Wine package delivered to stateroom option? What exactly is this???

[crystalspin]

1 hour ago, cccole said:

Haljo1935, do you bring wine when embarking and in ports?  We are on a South America/Antarctica cruise in January and love Chilean and Argentinean wines. 

Cherie:

The only way you are supposed to bring wine on in ports is (I believe) one bottle per person IF you go on a ships tour of a vineyard/winery. If you buy wine (or other alcohol), you can surrender it and have it returned to you on the last night for packing.

[USN59-79]

5 hours ago, Mary229 said:

A good waiter can take care of that for you too.  

We had very good waiters and they made sure the wine was at the table and poured.  But I never thought of getting our waiter involved in a financial matter that should have been taken care of at the front office.  That is their job, not the waiter's and I was disappointed that they lied to me by saying that the matter had been handled.

Ray

[Mary229]

5 hours ago, USN59-79 said:

We had very good waiters and they made sure the wine was at the table and poured.  But I never thought of getting our waiter involved in a financial matter that should have been taken care of at the front office.  That is their job, not the waiter's and I was disappointed that they lied to me by saying that the matter had been handled.

Ray

My waiter was the salesman and brought me the slip to sign. I handled it right there. I am pretty sure they are rewarded for selling packages.  Maybe someone else can authoritatively remark on that.
 

 He was the absolute best waiter I had ever had and I remarked about the cost, he immediately took it upon himself to fix it and it was fixed in a matter of minutes. If I encounter any employee not capable of handling a task I do move on to the next one, that is, if he had said see the front desk, I would have. 

[kazu]

7 hours ago, crystalspin said:

Cherie:

The only way you are supposed to bring wine on in ports is (I believe) one bottle per person IF you go on a ships tour of a vineyard/winery. If you buy wine (or other alcohol), you can surrender it and have it returned to you on the last night for packing.

 

Or you can pay corkage and drink it 😉. our wine was never seized that we brought on in ports although a couple of time the guy did want us to turn it in.  We said no - we will pay the corkage.  and we did.  

 

If we were taking it home, we certainly would have let them keep it.  

[Sea42]

On our recent NS cruise we were limited to having 2 bottles at a time, from our wine package, delivered to our cabin. Of course, as the cruise went on our original picks became unavailable which was disappointing. Their substitutions were fine but I would have preferred to drink what I had ordered.

Edited July 31, 2023 by Sea42

[POA1]

The waiters & wine stewards are rewarded for selling wine packages. I have no idea what or how they're rewarded, just that they are.

 

We've often run into a favorite beverage server from a previous cruise who was selling wine packages in the Lido on embarkation day. (You may be shocked to hear that we are pretty friendly with our beverage department pals.) They've all told us that they get something for selling packages, but we never pressed to find out what.

[USN59-79]

5 hours ago, Mary229 said:

My waiter was the salesman and brought me the slip to sign. I handled it right there. I am pretty sure they are rewarded for selling packages.  Maybe someone else can authoritatively remark on that.
 

 He was the absolute best waiter I had ever had and I remarked about the cost, he immediately took it upon himself to fix it and it was fixed in a matter of minutes. If I encounter any employee not capable of handling a task I do move on to the next one, that is, if he had said see the front desk, I would have. 

I bought my wine package from the HAL website at home before the cruise.

Ray

[FlorenceItaly]

3 minutes ago, USN59-79 said:

I bought my wine package from the HAL website at home before the cruise.

Ray

And, you noticed no OBC while onboard reflecting the discount?  I believe this is how the discount is handled when prepaid.

[USN59-79]

1 hour ago, FlorenceItaly said:

And, you noticed no OBC while onboard reflecting the discount?  I believe this is how the discount is handled when prepaid.

No OBC and I checked my statement regularly.  That is how I noticed that they also charged me half price for our first Pinnacle Grill dinner.  As 5-star, the first two are supposed to be free.  The front desk was able to fix that.

Ray

[cccole]

Thank you Haljo1935 - since we will be in Chile prior to the cruise I will just take a collapsable bag that I can put clothes wrapped bottles of wine in for boarding.  

 

crystalspin and Kazu, Thank you.  I was thinking that if we pay the corkage we can bring bottles of wine on in ports to consume.  We will be visiting vineyards in Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina.  Can't wait.  Hopefully we will have some bottles left over to bring home.  Of course, we should decide that prior to paying a $20 corkage fee!!!!

 

Thank you again for the help,  Cherie

[C 2 C]

I tried to buy the wine package prior to our sailing date but HAL will charge the full price and then reimburse me when on board.  We live in Canada and I don't like being charged exchange fees by the CC company and then more fees when the refund is applied.  Life would be so much simpler if the purchase can reflect a 4* discount before charges to the CC.

 

[USN59-79]

1 hour ago, C 2 C said:

I tried to buy the wine package prior to our sailing date but HAL will charge the full price and then reimburse me when on board.  We live in Canada and I don't like being charged exchange fees by the CC company and then more fees when the refund is applied.  Life would be so much simpler if the purchase can reflect a 4* discount before charges to the CC.

 

I don't understand why they do it that way.  They already know you are 4 or 5 star, but insist on charging full price to your CC.  Then they may or may not refund it.  This is one of the reasons that although we have more than 1200 days on HAL, we may choose another cruise line for our next cruise.  If we do another cruise.

