Can I Bring Food and Snacks on a Carnival Cruise?

 Pre-packaged processed foods are allowed on a Carnival Cruise. So you can take your favorite snacks onboard. Or maybe you have a small child or a picky child that only eat certain foods or baby foods. You can bring it onboard.

However, there are restrictive rules that cruise lines have regarding snacks and drinks. Carnival allows a bottle of champagne or wine, and that’s it. Bringing on beer or liquor will result in it being confiscated. They also allow each cruiser to bring on one 12 pack on unopened can cokes per person as well.

Yes, You Can Bring Food & Snacks on a Cruise (With Some Rules)

Absolutely yes, you can bring food and snacks on a cruise — including on major cruise lines like Carnival, and many others.

But don't pack just yet, there is some info you need to know first on what you can't bring on your trip.


As you may know, there are some major issues on cruise ships that apply to food. This is not only related to international travel with food, but also passenger health.


The first to understand is customs for foreign countries and the United States. Cruising is a popular vacation because you get a sample of several different ports. A 7-day cruise might take you to three or four different ports, not even including the home port that the ship sails from.

Of course, when you visit so many ports, there is the potential to carry with you foreign pests or diseases in food that could cause havoc with a different ecosystem. This is especially the case with fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats.

Another major issue with food and cruise ships has to do with illness. Being sick on a cruise is no fun, and the only thing worse is spreading that sickness to others in the confined space of a ship. In other words, if you cooked something homemade and it made people sick, that wouldn’t be good.

Rules About What Type of Food/Snacks You Can Bring

For the reason just mentioned above, you aren’t allowed to bring on fruits and vegetables or home cooked items on your cruise. Instead, the only food and snacks you are allowed to bring with you are pre-packaged and processed items.

For example, a batch of homemade cookies isn’t allowed on the ship. But a pack of prepacked cookies from the store is just fine. Things like chips, beef jerky, and candy are all fine as well. One other thing to keep in mind is that these snacks should be unopened. Opened snacks are not allowed.

Each cruise line makes this “prepackaged” rule clear on their websites. For example, here is Carnival's:


Carnival Food/Snack Policy

“Food Items must be pre-packaged and unopened; homemade items or pre-cooked foods will not be permitted onboard. Limitations on permitted food items are directly related to concerns for food safety and contamination prevention. We are unable to provide food preparation, refrigeration or storage for personal food or beverage items.”


You will see that many of the other major cruise lines offer similar policies for snack foods and drinks.

Questions on Bringing Food on a Cruise

The rules for snacks/food is pretty general. If it meets the requirements for non-perishable and pre-packaged, then you should be ok to bring it. But, if you have nay question just call and ask the cruise line or your travel agent.

How Much Food Can I Bring on a Cruise?

There is not a strict limit for how much food you can bring. It's open-ended as to the amount. However, consider "limited” quantities or enough to make it on a cruise as you have to pack and carry these items onboard. In other words, if you bring a suitcase full of food you might have an issue, but packing some extra snacks is just fine.

What About Bringing Drinks?

. Cruise lines vary on their policies when it comes to bringing non-alcoholic drinks. Some (like Carnival a) allow you to bring on drinks only one bottle of  alcoholic wine and one 12 pack cans unopened with you when boarding. Others allow no drinks at all. Look at the cruise lines website or call for specifics on each cruise line.

Are There Restrictions on Certain Foods?

All food must be pre-packaged and unopened. Apart from that, there aren’t restrictions mentioned. So while it might seem restrictive to only be allowed pre-packaged items, it actually encompasses a huge variety of items. Things like candy, chips, salty snacks, beef jerky, and more fall under the scope. There should be no trouble bringing your favorite snack on the ship