Corkage currently charged on Coral Princess

[Aus Traveller]

I know that the corkage fee on Princess cruises has increased from AUD$15 to $30 per bottle (after one FOC). I was interested to read the post that on the Grand, this was charged when a bottle was taken to the dining room, not prior to boarding the ship. Can someone tell me how the corkage is currently being charged on the Coral Princess. I have not been on the ship since the corkage increased.

[Aus Traveller]

Can anyone tell me how corkage is charged on the Coral Princess? Is it before boarding the ship or is it on bottles taken to the dining room?

[Kinkacruiser]

14 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

Can anyone tell me how corkage is charged on the Coral Princess? Is it before boarding the ship or is it on bottles taken to the dining room?

I've read that's it's charged when one enters the dining room.

[Aus Traveller]

2 minutes ago, Kinkacruiser said:

I've read that's it's charged when one enters the dining room.

Someone posted that corkage was charged in the dining room on the Grand. I am hoping that it will be done that way on the Coral also.🙂

[Relaxing Robbies]

33 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Someone posted that corkage was charged in the dining room on the Grand. I am hoping that it will be done that way on the Coral also.🙂

Corkage is normally charged on excess bottles when boarding. We boarded the Grand very early and they had not yet set up the table where they record and charge the corkage and put stickers on the paid bottles. That is why we were charged the corkage in the dining room.  This also applied to us last month on Majestic Princess.

 

The other times you may be charged corkage in the dining room are when you take your one permitted boarding bottle to the dining room, or when you take a bottle that you have brought aboard at one of the ports.

[Aus Traveller]

Just now, Relaxing Robbies said:

Corkage is normally charged on excess bottles when boarding. We boarded the Grand very early and they had not yet set up the table where they record and charge the corkage and put stickers on the paid bottles. That is why we were charged the corkage in the dining room.  This also applied to us last month on Majestic Princess.

 

The other times you may be charged corkage in the dining room are when you take your one permitted boarding bottle to the dining room, or when you take a bottle that you have brought aboard at one of the ports.

On the cruises where you mention you were charged corkage in the dining room, were other passengers charged corkage in the 'old' way - at the alcohol table in the terminal?

[Relaxing Robbies]

@Aus Traveller

 

I did not see any bottles with stickers, but very few passengers actually had bottles of wine. When we boarded early we were told that the alcohol table collecting corkage was not ready yet but would be set up soon. We just stated that we knew about corkage and would pay it when we took the bottles to the dining room.

 

At each port of call there was a manned table when we reboarded. Official policy is that alcohol is taken and stored until the end of the cruise. In practice the crew manning the xray scanners ignore one bottle per person.

Edited December 22, 2023 by Relaxing Robbies
forgot to quote the question poster

[Relaxing Robbies]

We cruised on Coral Princess in March and boarded with 12 bottles of wine. The alcohol table was quite busy with several passengers carrying wine aboard.  On that occasion they actually recorded the details of each bottle of wine, including the year before applying the corkage stickers. Somehow the charge never appeared on our account!

[Aus Traveller]

10 minutes ago, Relaxing Robbies said:

We cruised on Coral Princess in March and boarded with 12 bottles of wine. The alcohol table was quite busy with several passengers carrying wine aboard.  On that occasion they actually recorded the details of each bottle of wine, including the year before applying the corkage stickers. Somehow the charge never appeared on our account!

I have cruised on the Coral Princess after your March (last year) cruise and know what the usual practice was. I have paid corkage at the alcohol table on embarkation on several occasions.

 

After your earlier post where you mentioned corkage only paid in the dining room, I wondered if that was the new way of operation now that corkage is $30. I am trying to find out the current situation.

 

Now that many people have the plus package that includes alcohol, fewer people are taking wine on board. I wondered if that might have resulted in Princess changing the policy from charging corkage at embarkation to charging in the dining room. However, your latest post indicates that it was just chance that your wine was treated that way.

Edited December 22, 2023 by Aus Traveller