Corkage

[lyndarra]

I have, on some previous cruises, taken my own wine on board. Usually it has to go in carry on as I have been asked if there was any alcohol in my checked bag. In the past corkage seemed to be randomly charged. The last time was on Ovation Dec 2017. My wife and I took two bottles each of our favourite wine. We enjoyed the wine with quite a few dinners then, out of the blue, one MDR waiter asked for corkage - $15/bottle at the time.

Fast forward to recent HAL cruise Sydney/Singapore. Asked again at bag check-in. This time I had two bottles of my favourite Piggs Peake 1 x Sangiovese and 1 x (red) Zinfandel aka Wolfie.

After going through check-in, then immigration, I had to produce my two bottles to a bloke at a small trable before boarding. He stuck a sticker on each bottle then wrote me a receipt for USD40 corkage (2 x USD20) then I took them on board. Hmm. In the past I've never had to pay corkage before boarding. There was two or three wine bottles on his table so I'm guessing these may have been left by passengers not wanting to pay. Maybe they got them back post cruise, IDK.

So, I got to enjoy my wine with no further problems - so I thought until I was casually checking my account a couple of days later. I was wrong. There was a charge from Sea View bar for $47.20. I couldn't recall having bought any drinks for that amount so I went to Guest Services to check. It was then I was told the amount was corkage charge plus 18% service charge. What!? I asked why, IMO, I was being charged a service charge on a service charge. The young man at the desk said it was policy Hhe seemed a little inexperienced so I pressed my point and he referred it to another bloke who said he would look into it and we left it at that. A couple of days later I checked my account and the Service charge had been refunded. Cool.

Yesterday I thought I would check the math on wine prices and corkage. I had a photo of the Oz wine list so I checked the price of wine by the glass. Prices ranged from USD9 to USD12 a glass. Add the 18% service charge then convert to AUD and it worked out close to one glass costing close to the same as one bottle OZ retail. I had Googled Oz wine prices for the wines on the menu. Wow. What a mark up. My bottles were 750ml and rated at a little over 8 standard drinks a bottle. I only have one glass of wine with dinner as I also drink water to cleanse my palate before or after each course. I get about 5-6 glasses from one bottle (as poured by waiters). Previously on HAL I had taken up a three bottle wine package (there was also a five bottle package IIRC). This may have been absent for this cruise as it wasn't offered).The average wine list price was about USD46/bottle or about AUD68.

I wont be carting wine to my next cruise in Alaska so I'll be go with whatever is on the list. It's only a seven day cruise so I'm not worried about what they may charge. It is what it is I s'pose and I don't drink enough to go for the HIA (Have It All).

 

 

 

 

[Ozwoody]

We've mostly travelled Princess, and always take a couple of bottles on with us to drink in the cabin. Then usually pick up additional bottles at ports we stop at, to again drink in the cabin.

We have never had a problem with Princess doing this, but a couple of people we have spoken with said they have.

I guess it depends on the person supervising the boarding staff, maybe if their new they get very "by the rules", and as they get more experienced they relax a little.

 

Earlier in our cruising, we could buy bottles for $28-$32 each, but over the years they have become so over priced we don't buy ship wine, so happy to have a glass just before dinner in our cabin.

 

We are however thinking we may take extra next cruise and pay the $15 aud Princess charges, and see how it goes.

 

Reards

 

[buchhalm]

That's a bit cheeky. 

I understand that the "norm " is to charge for corkage if you want to consume your stuff in public areas (and therefore would have waiter service). If you drink your wine in your cabin, there would be no charge. (Or take a glass of your wine with you from your cabin. Nobody would know...)

 

A inspection desk must be new.

Peehaps they were looking for people trying to take hard liqueur in a wine bottle? 

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 hours ago, lyndarra said:

I have, on some previous cruises, taken my own wine on board. Usually it has to go in carry on as I have been asked if there was any alcohol in my checked bag. In the past corkage seemed to be randomly charged. The last time was on Ovation Dec 2017. My wife and I took two bottles each of our favourite wine. We enjoyed the wine with quite a few dinners then, out of the blue, one MDR waiter asked for corkage - $15/bottle at the time.

Fast forward to recent HAL cruise Sydney/Singapore. Asked again at bag check-in. This time I had two bottles of my favourite Piggs Peake 1 x Sangiovese and 1 x (red) Zinfandel aka Wolfie.

