Alcohol on a cruise ship for the kosher cruiser

Alcohol is a big part of cruising whether you are kosher or not.

Kashrut concerns
I highly recommend printing the CRC kosher liquor list and having it with you or saving the PDF to your phone, it is a great reference guide. I have embedded a copy of the list at the bottom of this post for your reference. In my experience, most alcohol on the boat is on the list. Since you will not have access to the internet on the ship, having the list with you could be a key item.

Bringing on board with you
Some cruise lines do offer kosher wine, but the selection is limited, so if you are a wine drinker I suggest you bring your own on board with you. Most cruise lines will allow you to bring one bottle of wine per person on with you.

Should you chose to bring on your own wine, some cruise lines will not allow you to bring a corkscrew on board with you. If you have a plastic one this probably won’t be a problem. If you can find a screw cap wine you like, that might be your best bet so you can avoid needing the corkscrew all together. Make sure you keep the wine in your carry on, not your checked luggage, or else you will lose it.

If you want your wine with dinner, cruise lines will typically charge you a corking fee of about $15. I suggest not having your wine on the first night and be friendly with your waiter. I have seen many waiters not charge the corking fee as a courtesy, so you want to be on their good side! As an alternative, just keep the wine in your room and bring a large glass of it into the dining room with you, which also will avoid the fee.

Drink packages
Many cruise lines offer unlimited drink packages that range in price. Be sure before you order the drink package you think about how many drinks you will order a day. Will that number change on port days from sea days? On port days, you will be spending less time on the ship so the likelihood is you will not need as many drinks that day. Average out how many drinks that is per day and see what you think. You need to order about 8 beers or 6 mixed drinks a day to break even, or potentially even more depending on your cruise line. 

Do not forget that if you will be sailing over Shabbos that you cannot order drinks, so that may lower your averages for drinks per day. During the winter, will you drink enough by 4pm on Friday? During the summer, will you drink enough after 9pm on Saturday? In the main dining room, they often do not need your room key so you can order drinks in there without really paying for them, with the drink package, so this is advantageous on Shabbos.

If you plan to gamble a lot, just like in Vegas or Atlantic City, they will give you free drinks, so make sure you consider this before ordering a drink package too.

Most cruise lines require all guests over 21 in the same stateroom to order the drink package, if one orders, to avoid sharing. Other cruise lines, like Norwegian, require all within the same booking to purchase the package, regardless of sharing a room, and required kids to get their kids soda package instead. MSC extends this to people on a separate reservation you request to sit with during dinner. Royal Caribbean may waive this requirement with a doctor’s note that your spouse cannot consume alcohol for medical reasons. If your spouse does not drink, it is unlikely you will be able to drink enough to make the package worth it.

CRC list