Bringing Unlimited Wine Policy Officially Change Yesterday

[jschm27]

HAL - You deserve to make a reasonable profit but there's got to be a better way to keep your bottom line robust rather than alienate your loyal customer base. We come back to you for a reason, we like the service that you provide and there is a lot that I like about HAL. But if your service erodes, unreasonable costs are added, overly zealous policies are enforced, and your product becomes unremarkable; your loyal customer base just may begin to look to your competitors to see what they have to offer. I do not want that to happen, but it appears that you may have already started that ball rolling.

 

But it's not be too late to correct. Please look to your roots and determine what makes HAL so special that it has the highest return rate for customers in the industry. Build on your strengths and add new ones where possible. Remember that little things do count. And do not forget to treat your customers well because ultimately we ARE your bottom line.

 

I wish you my best regards and good luck!

 

John

[OlsSalt]

Maybe people who enjoy their own purchased wine for "free" on their balconies take fewer shore excursions or gamble or any number of other revenue generating activities?

 

Do you know if HAL would even have data on this possible connection. I am surprised we did not get years of questionnaires about this alleged unlimited wine upon boarding policy change, like we got constantly about smoking.

 

I know there were grumbles registered by the wine stewards on a long cruise that had a lot of four star mariners because they were selling only the discounted wine packages, when this is one way of generating the fares needed to keep the whole thing afloat.

 

How much does the ticket price actually cover for the full operating costs of cruise travel, and how much needs to be made up selling the "extras"?

[Storylady]

Azamara

Unless Cruise Critic hasn't updated Azamara's Wine Policy it appears to be similar to HAL's.

 

Azamara's Wine Policy as posted on CC.

 

"Bringing wine or Champagne onboard: Passengers can bring two bottles per stateroom, but when consumed in any shipboard restaurant, bar or dining venue, there is a $10 corkage fee per bottle.

 

Purchasing liquor in port: Alcoholic beverages that are purchased in ports of call will be stored by the ship and delivered to passengers' cabins on the last day of the sailing.

 

Purchasing liquor in ships' duty-free shop: Alcoholic beverages that are purchased from Azamara's onboard shops will be stored by the ship and delivered to passenger cabins on the sailing's last day. "

Edited July 29, 2013 by Storylady

[JamesEM]

I'm a passenger who like to buy a bottle of wine in each port to enjoy in my cabin/balcony with this new policy, Hello RCCL I'm back.

[christy744]

As one of the semi-famous Chardonnay sisters (kidding) I must add my opinion and hope not to get too badly flamed. This new policy should have been phased in slowly so as not to impact anyone with a non-refundable deposit or booking. On our 7 day Canada/New England trip in early September my twin and I would have brought $20 worth of box wine (ahem, carbordeaux) which we would drink only in our cabin. The equivalent number of getting-ready-for-dinner drinks and post-closing-down-the-Crow's Nest drinks in the cabin in our jammies will cost us $230 (@ $40 bottle + 15% for 5 bottles). Some may scoff and say we shouldn't travel if we can't afford that added expense but I will offer that we spend a lot of money on board in the lounges (see diann744's reviews of our previous cruises if you don't believe me).

 

I've seen the new Explore 4 almost-all-you-can-drink promotion and I think this is a terrible mistake on HAL's part. Yes, there are a few people who can manage to drink 15 drinks a day without attempting to do a swan dive off the side of the ship (again, see diann744's cruise reviews) but adding the cost of 15 drinks per day to the price of the cruise (see recent HAL brochure) vs. the price of the cruise without the Explore 4's almost-unlimited-drink-package will just (1) send people who don't drink running to another cruise line or different type of vacation (2) encourage people to make up the difference in price by taking off the auto-tip or, worse (3) encourage people to drink more than they should to get their money's worth for the cruise.

 

Terrified as I am of hitting the "post" button, here I go. Asbestos jammies, here I come.

[Mimosa09]

Celebrity also relaxes the rules about bringing wine on in ports on some itineraries. I'm taking a 9-night coastal wine cruise in September, and as far as I know they will allow wine to be brought aboard in port from the various vineyards.