After going through check-in, then immigration, I had to produce my two bottles to a bloke at a small trable before boarding. He stuck a sticker on each bottle then wrote me a receipt for USD40 corkage (2 x USD20) then I took them on board. Hmm. In the past I've never had to pay corkage before boarding. There was two or three wine bottles on his table so I'm guessing these may have been left by passengers not wanting to pay. Maybe they got them back post cruise, IDK.

So, I got to enjoy my wine with no further problems - so I thought until I was casually checking my account a couple of days later. I was wrong. There was a charge from Sea View bar for $47.20. I couldn't recall having bought any drinks for that amount so I went to Guest Services to check. It was then I was told the amount was corkage charge plus 18% service charge. What!? I asked why, IMO, I was being charged a service charge on a service charge. The young man at the desk said it was policy Hhe seemed a little inexperienced so I pressed my point and he referred it to another bloke who said he would look into it and we left it at that. A couple of days later I checked my account and the Service charge had been refunded. Cool.

Yesterday I thought I would check the math on wine prices and corkage. I had a photo of the Oz wine list so I checked the price of wine by the glass. Prices ranged from USD9 to USD12 a glass. Add the 18% service charge then convert to AUD and it worked out close to one glass costing close to the same as one bottle OZ retail. I had Googled Oz wine prices for the wines on the menu. Wow. What a mark up. My bottles were 750ml and rated at a little over 8 standard drinks a bottle. I only have one glass of wine with dinner as I also drink water to cleanse my palate before or after each course. I get about 5-6 glasses from one bottle (as poured by waiters). Previously on HAL I had taken up a three bottle wine package (there was also a five bottle package IIRC). This may have been absent for this cruise as it wasn't offered).The average wine list price was about USD46/bottle or about AUD68.

I wont be carting wine to my next cruise in Alaska so I'll be go with whatever is on the list. It's only a seven day cruise so I'm not worried about what they may charge. It is what it is I s'pose and I don't drink enough to go for the HIA (Have It All).

 

 

 

 

Typically the per glass pours are 150 ml on cruise ships, so 5 glasses to a bottle.

 

The markups are high, yes, but no more so than a decent restaurant on land. They have to source the wine, have it delivered, store it onboard (I wonder if they have special storage to minimize movement in rough seas?), chill wines that need it, priovide glasses, and serve it. Comparing the onboard price to bottle store prices is just absurd.

[windsor26]

Sydney has for a long time charged you at a table after going through xray and gives you stickers to put on the bottles over the one each allowed.  $15 is good on Oz bought wines that we like rather than some of the Californian offers on board which are expensive and not as nice as Oz wines   It appears that ships using the US$ on board will charge an additional 18%  or 15% (Princess)  which I think is shocking

[Jean C]

1 hour ago, buchhalm said:

That's a bit cheeky. 

I understand that the "norm " is to charge for corkage if you want to consume your stuff in public areas (and therefore would have waiter service). If you drink your wine in your cabin, there would be no charge. (Or take a glass of your wine with you from your cabin. Nobody would know...)

 

A inspection desk must be new.

Peehaps they were looking for people trying to take hard liqueur in a wine bottle? 

Hi, we've seen the "inspection" desk, a dude sitting at a small desk ready to take bottles off people who want them held until end of cruise (ie bought duty free by those travelling from overseas).

 

On a South America cruise pre pandemic Sea Princess allowed passengers to bring wine on board at each port. Very helpfully a lot of the local supermarkets sold well known brand spirits in wine-shaped bottles. Passengers would put their bag on the scanner belt and tell the operator "I have a couple of bottles of wine in there" and through it would go. Also we saw couples each take on a twin pack of wine bottles and not be challenged.

 

At Barbados the Appletons rum in the port terminal duty free shop was so cheap that Keith went back there and bought a couple of bottles. Happy for them to be held until end of cruise, but staff on duty were busy chatting and didn't notice the obvious spirits bottle shape, so we took them straight to our cabin. Ironically, we didn't need to drink the alcohol and disembarked with the bottles intact 🤣

[cruiser3775]

20 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

The markups are high, yes, but no more so than a decent restaurant on land. They have to source the wine, have it delivered, store it onboard (I wonder if they have special storage to minimize movement in rough seas?), chill wines that need it, priovide glasses, and serve it. Comparing the onboard price to bottle store prices is just absurd.

