Can I bring wine on board?

[celebr8]

Hi, i just found this site today. cool site. we leave for a HAL cruise from vancouver bc on the 20th. a relative said it is possible to bring a case of wine on board to enjoy in our stateroom when we check in. i called my TA and he confirmed that but my cruise savy friend said, "no way." please let me know. is there a limit? we are not flying into vancouver, but rather driving.
thanks for your help.

[garydm]

Yes, you can bring wine aboard. If you choose to consume it in the dining room there is a corkage (corking?) fee.

Gary

[Dog Mommie]

Ship services told me about a week ago you are allowed to carry on as much wine, water and soda that you can carry...if that's not enough, they have a shipping service you can contact, through them, and have all your
cases waiting in your cabin for you!:D ;)

You may be (probably WILL be) charged a corkage fee if you bring your wine into any of the dining rooms!

Welcome to the board!

[AlohaPride]

Gary, is it a corkage fee if you only consume in the dining room? I thought it was no matter WHERE you drink it, you will pay per bottle? If it's just in the dining room, I'll just drink in our cabin :)

[basso]

Under boarding procedures, HAL states, "Please note: except for wine and champagne, alcoholic beverages may not be brought on board during embarkation or in ports of call. Bottles and other containers will be collected for safekeeping and delivered to your stateroom on the last day of the voyage."

I know Princess states wine may be brought aboard for celebratory occasions. Over three years ago, we were required to pay $8 per wine bottle just to bring it on the Legend of the Seas (RCCL), but that was the corkage fee too. I guess it varies by cruise line.

Bill

[Dog Mommie]

Gary, is it a corkage fee if you only consume in the dining room? I thought it was no matter WHERE you drink it, you will pay per bottle? If it's just in the dining room, I'll just drink in our cabin :)

You can drink it in your cabin...no extra charge! Take to a public place and policy says a corkage charge will be assessed.:eek:

Make sure you pack your corkscrew!!!!;)

[hammybee]

We often bring on our own wine and check it with the Sommelier to serve with dinner. This is what our Sommelier looked like on our last cruise:

[happy cruzer]

The corkage fee is $15 to open in the diningroom or the pinnacle grill. the $15 includes the tip. The wine stewards are very nice and knowledgable. You will definitely enjoy the wine experience with HAL if my experience last year on the Zuiderdam was anything to judge by. If you are trying to save money, go ahead drink it in your room with no corkage fee. But for a great dining experience the wine and dining room or PG is the best. Also their wine list is pretty good and pretty reasonable.
Cheers!

[Gymnastsfamily]

We just returned from a cruise on the Zuiderdam to Alaska and brought a case of wine on board. We have a special box and actually shipped it as luggage on the flight. Also, we preordered gin from ship services which was very resonably priced. We were told that we would be charged a corkage fee, but were only charged it in the Pinnacle Grill. We tipped our wine steward very well with cash on several occasions in the dining room and surprise, surprise no corkage fee. I would rather him have the $15 per bottle than the ship. The Pinnacle Grill seems to follow the rules more closely. We brought our own wine because we have an extensive wine collection and even if we would have paid the corkage fee we were better off bringing our own wine. Just my 2 cents.

[Blackneto]

A case you say?:)
I'm on the same cruise.
maybe we will meet up?
;)

Sign in on the roll call board to see which CC'ers are sailing with you

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=366663

[hugger]

We just returned from a cruise on the Zuiderdam to Alaska and brought a case of wine on board. We have a special box and actually shipped it as luggage on the flight. Also, we preordered gin from ship services which was very resonably priced. We were told that we would be charged a corkage fee, but were only charged it in the Pinnacle Grill. We tipped our wine steward very well with cash on several occasions in the dining room and surprise, surprise no corkage fee. I would rather him have the $15 per bottle than the ship. The Pinnacle Grill seems to follow the rules more closely. We brought our own wine because we have an extensive wine collection and even if we would have paid the corkage fee we were better off bringing our own wine. Just my 2 cents.

We have done this before on Princess as we agree with you that we'd rather have the wine steward have the money.
When I asked about doing this onboard HAL it was inferred that you can not do this.
Would love to know how you handled this on your cruise?
THANKS

[Chivalrygirl]

The corkage fee is $15 to open in the diningroom or the pinnacle grill. the $15 includes the tip. The wine stewards are very nice and knowledgable. You will definitely enjoy the wine experience with HAL if my experience last year on the Zuiderdam was anything to judge by. If you are trying to save money, go ahead drink it in your room with no corkage fee. But for a great dining experience the wine and dining room or PG is the best. Also their wine list is pretty good and pretty reasonable.
Cheers!

