Bringing Wine on board

[abatlin]

This has probably been talked to death, but can not find a recent posting. Last year, when we were on Holland American, you were able to check a case of wine with luggage when boarding. As long as the wine stayed in your room, you were welcomed to bring it aboard with your luggage. For this reason, we booked Holland American for a Trans Atlantic Crossing over other cruise lines. I am hoping this is still the case. Does anyone know for sure?

[jtl513]

Last year, when we were on Holland American, you were able to check a case of wine with luggage when boarding.

Yes, you can put a tag on a case of wine ... or more ... and have most of it make it to your cabin unbroken. :) And you can take out of you room to anyplace on the ship as long as you pat $18 per bottle corkage.

[ASIWISH]

It is a real benefit, IMO... and one of my most favorite things about HAL.

[andeesue]

Yes, you can put a tag on a case of wine ... or more ... and have most of it make it to your cabin unbroken. :) And you can take out of you room to anyplace on the ship as long as you pat $18 per bottle corkage.

 

Oops, broken bottles not fun! Avoid by using the styofoam shipper boxes that wineries use to mail wine. You can get 12-bottle or 6-bottle ones. I recently read about a wine carrier that is a shipper box with a durable fabric outer with wheels and handle that would make handling an ease.

[ticokl]

When you send a case of wine with your luggage, in anyone's experience, do they open the box...or leave it taped up? I was thinking of wrapping my wine in bubble wrap to ensure no broken surprises!

[TheDarkestBlue]

Thanks for asking this question, very timely as I was wondering the same thing for our upcoming 10 day May trip. We would love to bring a case of wine from our departure port at Civitavecchia/Rome, though have not looked into it yet.

 

Also, does anyone know if is it OK to bring on a case of bottled water? Best to carry on or send it with the luggage? Thanks for any thoughts on this!

[fatcat04]

I found these on the U-Haul site. Had not seen them before but they get glowing reviews, even when transporting bottles as checked baggage on an airline flight :eek::eek:. A little pricey but definitely reusable. I might look into these myself for our upcoming cruise. We could re-use them easily as we always go to the WDW EPCOT Food and Wine Festival each year and bringing back a dozen bottles would be a real treat. The plane flight home is less than friendly for wine bottles.

[catl331]

Water is fine to bring on board and room bottled water is expensive. The water out of the tap though is just as good. I bring an empty sm. bottle and fill it to take off ship on excursions

 

Don't know what it would cost in Italian port city though.

[PRWeezer]

I ordered this 12-bottle rolling wine cooler for our upcoming HAL Cruise:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Picnic-Time-Bodega-Insulated-12-Bottle/dp/B004RCE6BQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1329490052&sr=1-1

 

The bottle insert part zips out so it could be used as a regular cooler (per one of the photos). You could also use it as an extra bag for your flight to the departure city then buy the wine when you get there. It's small enough to carry on the plane, without wine of course.

 

I called HAL to confirm that we could bring wine on board despite frequent threads on here saying you can (MrWeezer wanted to be sure before we hauled a case of wine to the port). The rep said 'for liability purposes' we would need to carry it on ourselves, which is why we got the rolling tote. But as others have said here, plenty of folks seem to have their wine delivered to their cabins. She may have just been giving me the party line when in reality it's acceptable to send with your checked luggage. She also confirmed you can bring on unlimited bottled water & soda.

[TheDarkestBlue]

Thanks so much for the quick replies! :D

 

This will be our first time on Holland America and we are really looking forward to the Eurodam!

[hvsteve1]

We went on a wine country tour prior to our recent HAL cruise and brought on four bottles as we knew we liked them and were willing to pay the corkage fee on formal nights. I would also guess that HAL, like restaurants, marks up wine 200-250 percent, so corkage is a reasonable deal if you're bringing on $30 bottles as we were. We also brought on some water and beer that we had left over from our week in the San Diego area, along with soda. We had the steward clean out the honor fridge and loaded it with our stuff. We restocked soda in port as we like soda in the room and aren't about to pay ship's prices for stuff in the room. I have no problem with the ship's water as it is treated pretty much the same way as a lot of the bottled stuff. I would also assume there is no corkage fee if you drink beer or soda in the room with room service. We did glom a bunch of cheese, crackers and fruit in the Lido at lunch and had a nice happy hour with the remainder of our beer toward the end of the cruise.

[ASIWISH]

Some of the more experienced members can comment further, but with HAL making the cabins available as soon as you board it is easier and safer (for the bottles) if you carry them yourself... obviously, if you are able.

 

Drop the wine off, and tour the ship!

[andeesue]

We went on a wine country tour prior to our recent HAL cruise and brought on four bottles as we knew we liked them and were willing to pay the corkage fee on formal nights. I would also guess that HAL, like restaurants, marks up wine 200-250 percent, so corkage is a reasonable deal if you're bringing on $30 bottles as we were. We also brought on some water and beer that we had left over from our week in the San Diego area, along with soda. We had the steward clean out the honor fridge and loaded it with our stuff. We restocked soda in port as we like soda in the room and aren't about to pay ship's prices for stuff in the room. I have no problem with the ship's water as it is treated pretty much the same way as a lot of the bottled stuff. I would also assume there is no corkage fee if you drink beer or soda in the room with room service. We did glom a bunch of cheese, crackers and fruit in the Lido at lunch and had a nice happy hour with the remainder of our beer toward the end of the cruise.

