases that even if they do see it, they probably won’t remove it. However, your blatantly obvious 1.5L Jack Daniels bottle is sure to get confiscated – so put it in a Rum Runner Flask Also – no metal – in case you’re at a pro-sports game and they have the wands or the walk-through metal detectors. Yeesh.


2) Shambooze Bottles Unless you’re a weirdo, you’re not going to bring shampoo to a concert or ball game – so this one is for cruises only. The great thing about these bottles is that they never contained shampoo. You can try to remove the soap smell and flavor, but unless you want your rum to taste like Pert Plus – you should just get these instead of the DIY version. The ad claims they are better than the Rum Runners, but we’re not so sure. Just like your retirement portfolio, we recommend diversifying methods to ensure at least SOMETHING gets through to your stateroom.


3) Fake Binoculars Flask – Binoculars? Or Beer Goggles? Whatever you want to call them – they’d work for cruise ships, stadiums, and concerts. Granted, if you’re over 60, you’re more likely to be packing a set of sight extenders than a trio of 22 year old frat guys at a Nickelback concert (oof..they’ll need the booze), so beware that it’s easier to pull this one off if you look the part.


4) The Sunscreen Flask – Great for cruises and outdoor concerts and sporting events. These in particular would be great for re-filling in port, loading up on tax-free liquor, and getting it back on the ship! Our main concern is whether or not these leak as much as sun tan lotion bottles always seem to do. BUT – you could put it in a Ziplock bag with a squirt of real suntan lotion to complete the ruse.


5) The Camera Flask – They actually call this the BevCam – but it’s great for any event or cruise ships. I remember some concerts were real strict on small cameras, but I haven’t seen them scoff at a camera this size in years. I’m also pretty sure that the women with the huge purses that get ‘searched’ for a millisecond could actually smuggle in a large Nikon DSLR with a 70-200mm lens – which if a flask, could probably fit nearly a liter. I’m sensing a new product here…


6)The Wine Rack – Ladies what better way to add distraction to your booze smuggling portfolio than with a device that both distracts AND sneaks in alcohol? I give you the Wine Rack. It holds a whopping 750ml! Amazingly, it has good reviews too; “While the bra is machine-washable, the bladder must be hand-washed, but that hardly deters me from using it every day.” Bottoms up! Or maybe tops up? I’m not really sure here.

The Beer Belly Flask – Men, don’t think we forgot about you. While the beer belly flask seems like an excellent idea, the reviews are pretty terrible – from booze tasting like the bladder, drinks being warm from snuggling with your real beer belly, and finally – a few reports of leakage which makes you look like you peed your pants. No matter where you’re trying to go with this, looking like you wet yourself is a real good way of attracting more attention – probably the kind that gets you caught.


8) The Tampon Flask I almost didn’t include this on the list because it weirded me out. That’s also what makes them brilliant. What security man would ever take a closer look at these? In fact, one look and he’d promptly shut your bag and wave your entire party through the gate without another word. Just don’t ask me to take a shot out of them.

What about you? What’s your favorite method of sneaking alcohol?

Bringing Alcohol on Cruise Ships – A Rum Runner Flask Review

Update 2015: Genuine Rum Runner’sare still sailing through security. Several personal experiences and countless 3rd party success stories.

When you bring up the idea of bringing alcohol onto a cruise ship, that is, above the amount allowed by cruise line policy, you’re sure to run into two types of people.

There are those who say the practice is despicable – that cruise lines enact rules and guidelines for a reason and they should be followed. Any talk of circumventing these rules will often lead to questions pertaining to the offender’s moral character (an informal survey on CruiseCritic found 4% of travelers are hard-line rule followers, and another 15% say the rules are fair).

Then there are those who believe that the cruise line’s rules are well-intentioned, but choose to bring illicit alcohol on board for a number of reasons. These may include on-board alcohol prices, convenience, or even selection of alcohol offered on-board (the same survey found that 80% of travelers said the policies on alcohol were annoying or needed to change).

In fact – the only subject that brings more controversy when talking about cruise ship guest rights are the smoking policies, but that is a discussion for another day.

So for the moment, we’ll assume that if you’ve never even considered bootlegging booze onto a ship, you might be curious as to the techniques and their success rates.

