How to bring wine onboard

[mmeadows]

We'll be coming from Ft Lauderdale, and have read all of the great advice about getting wine prior to boarding the ship, but having never taken HAL, I want to make sure that I know what I need to do. I plan on getting 6-8 bottles of wine, most likely from Total Wine, but may ship some down early.

Anyway, do I have the option of just carrying it onboard with me or do I have to send it off with the rest of my luggage? I know that cabins generally aren't ready until 1:30, but I just have a nightmare that something will break or will get lost, and the wine I'm carrying on isn't easily replaceable.

So in short... how have you done it? What's permissable?

[Boytjie]

We'll be coming from Ft Lauderdale, and have read all of the great advice about getting wine prior to boarding the ship, but having never taken HAL, I want to make sure that I know what I need to do. I plan on getting 6-8 bottles of wine, most likely from Total Wine, but may ship some down early.

Anyway, do I have the option of just carrying it onboard with me or do I have to send it off with the rest of my luggage? I know that cabins generally aren't ready until 1:30, but I just have a nightmare that something will break or will get lost, and the wine I'm carrying on isn't easily replaceable.

So in short... how have you done it? What's permissable?

You can carry it on yourself or check it with the rest of your luggage.

We checked a case last February and found the case in the bath tub - one bottle had broken. It's a chance you take.

[TahoeTraveler]

We got a rolling collapsible cooler (so it would fit in our luggage), pulled it out when we got to FLL, loaded it up with 10 bottles of wine that we bought there, and rolled it with us as a carry on. It fit just fine through the x-ray machines, and was no problem rolling behind us until the room was ready. No problems, and the nice thing about the cooler was that we had it stocked with ice every day while onboard the ship, to keep everything cold (since the "refridgerators" on board do not keep anything really, really cold).

The cooler is coming with us on our upcoming Baltic trip, and was one of the best $50 we ever spent!

[garydm]

We have brought it on both ways. When we brought some special stuff from home we either kept it with us or had it buried in our luggage. We have also purchased a case of assorted wines at the embarkation port and just checked the case in with our bags-never had a broken bottle or any problem either way.

Gary

[duck tune]

I found a small hardside bag with wheels and went to a local wine store and told them what I wanted to do. They had a special two-sided styrofoam mold for shipping wine that held the three bottles. I then used packing tape to seal the mold with the wine inside and wrapping with bubble wrap on the outside. It worked very well and it was easy to take on board the ship as carry on. DH and I only drink about 1/2 bottle at a meal so three bottles of very nice wine worked just right for a 7 day cruise. I have seen some of the unloading of luggage on ships and would never trust anything breakable in any luggage!

[trout62]

Quick question...did you take the wine to the dining room? I thought I read somewhere about an $18.00 corkage fee.

By the way, we will be with you 3/13.

Trout

[Krazy Kruizers]

Whenever you take a bottle of wine to either the dining room or a lounge -- and it is not HAL's wine --

Yes -- there is an $18 per bottle corkage fee.

[pipedreams62]

http://villalacasina.com/images/talosa_barrel.jpg

[Limeygirl]

Pipedreams, Thanks, but that's not NEARLY enough wine!:D

[smslms]

These days there's no problem bringing wine on board ship either in your luggage or in a carryon. Like people say you need to think about breakage if it's in you luggage. You can also restock based on what you can find in port, there's no problem bringing it on board.

Officially there is a corkage fee in the dining room. Depending on how long the cruise is and how well you get to know your wine steward you could easily get around it. Lots of people just bring a full glass into the dining room when they arrive for dinner (works if you're happy with one glass).:rolleyes:

[SeaRay48]

Just at TIP:
If you take your wine to the dining room;Be nice to your wine steward and he or she will be nice to you!:)

[Typhoon1]

Bring as many cases as you can load into the car or taxi.

[mudscraper]

http://villalacasina.com/images/talosa_barrel.jpg
Now I`ll have to tip TWO wine stewards!


Rich

[mmeadows]

Thanks to everyone for all of the helpful responses!

[bluewave]

That picture is a riot!
Any idea if Total Wine sells something to carry the wine in? If you want six bottles- do they have a box or something? I would imagine they get quite a bit of cruise pax in their store on the way to the ship (I am planning on it!) I don't have any special luggage that would work.
TahoeTraveler- where did you find the collapsable cooler? Is it heavy? We are trying hard to stay under the 50lb. limit - those airline fees are killer.