 

This will be my first Celebrity cruise...the wine list is fantastic, and because we have the Premium drink package we can get a 30% discount on any bottle on their list.

 

I second what others have said about Royal Caribbean's wine list. It has improved a great deal over the past few years, and is now very good. They have a partnership with Caymus, and feature all their wines as well as many other good selections. You also have the option of a fantastic selection of wines by the glass or bottle at Vintages (the wine bar).

 

We took this cruise in 2011 and they did NOT relaxed the rules. We brought back wine after visiting some Canadian vineyards and they were taken to be given back at the end of the cruise :(. Saw this done through-out the cruise. Hope they will relax the rules for your cruise since there are many wine excursion opportunities on this cruise.

On a more positive note - yes, the wine selection on Celebrity is very good.

 

-Rose

[Mimosa09]

I really don't understand how the new policy prevents anyone from sampling local wines. It just means they cane be sampled in your room. There is nothing to prevent anyone from buying local wines and packing those wines home for enjoyment there. I have done that when I toured the Barossa Valley. I use a product called WineBags to pack them in my luggage safely. There are other, similar products on the market.

 

I fully intend on buying a couple of bottles of ice wine while I am in Quebec for this cruise, just as had planned before the policy changed. I will have one bottle at sail-away and will pay the corkage fee, the other bottle I was always planning on bringing back with me to Australia. And there is nothing in the new policy that will prevent me from doing so.

 

Kuddos to you for being successful in bringing back wine halfway around the world in these new WineBags! I would worry anyway about wine bottles breaking in my suitcase despite this new product & I wouldn't even be traveling as far as you. The other problem I have with packing wine in luggage is the weight and the lack of temperature control which, by the way, could affect the quality of the ice wine you are planning to take back.

Had some lovely wine when we were in Australia. Need to go back to try more......

-Rose

[GHDPeter]

Looks like this rumour came true http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1781593&page=1

[Mimosa09]

I've read repeatedly in this thread how great Celebrity's wine list and wine prices are.

What I don't understand is if they are so much more to your liking, why are you not sailing their ships? :confused: Even before HAL's policy change if you liked Celebrity's choices so much, why were you lugging wine to HAL when you could have simply enjoyed the wine list on board "X's" ships?

 

Doesn't make sense to me.

 

 

Having yet to sail on one of the Dam ships (hope to in January if we make the final payment & not switch to another cruiseline), I have always thought that HAL had very good itineraries. Love the food and wine selection on Celebrity, but HAL always seem to have better itineraries. I don't have experience with HAL's menus or their wine selection, but we were planning to just bring 2 bottles on & purchase some in the MDR. We also were planning on purchasing some in port after we finished the 2 we bring. Reading this thread has us a little concerned. Please tell me that the coffee is still from beans and not from "coffee syrup". I was hoping to leave the French Press behind on this cruise.

 

-Rose

[Mimosa09]

The sniffer dogs are all St. Bernards. Searching for vino and booze only.

 

Not in New Zealand. They are cute little Beagle dogs. (Don't pet! They are working dogs!). And they are searching for plant & animal material that may carry something that can affect their honeybees.

 

-Rose

[Mimosa09]

Just spoke to HAL in Australia, they were as shocked as I was, they hadn't even been told of the change themselves. My phone call was the first they heard of it.

 

It really impacts on us, my DH and I had booked our New Zealand trip, which is past final payment, on the premise that we could buy interesting NZ wines in Port to bring back on the ship. We can't do that now, and the HAL wine list is appallingly bad and expensive. I'm actually afraid to tell my DH, he will be devastated. If we had not made final payment we would have cancelled and gone Princess.

 

It won't impact on our South Pacific trip, not only did we get the Explore 4 package added but because of the warmer weather my DH drinks more beers and mixed drinks on that cruise.

 

However the 'upper' I got from the Explore 4 has now been slammed by the 'downer' of the new wine policy.

 

Oh... and the the wines on the South Island out of Dunedin - Otago Peninsula - loved them! Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir! Very, very good. I hope by the time you sail, HAL will have modified this present wine policy so you can enjoy them back on board.

