Bringing wrapped presents off the ship?

[natandscott]

We are cruising a Merry Time cruise right before Christmas and then staying at WDW over the holidays (crazy, I know.....) We are obviously not going to bring all of our Christmas gifts down with us from Canada, but I want the kids to have a few surprises on Christmas morning. I was hoping to wrap these surprises while they are at the Oceanear's Club on the cruise. I know you aren't allowed to bring anything wrapped through customs when you cross the Canadian/American border, but do you think it would be alright to go through the cruise security with wrapped gifts? They would just be little stocking stuffers.

 

[DebHorner04]

Twice, I have taken small, wrapped gifts----from "Tinkerbell", with no issues. I had the gifts, wrapped in colored tissue paper, in a bag, which was in our carry-on. This was April 2017 and June 2018---not sure if they are more strict around the Holidays. Enjoy your cruise.

 

[Marc D]

They should be fine, but you run the risk of them opening them if they see something they don’t like on the x-rays.

 

[Otimon]

Should be ok but we had an interesting event happen upon disembarking our cruise this past March. I had purchased a Disney candelabra in the gift shop and had it boxed (not wrapped though) in one of those new Disney shopping bags with the handles. Upon reaching the customs desk the custom's person took his pen and tapped on the box asking what was in it. Told him and immediately another custom's person came out and asked us to follow him to a room behind the wall. Said it was routine. In well over 30 Disney cruises I have never noticed this "routine" nor have we ever been singled out, but was most interested to see what would happen. Took our passports and disappeared behind another wall for a short while as we waited. Asked is we had any agriculture which we didn't and said so. He wrote something on a piece of paper, give us our passports back and showed us where to exit.

 

[Starwind]

You can bring wrapped gifts, even though customs, BUT run the risk that security / customs will want to open them to insect the contents.

have you considered using gift bags and tissue paper instead ?

 

[diznymom]

If it were me, I would wait until I was at the resort to wrap the gifts. Send the kids and DH somewhere like the pool while I do what I need to do.

 

[FigmentSpark]

I'm just guessing, but because what you're bringing in to the country is just passing through, essentially, you might be fine. They have the right to open and inspect anything. Can you plan gifts that maybe go in gift bags instead of being wrapped? Or, what I've done when travelling is measure out my paper and ribbon, put a sticky on the backside of each piece for each gift, bring tape and you should be able to do it up quickly with no mess.

Tip to keep bow safe in your suitcase: Save an old sauce container from those chinese places and put the bow in there with the (measured out) ribbon curled around it. You can discard the container without wasting money.