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Cost of HAL wines

LindaM

By LindaM,
in Holland America Line

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LindaM

LindaM

Posted
Posted

This is another reason why we seriously need to rally together to get HAL to allow us to bring wine on, with a corkage.

 

I just did a search of the wines in the Navigator and Admiral packages. Onboard, we are paying (with tip) $35 and $48 per bottle average. I searched all the wines....in the Nav. package, the prices average $9. In the Admiral package, the bottles average $11.

 

We usually buy $6-$10 euro wine. Even with the corkage, we would still save $$$. Wish I liked the Princess small ships. I may have to lower my standards and pray they replace the mattresses!!

 

There is an online site that allows a search of most wines, which was a great help!

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sail7seas

sail7seas

Posted
Posted
Thanks for the info! As 3*, we get a discount on the wine packages, and still consider them a poor value ;) even though they end up costing less than wine we bring aboard and pay corkage for.

 

 

Pricing aside, we just don't like the wines offered in those packages.

 

The one time we bought a package, when we saw the selection we cancelled the package immediately and never tried it again.

 

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CowPrincess

CowPrincess

Posted
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Pricing aside, we just don't like the wines offered in those packages.

 

The one time we bought a package, when we saw the selection we cancelled the package immediately and never tried it again.

 

 

We don't like the wines either -- that's why we find no value in the packages. We do find value in bringing our preferred wines aboard and paying the corkage fee, even though our cost ends up being greater.

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iamwiz82

iamwiz82

Posted
Posted

I guess I see it as this- HAL has a stupid (IMHO) policy of allowing unlimited wine to be brought on board. To compensate, they charge ridiculous amounts for the wines you may purchase onboard.

 

The whole design is flawed to me. BYOB must be limited and wine prices must be reigned back.

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LindaM

LindaM

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I guess I see it as this- HAL has a stupid (IMHO) policy of allowing unlimited wine to be brought on board. To compensate, they charge ridiculous amounts for the wines you may purchase onboard.

 

The whole design is flawed to me. BYOB must be limited and wine prices must be reigned back.

 

 

Where have you been??? Hal is not allowing unlimited wine as of Jan. 2014. Do you really believe HAL will reign prices back? If they are jacking up prices beyond what people realized, it "ain't gonna happen". The best we can do is rally on Facebook and social media to get them to allow a corkage. That way, they will make the money they need and want to make. Now, please tell me your plan for getting them to lower the wine prices. There's a whole group of us here who are interested!

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SeaBands

SeaBands

Posted
Posted

we will bring wine with us or buy the Canaletto wines. They seem to be priced fairly but most wines are 4X retail and HAL doesn't pay retail. Price like a restaurant does and there will be no need to bring wine. Change the pricing and sell more wine.

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innlady1

innlady1

Posted
Posted
This is another reason why we seriously need to rally together to get HAL to allow us to bring wine on, with a corkage.

 

I just did a search of the wines in the Navigator and Admiral packages. Onboard, we are paying (with tip) $35 and $48 per bottle average. I searched all the wines....in the Nav. package, the prices average $9. In the Admiral package, the bottles average $11.

 

We usually buy $6-$10 euro wine. Even with the corkage, we would still save $$$. Wish I liked the Princess small ships. I may have to lower my standards and pray they replace the mattresses!!

 

There is an online site that allows a search of most wines, which was a great help!

 

 

I'm with you....the mattresses on Princess are horrendous...like sleeping on a slab of concrete. :rolleyes:

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kazu "Live from...." Rare

kazu

Posted
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Can we order the Canaletto wines in other venues? That was one bottle we really enjoyed.

 

apparently others have said that they have done it. I didn't know it could be done either.

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lovetocruise2020

lovetocruise2020

Posted
Posted

We will be buying Canaletto wines, (too bad no Chianti) and bringing our dessert wines, sangria, and almond champagne and sparkling shiraz...

 

Then next year we will be on the Royal Princess, racing to the spa to try and book cabanas and sanctuary (stressful as it is SO important to us) :( and sleeping in a brand new mattress, (thank God) and eating cold room service :( (not booking a suite on Royal, because they took away Thermal Suite access, free internet and the balconies are very small) but our mini suite had 2 rooms, a tub, and a giant balcony! We really love it. We are going to try and book ultimate balcony breakfast each day, so we can have a hot breakfast :( wish our beloved HAL would get it together, so we didn't have to...

 

The Noordam now has a Retreat, and she looks like an amazing ship! Wish we were going to be on her, but alas, Princess lacking the hot room service, retractable roof pool, and ability to book cabanas etc in advance, wins over HAL dumping on us, and acting like they didn't... And $15 corkage fee to have what we want, wins over having to special order a case of each and every type of sparkling wine, Sangria and dessert wine we want...

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happyglobetrotter

happyglobetrotter

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The only way to protest effectively is to not buy the wines. If it impacts on their profits they might re-consider their policy. Unfortunately we will just suck it up and pay the price.

 

 

What will that change...the protest and not buying the wine. Right now people are not buying the wine in drove !!!! Only a few are drinking wine on a typical night in the MDR. Except when wine (cheap wine) is offered complimentary, then they do drink and a lot !!!!!

