Getting Wine onto Ship - Norfolk

[Linda&Vern]

Leaving Wednesday on the Maasdam out of Norfolk. :rolleyes: If I decide to take a case (or a few bottles) of wine & champagne with me - will the luggage porters take it as a piece of luggage if it is in one corrugated wine box (as from my local wine store)? Other threads talked about taking wine in your carry-on instead of in checked luggage ... but more than one bottle would be unmanageable as carry-on. (Driving to Norfolk, so airline not a problem.) Anyone cruising from Norfolk recently remember how they handled it at the pier? THANKS!

[CDRMark]

We brought on a case of 'sparkling wine' when we sailed from Norfolk on 11/20. Embark greeter, not porter procured a wheelchair for the wine. As we were one of the last groups on, there were no people needing wheelchairs, so no one was inconvenienced. If you arrive at peak, you may just have to check it with your bags. Good luck. My complete review is here somewhere, with other CCer comments in threads titled 'Virtually Live from the Maasdam' and Maasdam 11/20-11/30: a newbie review'. Good Luck!!

MarkB

[NorfolkSailor]

Leaving Wednesday on the Maasdam out of Norfolk. :rolleyes: If I decide to take a case (or a few bottles) of wine & champagne with me - will the luggage porters take it as a piece of luggage if it is in one corrugated wine box (as from my local wine store)? Other threads talked about taking wine in your carry-on instead of in checked luggage ... but more than one bottle would be unmanageable as carry-on. (Driving to Norfolk, so airline not a problem.) Anyone cruising from Norfolk recently remember how they handled it at the pier? THANKS!


We recently returned from the 11-day Maasdam cruise 11/30 - 12/11 and took two (6-bottle) cases of wine aboard (for a group of 5). We sealed the cartons we got from the wine store and brought them through as carry-on. I suppose we could have checked them through but I would worry about breakage...

While we did elicit a remark from the x-ray screener, there was no problem getting the wine aboard as the girls pulled the roller luggage and we two guys each took charge of a box. If you are concerned about transport, an inexpensive folding metal luggage cart may serve to manage the box(es).

A last note. We found that the corkage fee was $15 (we thought it would be $10) so it made the intention to bring wine to dinner (which we did anyway, seeing as how we had the wine onboard) a bit expensive. In the future, we will bring a few bottles for consumption in the room and buy wine for dinner from the wine list - simpler and no more expensive as we found the wine selection to be perfectly fine onboard.

Hope this helps.

Happy cruizin'
Kevin

[slineberry528]

We were on the Nov. 20 sailing and we brought 2 boxes of wine with us. We had mini suite and it had a refrigerator in it. Wine glasses were in the room.
susan