'Real' Customs Regulations in Caribbean Islands

[SharAndy]

Help. What are the 'real world' regulations regarding booze and frozen food in your freezer while cruising from Bahamas thru Turks & Caicos, to Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and onward into USVI and BVI and then downward thru the Caribbean chain to Grenada? I see the individual island regs, which are very limiting to booze, etc. I know the real world and what is considered ship's stores are often very different, often with no problems bringing in what you have on board. Do I need to drink all my booze before getting there? ie Canada is a huge stickler - no ship's stores - you must pay big bucks for anything over 1.5 liters. Don't want to get burned. Comments? Experiences?

[RTB]

That's a good question. I am following some blogs, and one couple claims to have 272 beers on board in the Bahamas!

[SharAndy]

Thanks for reply. Yes, we aso had no problems in Bahamas -- no search, no nothing and never heard of anyone who had. It's the other places along the way to Grenada I'm concerned about -- before I lower the waterline many inches before departing!

[AnchorageGuy]

Not going to be a problem where you are heading, if ask just tell them. That is unless you are Carrying 20 or more cases of something. You might do some research before lowering the water line with alcoholic beverages. I assume you are leaving from the US or Canada. You will find you can buy these things much cheaper down island than you can locally. For instance, Dominican beer is excellent and much cheaper than US. Rums in the Caribbean are much better, you can buy the REAL Havana Club, and a fraction of the US or Canadian prices. Chuck

[RTB]

Turks & Caicos might have an issue regarding booze? We were just there (not by boat), and noticed their restriction of alcohol and tobacco. http://www.seaworthy.com/index.php?o...240&Itemid=281

[AnchorageGuy]

Originally Posted by RTB

Turks & Caicos might have an issue regarding booze? We were just there (not by boat), and noticed their restriction of alcohol and tobacco. http://www.seaworthy.com/index.php?o...240&Itemid=281

It has been a while since we cleared in by boat but unless it has changed, we were never ask how much of anything we had on board, just if we had anything to declare and a list of goods aboard. We stated we had X amount of bottles of liquor and if I remember correctly, about six cases of beer. We also provided a brief description of our provisions. They were not interested in any of those amounts. Chuck

[Hud3]

Most of the eastern Caribbean islands have space on the customs declaration form for the quantity of spirits, wine and tobacco products on board. I always made my best guess honest estimate, figuring that they wouldn't be too hard on me if they actually did an inspection and found I was a bottle or two off. I reckon we had a max of 3-4 bottles of "spirits" and 6 bottles of wine at any given time, along with 2 or 3 boxes of cigars. For all else (food etc) I just wrote "Ship's stores". There was never a problem.

[swagman]

We carried over more than 100 bottles of wine, possibly 10 or so of liquers, and a atill had a few cases of beer remaining from the trip from Europe to the Caribbean.
Still had some of the wine left a year later when we found ourselves back in the UK - and never once had anyone wishing to check what we carried.
Cheers
JOHN