Prices

[h & m]

Reminds me of a Sapphire Princess cruise Sydney - LA in 2008.  Our dear friend Serafino had 2 cases of wine shipped to Sydney for us - no problem getting them on board.

First cruise stop was Melbourne.  Mirella and Ray from our cruise critic group organised a tour there.  Champagne at Brighton Beach, a private tour of the Exhibition Hall , great lunch.   Our new American friends were most impressed with our last stop at Dan Murpys.  Staff there assumed we had been at sea for a long time (only 2 days)   as they helped load 12 trolley loads of grog into our mini bus.  Those were the days !

Edited June 29, 2022 by h & m
wrong date

[Mikey22]

I guess a lot of this has already been posted but this is from the 19th June Cruise

 

[MMDown Under]

2 hours ago, NSWP said:

Princess and HAL permit one bottle of plonk per person, no corkage. So for two in a cabin it is 2 bottles.  Some cruise lines, i.e. P&O Straya do not permit byo.

 

I like your handiwork Don, I hope the cruise lines don't pick up on it. eeeek.

 

Yep, I have done cruises where you could bring on anything, i.e. P&O UK Arcadia, Sydney to Southampton in 2012, brought on grog every port. As you said things have changed now, the cruise line bean counters see all the revenue they are losing by permitting byo.

I seem to remember you could bring on a bottle of wine in ports, but you may have had to go on a wine tour. 

[Sallyandtex]

5 hours ago, NSWP said:

Princess and HAL permit one bottle of plonk per person, no corkage. So for two in a cabin it is 2 bottles.  Some cruise lines, i.e. P&O Straya do not permit byo.

 

I like your handiwork Don, I hope the cruise lines don't pick up on it. eeeek.

 

Yep, I have done cruises where you could bring on anything, i.e. P&O UK Arcadia, Sydney to Southampton in 2012, brought on grog every port. As you said things have changed now, the cruise line bean counters see all the revenue they are losing by permitting byo.

Hi, I have been in contact with my HAL agent, and they have changed the policy for bringing your own bottle of wine, it is now $20 USD corkage per bottle!

[NSWP]

3 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

I seem to remember you could bring on a bottle of wine in ports, but you may have had to go on a wine tour. 

Checking shorex on Westerdam, on a a winery tour 1 bottle from the winery allowed on board, no corkage, big deal, lol.

[NSWP]

10 minutes ago, Sallyandtex said:

Hi, I have been in contact with my HAL agent, and they have changed the policy for bringing your own bottle of wine, it is now $20 USD corkage per bottle!

Thieves.

[arxcards]

@Mikey22 Thanks for the list. Milky Way martini within the plus cap - a couple of happy campers here. I can't wait until our longer cruise in October, to see if we can drink the spirits/cocktail menu in 11 nights.

[OzKiwiJJ]

15 hours ago, arxcards said:

@Mikey22 Thanks for the list. Milky Way martini within the plus cap - a couple of happy campers here. I can't wait until our longer cruise in October, to see if we can drink the spirits/cocktail menu in 11 nights.

That's the silly thing about the Plus package - almost all the cocktails are within the limit but the wine selection is pathetic. Unfortunately most cocktails don't go with food.

[Mikey22]

16 hours ago, arxcards said:

@Mikey22 Thanks for the list. Milky Way martini within the plus cap - a couple of happy campers here. I can't wait until our longer cruise in October, to see if we can drink the spirits/cocktail menu in 11 nights.

No Worries,

That was from just one of the Bars, they have various menus as they do on most Ships.

One thing we thought was funny though, on the second night we had a couple of drinks with Lunch and paced ourselves as we moved around the Ship.

We are not night owl’s but on this occasion we will still at Explorers Bar near midnight, one if us must have been getting close to the Drinks Cap because  I guy in uniform  appeared just off my shoulder.

I smiled at him and said hello and asked him what his role was, he replied he was the head of the security.

No problem, we finished up and went to bed.

It made me think was it a coincidence he just happened to be hanging around next to me or does the Medallion flag his team when you hit a certain amount of drinks?

Are they watching to see if there is any trouble when your Tab has come to an end?
It didn’t particularly bother me either way but it was strange.

He was there again on the last night, I had a joke with him.

Maybe he had me pegged😀 or maybe his Girlfriend worked in that Bar.

It was a good Cruise.

 

Edited June 30, 2022 by Mikey22

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, Mikey22 said:

No Worries,

That was from just one of the Bars, they have various menus as they do on most Ships.

One thing we thought was funny though, on the second night we had a couple of drinks with Lunch and paced ourselves as we moved around the Ship.

We are not night owl’s but on this occasion we will still at Explorers Bar near midnight, one if us must have been getting close to the Drinks Cap because  I guy in uniform  appeared just off my shoulder.

I smiled at him and said hello and asked him what his role was, he replied he was the head of the security.

No problem, we finished up and went to bed.

It made me think was it a coincidence he just happened to be hanging around next to me or does the Medallion flag his team when you hit a certain amount of drinks?