Ray

[kazu]

2 hours ago, C 2 C said:

I tried to buy the wine package prior to our sailing date but HAL will charge the full price and then reimburse me when on board.  We live in Canada and I don't like being charged exchange fees by the CC company and then more fees when the refund is applied.  Life would be so much simpler if the purchase can reflect a 4* discount before charges to the CC.

 

 

I so agree.  It seems that HAL just can’t adapt to the discounts applicable.

 

I would rather buy OBC than buy the wine package ahead of time.  

First our steward gets credit for the purchase on board and secondly, you can see what the wine choices really are.

If I am worried about a bill post cruise, I just buy the OBC and purchase on board.

[electro]

Are wine packages cheaper to buy online than onboard like the drink package? Thinking I might do the wine package instead of the HIA since that is what I mostly drink. 13 day cruise so HIA comes out at $845 CAD. 

Only a 2 star so no mariner discount.

[kazu]

9 minutes ago, electro said:

Are wine packages cheaper to buy online than onboard like the drink package? Thinking I might do the wine package instead of the HIA since that is what I mostly drink. 13 day cruise so HIA comes out at $845 CAD. 

Only a 2 star so no mariner discount.

 

No, they are the same price on board as they are on line.  

 

The only difference is that the pricing reflects the 18% service charge on line and on board, you see the bare bones price and the note that the 18% service charge will be added to it.

 

Don’t forget the HIA includes other drinks (fresh squeezed oj, specialty coffees, etc as well as the other benefits which may / may not be beneficial to you).

 

Worth taking into consideration when you do your math 😉 

[FlaMariner]

On 7/31/2023 at 8:23 PM, kazu said:

First our steward gets credit for the purchase on board and secondly, you can see what the wine choices really are.

 

This is the primary reason we wait and buy onboard with our MDR waiter.....I want him to get credit for the sale...He has to do most/all of the work. 

 

Also, we are happy with package #1 (the cheaper package) and when they are out of a certain bottle (which, in our experience, seems to be frequently for package #1) they sub up.

 

(Our math never works for HIA....so we enjoy the wine packages)

[electro]

13 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

No, they are the same price on board as they are on line.  

 

The only difference is that the pricing reflects the 18% service charge on line and on board, you see the bare bones price and the note that the 18% service charge will be added to it.

 

Don’t forget the HIA includes other drinks (fresh squeezed oj, specialty coffees, etc as well as the other benefits which may / may not be beneficial to you).

 

Worth taking into consideration when you do your math 😉 

thanks, I'm still deciding but the difference in price is pretty steep. It is an east coast cruise and since I'm originally from NS, I don't need excursions. Not a big coffee drinker, I bring my own tea bags.

I really like the convenience of the HIA but not sure it justifies the price.

[electro]

2 minutes ago, FlaMariner said:

 

This is the primary reason we wait and buy onboard with our MDR waiter.....I want him to get credit for the sale...He has to do most/all of the work. 

 

Also, we are happy with package #1 (the cheaper package) and when they are out of a certain bottle (which, in our experience, seems to be frequently for package #1) they sub up.

 

(Our math never works for HIA....so we enjoy the wine packages)

I'm sure package #1 would work for me as well. I'm just not sure of the logistics of having a glass of wine in different venues. Will I need to be carrying a bottle around with me all evening if I'm going from the piano bar to the ocean bar, to the casino?

[FlaMariner]

3 minutes ago, electro said:

I'm sure package #1 would work for me as well. I'm just not sure of the logistics of having a glass of wine in different venues. Will I need to be carrying a bottle around with me all evening if I'm going from the piano bar to the ocean bar, to the casino?

 

According to the recent fine print I've read (I'll have to search for it again, perhaps) but the Sommelier Wine Packages are for wine to be consumed in the dining venues and the stateroom......The fine print says not at the bars....We do take our wine glass with us when leaving the MDR (the waiter switches out the wine glass) and we do finish around the ship....Not sure how that is being enforced now but in the past (March 2023) I could ask for one of my bottles and/or leave one behind at the billboard onboard bar. 

[electro]

1 hour ago, FlaMariner said:

 

According to the recent fine print I've read (I'll have to search for it again, perhaps) but the Sommelier Wine Packages are for wine to be consumed in the dining venues and the stateroom......The fine print says not at the bars....We do take our wine glass with us when leaving the MDR (the waiter switches out the wine glass) and we do finish around the ship....Not sure how that is being enforced now but in the past (March 2023) I could ask for one of my bottles and/or leave one behind at the billboard onboard bar. 

1 glass of wine taken from the dining room is not going to do me for the evening so if I can only use it for the dining room and not bars, then it will not work for me.

[VMax1700]

1 hour ago, electro said:

1 glass of wine taken from the dining room is not going to do me for the evening so if I can only use it for the dining room and not bars, then it will not work for me.

Nothing wrong with pouring yourself two large glasses from your bottle and taking them with you!

[taxmantoo]

54 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

Nothing wrong with pouring yourself two large glasses from your bottle and taking them with you!

[highscar]

Take a bottle from your package to the room.  I do it all the time.