Wine

[ehschief]

Previously on HA cruises we were allowed to bring more than one bottle of wine each. I just read the policy has changed. We are doing a transatlantic with a lot of sea days and it gets expensive buying drinks. Has anyone had experience with the new policy, do they rally take your wine or charge $18.00 corkage fee?

[jtl513]

Usually yes, although there have been reports of people slipping by in some places ...

[sail7seas]

Previously on HA cruises we were allowed to bring more than one bottle of wine each. I just read the policy has changed. We are doing a transatlantic with a lot of sea days and it gets expensive buying drinks. Has anyone had experience with the new policy, do they rally take your wine or charge $18.00 corkage fee?

 

They are enforcing the new wine policy though, as Jtl referenced, there have been a few reports of some folks being passed through but do not count on that. It is not the norm.

 

[PathfinderEss]

Yes, you either pay the $18.00 corking fee or they take your wine.

[POA1]

Yep. You can have one bottle per adult, free of charge for in room consumption. After that it's $18 per bottle corkage.

[crystalspin]

What I realized on our recent Cape Horn cruise on the Zaandam, where we took on one bottle apiece bought in the passenger terminal for $15/bottle -- nice local wines! -- was that $15+$18 = $33 for a bottle of Malbec or Carmenere with some character and chosen by MOI, is a lot better than $44+15%, call it $50, for a bottle of insipid table wine "chosen" by the wine steward, that we ended up buying when we ran out.

 

We will be taking at least 6 bottles (perhaps Tempranillo in respect to our Spanish ports!), paying corkage on 4 of them, on our upcoming transatlantic. And happily.

[BellBoys]

We just sailed with four of us in two rooms and brought a case of wine onboard. I simply told the concierge that of the 12 bottles 4 could be counted as our free allotment and to bill us the remaining 8 bottles at $18 per bottle. It was handled extremely well and there were no issues.

Edited February 11, 2015 by BellBoys

[Zyzygy]

On our New Years cruise on Westerdam there was a small stand to the side of the initial check-in counter where you could pay the $18 fee for bottles in addition to the one bottle pp allowance. The attendant simply wrote up a charge and there were no problems.

 

To avoid the risk of having your wine confiscated at the gangway, I believe it would be advisable to look for the stand at embarkation and make sure that the fee is paid before trying to board.

 

I would not want to start a cruise by having to negotiate a ransom for my wine.

 

Having said that, we were allowed to bring on an additional bottle pp at one of the ports of call. We made no attempt to hide the wine and they made no attempt to charge us for it. I don't know if we were just lucky or if they were willing to treat the bottles as part of the free allowance, even if brought on board at a port of call.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We have seen the table set up by the x-ray machine many times. On embarkation day and port days.

This is why HAL asks that you bring your wine on board in your carry-ons.

[ehschief]

Thank you, will abide by the one bottle rule, I think all lines are doing this now...not a problem, just wanted to know what to expect.

[galensgrl]

I am reading this thread and as new HAL pax I have a question regarding wine brought on to be enjoyed during dinner. If I bring a few bottles of wine to be enjoyed (one at a time! LOL) at dinner, do I bring it to the restaurant/MDR before dinner to be chilled? Or do I chill it in our cabin and bring it with me when we go to dinner? I know I will have to pay $18 corkage for each bottle consumed in a dining venue. Also I read in a SBP thread that the SBP covers one bottle of wine per day, but I haven't read it anywhere else but that one odd post on a thread regarding wine and SBP's. I tend to doubt the bottle of wine thing because I can't imagine they would let you have an entire bottle on your SBP card when it's limited to $7 maximum per drink, 15 drinks per day. For the wines I know I like and are very reasonable on land, I am thinking I will bring a few bottles with me. Thanks in advance for any info. Less than 2 months for our first HAL cruise - we are psyched! :D

 

Lorie

[freestyling]

we typically chill our wine in our stateeroom before heading with it to dinner. I do not believe you can order a bottle using SBP however you couldorder a glass as long as it is less than $6.95.

[crystalspin]

@ galensgrl

 

You will pay the corkage on all bottles brought on board over the one-per-adult allowed. Whether or not you take them to the dining rooms. Have all wine with you, not checked, so they can collect and put the sticker on your paid ones. You will also pay corkage on the "free" one if you take it to the dining room, so I'm sure you'll figure out where to drink that one! (Get a corkscrew from your cabin steward or a bar tender.) However it is going to be worth it for us on our up-coming Transatlantic, to take our choice of wine, as we discovered after only taking our free ones on our recent South American cruise.

 

I would chill it myself, but if that is awkward, I'm also (pretty) sure they will do it for you if you take it the night before or in the morning of. But your steward will call bar service to empty your fridge of the mini-bar items if you ask... If it takes too long for this to happen, you can pull everything out yourself, and leave a very nice note asking for bar service to remove... the stewards have A LOT to do; ours forgot to empty until we made this move.

 

If I were going to have the SBP, I would bring on only my own wines for room consumption and experiment in the dining rooms.

Edited March 10, 2015 by crystalspin

[DaveOKC]

we typically chill our wine in our stateeroom before heading with it to dinner. I do not believe you can order a bottle using SBP however you couldorder a glass as long as it is less than $6.95.

 

Of course, you can order more than one glass at dinner - it just has to be at least 5 minutes apart.

[redheaney]

In regard to the beverage package...

15 drinks maximum a day with a cap of $7 per drink... I understand that there is no "sharing" but if one wanted to purchase someone else a drink, with whom they might be chatting, that would then be rung up separately, whether the 15 drink maximum is reached on any given day?

 

Am hoping the question makes sense! LOL. Seems a shame not to be able to be hospitable without spending another fortune on top of the $700/$800 already spent!

[RuthC]

In regard to the beverage package...

15 drinks maximum a day with a cap of $7 per drink... I understand that there is no "sharing" but if one wanted to purchase someone else a drink, with whom they might be chatting, that would then be rung up separately, whether the 15 drink maximum is reached on any given day?

Even with the beverage card limitations, you are always free to purchase someone else a drink using your cabin card. The drink would then be charged to your on-board account.