 

Don't forget room service to add to your happy hour or anytime enjoyment. Lovely cheese plates can be ordered and delivered.

[smilealot1882]

We're going on our first HAL cruisetour June/July to Alaska. Can we buy a bottle of wine at a port and bring it onboard to enjoy in our room?

[Typhoon1]

Bring as many cases as you like.

 

Should you consume it in the MDR, or other public area, you will incur the $18.00 corkage fee.

[ASIWISH]

We're going on our first HAL cruisetour June/July to Alaska. Can we buy a bottle of wine at a port and bring it onboard to enjoy in our room?

 

Yes, you can...

[smilealot1882]

Bring as many cases as you like.

 

Should you consume it in the MDR, or other public area, you will incur the $18.00 corkage fee.

 

Thank you! That's a nice little perk that we didn't experience with RCCL.

[smilealot1882]

Yes, you can...

 

Thank you! We're not big drinkers but it's nice to know this option exists. :)

[RMLincoln]

We went on a wine country tour prior to our recent HAL cruise and brought on four bottles as we knew we liked them and were willing to pay the corkage fee on formal nights. I would also guess that HAL, like restaurants, marks up wine 200-250 percent, so corkage is a reasonable deal if you're bringing on $30 bottles as we were. We also brought on some water and beer that we had left over from our week in the San Diego area, along with soda. We had the steward clean out the honor fridge and loaded it with our stuff. We restocked soda in port as we like soda in the room and aren't about to pay ship's prices for stuff in the room. I have no problem with the ship's water as it is treated pretty much the same way as a lot of the bottled stuff. I would also assume there is no corkage fee if you drink beer or soda in the room with room service. We did glom a bunch of cheese, crackers and fruit in the Lido at lunch and had a nice happy hour with the remainder of our beer toward the end of the cruise.

 

Beer is not allowed to be brought onboard, neither is hard liquor or liqueurs. I'm not saying it isn't done, but the policy is to allow wine, champagne, water, soda, mixers in unlimited amounts for personal consumption. m--

[andeesue]

When you send a case of wine with your luggage, in anyone's experience, do they open the box...or leave it taped up? I was thinking of wrapping my wine in bubble wrap to ensure no broken surprises!

 

When I sent a shipper box of wine, taped up with luggage labels and fragile and handle with care markings, it hadn't been opened, delivered to my cabin with other luggage. The shipper box is a cardboard box with a styrofoam insert. Check with the wine or liquor shops for them.

[tcook052]

This has probably been talked to death

 

Yes, actually it has.

[YubaSutter]

Wine is good.

[cmdchiefthom]

Having lived in Germany for a number of years, I developed at taste for reisling wines from the Moselle river, around Bernkastel-kues. HAL's cellar is pretty shallow when it comes to resilings, and as I recall only offered a Washington State wine, nice but clearly not German. So here's a question for those of you who have brought wine aboard to drink at dinner. Do you just show up at the Pinnacle with a jug under your arm and say howdy? I plan on visiting Total Wine on the way to the pier from the airport and pick up a pre-order of some very good offerings, and just need some guidance on the corkage protocol. ;)

[ASIWISH]

Having lived in Germany for a number of years, I developed at taste for reisling wines from the Moselle river, around Bernkastel-kues. HAL's cellar is pretty shallow when it comes to resilings, and as I recall only offered a Washington State wine, nice but clearly not German. So here's a question for those of you who have brought wine aboard to drink at dinner. Do you just show up at the Pinnacle with a jug under your arm and say howdy? I plan on visiting Total Wine on the way to the pier from the airport and pick up a pre-order of some very good offerings, and just need some guidance on the corkage protocol. ;)

 

We've done two things:

1. We ask HAL to hold our wine, and then each night at dinner we request one of our bottles. After the first night, they typically have it waiting for us when we arrive.
   
2. We simply show up with a jug under our arm and say "Howdy"!
   

 

Either way is fine... lately, we have preferred to have a few bottles in our room for a quiet drink on the veradah before the show... and a few to bring up to the Retreat Cabanas.

[fatcat04]

So here's a question for those of you who have brought wine aboard to drink at dinner. Do you just show up at the Pinnacle with a jug under your arm and say howdy? I plan on visiting Total Wine on the way to the pier from the airport and pick up a pre-order of some very good offerings, and just need some guidance on the corkage protocol. ;)

 

Like you we have found HAL's offerings to be a bit light on the stuff we enjoy. As for carrying our jug to the Pinnacle :p, we generally have the fridge in our room cleared, place our possible white picks in there in the AM, take a look at the dinner menu before we head out, and yes, just trot our BYOB-selves to the dining venue of choice for the night, vino in hand. Generally the wine steward is one of the first by our table and he or she takes it from there. :)

 

As to corkage, we generally just have a room card/beverage card available when they come by to reassure them we know there is a corkage fee so no need for explanation. Just makes the process go faster.