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Royal Caribbean’s alcohol policy warns that security may inspect your water bottles, your soda bottles and your mouthwash.
Mouthwash. Nobody writes that into an official policy unless enough people have tried it.
So can you bring alcohol on a Royal Caribbean cruise? Yes, but only wine. Each guest of drinking age may carry on one sealed 750 ml bottle of wine or champagne on embarkation day. Beer, seltzer and liquor are not allowed. Drink your wine in your cabin and it’s free; open it in a bar or restaurant and you pay a $15 corkage fee. This guide skips the smuggling “hacks” and covers what happens to every bottle you bring, including a rule Royal Caribbean quietly rewrote this autumn.
One Bottle Each, and It Has to Be Wine
Royal Caribbean’s alcohol FAQ puts the allowance in one sentence: “On embarkation day, each guest of drinking age may bring one (1) sealed 750 ml bottle of wine or champagne.” It adds that “Boxed wine and other containers are prohibited” and that guests “are not allowed to bring beer or hard liquor onboard”. The Guest Health, Safety, and Conduct Policy says the same.
The allowance is per person, not per cabin, so two adults in a balcony cabin get two bottles. That has been the rule since early 2023. VinePair reported the switch at the time: groups of three or four in a cabin gained bottles, and solo travelers, who could previously bring two, dropped to one. Older guides still quote the old number, so check the date on whatever you’re reading.
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Send me the deals →Carry the bottle on. Royal Caribbean Blog says the wine “must be carried on and not put in your checked luggage”, and Cruise.Blog warns that bottles found in checked bags can be confiscated.
What Happens to Every Bottle You Bring
The rules are spread across five Royal Caribbean pages. We read all of them on October 29, 2026, and put them in one place:
| What you bring | What happens to it | Royal Caribbean page |
|---|---|---|
| One sealed 750 ml bottle of wine or champagne per guest of drinking age | Allowed. Free in your cabin, $15 corkage in public areas | Alcohol FAQ, corkage FAQ |
| More than one bottle of wine | Stored by the ship and “returned on the last day onboard” | Alcohol FAQ |
| Extra wine for back-to-back cruises | One bottle per sailing, delivered to your cabin “one bottle at a time” on the first day of each voyage. Bring documents for the later bookings | Consecutive sailings FAQ |
| Sealed beer, seltzer or liquor | Seized at the terminal, returned at the end of the voyage if still in the original sealed package | Alcohol FAQ, food and drink FAQ |
| Alcohol in water bottles, soda bottles, mouthwash or other containers | Poured away, “discarded and not returned”. Hiding it can get you refused boarding | Conduct policy, food and drink FAQ |
| Bottles bought in port or in the onboard shops | Handed to security at reboarding, given back just before the cruise ends | Conduct policy, duty-free FAQ |
| Any of the above, if you’re under the drinking age | “will not have alcohol returned to them” | Alcohol FAQ |
The rule that changed this autumn
When we first published this guide in September 2026, Royal Caribbean contradicted itself. Its alcohol FAQ said seized sealed beer and liquor “will be returned at the end of the voyage”. Its food and drink FAQ said they “will not be returned”. You can still see that second wording in the Wayback Machine’s May 21, 2026 copy.
By the October 20, 2026 copy, the food page had been rewritten to match: sealed beer, seltzer or liquor “will be returned at the end of the voyage, provided they are in their original packaging and unopened.” The live page still says so. We found no announcement or news coverage, so we can only date the change to somewhere between those two copies. Either way, a seized bottle comes back at the end of the cruise, not during it.
Hidden alcohol is a different matter. The alcohol FAQ says guests who “attempt to conceal alcoholic items at security and or luggage check points” may be “disembarked or not allowed to board, at their own expense.” Security is looking, too. In March 2026, Royal Caribbean Blog (archived copy) listed beer and liquor among the items it most often sees taken at embarkation. It said the line “has gotten more stringent with checking for these items because people try to sneak it onboard.” A cheap bottle of vodka isn’t worth your vacation.
Where the $15 Corkage Fee Kicks In
Only outside your cabin. The corkage FAQ says guests who drink their own wine or champagne “in public areas, will incur a $15 corkage fee per bottle.” On your balcony, it’s free.
For years, plenty of cruisers never paid it because crew often didn’t charge. In April 2025, Royal Caribbean Blog reported stickers appearing on wine bottles to show whether the fee had been waived. It also noted that the fee applies to twist-top bottles, because it’s a fee for bringing your own wine, not for pulling a cork. The blog’s January 2026 guide tells readers to “expect to pay the $15 per bottle fee.”
Royal Caribbean’s sister line is pricier. Celebrity’s onboard FAQ charges $35 a bottle in its restaurants and bars, waived for Classic or Premium beverage package holders. For every other big line’s allowance and fee, see our guide to bringing alcohol on any cruise.