As I am not from the US I do not have USD, I need to buy them at a considerable cost, I am therefore very interested to find out what is considered reasonable for say a good bottle of Sauv Blanc?
Cheers

[happy cruzer]

http://www.hollandamerica.com/pdfs/onboard/Wine_Order_Polar.pdf

Hey, the above is a link to the preorder wine list. the actual list is bigger on the ship. You will note that there are two Sav Blancs for around $30US. This is pretty typical for a US landbased restaurent and maybe a little bit lower than what other cruiselines would offer for comparable wines.

From my point of view, I can get a bottle of Nobilo (obviously you are the expert in SB being from your part of the world; I really envy you getting the good stuff) in my home town for $9US, bring it on board and pay $15 corkage fee. That is what I prefer to do. I can bring a wine that I know I like and have it for a reasonable price. If the wine steward charges the corkage fee it includes a $5 tip for him. If for some reason he does not, then I will still tip at least that for his help. any way, I could live with $30 for a good bottle of wine, I just probably would cut back a tiny bit to save a few bucks.

I think in the areas of red wines, you really get a big advantage to bring your own on board. You might like to look at some menus to see which varietals to bring. We have packed wine in our checked luggage many times including international flights and never had it broken.

[Gymnastsfamily]

We have done this before on Princess as we agree with you that we'd rather have the wine steward have the money.
When I asked about doing this onboard HAL it was inferred that you can not do this.
Would love to know how you handled this on your cruise?
THANKS
The first evening in the dining room we brought our bottle of wine in and the wine steward asked if we knew about the corkage fee and if we'd be bringing wine every eveing. We replied that we were aware of the fee and that we'd have a bottle every evening. She said, that was fine because she'd just charge us a few of the corkage fees rather than one each evening. After dinner, my DH thanked her with a $20 and no bill arrived at our table that evening. We decided to ask for a change in tables because we had probably the worst table in the entire dining room, one between a wall and the servery. There were vacant table in front and behind us, so I guess others asked to be moved as well. Because of the change, we had to repeat the same thing the next night. Same questions from the steward, a man this time, same protocol from us, including the thank you and tip at the end of the meal. Becasue we weren't charged the corkage fee, we left an additional tip at the end of the cruise for the wine steward at the new table to him directly. We were told that if it is left at the front office that it goes into the pool. I am not certain if this is correct, so we just gave him the money on the last evening.

Hope this helps. We were prepared to pay the corkage fee, so tihs worked out well for us.

[Chivalrygirl]

http://www.hollandamerica.com/pdfs/onboard/Wine_Order_Polar.pdf

Hey, the above is a link to the preorder wine list. the actual list is bigger on the ship. You will note that there are two Sav Blancs for around $30US. This is pretty typical for a US landbased restaurent and maybe a little bit lower than what other cruiselines would offer for comparable wines.

From my point of view, I can get a bottle of Nobilo (obviously you are the expert in SB being from your part of the world; I really envy you getting the good stuff) in my home town for $9US, bring it on board and pay $15 corkage fee. That is what I prefer to do. I can bring a wine that I know I like and have it for a reasonable price. If the wine steward charges the corkage fee it includes a $5 tip for him. If for some reason he does not, then I will still tip at least that for his help. any way, I could live with $30 for a good bottle of wine, I just probably would cut back a tiny bit to save a few bucks.

I think in the areas of red wines, you really get a big advantage to bring your own on board. You might like to look at some menus to see which varietals to bring. We have packed wine in our checked luggage many times including international flights and never had it broken.

$US30 for a bottle of SB. That is roughly $NZ48??????? At that rate we will not be able to afford a wine at dinner ever. We pay here in the supermarket about $US6 for a good SB. Someone is making a flaming killing, and I guess its the cruise line which I thought was duty free. Its very interesting, in our region we really only have P & O and believe me the charges are a lot less. Ship is AUD, gratuity is $AU4.50 daily, with 10% added to bar tab. Who is kidding who? The crew work very happily and obviously accept much lesser. When we sailed Princess out of Sydney last year, we paid $AU6.50 gratuity. Do you know anything about purchasing wine in Vancouver, I don't think we can bring wine from home this trip, there is too much of a hassle with duty free liquor on airlines right now.