 

This wine issue is just about money. People are used to have access to unexpensive wine (the one they bring on) and they refuse to pay more. It is all about change and money, not great taste for great wine.

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luvcruisn'

luvcruisn'

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Posted
Right now people are not buying the wine in drove !!!! Only a few are drinking wine on a typical night in the MDR. Except when wine (cheap wine) is offered complimentary, then they do drink and a lot !!!!!

 

On my last cruise in April on the Eurodam in the Mediterranean, I did the open dining, and I was seated with different people each night. Most of them ordered a bottle of wine or had an open bottle being stored for them, some of them had two bottles on the table for one couple. I saw a lot of wine being drunk that cruise, both in the MDR, and in the cabanas on the Lido deck.

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smoothsailors

smoothsailors

Posted
Posted

:mad:Please don't make broad assumptions...it is NOT just about money. I can assure you that we will spend more at the bar for martinis with the current policy/winelist but will not pay over-inflated prices for mediocre $10 bottles of wine! Nor would we drink cheap wine just because it's "free". I believe there are many upset with the radical policy change who want quality wines and are willing to pay for them or a accept a corkage fee for bottles brought on during port calls.:cool:

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LindaM

LindaM

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What will that change...the protest and not buying the wine. Right now people are not buying the wine in drove !!!! Only a few are drinking wine on a typical night in the MDR. Except when wine (cheap wine) is offered complimentary, then they do drink and a lot !!!!!

 

This wine issue is just about money. People are used to have access to unexpensive wine (the one they bring on) and they refuse to pay more. It is all about change and money, not great taste for great wine.

 

Where is this complementary wine? At the Captain's parties?

 

What are you not comprehending??? People are saying they are willing to pay a corkage fee to drink better wine. What types of cruises are you referring to? On port intensive cruises, people do not drink as much. What part of agreeing to pay a corkage fee do you not understand?

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mudscraper

mudscraper

Posted
Posted
We will be buying Canaletto wines, (too bad no Chianti) and bringing our dessert wines, sangria, and almond champagne and sparkling shiraz...

 

Then next year we will be on the Royal Princess, racing to the spa to try and book cabanas and sanctuary (stressful as it is SO important to us) :( and sleeping in a brand new mattress, (thank God) and eating cold room service :( (not booking a suite on Royal, because they took away Thermal Suite access, free internet and the balconies are very small) but our mini suite had 2 rooms, a tub, and a giant balcony! We really love it. We are going to try and book ultimate balcony breakfast each day, so we can have a hot breakfast :( wish our beloved HAL would get it together, so we didn't have to...

 

The Noordam now has a Retreat, and she looks like an amazing ship! Wish we were going to be on her, but alas, Princess lacking the hot room service, retractable roof pool, and ability to book cabanas etc in advance, wins over HAL dumping on us, and acting like they didn't... And $15 corkage fee to have what we want, wins over having to special order a case of each and every type of sparkling wine, Sangria and dessert wine we want...

A Canaletto wine we really enjoyed was a Chilean wine- Errazuriz Merlot. Sadly we have only found it on our NYC sailings to Bermuda on the Veendam. It has not been available on our FLL or Seattle sailings. Hopefully it will show up again.

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kazu "Live from...." Rare

kazu

Posted
Posted
What will that change...the protest and not buying the wine. Right now people are not buying the wine in drove !!!! Only a few are drinking wine on a typical night in the MDR. Except when wine (cheap wine) is offered complimentary, then they do drink and a lot !!!!!

 

This wine issue is just about money. People are used to have access to unexpensive wine (the one they bring on) and they refuse to pay more. It is all about change and money, not great taste for great wine.

 

On my last cruise in April on the Eurodam in the Mediterranean' date=' I did the open dining, and I was seated with different people each night. Most of them ordered a bottle of wine or had an open bottle being stored for them, some of them had two bottles on the table for one couple. I saw a lot of wine being drunk that cruise, both in the MDR, and in the cabanas on the Lido deck.[/quote']

 

luvcruisin' - we have the same experiences. In fact, on our last two Prinsendam cruises, they ran out of the few wines we found palatable and had to substitute:eek: This was 1/2 way during the cruise - not near the end.

 

There were lots of wine bottles on the table and they were HAl wines.

 

As usual, one of the arguments is we are all cheapskates. I hate generalizations. Not the case at all, we got 17 mariner days from our on board spending last cruise. That's not exactly nothing nor cheap;)

 

And once again, some people are missing the point - if this type of change can be made so drastically at a moment's notice with no advice to those booked - what's next?

 

My heavens - HAl spent forever surveying about the smoking. Why didn't they ask some of us at least our thoughts? This could have had a very happy ending if they had decided to get some input from their customers and then come to a reasonable solution that allowed them to make money and keep their clients happy at the same time.

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nedward

nedward

Posted
Posted
:mad:Please don't make broad assumptions...it is NOT just about money. I can assure you that we will spend more at the bar for martinis with the current policy/winelist but will not pay over-inflated prices for mediocre $10 bottles of wine! Nor would we drink cheap wine just because it's "free". I believe there are many upset with the radical policy change who want quality wines and are willing to pay for them or a accept a corkage fee for bottles brought on during port calls.:cool:

Exactly! Thank you!

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