Wine Question From A Royal Caribbean Newbie

This has probably been covered before, but can anyone tell me what RCCL's policy is regarding bringing wine on board.Our party of 7 will be on our first cruise with RCCL in May. We have always brought our own bottles for dinner on other lines. If allowed, what is the corckage fee?Thanx in advance!

I believe it to be $10. Someone can correct me if I am wrong. I have not brought my own aboard and buy from their stock to try new stuff.

We've brought a bottle or two of wine on board a couple of cruises. It's, usually, because it's our anniversary or one of our birthdays. They have not charged us for the corkage fee, because we've told the waiter or maitre'd this. We still order bottles of wine on other evenings, though. But, I'm sure they'd charge the corkage fee if you brought your own wine every night. I hope this helps?

Carole

Corkage was $12 on our last 2 cruises. It's sometimes charged and sometimes not. Call your TA or RCI to tell them you want to bring wine onboard (particularly if it's wine they don't carry onboard). You would likely have a problem bringing on multiple cases, but if you each brought a couple of bottles, most of the time it's not a problem.

Some will probably post a long quote from the RCI website and/or tell you that only cheap, bad, rude people bring on their own wine. (I say, ignore them.) The bottom line is that what's allowed varies from ship to ship. Some cruise docs say no alcohol, others say "we reserve the right to limit," some brochures don't even address the issue, and the website says "no, except special wines" with the disclaimer that "no doesn't apply to all ships or all sailings."

Now that I've left you totally confused. I say bring some wine and don't worry about it. We pack ours in an airline-approved wine shipping box and send it through with our checked luggage at the pier. We've never brought more than 6 bottles for a 7-day cruise. I suspect that if you tried to wheel on 3 cases, it would be confiscated and returned to you at the end of the cruise.

Have a lovely time.

beachchick

If you buy a bottle of wine at dinner and don't finish it, do they keep it for you to drink the next night? I'm sure someone has covered this before, but I really can't remember. I don't really think I want to finish a bottle of wine by myself!

Lindnet...

Last time we cruised (2001) I was the only one at my table drinking wine. I chose a nice bottle during the day and they brought it and corked it each night. When it was empty, they gave me a new one...it was perfect!

NannyJan

The corkage fee is usually $10, the $12 charge surprised me. We have taken champagne on board on two cruises, four bottles between four people on 12 day cruises. We took the bottles to the dining room first night and had the waiter keep them for us. We purchase a lot of wine on board, at least two bottles per night. We have never been charged the corkage fee and the waiter and head waiter were always more than ready to serve us. Our dining room wine tab is usually around $800-$900, so the 15% gratuity of $120 and an additional tip on the nights we drink our own wine probably helps .

If you don't finish the bottle, it will be kept for another night. If you order wine in the specialty restaurants and don't finish the bottle, it will be kept and sent to your table in the dining room.

This is good to know. Last cruise there were a few couples, so one bottle of wine was used at dinner. Me and BF will be going alone and I'm the only one to have wine with my meal. Glad to know it'll last a least a couple days *S*