Bringing two Bottles of Wine or Buying Bottles on Board?

[Johnamac123]

Can anyone give me a guess of what an average bottle of Merlot would cost on Navigator? Trying to decide if it's worth it to bring my own and pay the corkage fee or not...

Edited November 28, 2018 by Johnamac123

[Clarea]

Figure about 3 times what you would pay retail.

[Wilson]

We have never been charged a corkage fee.

[gerif]

Definitely bring your own. 

[brandy3415]

$50-$75

[Johnamac123]

Thank you everyone!! There's a CVS (recommended) two blocks from my hotel in Miami, thankfully...

 

Edited November 28, 2018 by Johnamac123

[MikeNTeriAZ]

Maybe this is a dumb question but when you take the wine onboard, where are you putting it? In the carryon or in your luggage?   Haven't carried on wine before but am this time on Emerald Princess on this coming Thursday. 

[Clarea]

14 minutes ago, MikeNTeriAZ said:

Maybe this is a dumb question but when you take the wine onboard, where are you putting it? In the carryon or in your luggage?   Haven't carried on wine before but am this time on Emerald Princess on this coming Thursday. 

 

Best to go in the carry-on.

[MikeNTeriAZ]

1 minute ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Best to go in the carry-on.

Thank you so much!

 

[drneal]

1 hour ago, Wilson said:

We have never been charged a corkage fee.

👍

thanks for the info

[SRF]

If you put it in your checked bags, you may have to go to the naughty room to collect your bag.

 

We always carry it on.

[LB_NJ]

If you have access to a real wine store you may have a better selection of wine.

[bowler15547]

To give you an idea... I enjoy Caymus on occasion, which is $85 in the state store in Pennsylvania, it is $124+18% gratuity on board. 

[teacherman]

We once ordered a bottle of wine to go with our dinner when we were on a ship.  The waiter served the wine ($45 plus 18% tip) and asked if we had ever had this particular wine previously.   I replied "Yes, we buy it at Costco for $7.99".  He looked stunned and then just laughed.

[Clarea]

36 minutes ago, bowler15547 said:

To give you an idea... I enjoy Caymus on occasion, which is $85 in the state store in Pennsylvania, it is $124+18% gratuity on board. 

 

That's not a bad markup, percentage wise, better than a typical restaurant.  The worst markups, percentage wise, are the inexpensive wines, such as Beringer White Zin.

[MikeNTeriAZ]

4 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

That's not a bad markup, percentage wise, better than a typical restaurant.  The worst markups, percentage wise, are the inexpensive wines, such as Beringer White Zin.

 

You are so right. And it's funny...that's what we're taking on board. No judgment please. 😉  It's what we like and that's that.  I did notice when we had the drink package with RCCI in Alaska, I seemed to get such a 'look' or attitude from the waiters when that was what we ordered.  Oh well.  I know what I like and it's sweet cheap wine.  At least I'm not dragging Boones Farm or Night Train Express on. haha.

Leaving tomorrow. Thanks everyone for your comments. 

 

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, MikeNTeriAZ said:

 

You are so right. And it's funny...that's what we're taking on board. No judgment please. 😉  It's what we like and that's that. ...

 

 

You would have drinking friends with John & Laura.

[drneal]

We have 2 cabins.

Us in one and the kids - 16 and 12 next door.

Do I get to bring 4 bottles on board or should I put one adult and one minor

in each cabin ?

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, drneal said:

We have 2 cabins.

Us in one and the kids - 16 and 12 next door.

Do I get to bring 4 bottles on board or should I put one adult and one minor

in each cabin ?

 

The rule is only 2 bottles for the stateroom with adults.  What you can get away with is many times a different story.

[Preacherman46]

16 hours ago, MikeNTeriAZ said:

Maybe this is a dumb question but when you take the wine onboard, where are you putting it? In the carryon or in your luggage?   Haven't carried on wine before but am this time on Emerald Princess on this coming Thursday. 

We have a wine carrier now but in the past we put it in a bubble wrap kind of thing for wine and put it in the carryon

[KelJ]

If you purchased the deluxe beverage package, you will get discounts on bottles of wine.  I wonder if any bottles are priced at exactly $100, as Royal's website says "40% discount on bottles of wine under $100 and 20% off bottles above $100."

[Ewing]

On 11/28/2018 at 1:18 PM, Wilson said:

We have never been charged a corkage fee.

 

They tried to charge corkage on Ovation this month.

 

I pointed out that we've never been charged corkage in years of bringing 2 bottles on each cruise and if they want to charge it we'll just get individual glasses of wine on our drinks package and save the bottle for later.

 

Corkage was magically waived.

 

(I have a very extensive wine cellar with a 200 bottle wine fridge at home for wine that's ready to drink plus managed cellarage so take two bottles of really good wine on every cruise)

[KelJ]

16 minutes ago, Ewing said:

 

They tried to charge corkage on Ovation this month.

 

I pointed out that we've never been charged corkage in years of bringing 2 bottles on each cruise and if they want to charge it we'll just get individual glasses of wine on our drinks package and save the bottle for later.

 

Corkage was magically waived.

 

(I have a very extensive wine cellar with a 200 bottle wine fridge at home for wine that's ready to drink plus managed cellarage so take two bottles of really good wine on every cruise)

Charging the corkage fee has been the policy for a while now. You can open your wine in your cabin and enjoy it there or pour it into glasses and carry the glasses anywhere you want. But if you carry your bottle into any venue, open or not, they are supposed to charge the corkage fee. By raising a fuss, I’m sure they thought you wouldn’t tip them so they backed off from doing what they are supposed to do. 

[Ewing]

23 minutes ago, KelJ said:

By raising a fuss, I’m sure they thought you wouldn’t tip them so they backed off from doing what they are supposed to do. 

 

This was in Chops and service was excellent so we tipped them what the corkage would have been and then some. Even as Australians on cruises out of Australia we always tip unlike most others (probably helps that I spend about 2 months a year in the USA so am very used to tipping) 🙂

 

I didn't really raise a fuss. I just mentioned that we hadn't been charged corkage before (we had two cabins and had already gone through three other bottles in other restaurants on just that cruise with no mention of it) and that we'll save the wine for later and have glasses of wine from our drinks package instead. That's when it was waived.

 

After the tip they gave us a heads up. If the wine is a brand they sell onboard then they think you've purchased it on the ship and won't charge corkage. That made sense as the other bottles were vintage versions of what they already have like a delicious 2006 Perrier-Jouët. The fourth bottle of wine was a bit more special and unique (we'd saved that one for last).

 

I didn't actually know about the corkage policy until I looked it up after we were seated at the restaurant. Next cruise we'll just enjoy the wine in our cabins 🙂

Edited November 29, 2018 by Ewing

[not-enough-cruising]

1 hour ago, KelJ said:

Charging the corkage fee has been the policy for a while now. You can open your wine in your cabin and enjoy it there or pour it into glasses and carry the glasses anywhere you want. But if you carry your bottle into any venue, open or not, they are supposed to charge the corkage fee. By raising a fuss, I’m sure they thought you wouldn’t tip them so they backed off from doing what they are supposed to do. 

It makes ZERO sense to charge corkage fee to someone that has a drink package. I was told by the head waiter on Harmony this July that the fee should be waived for those with deluxe package. FWIW I haven’t been charged in quite a while.