Corkage Question

[Navylab]

I paged through several pages and found only one corkage post and that was for an  Australian cruise where the seemed to be quite lax

We will be on The Enchanted Princess leaving Barcelona November 12 for 26 days and I plan to buy/take several high end bottles of wine that I will purchase in the days  before departure and I know they will be subject to the corkage charge (probably 10 or 12 bottles) when we board. I did this when we last cruised on Pacific Princess pre Covid

My real question is during port visits after departure specifically in Italy if I buy a high end Barolo or Brunello can I take it aboard and pay corkage and consume it with dinner or will it be stored and given back at the end of the cruise. I only want to buy and take aboard and pay corkage for dining room consumption as I have no interest in "schlepping " several bottles at cruise end.

I guess what I need to know is if you can pay corkage throughout the voyage or just at embarcation.

[Arizona Wildcat]

Possibly stored till the end of the cruise.  We have had varied experiences.  Sometimes we simply took the wine to our cabin.  So you never know.

Have also not been allowed to take more than the 2 bottle allowance.  The other two we had were returned on the last night of the cruise.

Good luck.

[reedprincess]

1 hour ago, Navylab said:

I paged through several pages and found only one corkage post and that was for an  Australian cruise where the seemed to be quite lax

We will be on The Enchanted Princess leaving Barcelona November 12 for 26 days and I plan to buy/take several high end bottles of wine that I will purchase in the days  before departure and I know they will be subject to the corkage charge (probably 10 or 12 bottles) when we board. I did this when we last cruised on Pacific Princess pre Covid

My real question is during port visits after departure specifically in Italy if I buy a high end Barolo or Brunello can I take it aboard and pay corkage and consume it with dinner or will it be stored and given back at the end of the cruise. I only want to buy and take aboard and pay corkage for dining room consumption as I have no interest in "schlepping " several bottles at cruise end.

I guess what I need to know is if you can pay corkage throughout the voyage or just at embarcation.

In theory, any booze  brought aboard from port stops (not embarkation day) is supposed to be turned over to the liquor table, tagged then returned to you last night of sailing.

 

In real life, this is very very rarely enforced.. should your Wine not be confiscated, you'll be charged corkage if you bring the bottle to dinner. If you bring a glass of it with you, no corkage...

[PacnGoNow]

1 hour ago, Navylab said:

I paged through several pages and found only one corkage post and that was for an  Australian cruise where the seemed to be quite lax

We will be on The Enchanted Princess leaving Barcelona November 12 for 26 days and I plan to buy/take several high end bottles of wine that I will purchase in the days  before departure and I know they will be subject to the corkage charge (probably 10 or 12 bottles) when we board. I did this when we last cruised on Pacific Princess pre Covid

My real question is during port visits after departure specifically in Italy if I buy a high end Barolo or Brunello can I take it aboard and pay corkage and consume it with dinner or will it be stored and given back at the end of the cruise. I only want to buy and take aboard and pay corkage for dining room consumption as I have no interest in "schlepping " several bottles at cruise end.

I guess what I need to know is if you can pay corkage throughout the voyage or just at embarcation.

If you bring 10-12 bottles, they may stop you and have you visit the alcohol table for corkage fees or store until the last night.

 

We have embarked many times from Barcelona and no problem, however, we only bring on local wines and 2 bottles usually.  We’ve found if you bring on wine from the region, they will send you through.  But, 10-12 IDK.  
 

If you pay corkage fees when you bring it on, they don’t charge again in the MDR.  Only once.

 

Or, just bring a glass to dinner, NP.

 

We’ve also brought on wine from Italian stops, 2 bottles and never had a corkage fee at the port, but if you take the bottle to dinner, expect a corkage fee.  YMMV

 

 

[JimmyVWine]

2 hours ago, Navylab said:

My real question is during port visits after departure specifically in Italy if I buy a high end Barolo or Brunello can I take it aboard and pay corkage and consume it with dinner or will it be stored and given back at the end of the cruise.

1.  The value of the wine is irrelevant.  Can be a 5 Euro bottle or a 500 Euro bottle.

2.  At ports during the cruise, personal consumption volumes of wine ( a bottle or 2) placed onto the security x-ray belt, appear to be ignored.  You collect them at the other end of the belt and take them to your cabin.

3.  If you take those bottles to a dining room, a server may or may not look for a Princess "stamp" on the bottle.  If a stamp is present, the server knows that you have not yet paid a corkage fee and will add it to your bill for the evening and the charge will appear on your account.

4.  If the server does not look for a stamp and just pours your bottle, then there is a good chance that you will not be charged.  There is no way to predict this part of the equation.

5.  So the bottom line is that consumption-volumes of wine do not get confiscated.  If you plop down a full case onto the security x-ray belt, your results may vary. 

6.  Whether you pay to drink the couple of bottles that you brought on at the port of call is an unknown until you try.  Expect to pay.  Don't complain if you have to.  If you are not charged, be grateful.  

