Cruise Junky

I'm sadly correct--call and verify if you want to.

Well you had better have got that in writing or you may end up with a nasty surprise when you board.

The previous policy was one bottle of wine. (for the pedants

-- one bottle of wine for each pax of legal drinking age, which

may vary depending on the embarcation port)

 

The new policy is being as many bottles as you wish, but pay

corkage at embarcation.

 

So, if you were bringing a case on board previously, you were not

following the policy.

Depends on what you take as policy. Their marketing material or their cruise contract. Cruise contract which governs the cruise had no limit on wine

Pia & Amelia;

 

Thank you for taking the time to post your observations. Amelia, I'm very excited to be able to finally be able to vist the Vatican. I am a little concerned about the crowds but just being there will be good enough for me:) One question about the Vatican. I assume that no flas pictures are allowed. Are you still allowed to take non-flash pictures.....

 

Bob

Vatican, Yes, Vatican Museum, No

Ah ok...but you quoted something about returning contraband, thus the confusion. ;)

Well technically the Lemoncello would be contraband. But Princess has said you can board with Local Specialties and they'll store it for you so this debate is moot.

Wait...what? So if you agree to rules, and then choose to break the rules, you're saying you're paying them to return property that they already told would be forfeited if found?

 

I don't think so. :confused:

Where did you read I was going to smuggle it on? we're talking about a CUSTOMER buying a bottle of Lemoncello in Venice and wanting to board with it and not have Princess destroy his property.

Agreed. Why would Princess would use their employees to catalogue, store, then retrieve & deliver - contraband? What a logistics nightmare!

Because I'm paying them to!! Don't forget, I'm the paying customer, not a guest.

If we decide to make a special purchase of alcohol to take home, we will definitely carry it on. We booked our air with air deviation (through Princess) to include Venice, Italy. We'll request a manager if they want to destroy our bottle on embarkation. If we lose it, then we do. I just hope we don't if we choose to buy something special to bring home. We've always tried to buy something unique to bring home and savor.

Is this your sailing in two months? If so, I don't think you'll have issues at all. They don't seem to be enforcing it in Europe this year. They've been rolling it out by region

On our next trip we are spending time in Venice and Rome before we embark. If we find an alcoholic beverage that we think is special, we will try to take it on with our carry-on and talk with a manager if they want to destroy it. I'm thinking a nice limoncello? I'll be disappointed if they don't allow it. We often buy a special liquor to bring home to enjoy as a nice memory of our trip. We've done this on nearly all cruises (Princess, RCCL, Celebrity, Oceania, Windstar, Regent). Sometimes they hold it for us and other times they allow us to store it in our cabin. As long as the seal isn't broken, I don't care how it is stored. But I would be disappointed if it was destroyed.

Make sure it's in your hand luggage. Princess has said they'll store "regional specialties" for you until you disembark. Lemoncello would fall under that, as long as you're not boarding with it in Jersey :)

I just upgraded to the premium package for our 7 night Nov 16 on Summit. We were going to do it onboard anyway, but saving a few bucks made sense!

I bit the bullet today too. I don't have the energy for this crap.

Could we possibly cut Antsp some slack. They were on one of the very first cruises after Princess changed the policy and seeing as Princess has turned a blind eye for decades, you can't blame someone for doing what they've always done.

On our sailing 80 passengers from the UK where late arriving and arrived directly from there flight, there bags also went directly to the ship with the duty free purchases inside. Princess removed there property and destroyed it, a lot of these passengers where very very upset and said they would never sail with them again.

 

 

Sorry, I'm missing something here. If the flight hadn't been late, were those 80 UK passengers going to leave their duty free purchases somewhere else BEFORE boarding the ship? Weren't they planning on bringing it aboard anyway...which would still be in violation of the rules?:confused:

The "destruction" of the liquor seems excessive, but storing lots of bottles of booze and then returning it to passengers who were not supposed to be bringing it in the first place seems to be unreasonable, too.

 

It would have given them time to switch things out of their checked luggage into their hand luggage. At that point when Princess found it, Princess has said they would hold it and the passengers can retrieve it at the end of the cruise. Anstp had champagne destroyed which Princess would have allowed on if it had been in his/her hand luggage.

Hi Everyone,

 

Celebrity responded to my inquiry, and I was advised the upgrade rate has increased, if you purchase the package onboard. The new rate is $15.00 per person per day, plus 15% gratuity for a total of $17.25 per person, per day.