[Cerinda]

This time last year, Total Wine had inexpensive 6-bottle tote bags at the checkout. Maybe $1.99 or so.

[twinkletoes4445]

This time last year, Total Wine had inexpensive 6-bottle tote bags at the checkout. Maybe $1.99 or so.

That's what we bought at Total Wine to carry our wine. Ours was a beige cloth material with grapes (I think) on the front. We're bringing it along for our next cruise. :)

[TahoeTraveler]

TahoeTraveler- where did you find the collapsable cooler? Is it heavy? We are trying hard to stay under the 50lb. limit - those airline fees are killer.

I did a Google search for "collapsible rolling wine cooler"...lots of stuff came up. I used the reviews to determine which ones would actually hold wine bottles (as opposed to soda cans). Sorry...I can't remember the exact website, but I think it's against the rules of CC anyway...!

As for the weight, I'd have to guess about 3 - 5 pounds. It's not very heavy at all, but is a little bulky, because you have the wheels to deal with. Yep, I agree, the 50lb limit is a b...tch. But when we considered the price of wine onboard, it was well worth it to pack the cooler (given that it would only take 2 bottles of our wine of choice to pay for the extra suitcase!!). Plus, the convenience of having the ice replinished in the cooler every day was almost more than we could have hoped for.

Hope this helped...!

[DaveOKC]

Good point that someone mentioned earlier - instead of hauling all of the wine you need for your sailing, plan to purchase some at the ports you visit. Of course you need to research this before you sail, but it often works for us. On our last cruise our first port was the next day at Key West, so we bought more wine and pop there.

DaveOKC

[jbhcw]

We usually don't bring more than four or five bottles of wine on board..buy some on the ship..etc. But on our Hawaii cruise coming up we were concerned about how we were going to get eight plus bottles on.

Thanks to our fav store Costco..we found a rolling collapsable cooler there Tuesday that will be perfect. We can pack it into a bigger suitcase to fly out to SD..then buy our wine pre cruise and just roll it on the ship. Price was almost half what the online companies wanted for their rolling coolers. Then we can use it this summer at the coast..or let the kids borrow it for their beach trips:):)

[parrotfeathers]

If one is not a big drinker but would like a glass of bubbly every night would it be better to just purchase a drink card for the week?

[soldham]

If you like Champagne but only a glass a night I would buy a case of splits.

[fann1sh]

Parrotfeathers, I am a bubbly addict. The bubbly available by the glass (or in a split aboard) is only acceptable.

I, too, recommend splits - or half bottles. Extra sparkling wine is a great way to make friends - IME it never goes undrunk. :D

[archie401]

I'm sending a shipping box with cases of sodas and about six bottles of wine from home to cabin through Luggage Forward. It's not cheap, but neither are these items on board, and I want my brands readily available in my cabin for a 10-day cruise

'Just another idea.

[zoncom]

Do NOT give any wine to porters, you may not see it again. Have those wine carriers from Total. They just do not look strong enough for 6 bottles. Anyone carried them full(inc. a few 1.5s),??

[twinkletoes4445]

Do NOT give any wine to porters, you may not see it again. Have those wine carriers from Total. They just do not look strong enough for 6 bottles. Anyone carried them full(inc. a few 1.5s),??

We had six good-sized bottles of wine in our carrier, but we had the canvas type. I think they also offered a cardboard version, but we figured we buy the canvas and bring it along on our next cruise.

I also would not pass my wine on to a porter. I'd carry it on with me. We saw lots of people doing this. There were people that had cases of wine. :)

[2ptu/000]

I, female 66, carried 4 bottles of wine and a 12 pack of soda on board for our last cruise. I carried it in a canvas type bag. It got to be real heavy and just not worth it. We did enjoy drinking better wine for our money but lugging it around embarcation day was not a good beginning to our cruise.

[Cerinda]

Yep, I'll vouch for the flimsy wine tote. It held up through a long embarkation: it was indeed heavy and awkward, so I set it down every chance I had.

Nope, not going to do that again. I have a new wheeled tote (actually my cavernous everyday laptop bag) that I'm using next month instead.