I agree that there are hidden costs in providing wine on cruise ships, and I would expect to pay a premium, possibly comparable with the markup charged in Australian restaurants. So,  in a restaurant I'll pay $50 for a bottle that retails for $20 -25.  But when Princess charges $56 a bottle for an el cheapo irrigation belt wine that retails for $6, it is a whole new level of exploitation of cruise ship passengers.

[arxcards]

4 hours ago, cruiser3775 said:

I agree that there are hidden costs in providing wine on cruise ships, and I would expect to pay a premium, possibly comparable with the markup charged in Australian restaurants. So,  in a restaurant I'll pay $50 for a bottle that retails for $20 -25.  But when Princess charges $56 a bottle for an el cheapo irrigation belt wine that retails for $6, it is a whole new level of exploitation of cruise ship passengers.

Only if people keep on buying it.

[NSWP]

52 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Only if people keep on buying it.

If people stopped buying at those stupid prices Princess and the rest of the cruise lines might wake up.

If they charged say $25 instead of $55 for a $6 bottle of plonk like Markview or DeBortoli Willowglen then they would surely sell more? 

[cruiser3775]

I wouldn't buy it for $25.  It is demeaning to Princess that they even have this sort of bottom quality wine on offer.  They are relying on a captive audience and unfamiliarity with Australian wines, which is fair enough certainly for overseas visitors.   I sat at a table with some people from Canada who ordered a bottle of the Willowglen and didn't finish even one glass each. They were very diplomatic, but I understood that they were disappointed with this Australian wine and, to them, it reflected badly on Australian wines in general.   If Princess are promoting a quality standard in their dining rooms, they need to lift their game with their wine choices and reduce the exploitative mark-ups.

[OzKiwiJJ]

23 hours ago, cruiser3775 said:

I agree that there are hidden costs in providing wine on cruise ships, and I would expect to pay a premium, possibly comparable with the markup charged in Australian restaurants. So,  in a restaurant I'll pay $50 for a bottle that retails for $20 -25.  But when Princess charges $56 a bottle for an el cheapo irrigation belt wine that retails for $6, it is a whole new level of exploitation of cruise ship passengers.

I certainly agree that the De Bortoli Willowglen wines are seriously over-priced. It makes me wonder if whoever they dealt with here to source those wines ripped them off bigtime. But most of the other Australian wines are priced realistically based on the retail prices I've seen for those wines. Even the ridiculously over-priced Cloudy Bay Sauv Blanc is consistent to the standard restaurant markups of around 2.5 - 3 times retail price.

[OzKiwiJJ]

18 hours ago, NSWP said:

If people stopped buying at those stupid prices Princess and the rest of the cruise lines might wake up.

If they charged say $25 instead of $55 for a $6 bottle of plonk like Markview or DeBortoli Willowglen then they would surely sell more? 

A good percentage of people who have the Plus fare don't realise what those wines are and, of course, don't care what the prices are. They are wines they enjoy drinking and that's what's important to them. So Princess gets through buckets of the stuff while people like me get seriously annoyed because there are very few decent wines available under the package.

 

Unless they resolve this soon they are going to start losing customers like us. We are currently considering cancelling the Round Australia cruise we have booked in October to do an Asian cruise with one of the luxury lines who have some very good deals at the moment.

[SilvertoGold]

2 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I certainly agree that the De Bortoli Willowglen wines are seriously over-priced. It makes me wonder if whoever they dealt with here to source those wines ripped them off bigtime. But most of the other Australian wines are priced realistically based on the retail prices I've seen for those wines. Even the ridiculously over-priced Cloudy Bay Sauv Blanc is consistent to the standard restaurant markups of around 2.5 - 3 times retail price.

In Canada we pay $44 + 15% tax for the Cloudy Bay S Blanc in our government liquor stores.   How does this stack up to the Australian pricing in your liquor stores? 

 

All this info about Australian and N Zealand wines is helpful for our next HAL cruise.  We expect some local wines offered on board.

[Jean C]

48 minutes ago, SilvertoGold said:

In Canada we pay $44 + 15% tax for the Cloudy Bay S Blanc in our government liquor stores.   How does this stack up to the Australian pricing in your liquor stores? 

 

All this info about Australian and N Zealand wines is helpful for our next HAL cruise.  We expect some local wines offered on board.