By far the most popular and talked-about method of taking alcohol onto a cruise ship as of late is the use of small, strong, plastic bladders or bags. One brand in particular, Rum Runner Flasks, is the most widely-known brand for such products – and they even make a Rum Runner Cruise Kit and a Spring Break Cruise Kit. Both kits cost around $25 and shipping is reasonable.

For research purposes, we purchased the Cruise Kit, which comes with three large and three small flasks.

We filled the flasks with various types of liquor and distributed them throughout our checked bags that would be screened by security and then placed outside our staterooms.

One large flask was placed in with other large toiletry liquids, the other large flask was packed completely out in the open around some clothes. The smaller flasks were placed in several places around a garment bag.

The wait for our bags seemed endless – and every time we heard the rustle of the bags being delivered we’d open the door hoping ours would be there. Eventually our bags arrived (truthfully no later than anyone else’s, it just seemed that way) and the results were in.

All of the flasks had made it through without being confiscated. However, it wouldn’t be fair to say they weren’t detected.

Some fellow guests had also brought alcohol in their checked luggage – and made no attempt to hide it – other than putting the large (original) bottle of Knob Creek in some bubble-wrap and a kids-size life preserver, but that was mainly to protect the glass from breaking.

What we’ve found is that the season, time of year, and overall cruise clientele/age have more to predicting whether or not your alcohol makes it passed security rather than the vessel containing it.

You’ll notice that no cruise line’s alcohol policy mentions profitability of the cruise, even though alcohol sales can play a large role in profitability. Lines typically say their policies exist for purposes of controlling over-consumption which can lead to individuals being disruptive to other guests. Our research has shown that it looks like they’re telling the truth.

We’ve found the enforcement of the alcohol policies gets stricter during peak seasons for college spring breaks and even summer cruises. Enforcement will also be stepped up for theme cruises, such as a popular music act that may attract a rowdier-than-usual crowd.

So, if you’re going to try to bring alcohol onto a ship, using something like the Rum Runner Flasks hidden with similar-sized liquid toiletries is probably your best bet – but it’s not a guarantee – especially during ‘high enforcement’ cruises. Typically the worst thing that happens is it gets confiscated and you never see your booze or your flasks again, which depending on what you bring, could be a sizable gamble.

For more info, reviews, and price info – check out the Rum Runner Cruise Kit and the Spring Break Cruise Kit on Amazon.

Other Methods

These are some of the other methods we’ve heard of people using – some crazier than others.

Poor-man’s Rum Runner Can’t afford a rum-runner and want a couple liters of wine? Grab a box of wine and remove the box – Bingo! A bag-o-wine that’s designed to take a beating.

Fill a Listerine bottle with clear alcohol, add food coloring. This will get your booze on board, but no matter how much you wash it, the bottle will still impart the taste of mouthwash to your liquor. There are only so many drinks you can make with mint vodka.

Wine-bottle switcheroo Most cruise lines allow you to bring some wine in your carry-on bags. Not a wine drinker? Find an empty wine bottle, fill it with your favorite liquor, re-cork it (you can cut off the top if you can’t get it all the way), then buy some heat-shrink-foil tops to reseal the top and give it the appearance it hasn’t been opened. People brew their own wine, so these can be found online or in some liquor stores (Google shopping search: wine heat shrink capsules). This is probably the most guaranteed way as it gives the appearance of something the cruise lines condone, but may also require the most preparation and forethought.

Water-bottle switcheroo This used to be a decent method, but lately cruise lines have been known to shake the water bottles to see if they bubble or not. This approach is more often attempted (and failed) when getting back on the ship after a day in port.

Iced-Tea Sitcheroo This is one step up from the water-bottle switcherro – since ice tea bubbles when shaken, and dark liquors often give the appearance of tea, the line would have to conduct a smell-test, which we’ve never seen. Getting the plastic bottles to appear like they’ve never been opened is much trickier on these bottles.

Old-school flask/Traveler Bottle They’ve made plastic flasks for a long time, and traveler liquor bottles are made from plastic to be lighter weight. You can carry either on your person through security as metal detectors won’t uncover them. This method has long been perfected in the concert and sports arena world, and methods include sticking them in cargo shorts to actually taping them to your person. This method is actually where the term ‘bootlegging’ originated during prohibition.

If we missed one – let us know in the comments section!

We’ve included the newest alcohol policies (as of 2012) from some of the major cruise lines after the jump Continue reading “Bringing Alcohol on Cruise Ships – A Rum Runner Flask Review”