[skynight]

Just a note. Fortified wines are not permitted.

[Knickearth]

We use to bring ( on longer than 20 days) a dozen bottles of really good wine since we live near Napa and all the other wine cities.  After going thru security we went to the wine table and paid corkage for all our wine.  Stickers were put on the bottles.  Once t there was no table set up and so when everything went thru X-ray, they pulled our wine.  Upon entering our cabin the phone rang and I had to go to deck 4 and pay corkage.  Never any problem.

 

advantageis that if you bring a bottle to MDR you pay corkage and gratuity.  Paying ahead there is no gratuity added.

 

all that written, our recent cruise included the princess plus package.  We did not bring wine onboard.  We are not heavy drinkers but we enjoyed the fact we did not have to watch charges to the statement at end of cruise and got to try different drinks.

[c-boy]

1 hour ago, JimmyVWine said:

1.  The value of the wine is irrelevant.  Can be a 5 Euro bottle or a 500 Euro bottle.

2.  At ports during the cruise, personal consumption volumes of wine ( a bottle or 2) placed onto the security x-ray belt, appear to be ignored.  You collect them at the other end of the belt and take them to your cabin.

3.  If you take those bottles to a dining room, a server may or may not look for a Princess "stamp" on the bottle.  If a stamp is present, the server knows that you have not yet paid a corkage fee and will add it to your bill for the evening and the charge will appear on your account.

4.  If the server does not look for a stamp and just pours your bottle, then there is a good chance that you will not be charged.  There is no way to predict this part of the equation.

5.  So the bottom line is that consumption-volumes of wine do not get confiscated.  If you plop down a full case onto the security x-ray belt, your results may vary. 

6.  Whether you pay to drink the couple of bottles that you brought on at the port of call is an unknown until you try.  Expect to pay.  Don't complain if you have to.  If you are not charged, be grateful.  

Aww yes, the Princess stamp....

 

[LACruiser88]

4 hours ago, Navylab said:

We will be on The Enchanted Princess leaving Barcelona November 12 for 26 days

We will be on the same cruise with you.  This past November we were on the Regal's Med/TA around the same time period for 37 days.  We purchased wine in almost all of our ports, 2-3 bottles at a time, and had no problems bringing them onboard and directly to our stateroom without being charged a corkage.

 

We had great MDR servers that never charged us a corkage.  They received a well-deserved gratuity at the end of our cruise.

 

We will be doing the same on this upcoming voyage.  You will not attract much attention with security if you only have a couple of bottles at a time.

 

See you on onboard!  🍷 

[JimmyVWine]

1 hour ago, c-boy said:

Aww yes, the Princess stamp....

I prefer the old ink stamp!

[memoak]

1 hour ago, LACruiser88 said:

We will be on the same cruise with you.  This past November we were on the Regal's Med/TA around the same time period for 37 days.  We purchased wine in almost all of our ports, 2-3 bottles at a time, and had no problems bringing them onboard and directly to our stateroom without being charged a corkage.

 

We had great MDR servers that never charged us a corkage.  They received a well-deserved gratuity at the end of our cruise.

 

We will be doing the same on this upcoming voyage.  You will not attract much attention with security if you only have a couple of bottles at a time.

 

See you on onboard!  🍷 

In the old days offering the sommelier or head waiter a taste would get the corkage ignored

[LACruiser88]

28 minutes ago, memoak said:

In the old days offering the sommelier or head waiter a taste would get the corkage ignored

That still works today...

[deultgen]

6 hours ago, Navylab said:

I paged through several pages and found only one corkage post and that was for an  Australian cruise where the seemed to be quite lax

We will be on The Enchanted Princess leaving Barcelona November 12 for 26 days and I plan to buy/take several high end bottles of wine that I will purchase in the days  before departure and I know they will be subject to the corkage charge (probably 10 or 12 bottles) when we board. I did this when we last cruised on Pacific Princess pre Covid

My real question is during port visits after departure specifically in Italy if I buy a high end Barolo or Brunello can I take it aboard and pay corkage and consume it with dinner or will it be stored and given back at the end of the cruise. I only want to buy and take aboard and pay corkage for dining room consumption as I have no interest in "schlepping " several bottles at cruise end.

I guess what I need to know is if you can pay corkage throughout the voyage or just at embarcation.

 

So, I try to answer the questions the posters is asking.

 

The policy on the Princess website and Passenger Contract says, 

 

Guests agree not to bring alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages on board for consumption or for any other use except as follows:

• For Guests of legal drinking age, an allowance of one (1) bottle of wine or champagne (750 mL in volume or less) per Guest per Voyage may be presented to security during embarkation. A US $20.00 corkage fee will be charged should Guests wish to consumer their wine or champagne in the ship’s public areas.
• A US $20.00 corkage fee (which is subject to change without notice) will apply to each additional bottle (750 mL in volume or less) beyond the one-bottle per Guest per Voyage allowance. Limitations apply, and wine brought in quantities deemed to be excessive by the vessel or security will be refused.

