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Bringing wine onboard


dawne577

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I thought I had this all figured out but on the main page of this site there is a new article about the different cruise lines and what their policy is for bringing wine, etc. onboard. It states that Princess allows wine to be brought on at any port but not at embarkation. Has something changed recently?

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We wheeled on one of those rolling coolers with 5 bottles and also brought on bottled water and cokes, no problem. We also spent plenty on the ship on wine tasting, etc. so they didn't lose any $$ but it was nice to have a bottle of wine in the room, remember the cork screw, we forgot that but our statesroom attendant brought us one and two wine glasses.

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Tabasco,

 

Were you on the Dawn Princess? We sailed on it a couple years ago and you could buy a coke mug for $20 to $25 and get unlimited refills. Do you know if that is still available?

 

Thanks.

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Just off the Dawn last week. Coke card is $27.50 and you get this cooler thing too.

 

You can bring wine on board. We checked a case as luggage and they delivered it to our cabin with our luggage. We tipped the guy a few extra bucks to make sure he didn't break any of them. We were charged the $10 corkage fee most of the time. I'm guessing due to the fact that we didn't have the same waiter but ended up drinking most of it on our balcony. If you forget a corkscrew, they sell them on board in the gift shop but the around $7 I think.

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Just returned from the 3/5-3/12 cruise on the Grand. My brother in law and I took a case of wine each. We used the wine shipping box with styrofoam inserts, taped it up, put a baggage tag on it and checked it in at embarkation. Gave the porter an extra 5 spot to take good care of it. Baggage and wine delivered to cabin by 1:15pm. Waiter charged a corkage fee the first night, after that no fees.

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What is the corking fee like? Is this usually just the first night or has anyone been charged nightly? We're thinking about bringing a bottle for every night of the cruise, and I don't mind paying the corking fee one night, but if it's every night, that's a different story.

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Just off the Dawn and we were charged $10 every night except the last night but we didn't have the same waiter. I think if you have the same waiter every night (or most nights), you might not get charged each time. We found it was still worth it.

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I think whether the corking fee gets charged or not depends on the waiter. We had a waiter on the Regal a few years back who never charged us a corking fee.

 

 

Exactly! Just back from the Sun and was charged every night except once and had the same waitstaff everynight.Last cruise on RCL in '03 and was never charged once.Have sailed Princess and hardly ever charged either...it's up to the waiter.

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Corkage fees vary for each cruise line. Princess charges $10.00 per. We have cruised Celebrity 3X and I think, if I remember correctly, the corkage fee was $10.00. We took our own wine on the Celebrity cruises.

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By the way, we have brought on the larger bottles of wine (I think it is 1.5 liter) and it lasts two nights for us (they keep it cold and bring it out the next night) and corkage fee is only for the first time they open it. So for a 1.5 liter bottle of Beringer White Zin (our favorite....we are not wine connoiseurs by any means, if you havent guessed by now), it only costs us about $6 at the local supermarket here in California, and it is on the Princess wine menu at about $22 for the regular sized bottle. So after corkage fee we are still saving lots.($6+$10 fee= $8 per dinner for wine for two). We also like the Beringer White Zin sparkling wine, though it is $8-9 for large bottle.

Maybe one cruise we will bring a 5 liter box of Franzia to dinner....I wonder if they will charge a spigot fee?

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After reading so many serious posts on how to avoid corkage, as a joke, DW and I are thinking of taking one of our $150 Double Magnums (equivalent to 4 bottles) just to see the reaction of Maitre De and the waiters and the other diners! Spigotage fee sounds more intriguing. But quite seriously, remember that the waiter gets a percentage (50%?) of the corkage as his/her tip. It is customary not to charge corkage on a wine that is on the ship's wine list. On our last cruise, the waiter knew that our Beringer was far better than the one on the ship and said so. He did not charge us corkage. After dinner, we told him we would express our "appreciation" at the end of the cruise and we did just that. /Sultan

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By the way, we have brought on the larger bottles of wine (I think it is 1.5 liter) and it lasts two nights for us (they keep it cold and bring it out the next night) and corkage fee is only for the first time they open it.

 

This is what we are planning to do. Thanks for all of the great ideas and the good news about taking wine onboard.

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" It is customary not to charge corkage on a wine that is on the ship's wine list. On our last cruise, the waiter knew that our Beringer was far better than the one on the ship"

 

Sultan, did I read you correctly? It's customary not to charge corkage if your wine is also for sale? That seems counter-intuitive, especially in light of your next sentence.

 

My befuddled brain (and haven't even had a glass of wine)...

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I tried to be as non-committal as I could! Because one could have received a bottle of wine from the ship's list as a gift or ordered it from your room, the wait staff gives the benefit of doubt and will not charge corkage if it a wine on the ship's list. Beringer wine that the ship carries is either labeled Napa or California. The Beringer Founders is the cheaper one and others are more expensive. If the wine one takes to the dining room does not exactly match the one on the ship's list, a good waiter knows. However, it gives the waiter the option of not charging corkage without receiving reprimand from Maitre De because the waiter can claim genuine ignorance. Our waiter smiled and said that it was not the Beringer that the ship carried but did not charge corkage. Everytime, we are not charged corkage we simply add about $5 to the tip ($3 waiter $2 asst. waiter) as extra tip over and above the EXTRA we give keeping the automatic tip in place. If you search the forum, you will find a list of wines carried by the ship -- a few are listed on the dinner menus posted by some. Hope this clarifies my cryptic post. /Sultan

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  • 1 month later...

I was told by my travel agent that Princess charges you a corkage fee for every bottle you brought on board, even if you drank it in your room. True or false? That just doesn't sound right. It makes sense to charge a corkage fee if one brings the wine to the table.

 

She also told me that complimentary wine was served with dinner. True or false?

 

:confused:

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There is no complimentary wine served at dinner. If you go to the Captain's Party first formal night there are free drinks including wine. If you are a past cruiser on Princess and invited to the Return Guest Party, You will also receive without charge drinks and wine. There is no corkage charge for drinking wine you bring on yourself in your cabin. In the dining room it depends on the wait staff. I would ask them when you go to dinner first night.

We also brought our own wine onboard and carried it on and there was no problem. Passed us thru and never heard that passengers were charged a corkage fee when boarding the ship. Just came off the CP and this was how it was.........

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