Are they watching to see if there is any trouble when your Tab has come to an end?
It didn’t particularly bother me either way but it was strange.

He was there again on the last night, I had a joke with him.

Maybe he had me pegged😀 or maybe his Girlfriend worked in that Bar.

It was a good Cruise.

 

Lol. They can sense Cruise Critic trouble from 10 paces.

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

That's the silly thing about the Plus package - almost all the cocktails are within the limit but the wine selection is pathetic. Unfortunately most cocktails don't go with food.

I can generally find a cocktail that goes with what I am eating.

 

Yes, wine drinkers are being stiffed with this, and more generally across most cruise lines. It is like wine is a concessional afterthought and not being considered as an alcohol beverage.

 

Even if they make an allowance for service, and they count a bottle of wine as 3 drinks on the cap for you and 3 for your partner. Even at a cap of $13 per drink, you should be able to get a bottle up to the value of $78 on the package. Even capped at a bottle per day, that should give ample choice for most wine drinkers to enjoy a half decent wine with dinner each night. 

 

Did you get to have a chat with the F&B manager?

[OzKiwiJJ]

29 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Lol. They can sense Cruise Critic trouble from 10 paces.

They didn't see me coming!🤣🤣🤣

[OzKiwiJJ]

23 minutes ago, arxcards said:

I can generally find a cocktail that goes with what I am eating.

 

Yes, wine drinkers are being stiffed with this, and more generally across most cruise lines. It is like wine is a concessional afterthought and not being considered as an alcohol beverage.

 

Even if they make an allowance for service, and they count a bottle of wine as 3 drinks on the cap for you and 3 for your partner. Even at a cap of $13 per drink, you should be able to get a bottle up to the value of $78 on the package. Even capped at a bottle per day, that should give ample choice for most wine drinkers to enjoy a half decent wine with dinner each night. 

 

Did you get to have a chat with the F&B manager?

We had a very detailed discussion with the ship's Bar Manager, who is an officer who reports to the F&B Manager. I summarised our discussion in a new thread.

 

Wine serves are 150ml so five serves to a bottle.

[getting older slowly]

This

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Wine serves are 150ml so five serves to a bottle.

This why one buys by the bottle..... have always allowed  $2000 for OBA for a 13 nights

 

If the prices go up much more.. we might go over....    but we are on holiday   and there is always one for the road...

 

Cheers Don

[arxcards]

5 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We had a very detailed discussion with the ship's Bar Manager, who is an officer who reports to the F&B Manager. I summarised our discussion in a new thread.

 

Wine serves are 150ml so five serves to a bottle.

Yes, I read up the page, and have since read your new topic.

 

I was just suggesting 6 as an allowance and example that they could allow a limited number of full bottles to be ordered within the plus package you have already paid the same for as beer/spirit/cocktail drinkers. Even if they work it out as 4 standard drinks each against your package based on alcohol content, they are miles ahead and you still get the chance to sample some better wines.

[arxcards]

New format for Cruise Critic meet & greets on Princess - 

 

[NSWP]

13 hours ago, getting older slowly said:

This

This why one buys by the bottle..... have always allowed  $2000 for OBA for a 13 nights

 

If the prices go up much more.. we might go over....    but we are on holiday   and there is always one for the road...

 

Cheers Don

2000 bucks for booze on a 13 dayer? By jove Don that is a lot of G and T.

 

[MicCanberra]

9 hours ago, arxcards said:

New format for Cruise Critic meet & greets on Princess - 

 

No thanks, although now we know why the house wine tastes like it does.

[getting older slowly]

28 minutes ago, NSWP said:

2000 bucks for booze on a 13 dayer? By jove Don that is a lot of G and T.

 

Well Les .... actually the 2k  is for all extras on the ship... The most we have spent is $1400 we help from the other half....  rule of thumb I say $100 per day for the two of us

[NSWP]

33 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

No thanks, although now we know why the house wine tastes like it does.

And they did not wash their feet either, lol.

[MicCanberra]

13 minutes ago, NSWP said:

And they did not wash their feet either, lol.

We know what hand washing and sanitising is like on board by so many, there is no way I am trusting their feet washing abilities.

[Aus Traveller]

On 6/29/2022 at 8:46 AM, getting older slowly said:

Les is right.... ridiculous price.... I remember one cruise we felt like a port to go with a wee bit of chocolate... as one does....   the only port on board was $25 per glass   ( rather small glass at that )   the next cruise   relabeled a couple of bottles muscat as Shiraz to take on board in carry on.....

 

they didn"t even check..... wondering if you can still take 2 bottles of wine onboard at the start for free  ???

 

Having said that  we carried a 2 bottles of NZ wines on at most port on last NZ cruise, put they through the scanner and nobody said anything..... thngs could have changed now

 

Don with Coffee in the lounge

With Princess you can take one bottle of wine each on board without the corkage charge. On the cruise that ended today corkage wasn't charged before we boarded so we assumed it would be charged when we took our wine to the dining room. It wasn't. 😁