[hammybee]

I bring on my nectar, Dr. Pepper and often our own wine, for the reasons stated. I have yet to be charged a corkage fee. I am continually amazed by the charges that do not make my shipboard account. Too many years in Catholic Schools has given me a keen sense of the Big Ten. For fear of contributing to a Bakhsheesh culture, I have, on occasion, gone to the front desk for adjustments. Their reaction suggests that not many pax show up to inform them of MIA charges. They thank me and move on. It still makes me uncomfortable.

[hugger]

Gymnastsfamily - thank you for the insight - we appreciate it - we have done this on Princess for the last several year's. Would much rather see the money in the wine stewards pocket.

[pioneer girl]

I've enjoyed reading these posts since I'm trying to make some decisions on bringing wine onboard.

The only time I've ever taken wine onboard was last year on the Dinsey Cruise Line. A friend gave me a bottle of Turley for my birthday. I wanted to drink it on the cruise, so I didn't care how much or little the corkage fee in the dining room was. On the Disney Wonder, we didn't have a Sommelier; the waiter served the wine.

Sounds like we will have a Sommelier on the Westerdam. Will there be a wine tasting? Might be nice to taste the wines on the HAL list.

Thank you for sharing your insights. This helps a lot in planning. Might have to take a wine shipping box instead of one piece of luggage.....

[happy cruzer]

$US30 for a bottle of SB. That is roughly $NZ48??????? At that rate we will not be able to afford a wine at dinner ever. We pay here in the supermarket about $US6 for a good SB. Someone is making a flaming killing, and I guess its the cruise line which I thought was duty free. Its very interesting, in our region we really only have P & O and believe me the charges are a lot less. Ship is AUD, gratuity is $AU4.50 daily, with 10% added to bar tab. Who is kidding who? The crew work very happily and obviously accept much lesser. When we sailed Princess out of Sydney last year, we paid $AU6.50 gratuity. Do you know anything about purchasing wine in Vancouver, I don't think we can bring wine from home this trip, there is too much of a hassle with duty free liquor on airlines right now.

I don't know of the easiest way to do this in vancouver but if you go to the ports thread for vancouver I bet they can answer this question the best. I know I have read a couple of reviews where people from UK have stopped before the cruise to get some wine. Also since you can get the best SB in world in your grocery store at a good price, try some US, Argentinian, Italian, or Spanish wines they may be a better deal relatively.

Wine and Alcohol are marked up alot in the US. well even sodas are, they are high profit centers for bars and restaurents. HAL's not making anymore of a killing than any other business that serves mainly US customers. In the US food in restaurents is not marked up so much as in Europe from my experience. You probably will love the quality and selection of the food and that will be your big value. So it's all a matter of doing your research and setting your expectations.

Cheers:)

[happy cruzer]

I've enjoyed reading these posts since I'm trying to make some decisions on bringing wine onboard.

The only time I've ever taken wine onboard was last year on the Dinsey Cruise Line. A friend gave me a bottle of Turley for my birthday. I wanted to drink it on the cruise, so I didn't care how much or little the corkage fee in the dining room was. On the Disney Wonder, we didn't have a Sommelier; the waiter served the wine.

Sounds like we will have a Sommelier on the Westerdam. Will there be a wine tasting? Might be nice to taste the wines on the HAL list.

Thank you for sharing your insights. This helps a lot in planning. Might have to take a wine shipping box instead of one piece of luggage.....

I have carried my wine in a roller bag before just use plastic bags and clothing or bubble wrap and it will be secure. Remember the wine will get heavy if you put alot of bottles in one bag or box. DH can handle 12 bottles in one roller bag, I can't. We usually put no more than 4 in any one bag.

Yes on HAL you will have a wine steward which is great. You may be intimadated at first but his presence will save you time and add to the experience. we found when the waiter or asst waiter did the wine, we always slowed down everyone else's service with our wine orders and refills, the other table mates were pretty snippy about it which was not fair to the waiter. But on HAL its a joy to have the wine served properly.

I try the wines on the list here at home. That way I know ahead of time which I prefer and I get to have some fun trying some new wines. Be sure to try them with the proper food pairing it will make a big difference.