Taking an apple off ship upon disembarkation?

[CrusingFamily4]

I know one is not suppose to take fruit when they get off at a port of call, but is one able to take a piece of fruit to the airport once they get off the ship back in Port Canaveral? (It would be eaten in Orlando airport prior to going to Disney). I'm not much of a breakfast person and I casually mentioned to my parents that I would just grab an apple/box of cereal from the ship to eat later and they told me that they thought this was not allowed. I sure don't want to go breaking any rules over a silly apple... but if it is not against the rules, than I would likely go ahead with my original plan.

Thanks in advance!

 

[dcassetta]

Absolutely not. Florida's agriculture import laws are extraordinarily strict to protect the crops there. Please don't try to take any fruit off the ship.

 

[TXDCLfan]

I have seen the drug dogs sniff out fruit while people are waiting to get their bags,it is a big no-no.

 

[CrusingFamily4]

I hate it when the parents are right, haha. Thank you so very much for the heads up. I will not be taking fruit off the ship! I wrongly assumed it would be ok, since they would have loaded it from the same dock 3 days prior. Do they throw the other fruit that they don't use out?

 

[tinkerone]

ouch, I think the fine is something like $500. do you really want to chance it? there are collection bins on your way off the ship so I doubt, if caught, you could claim no knowledge of procedure, not that that would make a difference anyways.


ETA- I low balled it. here is what the u.s.a. website says.

You must declare all food products. Failure to declare food products can result in up to $10,000 in fines and penalties

 

[CrusingFamily4]

Oh, I am totally not taking any fruit off the ship if it is against the rules. This is why I was checking ahead of time!

 

[dcassetta]

I have seen the drug dogs sniff out fruit while people are waiting to get their bags,it is a big no-no.

They probably are not drug dogs. The Department of Agriculture and Customs and Border Protection use different dogs for different purposes. Beagles seem to be the best at locating food.

I hate it when the parents are right, haha. Thank you so very much for the heads up. I will not be taking fruit off the ship! I wrongly assumed it would be ok, since they would have loaded it from the same dock 3 days prior. Do they throw the other fruit that they don't use out?

This is a story I shared on another thread -
I usually fly Virgin Atlantic to the UK. Several years ago I was speaking with one of the stewards on the flight about the fruit that they offered during the flight from the UK. They loaded the oranges onto the plane in Orlando. The aircraft then flew from Orlando to London Gatwick, offloaded passengers, uploaded new passengers, and then returned to Orlando. At no time did that fruit leave the aircraft. But, on return to Orlando the uneaten fruit was inventoried, bagged and sent to be incinerated. Because the oranges had left country, despite the fact that they were Florida grown oranges, they could not be brought back in.

I'm not sure how the rules would work for the cruise ships. But as it's a larger vessel than a plane, I assume there are some secure storage areas where they can lock things away and show they are keeping the fruit safe. Or perhaps, uneaten fruit is offloaded and destroyed.

 

[CrusingFamily4]

Very interesting! Thank you so much for sharing.

 

[SuperDry]

Or perhaps, uneaten fruit is offloaded and destroyed.

Generally speaking, uneaten but unspoiled food is fed to the crew. They try not to waste anything. Since they know with pretty good certainty how much of everything will be consumed on a voyage, they try not to order so much that items will spoil prior to being used. And, if things get close, such that they would be spoiled before the next time they are needed for guest meals, then they get put into crew meals. For example, since they make the MDR food in advance, there's usually extra of a lot of stuff, and those end up on the crew buffet that evening. Food that is placed on a guest buffet but uneaten gets discarded, as there is too much risk of foodborn illness from being handled by guests and the last thing they want is to have a large number of crew get sick because one sick guest mishandled a buffet item.

 

[SuperDry]

I wrongly assumed it would be ok, since they would have loaded it from the same dock 3 days prior.

The thing is, how do they know that the fruit you're carrying off was loaded from the same port a few days ago? It could be fruit that you bought in a foreign port and brought on board yourself. It's the same with the airplane fruit mentioned earlier.

 

[dcassetta]

Generally speaking, uneaten but unspoiled food is fed to the crew. They try not to waste anything. Since they know with pretty good certainty how much of everything will be consumed on a voyage, they try not to order so much that items will spoil prior to being used. .

This makes sense. But I was wondering particularly about fresh fruit, vegetables might be part of this category too. If there is leftover fresh produce, can it stay on the ship and be used on the next voyage, or does it have to be offloaded and destroyed?

 

[Dlanod]

Creatures like fruit flies can attach themselves to fruit enroute. Just because the fruit originated in Florida, doesn't mean a hitchhiker can't tag along on the trip back.

The results can be devastating and the locals will have to deal with and pay for costly spraying should an infestation occur. Ask anyone who lived through Jerry Brown's first term as governor in California.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

the fine for bringing fruit and plant life into the US without permission is $50,000...........no joke

AKK

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

I thought taking an Apple of a Disney ship, would mean, one bite would send you to sleep for a hundred years.

 

[disfam3mi]

Regarding claiming all food products, we always have packaged snack items with us. So we need to claim those, and then it's okay? Last year we did the chocolate tour in Nassau. They had us create various chocolate goodies, including a chocolate covered strawberry. We ate those before we got back to PC, but reading this, maybe they should stop sending people back to the boat with fruit!

 

[n2mm]

Yes they warn you via tv the night before when they tell you what you need to do to disembark. I'll always remember them telling you if you take a banana off the ship, it will be the most expensive banana you ever buy.

 

[NCConch]

The same is true for other plant-based products. Nassau and it's straw market was famous back in the day for the "Bahama Mamas" weaving hats, bags and other items out of local palm fronds. They are not allowed into the states anymore so now the straw market is mostly cheap stuff from China.

 

[LeslieG]

I usually keep some cookies in our cabin from the buffet. If I have some left at the end of the cruise, is it okay to take those off the ship upon debarkation? Is it just fruit/meat that is the issue?

 

[disneyfaninaz]

I know one is not suppose to take fruit when they get off at a port of call, but is one able to take a piece of fruit to the airport once they get off the ship back in Port Canaveral? (It would be eaten in Orlando airport prior to going to Disney). I'm not much of a breakfast person and I casually mentioned to my parents that I would just grab an apple/box of cereal from the ship to eat later and they told me that they thought this was not allowed. I sure don't want to go breaking any rules over a silly apple... but if it is not against the rules, than I would likely go ahead with my original plan.

Thanks in advance!

OP, just so you know, you can take pre-packaged cereal off the ship with no problem to eat at the airport.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I usually keep some cookies in our cabin from the buffet. If I have some left at the end of the cruise, is it okay to take those off the ship upon debarkation? Is it just fruit/meat that is the issue?

No food is allowed off the ship that is not in sealed, commercial packaging. So no cookies from the buffet. But you could take off one of the small containers of cereal available at breakfast at the buffet, as long as you didn't open it before exiting the ship.