 

-Rose

[KirkNC]

The sign was up on our Nieuw Amsterdam cruise (we got off on Friday). I did not see it and brought on one bottle in Monte Carlo and they did not say anything. I had it in my knapsack which went through the scanner. I noticed the sign the next day.

[erewhon]

Of course I can't provide proof, but I cas assure you that all bags are not x-rayed at every port. End of subject. Believe what you want to believe.

 

 

Last December, in Sydney, Australia, I was called down to the front office to unlock a bag as it was seen to contain a "dangerous weapon", the security officer looked at my little fruit knife with it's 2 inch blade, and I was permitted to return it into the bag to take to our stateroom.

 

While I was replacing items in the bag, another passenger opened his bag and had an iron removed, he was told it would be returned the last night of the cruise.

[Hgwells01]

Coooeeee cobbers, geesh you lot write buckets for an Aussie Gal to work thru, busy lot whilst I was asleep and its taken me hours to get thru it all. I think you should all take a load off and have a wine with me (its night time for me) and chill :D. Do any of you think HAL are reading this thread? Just wondering if they might see how they might have been a tad hasty with the new policy and relax it, have they been known to do a backflip before?

 

My TA suggested Amazara to me as an alt line that has good inclusions, mid range wines and spirits/ soda and coffees included along with laundry, longer stays in ports, tipping included etc, anyone been on one that can give me a heads up on how it compared to HAL? I'm looking at a 15 night cruise Singapore, Bangkok, Vietnam ending in Hong Kong next year. Don't care if they won't let me bring on a bottle of wine as its included and they are not really great wine producing areas

[sapper1]

Surfergirl, I can't see those posts with my iPad facebook app, very stange but I can see that section with my laptop using a browser.

 

I can't see them either on my iPad. However the Facebook iPad app uses a different format than a regular computer page so that may be the issue. I must try it on the desktop computer which I rarely use these days.

[Irish Eyes Are Sailing]

I sincerely feel your pain. walking around Europe and picking up a bottle of wine sounds like so much fun especially for a lover of wines. I'm sure that is the way HAL originally thought things would work out.

 

Fast Forward

 

Now it's people taking cabs to Publix and Total wine and arriving at the ship with cases of wine beer and soda, meanwhile they sell these things onboard. Do you want a guy selling slices of pizza outside of your pizzeria?

 

 

Agreed. I think your thoughts hit the bullseye.

 

Picking up a few "souveneir" bottles in a foreign port to enjoy onboard....nothing wrong with that. Bringing cases onboard, questionable, IMHO. Cruises longer than 14 days possibly should be the exception......

[RD64]

At the end of the day, despite all of the venting and threats to jump ship to another cruise line - where are people going to go? Princess did the same thing without warning this past February/March. According to another post, Azamara has the same restrictive policy. It does not appear that there are realistically any options at this price point.

 

Hopefully, HAL will beef up their practically non-existent wine service in the main dining room to the level it used to be.

[kazu]

At the end of the day, despite all of the venting and threats to jump ship to another cruise line - where are people going to go? Princess did the same thing without warning this past February/March. According to another post, Azamara has the same restrictive policy. It does not appear that there are realistically any options at this price point.

 

Hopefully, HAL will beef up their practically non-existent wine service in the main dining room to the level it used to be.

 

Princess does not have the same policy as the one that HAL is introducing.

 

There are several options - and cruise critic is a huge help if you want to save yourself a lot of digging - here's the link to alcohol policies of cruise lines

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=46

[Jade13]

 

My TA suggested Amazara to me as an alt line that has good inclusions, mid range wines and spirits/ soda and coffees included along with laundry, longer stays in ports, tipping included etc, anyone been on one that can give me a heads up on how it compared to HAL? I'm looking at a 15 night cruise Singapore, Bangkok, Vietnam ending in Hong Kong next year. Don't care if they won't let me bring on a bottle of wine as its included and they are not really great wine producing areas

 

Quest is our overall favorite cruise ship. Many say Azamara is the way that HAL used to be. We don't cruise with them more often because they only have 2 ships and most times both are in Europe and we are interested in other places around the world. We have done the cruise you are thinking of booking but went from Hong Kong to Singapore. The captain and crew walk around the ship and talk to the passengers. Great ship and crew. You can bring your own wine and there is a $10.00 corkage fee in the MDR. The price point is the same we have been paying on HAL because we are interested in the more exotic itineraries (we won't travel on either in the Caribbean). We travel on HAL, Azamara, and Celebrity, all three for different reasons.

