Alcohol on Princess cruises

[lorri111]

Hi, am on Regal Princess next month and am after advice on alcohol. What are the prices of wine like on the ship? is it cheaper to bring your own and pay the $15 corkage? it has been a while since I have cruised and am not sure of protocol - can you take your own wine into dinner, and if you don't finish it can you take it back with you or do you leave it with the steward to bring out on another occasion? We are leaving from Barcelona, any advice on buying it before the cruise and getting it onboard? Thanks in advance :-)

[Astro Flyer]

Hi, am on Regal Princess next month and am after advice on alcohol. What are the prices of wine like on the ship? is it cheaper to bring your own and pay the $15 corkage? it has been a while since I have cruised and am not sure of protocol - can you take your own wine into dinner, and if you don't finish it can you take it back with you or do you leave it with the steward to bring out on another occasion? We are leaving from Barcelona, any advice on buying it before the cruise and getting it onboard? Thanks in advance :-)

Welcome to Cruise Critic & if you click on these links you can view a recent dining room wine list & info on the Princess wine package.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1939814

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=38600281&postcount=105

 

Each adult may bring 1) 750ml bottle of wine per cruise to drink in your cabin or to pay the $15 corkage fee in the dining room. You can bring additional bottles subject to a $15/bottle fee which can be consumed in the dining room without an additional fee.

 

Whether it's wine you bring onboard & pay $15 corkage or purchase from Princess, they will store your wine for another day. You can bring wine on at embarkation or from ports subject to the limits I posted. If you want to take wine home they say they'll keep it until the end of your cruise without paying a fee.

 

Hopefully this info will help you decide if it's cost-effective for you to bring wine or to purchase onboard. I generally bring a couple of bottles which I mostly drink in the dining room so I pay the $15 fee. On a recent long cruise I enjoyed the wine package in the dining room & drank the wine I carried onboard in our cabin.

Edited July 13, 2014 by Astro Flyer

[IECalCruiser]

Just to add a bit more information.

 

If you don't finish a bottle and leave it with your waiter (no wine stewards on board), you can go to a different dining room, Horizon Court or a specialty restaurant the next night and they will get the bottle for you.

 

They may let you bring a couple of bottles of wine on at later ports without a corkage fee.

 

At most we drink half a bottle in our room and half a bottle at dinner each night. We are sailing on the Regal in two months. Whatever we can bring on corkage free will be consumed in our cabin and we might buy a 7 bottle Silver package for dinner.

 

The only time we bring wine to the DR is on cruises out of LA when we drive to the port. We bring $20-$30 bottles of wine from local wineries and pay the corkage and that is a bargain. Otherwise we are happy with the wines around $30 on the Princess wine list.

 

 

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[Colo Cruiser]

Yes you can take it to the dining room. :)

They will hold onto any unfinished bottle till the next night.

[lorri111]

Thanks for the information all. I had not come across that silver and gold wine package in the info I saw on the Princess website - does it definitely apply to the Regal? Sounds like a good deal.

[Astro Flyer]

Thanks for the information all. I had not come across that silver and gold wine package in the info I saw on the Princess website - does it definitely apply to the Regal? Sounds like a good deal.

 

As I recall it's suppose to be available on all cruises of 10 days or more but even then it may not be offered. I've been on such cruises however sometimes it's unavailable due to a "lack of inventory". I've read that it's not available in Australia but should be an option on your Med cruise. I got the 12 bottle package with wines up to $45 and several times enjoyed wine a few dollars more. Another benefit for me was trying some new wines at a more affordable price.

 

So it should be available for you on the Regal as long as they have sufficient inventory of wine. For me it was a great option & hopefully it'll work well for you.

Edited July 13, 2014 by Astro Flyer

[suzyed]

Hi, am on Regal Princess next month and am after advice on alcohol. What are the prices of wine like on the ship? is it cheaper to bring your own and pay the $15 corkage? it has been a while since I have cruised and am not sure of protocol - can you take your own wine into dinner, and if you don't finish it can you take it back with you or do you leave it with the steward to bring out on another occasion? We are leaving from Barcelona, any advice on buying it before the cruise and getting it onboard? Thanks in advance :-)

 

We picked up some nice bottles of wine right at the port in Barcelona. There are shops there that sell wines and we even bought some soccer jerseys there as well! (At least 4 years ago this was the case)

[Fletch1]

As I recall it's suppose to be available on all cruises of 10 days or more but even then it may not be offered. I've been on such cruises however sometimes it's unavailable due to a "lack of inventory". I've read that it's not available in Australia but should be an option on your Med cruise. I got the 12 bottle package with wines up to $45 and several times enjoyed wine a few dollars more. Another benefit for me was trying some new wines at a more affordable price.

 

So it should be available for you on the Regal as long as they have sufficient inventory of wine. For me it was a great option & hopefully it'll work well for you.

 

 

This is correct.

[lorri111]

Does anyone know where it actually mentions this silver and gold wine package on the Princess website? I have done a search and all I come up with is some reference to a new inclusive beverage package for the horrendous price of $49pp per day.

