New wine policy on Golden p

Just ended our cruise on the golden, i have just had a quick read through the now closed thread on alcohol now being destroyed, went a bit of track but hey thats cc. Just a heads up on the wine policy, we all know its one free bottle per person, now this is how it works

If you bring any wine on at a port of call it will be taken from you at security point, it is then checked against your cabin allownce and delivered later that night, if you have used your allowance up, corkage is charged to your account. My brothers wine was delivered about 8pm that evening, no charge as it counted against his allowance.

Only problem i can see with this is if you wanted to consume your wine that evening for dinner or in your room delivery time would be an issue.

Just ended our cruise on the golden, i have just had a quick read through the now closed thread on alcohol now being destroyed, went a bit of track but hey thats cc. Just a heads up on the wine policy, we all know its one free bottle per person, now this is how it works

If you bring any wine on at a port of call it will be taken from you at security point, it is then checked against your cabin allownce and delivered later that night, if you have used your allowance up, corkage is charged to your account. My brothers wine was delivered about 8pm that evening, no charge as it counted against his allowance.

Only problem i can see with this is if you wanted to consume your wine that evening for dinner or in your room delivery time would be an issue.

This was out of San Pedro? Most interested since we board the Coral there next Saturday. What did they do when you boarded? Did they actually check for wine and list it?

Wow! What if you plan to bring it home with you and not open at all? Same policy?

Not sure what happens then

This was out of San Pedro? Most interested since we board the Coral there next Saturday. What did they do when you boarded? Did they actually check for wine and list it?

Maybe they'll stamp the bottles to differentiate between extra bottles with corkage already paid & the free bottle which would require a corkage fee in the dining room?

Pia, The March 27th Golden cruise was apparently the first "trial run" for the new wine policy. Apparently, not only did they check for wine, but charged $15/bottle corkage for every bottle after the first one per adult passenger. You can let us know if they are doing it on the Coral also and, if so, give us all of the details after you board on the 20th :eek: I'm sure that antsp can provide more details of his experience.

Oh for sure you'll be hearing from me. It may not be my most scintillating LIVE, but it certainly will contain wine info.

For what it's worth we just returned (27 March - 6 April) from Cruising on the Emerald Princess and had no issues carring wine aboard. No questions, comments, dirty looks or additional fees. I brought on two 1.5 L bottles of wine at Port Everglades and two 750 ML bottles of wine at St. Kitts. I saw others Cruises bring on beer at some of the other ports we visited. There was a guy in front of me going through security in St. Lucia holding two open bottles of beer and nothing was said to him.

I do not drink alcohol on cruise ships, neither theirs nor mine.

However, one of the joys of travel, is buying souvenirs, which includes special bottles of alcohol to take home to share with friends and family.

I have no objection to the cruise ship holding my alcohol until my departure, however I object strongly to a policy which permits the destruction of my alcohol purchases.

I called Princess yesterday morning and ordered 3 bottles of wine from their "wine cellar gifts - bon voyage" package. I ask the woman who took my order if this counted toward my 2 'corkage free' bottles. She told me that wine ordered from the gift service dept would not recieve a corkage fee unless I took it to a restaurant. She also confirmed that I could bring on 2 additional bottles that would not have a corkage fee attached to it. The problem with the Princess wine cellar gift is finding a wine that I like - I ordered Asti, figuring that a morning mimosa sounds like vacation to me!

I called Princess yesterday morning and ordered 3 bottles of wine from their "wine cellar gifts - bon voyage" package. I ask the woman who took my order if this counted toward my 2 'corkage free' bottles. She told me that wine ordered from the gift service dept would not recieve a corkage fee unless I took it to a restaurant. She also confirmed that I could bring on 2 additional bottles that would not have a corkage fee attached to it. The problem with the Princess wine cellar gift is finding a wine that I like - I ordered Asti, figuring that a morning mimosa sounds like vacation to me!

Wait, if you buy it from them, you shouldn't pay a corkage fee regardless of where you drink it, right?!

Oh for sure you'll be hearing from me. It may not be my most scintillating LIVE, but it certainly will contain wine info.

Thanks, Pia. I look forward to what I know will be an accurate and complete report.

Wait, if you buy it from them, you shouldn't pay a corkage fee regardless of where you drink it, right?!

Wow! What if you plan to bring it home with you and not open at all? Same policy?

I spoke with an extremely competent Princess agent this morning, who checked quite carefully, and advised that Princess will store wine that you do not want to consume on the ship without a corkage fee.

Makes sense to me since they promote wine tours.

Wait, if you buy it from them, you shouldn't pay a corkage fee regardless of where you drink it, right?!

I also called a Princess rep. about buying wine ....we like to purchase a couple bottles ahead of time so that we have it in our room when we arrive.....we were reassured that we would NOT be paying corkage fees...

Yikes!...so, now I wonder what is the truth....

I spoke with an extremely competent Princess agent this morning, who checked quite carefully, and advised that Princess will store wine that you do not want to consume on the ship without a corkage fee.

 

Makes sense to me since they promote wine tours.

Well, I am glad someone knows what is going on....I ended up canceling a coastal wine country cruise b/c I couldn't get a definitive answer.

I have been reading many post about the wine issue and here is what I have observed. Yes Princess does have a new wine policy. Is it enforced all of time.....NO. It seems that it depends on the ship and cruise as it is enforced sometimes and other times not. As one person said the policy is "wishy washy". There seems no way to tell what they will do as some people have posted bringing extra wine and beer onboard with no questions asked. There is no way to tell what they will do from my observation. It's a gamble since they don't always enforce their policy.

Tom:)

I also called a Princess rep. about buying wine ....we like to purchase a couple bottles ahead of time so that we have it in our room when we arrive.....we were reassured that we would NOT be paying corkage fees...

 

Yikes!...so, now I wonder what is the truth....

I have been reading many post about the wine issue and here is what I have observed. Yes Princess does have a new wine policy. Is it enforced all of time.....NO. It seems that it depends on the ship and cruise as it is enforced sometimes and other times not. As one person said the policy is "wishy washy". There seems no way to tell what they will do as some people have posted bringing extra wine and beer onboard with no questions asked. There is no way to tell what they will do from my observation. It's a gamble since they don't always enforce their policy.

 

Tom:)

From reading the posts above and on the other thread, it is clear that Princess is in the process of rolling it out to their ships. So far it is only in effect on the Golden. I think everyone prefers they test it and fine tune as necessary rather than putting it onto all the ships at once.