Edited July 29, 2013 by Jade13

[PirateShark]

At the end of the day, despite all of the venting and threats to jump ship to another cruise line - where are people going to go? Princess did the same thing without warning this past February/March. According to another post, Azamara has the same restrictive policy. It does not appear that there are realistically any options at this price point.

 

Hopefully, HAL will beef up their practically non-existent wine service in the main dining room to the level it used to be.

 

You are correct there are no "realistic" options at "this" price point. That is why I'll forgo cruising every year in order to consider more Oceania cruises. Unlimited wine AND alcohol you can bring on. I've never brought on alcohol so that point is moot to begin with. We do have choices whether in the same price point or above. HAL apparently is fine with people moving on.

[ptsaint]

we have done a number of cruises on HAL - we are the ones who have brought on a case or two and slapped on a room tag

 

however, we are on board for more than 7 days in most cases - sometimes a month or more

 

it makes it lovely to bring on nice wine to share with friends - and we always buy wine packages to drink in the main dining room

 

we buy special bottles for special evenings in the Pinnacle and pay corkage - not a problem

 

we have always tried not to abuse the policy but I think this is a HUGE mistake

 

they should have at least advise those booked about the policy change

 

I have sent a request to our TA to ask about it

 

Patrice

[Tampa Girl]

Princess does not have the same policy as the one that HAL is introducing.

 

There are several options - and cruise critic is a huge help if you want to save yourself a lot of digging - here's the link to alcohol policies of cruise lines

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=46

 

 

Unfortunately, that list is not up to date, however. It shows HAL as being allowed to bring on wine. Doesn't show any restrictions. I also don't understand your comment about Princess. I think I misunderstood you earlier. First, I can't find on the Princess website anything about what you can bring onboard - alcohol or otherwise. But the article cited above says Princess only allows one bottle "at the beginning of the voyage" - like HAL. However, and this is where I think I misunderstood, additional bottles can be bought on board but there will be a 15% corkage fee, regardless of where consumer. Has that changed and, if so, where can I find it on their website? Thanks.

[meterman2]

I'm disappointed but I'm not shocked by this. My upcoming cruise will be our 13th cruise on HAL in 9 years and there have been cutbacks across the board. Lol, when we first sailed on HAL, specialty coffee drinks were free at the Explorations cafe, now they even charge you at the dining room for one.

 

Still not a "deal breaker" for us but I hope HAL starts to realize that they're harming their "brand" and what seperates them from the pack. As they drift closer to other cruise lines, it will all become become generic and their loyal base will erode. This happenned to the airlines years ago, and now most people look for the cheapest flight and quickest connection.

[cruz chic]

I can't see them either on my iPad. However the Facebook iPad app uses a different format than a regular computer page so that may be the issue. I must try it on the desktop computer which I rarely use these days.

Glad it wasn't just me. I did find it using my ipad. Most of the comments aren't worth reading because people seem a bit spoiled. When they start complaining about everything under the sun (not just the wine policy change) I think it's really in their best interest to look elsewhere.

[arewethereyet]

Unfortunately, that list is not up to date, however. It shows HAL as being allowed to bring on wine. Doesn't show any restrictions. I also don't understand your comment about Princess. I think I misunderstood you earlier. First, I can't find on the Princess website anything about what you can bring onboard - alcohol or otherwise. But the article cited above says Princess only allows one bottle "at the beginning of the voyage" - like HAL. However, and this is where I think I misunderstood, additional bottles can be bought on board but there will be a 15% corkage fee, regardless of where consumer. Has that changed and, if so, where can I find it on their website? Thanks.

Here is the current Princess alcohol policy directly from their website (today)

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.