New Luggage Tag Wording re: Wine

[caribill]

And in the FAQ section on the Princess web site

 

As provided in the Passage Contract, passengers agree not to bring alcoholic beverages of any kind onboard for consumption, except one bottle of wine or champagne per adult of drinking age (no larger than 750 ml) per voyage, which will not be subject to a corkage fee if consumed in the stateroom. Additional wine or champagne bottles are welcome, but will incur a $15 corkage fee each, irrespective of where they are intended to be consumed. Liquor, spirits or beers are not permitted. Please remember that luggage will be scanned and alcohol outside of our policy will be removed and discarded.*

Alcoholic beverages that are purchased duty free from the ship's gift shop, or at ports of call, will be collected for safekeeping and delivered to the passenger's stateroom on the last day of the cruise. A member of the ship's staff will be at the gangway to assist passengers with the storage of their shoreside alcoholic purchases while our Boutiques staff will assist passengers with shipboard alcoholic purchases.

 

*Princess Cruises is not responsible for any alcoholic beverages removed and discarded by shoreside security staff.

[Cruise Junky]

And in the FAQ section on the Princess web site

 

As provided in the Passage Contract, passengers agree not to bring alcoholic beverages of any kind onboard for consumption, except one bottle of wine or champagne per adult of drinking age (no larger than 750 ml) per voyage, which will not be subject to a corkage fee if consumed in the stateroom. Additional wine or champagne bottles are welcome, but will incur a $15 corkage fee each, irrespective of where they are intended to be consumed. Liquor, spirits or beers are not permitted. Please remember that luggage will be scanned and alcohol outside of our policy will be removed and discarded.*

Alcoholic beverages that are purchased duty free from the ship's gift shop, or at ports of call, will be collected for safekeeping and delivered to the passenger's stateroom on the last day of the cruise. A member of the ship's staff will be at the gangway to assist passengers with the storage of their shoreside alcoholic purchases while our Boutiques staff will assist passengers with shipboard alcoholic purchases.

 

*Princess Cruises is not responsible for any alcoholic beverages removed and discarded by shoreside security staff.

 

 

This has been there over a week and hasn't been updated since they announced in various locations, ie private email, twitter and Facebook that you can carry on wine in ports. I'm sure they'll update this soon - give them time

[whitecap]

IMHO I believe that this subject has been discussed, debated, discussed some more and to date there is still no clear and concise explanation of this apparent new policy.

Facebook, Twitter and Email responses continue to contradict each other; luggage tags, boarding passes, passage contract and frequently asked questions cause more questions than provide answers.

I think we all know that Princess is "trying" to re-write their alcohol policy, for one, I believe they are doing a terrible job of communicating with their customer base. They have announced a policy change that fails to cover the basics: define the policy, when will it take effect, how will it be enforced, what will passengers need to do to comply. Instead they have announced the change using several methods (luggage tags, boarding passes and so on) all of which contradict each other and explain they will take the next few weeks and months to evaluate.

I think that I will just continue to conduct myself the same way I have since my first cruise until such time as there is a policy established that accurately establishes and sets forth the procedure.

[davekathy]

I appreciate those that posted the emails from Princess. In my opinion of course Princess Reps are going to respond back by quoting from the same guidelines we all have recently seen (boarding passes, luggage tags). I’m still interested in hearing from any Cruisers that have recently (before our 27 March 2013 Emerald Cruise) returned from their Cruise that carried on board more than one 750 ml bottle or larger of wine. I realize by the time we are ready to sail Princess could change how they are or are not enforcing their wine policy. Based on what I’ve read on CC we still plan on carrying four (2 apiece) 1.5 liters of wine at embarkation in Fort Lauderdale. If we get busted, we only have ourselves to blame and not Princess. By all means it will not ruin our Cruise. I’ll post our experience when we return.

[GHDPeter]

A FB post from a passenger on the Sea Princess yesterday says that "we boarded the Sea Princess yesterday & complying with your invitation to bring additional bottles of wine onboard ( new wine policy 15th January ), experienced mayhem , with our 9 bottles confiscated . The whole experience has been upsetting with people at the desk trying various excuses why we cannot have these wines bought to our stateroom , stating security procedures that do not allow multiple bottles . Included , are bottles of Chardonnay , which my wife & I would like to enjoy one of ,with our lunch , chilled , but that is not going to happen . Facilitator , please have someone contact the ship to sought this out . How many ways can you find to upset elite passenger's ?We had intentions of purchasing at other ports but that will only add to the confusion !"

