Wine Questions

[CMHCruiseCouple]

I do not drink wine so I have no idea about the rules. We looked on Princess but it's not really clear to us. How many bottles can we carry on per person? We read that each additional bottle has a $15 corkage per bottle, no matter where it is consumed. How many additional bottles can you bring with you? Do all bottles need to be carried on? Thank you!

 

We just completed a 10-day SFO-Alaska-SFO cruise. There is an alcohol check-in station in the embarkation terminal at the top of the escalator. We brought our six bottles of wine (better than almost all the wines on board) to the table and logged them in. Our cabin was billed 4 x $15 corkage fees and two with no fee. Each bottle was given a specific sticker to indicate the fees were paid/checked-in. The stickers allow you to consume the wine at your dinner table or your cabin. You can bring as many bottles as you wish so long as you check them in.

 

I am happy to pay a simple corkage fee as per the Princess policy in order to bring our favorite wines. This is a generous compromise and a reason I cruise with Princess; other cruise lines are too stingy with onboarding of wine. We encourage others to not skimp, and to pay such a modest fee. This is a deal!

[floridalover5623]

Is it two bottles per cabin or one bottle per person? I am sailing solo and would love to bring two bottles.

You would think they would cut you some slack paying double for the cabin.

[MsSoCalCruiser]

You're welcome & glad the information was useful.

 

I've attempted to post following the example of our friend Pam but too often I have failed. ;)

You and our friend Pam are both appreciated :)

[linanles]

This is the Alcohol Policy cut and pasted direct from my luggage tag for my next cruise.

 

ALCOHOL POLICY

 

One 750ml bottle of wine or champagne per adult 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 per bottle, irrespective of where they are intended to be consumed.

Other liquors, spirits or beers are prohibited. Luggage is subject to search.

[MsSoCalCruiser]

This is the Alcohol Policy cut and pasted direct from my luggage tag for my next cruise.

 

ALCOHOL POLICY

 

One 750ml bottle of wine or champagne per adult 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 per bottle, irrespective of where they are intended to be consumed.

Other liquors, spirits or beers are prohibited. Luggage is subject to search.

Thank you!

[Scotto97]

As mentioned in previous posts, sometimes the wine check-in table is either not setup or not open yet when we have boarded. In that case we just go aboard, but are prepared to pay the $15 corkage at dinner depending on how aggressive the waiter is. It's very important if you do pay the $15 to make sure they have the stickers indicating such. Otherwise you may be hassled to pay corkage in the dining areas.

 

I'd like to hear more about experiences bringing wine on-board in ports. We'll be on a Coastal in wine country and this will help determine how many bottle we initially bring on board. If there's a strong chance we could keep the bottles with us from port, we would bring less at embarkation

 

Thanks

[XBGuy]

I'd like to hear more about experiences bringing wine on-board in ports. We'll be on a Coastal in wine country and this will help determine how many bottle we initially bring on board. If there's a strong chance we could keep the bottles with us from port, we would bring less at embarkation

 

Thanks

 

Scott, this topic came up a couple days ago here on Cruise Critic. Take a look at this conversation

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2526722

[Scotto97]

Scott, this topic came up a couple days ago here on Cruise Critic. Take a look at this conversation

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2526722

 

Thank you - I missed that one

[suzyed]

We just completed a 10-day SFO-Alaska-SFO cruise. There is an alcohol check-in station in the embarkation terminal at the top of the escalator. We brought our six bottles of wine (better than almost all the wines on board) to the table and logged them in. Our cabin was billed 4 x $15 corkage fees and two with no fee. Each bottle was given a specific sticker to indicate the fees were paid/checked-in. The stickers allow you to consume the wine at your dinner table or your cabin. You can bring as many bottles as you wish so long as you check them in.

 

I am happy to pay a simple corkage fee as per the Princess policy in order to bring our favorite wines. This is a generous compromise and a reason I cruise with Princess; other cruise lines are too stingy with onboarding of wine. We encourage others to not skimp, and to pay such a modest fee. This is a deal!

 

I agree! I am still wondering what they do if you bring on bottles of wine from the various ports? Do they just charge the corkage when you get back on board?

[CMHCruiseCouple]

What I have seen is hard liquor purchased in port is held until the end of the cruise. It is tagged for "safe keeping" at the top of the gangway by security.

 

I have not purchased wine in port in several years, but was allowed to bring on board Princess ships after signing for a corkage fee to my account. Perhaps others have more current information to share. Cheers!

 

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[laktex]

In 2012 we brought on a case of wine when we were sailing out of FLL. We put a luggage tag on it and checked it. I think the rules might have been changed since then, but each night when we brought a bottle to dinner, we were charged the corkage fee.

 

We now usually only carry on the two bottles we are allowed to without a corkage fee. We buy one of the wine packages offered and have those at dinner or if we go to a show or trivia, we can usually pick up one of the bottles in the package from the various bars. They give you a punch card and mark it for each bottle used.