 

Please keep in mind, the upgrade rate remains at $11.50 per person per day, $10.00 + $1.50 gratuity if you purchase in advance. The deadline for advance purchase, is 4 days prior to your sailing date, and can be purchased by contacting Celebrity or your Travel Agent.

 

I realize that some may not be pleased with this information. The good news is, there remains a way to avoid paying the increase, which is by purchasing the upgrade in advance.

 

My thanks to Celebrity for providing the information. I hope this is helpful !

Thanks Andy, so basically anyone with a free package should phone in advance and pay for the upgrade if they want Premium.

I think Celebrity would be acting in extreme bad faith in all of these promos the fine print it says you can upgrade for $11.50. My invoice from them even shows this. We told them day 1 we would be upgrading and it's always been you'll be charged the $11.50 onboard.

Big scheme of things it's not a lot of money, but if this is how Celebrity operates, I want no part of it.

Just a suggestion. Since the only posts I am interested in are the ones from Pia, I click on Pia1913 and then "Find all posts by Pia1913" Works for me.

Thank you!! Great suggestion

:eek: BOXED WINE??:eek:

I too shall refrain from passing judgement of your right to choose your favourite libation.....

But i wonder how Princess would do the math..if it is $15 ' corkage' fee for every 750 ml bottle in excess of the allowed ONE, would they have to charge $15 per 750 of liquid ( heh, i cant bring myself to call it " wine" ;)) for spigotage?

That would be approx $15 x 5.5= $84!!!

 

Now THAT would make me go EEEEEEKKKKKK:

There was a post about a month ago that someone was charged $45 corkage on a box of wine

Check the "gift " offerings against the on board room service menusd- DH and I were surprised that it's cheaper to wait and order from room service than to preorder yourself a bottle (of course now can't find the links I used...). We are looking specifically at bourbon / whiskey, but I think it was across the board.

No it's not. The gift section has the 15% already added to it. Order it onboard and the 15% will be added

Is it true that you can purchase a bottle from one of the bars onboard?

Wine yes, booze no, you have to order it from room service. It's a 375 ml bottle

Princess has the right to apply rules and enforce them, which they have done.

 

I have the right to decide never to sail with them again, which I have done.

Yep. That's what it boils down to. Cruising has become so restrictive now that it just doesn't hold as much appeal for us. We'll still cruise occasionally but land trips will dominate our vacation plans.

Or use rum runners and never be caught.

Never again. Mine burst a seam. Thank goodness it wasn't while in my case, but I did spray a friend in vodka accidentally :)

I stayed at a hotel that asked guests not to bring alcahol onto the premises. Unless alcahol is some sort of protected class, they are free to make whatever restrictions on their private property they wish. They host a lot of weddings, with large parties spending the night there. Apparently the large parties had large parties that disturbed the other guests.

So that's one out of millions !

Sure. A lot if stadiums/venues have poor drink selections and don't allow one to bring in other alcohol. If one doesn't like that, don't go there. But disagreement with the policy doesn't entitle one to exempt them self from it.

No, not at all, but the stadium analogy doesn't really work, I'm not living in a Stadium for 7 days. What hotel has such ridiculous policies? Comparing a Cruise ship to a resort or a hotel is more realistic. Princess has turned a blind eye to booze for years so I don't blame anyone for trying. We'll still cruise but more restrictive policies will make us look at land trips first.

These statements are contradictory. It's hardly "prohibition at sea" if, as you admit, not only can you buy all the drinks you want, but also bottles to consume as you see fit. If you want them cheaper, or have the belief that being an adult means not having to abide by the rules you agree to, that's on you.

But the bottles you can buy are pretty limited and pretty low end. I love cruising but the more things change in cruising the more we move to land trips. I'm really not looking for rules and restrictions on vacations. We're currently in Hawaii and we'll be canceling a 10 day Caribbean cruise when we get home to do 2 weeks back here....no naughty room :)

Where we're you cruising?

Thanks

A guy from work was there last week, he had no complaints.

As far as the people mover, it's a bit of a hike from the ship to the station, probably 20 to 30 minutes or so depending on where the ship is berthed.

I think it's going to be very dependent on which berth you get. On Ruby last year we were no more than 10 minutes from the people mover.