 

Waiting to see Princess response

[vancouvergirl2010]

A FB post from a passenger on the Sea Princess yesterday says that "we boarded the Sea Princess yesterday & complying with your invitation to bring additional bottles of wine onboard ( new wine policy 15th January ), experienced mayhem , with our 9 bottles confiscated . The whole experience has been upsetting with people at the desk trying various excuses why we cannot have these wines bought to our stateroom , stating security procedures that do not allow multiple bottles . Included , are bottles of Chardonnay , which my wife & I would like to enjoy one of ,with our lunch , chilled , but that is not going to happen . Facilitator , please have someone contact the ship to sought this out . How many ways can you find to upset elite passenger's ?We had intentions of purchasing at other ports but that will only add to the confusion !"

 

Waiting to see Princess response

 

 

Oh my, that sucks.

[IECalCruiser]

A FB post from a passenger on the Sea Princess yesterday says that "we boarded the Sea Princess yesterday & complying with your invitation to bring additional bottles of wine onboard ( new wine policy 15th January ), experienced mayhem , with our 9 bottles confiscated . The whole experience has been upsetting with people at the desk trying various excuses why we cannot have these wines bought to our stateroom , stating security procedures that do not allow multiple bottles . Included , are bottles of Chardonnay , which my wife & I would like to enjoy one of ,with our lunch , chilled , but that is not going to happen . Facilitator , please have someone contact the ship to sought this out . How many ways can you find to upset elite passenger's ?We had intentions of purchasing at other ports but that will only add to the confusion !"

 

Waiting to see Princess response

That should be an interesting one. Nowhere near as bad as what happened on the Sea Princess, but I sent them questions the first week of February regarding the new policy and they have not responded in over a month :(

[Phoenix Rising]

What 'corkage' will they charge on a half empty (oops! half full! :D) wine cask?

[CanCruzer]

A FB post from a passenger on the Sea Princess yesterday says that "we boarded the Sea Princess yesterday & complying with your invitation to bring additional bottles of wine onboard ( new wine policy 15th January ), experienced mayhem , with our 9 bottles confiscated . The whole experience has been upsetting with people at the desk trying various excuses why we cannot have these wines bought to our stateroom , stating security procedures that do not allow multiple bottles . Included , are bottles of Chardonnay , which my wife & I would like to enjoy one of ,with our lunch , chilled , but that is not going to happen . Facilitator , please have someone contact the ship to sought this out . How many ways can you find to upset elite passenger's ?We had intentions of purchasing at other ports but that will only add to the confusion !"

 

Waiting to see Princess response

I thought the luggage tags clearly stated you could bring additional bottles aboard as long as you paid the corkage. How could they deny the bottles with that proof clearly printed on their own tags?

[sminfiddle]

Wish they'd said whether the 9 bottles were in carry-on or checked baggage...

[GHDPeter]

Based on what was said on the FB roll call, the wine was in carryon

[Pmorton3360]

This was an Australian port. I believe they have much stricter wine policy than U.S.

[GHDPeter]

This has nothing to do with Australia, this is Princess policy.

 

On The Sun class ships operating out of Australia, Princess Cruises has a much stricter wine policy than on the US based ships. This is evident with the Diamond Princess operating from here in the Australian summer with a mostly US passenger base and on board charges in US$ and the wine policy not being enforced compared with the Sun, Dawn, and Sea which operates in AU$ and where Princess security staff being much stricter with alcohol.

 

There is no Australian law or regulation which limits what alcohol can be taken out of the country, this is Princess discriminating against Australian passengers.

[Fairport]

Can you imagine a land based resort trying this nonsense? They would be out of business in no time. We are spending two weeks in a two bedroom beachfront condo in Florida for less than what a balcony 10 day cruise costs and they don't care how much beer, wine, booze or food we bring in. We enjoy cruising but, sometimes it is nice to just stay in one place for a while.

[Mekamax]

I'm going to quote myself to see if anyone can answer my questions above, please.

 

 

I haven't cruised Princess yet but can tell you Carnival will count by the bottle not the ml.... So each bottle is counted as a bottle toward the 1 per person allowed.. Now CCL will take the others but it sounds like Princess isn't like that.... I think I see CCL Corp trying to put their influence on Princess.... Hope Princess holds to their values.

[pablo222]

Can you imagine a land based resort trying this nonsense?

 

Sure. They would call it a 'resort fee', and charge you $25/day

for a towel at the pool, that everyone would expect to be free.