 

So, the policy states exactly what you thought.   If you board with a case of wine, you can pay the corkage on the extra bottles and consume the wine at dinner.  The policy says this is on during embarkation, so I would say, NO you can't take on additional bottles of wine at different ports without them being stored and given back to you on the last day of the cruise.  

 

All the others are opinions, ........ might security be lax and allow you to bring bottles on board at ports ...... Maybe.  Can you get around the corkage ...... possibly.   

 

Personally, knowing the policy, I would ask the "security" before getting off the ship at the first port what they are doing on this cruise.  I bet they will give you the honest answer.  

[Ombud]

I am boarding 11/23/23 but my last trip was a b2b (here's why that's relevant). For the 1st time ever I was pulled out of boarding for the wine table as I was boarding with 3 bottles of wine. From now on my mantra is "I'm on a b2b." No corkage

 

Also no one was interested in my single bottle of wine coming back from interim ports in Europe last year.  

 

Just starting with 2 bottles this time but, hey, there's always Livorno 🍾

[Steelers36]

7 hours ago, Navylab said:

I paged through several pages and found only one corkage post and that was for an  Australian cruise where the seemed to be quite lax

We will be on The Enchanted Princess leaving Barcelona November 12 for 26 days and I plan to buy/take several high end bottles of wine that I will purchase in the days  before departure and I know they will be subject to the corkage charge (probably 10 or 12 bottles) when we board. I did this when we last cruised on Pacific Princess pre Covid

My real question is during port visits after departure specifically in Italy if I buy a high end Barolo or Brunello can I take it aboard and pay corkage and consume it with dinner or will it be stored and given back at the end of the cruise. I only want to buy and take aboard and pay corkage for dining room consumption as I have no interest in "schlepping " several bottles at cruise end.

I guess what I need to know is if you can pay corkage throughout the voyage or just at embarcation.

You have a bunch of good info above along with a bunch of incorrect info.

 

You will have no issue bringing on a case of wine at embarkation.  I have brought two on once.  If you are an early arriver, you may not encounter the wine table and should end up carrying it all on board free.  If you are assessed at embarkation, the paid bottles are stickered to indicate corkage paid.  Not the other way around.

 

Your voyage is likely two separate cruises whether you booked that way or not.  You get two bottles free per segment.  

 

If you take an unopened bottle to DR that is not stickered you may be assessed the corkage fee.  You may not end up being charged for all bottles.  Once the bottle is open, you won't be charged corkage because it was already paid.  Or it is presumed to have been paid when opened.  Waiters do not sticker bottles.  You should only be charged the flat $20 in DR.  The fee includes a gratuity.  The statement above about paying a grat on top is wrong.  If it happened to that poster, they should have pointed out the mistake.

 

As for ports, wine is not treated like alcohol and kept until end of cruise.  Bringing on a couple after a port stop as you mentioned is not only not an issue, but you can most often just walk it back to cabin without an issue or being stopped.  Recent experience and numerous reports indicate they really only care about booze.  There is no rule against bringing back wine.  Many port excursions involve visits to wineries.

 

ETA:  Don’t expect this necessarily, but we did a B3B for 25 nights last October in Europe, followed by 14 nights on another ship.  Never paid corkage fee.  We were checking in early for both ships and no wine table setup in Civitavecchia at the time.

 

PS this post is not opinion nor speculation. I have been taking wine on Princess ships for many years.  I learned the ropes early on and do take care of my waiters as well.

Edited October 11, 2023 by Steelers36

[JimmyVWine]

3 hours ago, deultgen said:

All the others are opinions

No. They are anecdotal experiences. Very, very different. 

[LRCruzr]

On 10/10/2023 at 3:18 PM, Navylab said:

I paged through several pages and found only one corkage post and that was for an  Australian cruise where the seemed to be quite lax

We will be on The Enchanted Princess leaving Barcelona November 12 for 26 days and I plan to buy/take several high end bottles of wine that I will purchase in the days  before departure and I know they will be subject to the corkage charge (probably 10 or 12 bottles) when we board. I did this when we last cruised on Pacific Princess pre Covid

My real question is during port visits after departure specifically in Italy if I buy a high end Barolo or Brunello can I take it aboard and pay corkage and consume it with dinner or will it be stored and given back at the end of the cruise. I only want to buy and take aboard and pay corkage for dining room consumption as I have no interest in "schlepping " several bottles at cruise end.

I guess what I need to know is if you can pay corkage throughout the voyage or just at embarcation.

I took a Bottle in my Back Pack..3 Bottles in my luggage..They was NO Problem. Corkage fee is $20-$25 to drink in Dining Room. No corkage fee to drink in your Cabin.  With my drink package a Barolo was NO COST.You will pay a Corkage Fee for every bottle your Bring to the Dining Room unless you purchased it onboard