Drinks package worth it? We drink!

We are actually in the wine business so yes, we like our wine.

Other cruises have been all-inclusive so now we are faced with do we buy the wine package or do we just buy wine by the bottle at dinner etc?

Is there a difference in the wine served?

Sailing Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh in January 2015 on the Star Pride

Many thanks

Melanie

Have you searched this forum for this topic? It's been discussed many times. If you pull up some threads, you can read more about this topic.

Have you thought about bringing a case of wine with you?

Can we do that? Bring wine? To have at dinner?

Yes. If you bring a bottle of wine to dinner you will pay a corkage fee of approximately 17 USD. We will be on the Star Pride the voyage before yours. We are bringing a case of wine with us to Singapore. We have done this on our previous trips on the Wind Surf and the Wind Star. Just check with your airline to see if you can bring wine with you and check the import regulations for Hong Kong about bringing in wine. In the U.S. we cannot carry on wine, it has to be checked as luggage.

That's brilliant, J&M, thank you.

We will just buy a case in Hong Kong, that's too easy

And maybe a special bottle or two in our luggage from Australia.

Do you know if the corkage is per bottle or per person?

I have just (as in, 3 mins ago) been emailed by a woman at Windstar and she tells me we can bring 2 bottles per person on board.

So how do you bring a case?!

We put it with the rest of our luggage. Security calls us and makes us open up the box and show them it is wine and not liquor and we bring it on board. The corkage is per bottle.

As mentioned by 6rugrats you should search this forum and see lots of people bring wine with them.

Enjoy

Thank you.

Yes, I have searched thanks.

While the Windstar woman says 2 bottles per person, everyone else seems to take many more with no problem.

I think we will bypass the drinks package in favour of taking our own.

Happy cruising all

You are allowed to bring on two bottles of wine at no charge. You will be charged a corkage fee, per bottle, for the rest. Will they enforce this? Who knows?

http://www.windstarcruises.com/Voyage-Plan/FAQs/#Alcohol

We've brought as many as six bottles on board with us without a question. Bought at the Mono Prix before boarding and we had them in a cute little six-bottle carrying pack from the store. Never looked at it.

We routinely buy a bottle or two when we're onshore for the day and just stick them in our tote bag - not a problem.

Despite what they say it is also OK to drink your own wine on deck as long as you don't make a point of it. We just have a couple glasses and the bottle in some sort of bag, and as long as we're not right by the bar no one even looks at us.

We sailed in August on the Windsurf for 19 days and took a case of wine on board and didn't have any problems. The hotel manager had to come down to the x-ray area but said it was OK. We had the wine in 2 half case boxes to make it easier to transport. We would fill up our glass in the room and take it up on deck or to the lounges. We took our wine to dinner a few times and the corkage fee is $15 per bottle. We also purchased several bottles of their wine and many of their cocktails.

Security at ports seems to have been tightened from the past. We and our bags went through TSA style inspection at each port, and at some WS opened and rifled through people's bags. So my experience may be out of date.

The on-board literature said emphatic that if you were caught on deck with your own booze you'd be charge a corkage fee, but in reality we did so three times and went unchallenged. Easy to spot these days as bar glasses are stemmed and the cabin glasses are stemless. The trick, we learned, is to wander away from the bar/dinner with a glass of wine and then refill it later.

Or, life is short, just buy their wine, the prices seemed fair to me with nice bottles of Spanish white topping out at $30-34.

milepig, not to get too off-topic, but were you on the Culinary Cruise? If so, how was it? Would you consider doing a review?

Thanks.

milepig, not to get too off-topic, but were you on the Culinary Cruise? If so, how was it? Would you consider doing a review?

 

Thanks.

We were, and I'll try to do a review - after a trip through the Betty Ford clinic.

The surprise was that not only was their a tasting each night but that the wines tasted were then served at no charge for dinner. We were awash in wine. Not as much Culinary as I'd hoped, 2 pairing dinners but the rest was pretty much straight down the middle WS chow. Some tours were OK, one totally tanked.

So - mostly a normal WS cruise with gallons and gallons of Spanish wine.