Last cruise to the Panama Canal, the first day, on the pool bar at Sailaway they were offering one of the Proseccos on their menu for a very good price and you could purchase as many as you wanted and they held it there for you!

 

Next year we are cruising in the Med and I would love to sample the various wines from the region as we have done in the past. We were never charged then (2010) in any of the ports we brought on bottles (except when brought to the dining room). I'm hoping that will still be the case next year.

 

Anyone have recent experience with this?

 

We boarded in Southampton in July with two bottles of Champagne and two bottles of wine in our carry-on, nothing was said and we just paid corkage if we took it to the dining room. Our friends did likewise and one evening we took two bottles to the dining room and were only charged one corkage amount. Very reasonable.

[Astro Flyer]

Scott, this topic came up a couple days ago here on Cruise Critic. Take a look at this conversation

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2526722

 

I agree! I am still wondering what they do if you bring on bottles of wine from the various ports? Do they just charge the corkage when you get back on board?

This link was previously posted in this thread for another discussion about experiences with bringing wine from ports.

[floridalover5623]

I agree! I am still wondering what they do if you bring on bottles of wine from the various ports? Do they just charge the corkage when you get back on board?

Anytime we return to the ship and board with any alcohol I just walk right past the check in desk. I've never checked anything but there no guarantees.

I've read that they'll allow wine at each port. Again, nothing official.

[Aussiemate]

Cost $15 to bring to dining room. I like how Princess offers BYO wine. They will hold unfinished bottles for next dinner. We always bring some nice Aussie wines. Haven't seen recent price list for wines sold on board, but with paying $15 corkage we are well ahead.

[JimmyVWine]

 

I am happy to pay a simple corkage fee as per the Princess policy in order to bring our favorite wines. This is a generous compromise and a reason I cruise with Princess; other cruise lines are too stingy with onboarding of wine. We encourage others to not skimp, and to pay such a modest fee. This is a deal!

THIS!!

 

We have embarked from ports that had tables set up on the far side of the metal detectors. You walk over and show them what you are bringing on. They ask you which bottles you want as your "free" bottles. Those do not get stamped or stickered. (If they did, you could carry those into the dining room and the staff there would think you had already paid the fee for them when you haven't.) The other bottles are tallied and stamped. They write down your cabin number and the amount to be charged and the charge will show up on your cabin statement as a dining room charge. Ours has always said "Sabatini's".

 

We have also embarked from ports where there was no table and you just walk on. In those instances, corkage was assessed in the dining room.

 

We have never been denied boarding with a bottle or two at a port of call. Never paid at the time of re-boarding, but charged corkage when taking those bottles to the dining rooms.

[CMHCruiseCouple]

JimmyVWine - <<Big Grin>> exactly! I see folks try to work the smugglers game on other cruise lines, the naughty room walk of shame, et.al. Heck, there is a cottage industry of smugglers gear, for heavens sakes.

 

The procedure you describe above matches my experience.

 

Princess has a reasonable approach to my eye, and often tips the scales when I evaluate/score potential cruises. We arrive a day or three prior to departure, and one activity is wine shopping. We recently walked on the Grand with 6 bottles of very nice wine never seen on the ship, paid 4 × $15 (two free bottles) and were on our way. On that cruise we purchased two additional bottles of high end wine hard to get in the States at near street price. Sooooo, we win with the wines we want and so does Princess.

 

Cheers!

 

Sent from my SM-G950U using Forums mobile app

[XBGuy]

JimmyVWine - <<Big Grin>> exactly! I see folks try to work the smugglers game on other cruise lines, the naughty room walk of shame, et.al. Heck, there is a cottage industry of smugglers gear, for heavens sakes.

 

The procedure you describe above matches my experience.

 

Princess has a reasonable approach to my eye, and often tips the scales when I evaluate/score potential cruises. We arrive a day or three prior to departure, and one activity is wine shopping. We recently walked on the Grand with 6 bottles of very nice wine never seen on the ship, paid 4 × $15 (two free bottles) and were on our way. On that cruise we purchased two additional bottles of high end wine hard to get in the States at near street price. Sooooo, we win with the wines we want and so does Princess.

 

Cheers!

 

Sent from my SM-G950U using Forums mobile app

 

I have also consistently experienced the exact same boarding procedure. When we go through the security scanner, generally, one of the agents points us over to the desk. Once the agent carried my wine over to the desk.

 

I am also going to agree with CruiseCouple on the pricing of the high-end wines on the Princess wine lists. In fact I'll go one better. Last year, on the SHARE wine list, they had at least two wines listed for less than street price. We plan to visit SHARE again (multiple times) when we cruise on the Ruby Princess this summer. We'll see if those wines are still available at such great prices. I will be bringing my own wine on board, but I will also be scouring the Princess lists for good deals.