Port Rum and Duty-Free Bottles Wait for the Last Day
That bottle of Cozumel tequila goes home with you, not to your cabin. The conduct policy says alcohol bought in port or in onboard shops “must be presented to security upon re-boarding” and is held by the crew. Royal Caribbean Blog’s March 2026 piece says the same: bottles bought ashore are “taken from you until the cruise is over.”
Duty-free works the same way. The duty-free FAQ says “duty free alcohol and in some areas cigarettes will be delivered on the final day or morning of your voyage.” Leave room in your suitcase, and check your airline’s liquid rules and your home country’s customs allowance before you stock up.
How Old Do You Have to Be?
It depends on where the cruise starts. Royal Caribbean’s drinking age FAQ sets it at 21 on cruises from North America, the Caribbean and Dubai, and at Perfect Day at CocoCay, Royal Beach Club Paradise Island and Labadee. It’s 18 on cruises from South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and at Royal Beach Club Santorini and Royal Beach Club Lelepa. The same age decides who gets a wine allowance, so a 19-year-old on a Miami sailing can’t bring a bottle.
Turning 21 on board? The conduct policy says your age is “established at the beginning of the cruise vacation”. After your birthday, though, you can take valid government-issued ID to Guest Services and ask them to update the ship’s records for the rest of the trip.
Is Your Own Bottle a Reason to Skip the Drink Package?
For light drinkers, often yes, because of the whole-cabin rule. Royal Caribbean’s beverage package FAQ says “any guest wishing to purchase an alcoholic beverage package must do so for all guests of legal drinking age in the same stateroom.” Its sharing FAQ adds that packages are per guest, served one drink at a time, and can’t be shared.
That’s the situation Cruise.Blog describes. Its writer’s fiancée doesn’t drink alcohol, so a Deluxe Beverage Package for the cabin made no sense. Instead, the couple bought two bottles of prosecco at a grocery store on the way to Port Canaveral for $23.52. If you’re weighing it up, our drink package break-even guide does the sums.
Soft drinks are easier. The food and drink FAQ allows up to 12 standard (17 oz.) cans, bottles or cartons of non-alcoholic drinks per stateroom, also in your carry-on. Milk and distilled water for infant, medical or dietary needs don’t count toward the limit.
Before You Pack the Bottle
Pick one sealed 750 ml bottle you actually want, since you only get one each, and put it in your carry-on. Plan to drink it in the cabin or on the balcony, or budget $15 if you’d rather open it at dinner. Leave the beer and spirits at home: sealed bottles only come back on the last day, and anything decanted is poured away and can cost you the cruise. Buy port bottles as souvenirs, not for tonight. On back-to-back sailings, bring proof of every booking. And if one adult in the cabin wants the alcoholic package, price it for every adult in the cabin.
Cruise Chaos earns nothing from cruise lines, bars or booking links. Every fact in this guide links to where we read it. First published September 13, 2026; rules and quotes rechecked October 29, 2026. Correction: the September version said two Royal Caribbean help pages disagreed on whether seized beer and liquor are returned. Royal Caribbean has since rewritten one of them, and both now say sealed bottles come back at the end of the cruise. We also removed two details we could no longer find in the source we cited. If something has changed, tell us and we’ll correct it.
Keep Reading
- Can You Bring Alcohol on a Cruise? Every Big Line’s Rule, and the Two That Allow Liquor
- Can You Bring Snacks on a Cruise? Every Big Line’s Food Rule, Checked
- Cruise Packing Don’ts Every Traveler Should Know
Sources
- Royal Caribbean: Am I allowed to bring alcohol onboard a cruise ship?
- Royal Caribbean: What kind of food or drinks am I allowed to bring onboard? (Wayback Machine copies of May 21, 2026 and October 20, 2026)
- Royal Caribbean Group: Guest Health, Safety, and Conduct Policy
- Royal Caribbean: Does Royal Caribbean charge a corkage fee?
- Royal Caribbean: Can I bring additional bottles of wine on consecutive cruises?
- Royal Caribbean: Am I allowed to bring duty free products I purchased onboard?
- Royal Caribbean: What is the legal drinking age when cruising with Royal Caribbean?
- Royal Caribbean: What is a Royal Caribbean beverage drink package?
- Royal Caribbean: Can I order multiple drinks at a time with the all-inclusive beverage packages?
- Celebrity Cruises: On Board a Cruise FAQs
- VinePair: Royal Caribbean Alcohol Policy Change (March 2023)
- Royal Caribbean Blog: Can You Bring Alcohol on a Royal Caribbean Cruise? (January 2026)
- Royal Caribbean Blog: Royal Caribbean Is Actually Enforcing a Rule About Bringing Wine on a Cruise (April 2025)
- Royal Caribbean Blog: I Saw People Get Stopped at Cruise Ship Embarkation for These 4 Items (March 2026) (archived copy)
- Cruise.Blog: Bringing Wine on a Cruise? Understanding the Royal Caribbean Alcohol Policy (August 2026)
