Has Anyone Brought Their Own Wine?

:rolleyes: Can you bring wine on the ship?

Any advice?

Thanks

Maya

We brought four bottles of wine to take to dinner with us on the Century last week. There's no problem bringing it onboard. There's a $15 corkage fee when you bring it to the dining room. The sommelier will open and pour it for you.

We also took along wine to drink in our cabin. We did not have to pay a corkage fee for those bottles.

Another option is ordering some wine through Celebrity's website. There are a Chardonnay and a Cabernet Savignon offered in engraved bottles for $21. They're a lot better than most of the wines offered on the ship in the under $30 category. (There's no corkage charge for these bottles since you're getting them from Celebrity.)

Geoherb

Can you order the celebrity wine on board or must you preorder it on the internet??

Rich in N VA

You can order the Celebrity wine at the table, if you like. I can't say that the Cabernet was anything to write home about it, but oddly, the Chardonnay actually had some real backbone to it. Another year or two in the cellar wouldn't hurt it, but it's drinkable now.

As for taking wine aboard -- no problem. We took 8 bottles along for our recent 11 nt. trip on the Summit for 4. Didn't last long! As reported, there's a $15 corkage charge.

Note about wine on Celebrity M-Class ships. Do NOT be bashful about asking to see and order from the specialty restaurant wine list when seated in the main dining room. It's a more complete list with some interesting selections that you won't be seeing on the regular dining room wine list. It's nice if you can let the wine steward know the day ahead, though, if you know the entree schedule. Saves them a run down to the other cellar area.

My recollection is that Celebrity is charging about 1.5X retail, so they aren't sticking it to you. That said, feel free to bring along anything special to you. As an example, we like (and still have) '97 Silver Oak (Alexander), and a variety of 1990 German TBA and BA (dessert wines). Can't find anything quite like either of those on the lists.

Tried to add information, but evidently waited too long. Here's the post again with additional information about transferring your goods to dinner...

You can order the Celebrity wine at the table, if you like. I can't say that the Cabernet was anything to write home about it, but the Chardonnay actually had some real backbone to it -- nothinging thin and wimpy about this one. Reminded me a bit of a young non-export (i.e., not over-oaked) white Burgundy. Another year or two in the cellar wouldn't hurt it, but it's drinkable now, and you can't beat the price.

As for taking wine aboard -- no problem. We took 8 bottles along for our recent 11 nt. trip on the Summit for 4. Didn't last long! As reported, there's a $15 corkage charge.

Rather than having you ambling into the restaurant with bottles under your arms, the "correct" procedure is to write your cabin and table number on the bottles, and hand them over to your cabin steward for delivery to the dining room. The wine steward will assure that it is held at an appropriate temperature until dinner. Since this typically means an extra run for your assistant steward, be a sport and check the dinner menu early and give them your bottles as early as you are able. I liked to try to assure they had them by 5:00 so as not to interrupt them while they were working over the cabins of those at early seating.

Note about wine on Celebrity M-Class ships. Do NOT be bashful about asking to see and order from the specialty restaurant wine list when seated in the main dining room. It's a more complete list with some interesting selections that you won't be seeing on the regular dining room wine list. It's nice if you can let the wine steward know the day ahead, though, if you know the entree schedule. Saves them a run down to the other cellar area.

Another nice feature -- if you don't finish a bottle (yours or theirs) at dinner, and it's got the wherewithall to spend an overnight, your wine steward will be happy to store it for you until dinner the next evening. I've even had a few somewhat raw cabernets that actually benefitted from the experience.

My recollection is that Celebrity is charging about 1.5X retail, so they aren't sticking it to you. That said, feel free to bring along anything special to you. As an example, we like (and still have) '97 Silver Oak (Alexander), and a variety of 1990 German TBA and BA (dessert wines). Can't find anything quite like either of those on the lists.

If you like the idea of trying to blend you own Cabernet, and are a Captain's Club "Select" or "Elite" member, you'll get the chance to do it. Somehow, Celebrity was able to get Kendall-Jackson to supply raw Cabernet, Merlot and Cabernet Franc to do your own blending. I was either lucky or sensible enough to come up with one I really liked. Take 40% of the Napa Cab from the lower elevation, 40% from the upper (use the Somona from neither lower or higher vineyards), 15% of the Merlot and 5% of the Cab Franc. I think you'll really like the results... I'd have actually paid for a bottle of it. Frankly, it was a good deal more fun (and interesting) than the wine tastings X holds.