[geoherb]

If they allow you to bring on additional bottles of wine at a port, your waiters are supposed to charge you the corkage fee if you drink the wine in the dining room. Any bottles that you've paid the corkage fee in advance at embarkation are marked.

[5326jan]

As I recall it's suppose to be available on all cruises of 10 days or more but even then it may not be offered. I've been on such cruises however sometimes it's unavailable due to a "lack of inventory". I've read that it's not available in Australia but should be an option on your Med cruise. I got the 12 bottle package with wines up to $45 and several times enjoyed wine a few dollars more. Another benefit for me was trying some new wines at a more affordable price.

 

So it should be available for you on the Regal as long as they have sufficient inventory of wine. For me it was a great option & hopefully it'll work well for you.

 

This was the case on our recent 16 day cruise. The reason given was that the ship had been sailing from a different port for months and they weren't able to restock reliably with the same brands. Since they couldn't promise to have all the wines in stock they couldn't offer the package. It was disappointing, but we did get to try some interesting new wines.

[IECalCruiser]

If they allow you to bring on additional bottles of wine at a port, your waiters are supposed to charge you the corkage fee if you drink the wine in the dining room. Any bottles that you've paid the corkage fee in advance at embarkation are marked.

You should be charged $15 corkage for any wine you bring on board and consume in one of the dining rooms or any other public space. The wines you pay corkage for at embarkation have stickers to show that corkage has been paid. If you bring one of your "corkage free" bottles to a DR you should be charged the $15 corkage. Some have posted they were not charged corkage, but we have never had that happen to us. We have paid corkage on as many as five bottles on a cruise with the same waitstaff.

 

 

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[suzyed]

You should be charged $15 corkage for any wine you bring on board and consume in one of the dining rooms or any other public space. The wines you pay corkage for at embarkation have stickers to show that corkage has been paid. If you bring one of your "corkage free" bottles to a DR you should be charged the $15 corkage. Some have posted they were not charged corkage, but we have never had that happen to us. We have paid corkage on as many as five bottles on a cruise with the same waitstaff.

 

 

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We brought an entire case of wine on our last cruise. When we brought a bottle to dinner, we were always charged a corkage fee. We left about a glass of wine in each bottle for our server. There was one wine that we were not that fond of so we gave him almost a whole bottle. He liked it and told us we were "too picky"! LOL! He was a great waiter! We enjoyed meeting him.

[Direwolves]

We have been on two cruises now and it seems that we drink less while we are gone then when we do when we are home. Not sure why, but the desire for booze on a cruise is decreased cause there is no stress.

 

Princess Cruiser's.

[RLK33853]

If you have favorites and/or it is convenient to bring the wine to port, then it is definitely cheaper to bring your own.

 

For example when we depart Ft Lauderdale, Total Wine is right there and they have a fabulous selection for great prices. Thus we buy and pay the corkage.

 

Other departures such as Los Angeles or some European ports don't have the selections we know or like near the port, so we buy wine on the ship.

 

Thus for us, convenience and selection sometime trumps cost.

[Astro Flyer]

Does anyone know where it actually mentions this silver and gold wine package on the Princess website? I have done a search and all I come up with is some reference to a new inclusive beverage package for the horrendous price of $49pp per day.

 

Unfortunately Princess has done a terrible job promoting the wine packages & it's not on their website. :(

 

Onboard you may see staff at small tables usually near the aft stairway/elevator area outside of the Horizon Court buffet. Your dining room waiter may ask you about it & a couple of months ago on the Golden they had a brochure to read. It seems that selling the package may provide staff with a benefit so I purchase it from my assistant waiter who's the one who actually gets the wine for us. :)

[Astro Flyer]

This is correct.

 

Thanks for confirming that fact & it's not a surprise than my wine drinking buddy would know the answer. ;)

[Astro Flyer]

This was the case on our recent 16 day cruise. The reason given was that the ship had been sailing from a different port for months and they weren't able to restock reliably with the same brands. Since they couldn't promise to have all the wines in stock they couldn't offer the package. It was disappointing, but we did get to try some interesting new wines.

 

I wonder if that's the reason or the lack of inventory is poor planning. It was not available on a 32 day Med/TA cruise yet on a more isolated & less cruised 31 day from Buenos Aires to LA it was available. In the Med they even ran out of soda & other elite minibar items during the 12 day segment & thus were unable to provide those items during turnaround day in Venice and had to wait until they resupplied at Civitavecchia. It wasn't just a lack of inventory for wine but also for soda and other things like the mini booze bottles provided with the minibar setup.

[Colo Cruiser]

I wonder if that's the reason or the lack of inventory is poor planning. It was not available on a 32 day Med/TA cruise yet on a more isolated & less cruised 31 day from Buenos Aires to LA it was available. In the Med they even ran out of soda & other elite minibar items during the 12 day segment & thus were unable to provide those items during turnaround day in Venice and had to wait until they resupplied at Civitavecchia. It wasn't just a lack of inventory for wine but also for soda and other things like the mini booze bottles provided with the minibar setup.

 

 

No excuse for that! :rolleyes: