LOL and you thought TSA was bad.... Australia is worse...

[wakeme2008]

From this thread on Cruise Critic

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=337532

When I responded that I had a small bottle of Woolite, we were pulled aside to have our luggage searched and had to give up the Woolite. We never got a good answer on what the issue was with detergent since it was in our checked luggage, but it wasn't a big deal. After all of the questions at port throughout the cruise, declaring what food, wood, and/or animal products we had, it was kind of funny that they took our soap

[Violet_Crumble]

1. Dumb question. What's TSA?

There's very strict quarantine rules here, but they're there for a good reason and the common-sense approach is not to bring anything that's organic, not that the detergent sounds like it was, though...

http://www.daff.gov.au/content/publications.cfm?Category=Australian%20Quarantine%20fixand%20Inspection%20Service&ObjectID=91BEA21E-F661-4C28-993E5D87CAB8AF20#declare

I'm not seeing detergents in that list, but in the cruise review they did say that the question they'd been asked was if they had any detergents or toiletries in unmarked bottles, so my guess is that it was probably in an unmarked bottle and that's what caused its demise. Kind of sucks, but that's life. At least it wasn't anything expensive. Customs has a feel-good bit of PR on the telly right now that shows their work at international airports and if you think the Woolite was bad, spare a thought for the Australian woman who went overseas complete with shell jewellry she'd bought in Australia. They pulled her up on her return and insisted on receipts for the jewellry proving she'd bought it here, and when she couldn't they confiscated them and she had to pay a shitload of money for them to fumigate them and post them to her...

[wakeme2008]

2. TSA is the US agency that does screening at airports

:)

Transportation Security Administration.

PS she was trying to get on a flight leaving AU.

Thanks for the list of things I can not bring into the country. My cruise ends in AU.

[WolverineDG]

3. Hey Violet

I was in Oz in 2000 & got sick. It seemed that everyone's advice was to "take a 2 Panadol & a lemonade (meaning Sprite)." :rofl: Not knocking it (because it worked) but I read the package & it seems like Panadol cures everything but broken bones. :)

I also had a violet crumble & must say it was so sweet, it took me DAYS to eat it.

dg