Hi, I checked the price of Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc in 2 different NZ supermarkets and it's either NZ$37 or NZ$43, inclusive of taxes (for the exact same thing) 🍾 

Edited January 25, 2023 by Jean C

[lyndarra]

49 minutes ago, Jean C said:

Hi, I checked the price of Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc in 2 different NZ supermarkets and it's either NZ$37 or NZ$43, inclusive of taxes (for the exact same thing) 🍾 

AUD47 at Dan Murphy's

[lyndarra]

Here's wine list from HAL Westerdam. Compare prices. They are in USD.

[OzKiwiJJ]

They work out fairly close when you add the 18% service charge on top of the Westerdam price then convert to AUD.

 

You don't get charged the extra service charge on Princess.

[SilvertoGold]

9 hours ago, lyndarra said:

Here's wine list from HAL Westerdam. Compare prices. They are in USD.

Thanks for this wine list.  It is good to know that HAL does a separate list downunder. They didn't on the cruises we have done in this part of the world previously, so this is a positive.

 

Does anyone reading this list have recommendations? We would love to try some, but given the comments in above posts on the quality of some offerings, I would appreciate some info!

[cruiser3775]

Ok, I'll give it a try for the Australian wines, and maybe someone can help with the NZ wines.

Sparkling:  There are much better Aussie sparklings than this.The De Bortoli Prosecco will be reasonable quality. De Bortoli are a large Australian owned company, and they have vineyards in several different areas of Australia.  Some of their wines are very high quality (and priced accordingly), others are basic bulk wines from hot irrigation areas. 

Rose: La Boheme is OK

Whites: Try the Leasingham Riesling and the De Bortoli Chardonnay

Reds: Pretty disappointing lot, not really representative of good Aussie reds.  Try the Rob Dolan Pinot and the Grant Burge Merlot. Avoid the Andrew Pearce and the Willowglen.  

[gbenjo]

Don't forget when you say a bottle of wine “ retails” in Oz for X amount, the cruise line pays far less than that per bottle so mark up/ profit is massive.

[OzKiwiJJ]

9 minutes ago, gbenjo said:

Don't forget when you say a bottle of wine “ retails” in Oz for X amount, the cruise line pays far less than that per bottle so mark up/ profit is massive.

But that's the same for restaurants, especially larger ones or ones that have several outlets, so it's comparable. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, cruiser3775 said:

Ok, I'll give it a try for the Australian wines, and maybe someone can help with the NZ wines.

Sparkling:  There are much better Aussie sparklings than this.The De Bortoli Prosecco will be reasonable quality. De Bortoli are a large Australian owned company, and they have vineyards in several different areas of Australia.  Some of their wines are very high quality (and priced accordingly), others are basic bulk wines from hot irrigation areas. 

Rose: La Boheme is OK

Whites: Try the Leasingham Riesling and the De Bortoli Chardonnay

Reds: Pretty disappointing lot, not really representative of good Aussie reds.  Try the Rob Dolan Pinot and the Grant Burge Merlot. Avoid the Andrew Pearce and the Willowglen.  

I concur on the La Boheme rose.

 

We also enjoyed the Empress Pinot Gris, which is actually made in a Pinot Grigio style.

 

Both the Australian Pinot Noirs are OK. The Lock and Key is a bit lighter than the Rob Dolan so gives an alternative match to some foods.

 

[Tripmode33]

Agree the Plus Package wines are embarrassing for Princess. I believe the De Bortoli Willowglen are equivalent range to the retail De Bortoli Sacred Hill, available at $4.50 at First Choice Liquor or usually on special for Six for $25.  For Princess to sell them at over $50 bottle is ridiculous. Carnival Australia sells them at $20 less than Princess and I'm sure their overheads would be similar. 

[Galesa]

Reading this, glad DW isn't fussy about her bubbles - I'll just pay inflated price for the limited range of beers.

[NSWP]

10 hours ago, Tripmode33 said:

Agree the Plus Package wines are embarrassing for Princess. I believe the De Bortoli Willowglen are equivalent range to the retail De Bortoli Sacred Hill, available at $4.50 at First Choice Liquor or usually on special for Six for $25.  For Princess to sell them at over $50 bottle is ridiculous. Carnival Australia sells them at $20 less than Princess and I'm sure their overheads would be similar. 

Correct, I have been to De Bortoli at Griffith a couple of times, seen the bottling, the commercial wine Willowglen comes from the same source as the Sacred Hill range, 4 or 5 dollars a bottle in Uncle Dan's.

So Princess can buy it at the same price thus making $50 profit on a $4 bottle of wine when they sell it for $53 or so on board.

 

Outrageous.!!!!