You Can “Steal” These On A Cruise And Get Away With It!

You Can “Steal” These On A Cruise And Get Away With It!

What can you steal from your cruise without fear you’re doing the wrong thing, either morally or legally? This question hit me while I was packing at the end of a recent Cunard cruise. In the disembarkation letter, a section was highlighted with a list of items that I was not allowed to take home, warning that if I did there would be penalties. I did a double take, as it included items I often take home from a cruise. It got me questioning what we can take from a cruise these days without any fear of getting into trouble.

Obviously, there are things we know are wrong and blatantly illegal to take. Like the passengers who attempted to take $12,800 worth of artwork they’d removed from the art gallery on their Carnival Legend cruise.

So, what can you “steal” on your cruise and get away with it?

“Steal” These On A Cruise – From Your Cabin

I always used to take home from cruises those miniature toiletry bottles in the bathroom. Over the years I’ve taken home some great toiletries including L’Occitane, Bvlgari, Acqua di Parma, and Molton Brown. I would take them home to use when travelling or to give to my mum as a little memento from my cruise.

However, now that cruise lines have shifted into larger refill bottles, lines like Cunard do not let guests take those home. So, if I took their large Penhaligons toiletry bottles home, they warned I would be charged.

So, while I did not pack the toiletries, there were a couple other things in my cabin I did take home.

Alcohol

First, some bottles of champagne and wine.

When I boarded, there was a fancy welcome bottle of Laurent-Perrier champagne in the cabin, and during the cruise as a Diamond loyalty member, I was sent another bottle of fancy sparkling wine.

I don’t drink alcohol, but I packed both of those to take home to my sister who loves champagne. That is perfectly fine.

Also, as I was cruising in a Queen’s Grill suite as a birthday treat cruise, a perk is to choose two large bottles of alcohol to have in the cabin. In the past I have chosen a bottle of liqueur like Drambuie to take to my mother and a bottle of Baileys to take to my sister.

Again, I asked for those to take home. If you do have included wines and drinks, you can theoretically take those home because they’re all part of your package, obviously, within reason.

Stationery

The other thing that I love taking home from a cruise, and I did from this one, are the branded pens. Many cruise line cabins have beautiful, branded pens, as did Cunard along with a small Cunard branded pad. I always take those home because I like to have those as mementos, and that’s fine.

On Cunard, I even had some fancy personalised stationery to take home. As I was travelling in Queen’s Grill, you can ask for writing paper with your name and cabin number to be printed.

Most cruises that I’ve been on have branded envelopes, writing paper, and postcards in the cabin, which you can take home without any issues. Partly because the cruise lines want us to be using those postcards to help promote them.

Cable Tidies

Another item I’ve had on previous cruises that I’ve taken home from some premium lines, like Windstar and Disney, are the little cable tidies the cabin steward uses to tidy the charger cables for things like my mobile phone. They’re rather handy.

Also, on some premium lines like I Silversea, they left glass cleaning cloths in the cabin which were also handy to use at home.

Daily Program

I always take home the daily programs, port guides and leaflets. I love collecting those. It’s nice to go back over the years and look at past cruises. I also use them to research some of the videos that I make.

“Steal” These On A Cruise – What You Can’t Take From The Cabin

What I couldn’t take home from my Cunard Queen Anne cabin without being charged were things like the fluffy dressing gowns, branded umbrella, or binoculars. I could ask to buy those.

However, I could steal the slippers. Those are single person use slippers. And although I do not use them often myself, it’s also one of the things I used to take home for my mum. She used to love getting those slippers from my different cruises.

Although I couldn’t steal the sheets and pillows, did you know that several cruise lines will sell you those?

For example, I was on Oceania recently, they left leaflets in the cabin on how to order the bed and bedding for home. Other cruise lines, including lines like Princess, do that as well.

“Steal” These On A Cruise – From The Ship

Next, I want to talk about what can you steal from around the ship without any charges or trouble.

Shopping Freebies

One of the things that I take back from many cruises are shopping freebies. Most cruise lines while in Alaska, the Caribbean and Mediterranean have onboard shopping advisors. They run a program to encourage and entice us to visit specific stores in port, such as Effy Jewelry, Diamonds International, and Del Sol Colour Change Clothing, who have paid fees to be part of the program.

They often place leaflets and small freebie items in the cabin on embarkation days, and then run shopping talks during the cruise, where they hand out more freebies. These tend to be charms to collect or simple necklaces, T-shirts and so on. Then, in port, the shops on the program will hand out more items just for visiting them, again things like charms or earrings. They can be fun to collect. Are they worth a lot? No, probably not, but you can take them back from a cruise without any concerns.

Puzzles and Games

The other thing which I like to collect and take home are the daily puzzle, crossword, and Sudoku sheets. I never have time to do them each day, so I steal those to do at home.

I used to hand some on to members of my family who are more adept at things like Sudoku than me, and they enjoyed getting them.

The other thing, which is also a little tip, is the casino goes through loads of packs of cards, and many cruise lines will give those away. If you go to either the front desk or the casino host desk and ask if you can have some of the packs of cards that they no longer need, they will often give you those to take home. In the past, you could build a collection of cruise line branded playing cards. Though, unfortunately, most are using regular card packs these days.

Casino Chips

Another thing you can take home from your cruise are the casino chips. As casino chips can only be used on board the ship, they are worthless off ship, so it may make less sense to some. However, I’ve met gamblers that like to collect a casino chip from each ship as a memento. They are, of course, a cost to you, but if you collect low value chips of a dollar or so, it’s a non too costly memento.

Line Souvenirs

Talking of souvenirs, some lines do give out ones that you can take home. The main one for me is on Holland America. On many of their cruises they give guests a commemorative tile. It’s a Delft-style tile, linked to their origins in Holland. I have a small collection of those building up.

Glasses

Many cruise lines include a commemorative or collectable glass or mug as part of some drinks packages, for example a refillable soda cup. Those you can take home.

On some lines, like some of the rivers cruise lines I have been on and lines like Oceania and Viking they have removed plastic bottles. So, they provide a refillable water bottle and refill stations around the ship. I can take the bottle home if I want at the end of the cruise.

I’ve been to events where the line has given me a commemorative glass to take home too. For example, on a recent Holland America South America trip, I was invited to go to a table hosted by one of the senior officers and we were all given a commemorative shot glass to take home at the end.

Earphones

The other thing that some cruise lines do, for example on Viking, is to use a device known as Quiet Vox on shore excursions. These are little devices where, when you’re on tour, the tour guide speaks into a little microphone, and it transmits so you can hear them speaking. It’s handy in busy, noisy tourist places. They come with a set of earphones, which I can take away because they are single use.

When I do on a hop-on, hop-off bus in port, they have them too.

I often take those and keep those as a back-up earphone in case I lose or forget to pack mine. For example, I have used them in the gym, to plug into the stationary bike to listen to the television or music while I’m working out.

Brochures and Magazines

Another thing I often like to take home are cruise brochures. On Queen Anne, the Future Cruise offices had many myriads of brochures for future cruises, including for Cunard’s newly launched itineraries. So, I brought them home to plan my travels.

Cruise Card

Of course, another thing I must take is my cruise card. While on the cruise, it gets me on and off the ship, opens my cabin door and I use it to charge things to my onboard account. But, once I leave the ship at the end of the cruise, as the line does not want it back, I can take it home with me. It becomes a memento and I know many people collect them as reminders of the trips they have done.

Is there anything that I’ve forgotten that people need to know about? If so, leave that in the comments.