Jump to content

Is it worth bringing your own wine?


GSP

Recommended Posts

We have wine nightly with dinner...in december on dawn princes...i think the base line was a a decent pedestrian round hill cab for $20...and stretched up to the pricey $160 bottle of opus one.

 

someone else will correct me if i'm wrong here, but i think corkage fees are $10 or $12

 

once in awhile we'll bring on board a very special bottle to share in our room (one from a case we bought on our honeymoon, etc). but consider it too much of a hassle (breakage has happened to use before).

 

cheers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That really depends upon how particular you are. The regular wine list is a little disappointing, and many of the California varietals are priced quite high. There is also a Maitre d's wine list that sometimes has some good values. I've got a few faves on that list.

 

It's perfectly fine to bring your own wine. If you choose to bring a bottle to the dining room, you might be charged a $10 corkage fee to have it served. They sometimes forget to charge you if you've ordered wine from their list.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always bring my own wine.

 

I have seen posts saying that the wine prices on board are comparable, but I find them to be very inflated.

Also, you may want to check the wine list on Princess, because they don't have an overly vast selection to chose from.

 

Have a WONDERFUL cruise!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We regularly bring a bottle of wine to have each evening. There is a $10 corking fee if you bring the wine into the dinning room, but there is no fee if you enjoy your wine on your balcony, in your room, or out on deck. We use one of our carry-on to bring the wine with us and then at the end of the trip we know we have one suitcase to carry back gifts and souvinours.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We enjoy having a glass of wine in our cabin before dinner, so we always bring at least a couple of bottles. When we sailed from Seattle, we brought along half a dozen bottles of Washington State wines. When we cruised to New England and Canada, we brought a couple of bottles and bought a couple more in port.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We brought 4 bottles of very good wine on the Sun last March and bought several on the 10 day cruise. They charged corkage on 2 bottles and didn't on the other 2. No wine steward so it is up to waiter. We tipped him at first meal and extra at last in late seating besides usual tip added to bill.

I wouldn't bother bringing on 5-10$ wines. These were for formal nights and unavailable on the ship.:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The wine prices on the ship, especially the upper end wines are quite reasonable compared to the same wines at local restaurants. Normal restaurant markup is around triple wholesale.. We do bring around 3-4 bottles of expensive wine from local Vintners and sometimes share with the Maitre D'. We have never paid corkage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am from wine country, so, I bring my own. One time when I complained about the prices, [double the Canadian price, and we have the highest prices in North America], I was told. 'Well sir, you are on a cruise ship!' :( john

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you're flying out of FL and you don't want the hassle of hauling a case of wine through the airports,call Laurie or Shelly @ Just Because of You (800 882-9707).They will gift wrap wine,beer,& water and have it delivered to your cabin.I have used them before and not only are they sweethearts,but their prices are very reasonable.

I always bring 6-12 bottles with me because we like to have some wine before dinner on the balcony.spongerob is right about the corkage fee,it's hit or miss if you'll be carged the $10 fee or not.

The ships regular wine list is very thin and the prices are inflated as one would expect.

Have a great cruise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We brought wine on our last cruise (Royal Princess, British Isles). We embarked in London, and picked up wine before heading on board. Doing this, we could bring wines that we enjoyed each evening at dinner. Our waiter came to expect us bringing in our wine and seemed to enjoy seeing what we'd chosen to drink with that particular meal. This was a 10 day cruise, and we were charged corkage fees about half the time. It seemed to be random. Naturally, we tipped over and above at the end of our journey.

 

elaine

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The wine list was the most disappointing part of my recent cruise on Island Princess, for a few reasons.

 

1) The selections are oddly clustered - there's something like eight CA Chards and eight CA cabs, but no Oregon Pinot, no Sancerre, very, very few Rhones (one, maybe two) - on the regular list, take the Outback Steakhouse list, mark everything up another $5-10, and then double the size of each category with essentially similar wines.

 

2) High markups on low-priced wines. Yes, it's a cruise ship, but the wines are being bought duty-free, yet marked up a factor of 4 to 5X wholesale on some popular choices.

 

3) No vintage information on the regular list. Also, for European wines, no producer/negociant information. Chateauneuf du Pape can be decent to inspired, but there's no clue what you might be ordering.

 

4) The Reserve/Maitre De Hotel list has some very odd selections that I wouldn't consider terribly rare or premium such as Santa Margharita Pinot Grigio. I figure if it's popular at Olive Garden, it's not really a Riserva.

 

5) The non-Chardonnay whites were a sick joke. Who still drinks Blue Nun? There were no new-world Rieslings, Gewurztraminers, Viogniers, Semillions or meritage-style blends, and something like three Sauvignon Blanc.

 

6) Roughly half of the Reserve wines were sold out / unavailable.

 

That said, there were a few highlights....

 

1) Champagne and high-end wines, though limited in selection, are very, very reasonably priced. The Veuve Clicquot NV was precisely $10 more than Costco, which I thought was just a fantastic deal. I can't recall which Opus One and which Mondavi Reserve Cabernet vintages were on offer, but the prices were comparable to a very, very reasonable retail markup.

 

2) There were a couple of oddball reds on the Reserve List, such as Paraduxx (a clone of a Supertuscan) that I haven't seen much of in my area. Sadly, I think of the "interesting" bottles, three of the four were sold out.

 

 

All in all, I was glad we brought a few bottles with us, as we both like unoaked whites with our first courses, and DH doesn't care much for Champagne. (WoohoO! More for me!). We were charged corkage, but that honestly doesn't bother me, and provided much entertainment when the waiter attempted to open a Stelvin Closure with a corkscrew.

 

Eric

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me, no, it's not worth it. I had a bottle of red wine break once. It ruined a bunch of clothes that were supposed to be protecting it.

I'd rather pay more and buy the wine onboard, although being from Wine Country, it's a hard pill to swallow seeing how much they charge for the wine that we pay $5 a bottle for at the grocery store. :eek:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We brought a case on board last Feb on the Dawn. We checked it with our baggage and was delivered with our luggage. Although the prices on board weren't too bad, we enjoyed our favorite wines both in our room at at dinner. Corkage fee was $10 but that varied whether we were charged or not depending on the waiter etc. We also didn't care to carry it from home to the ship (CA to FL) so we went to Costco before we boarded, bought what we wanted and taped up the case. We will do it again in a heartbeat!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

VibeGuy,

I sometimes think this list was assembled just to say they have wine.All the choices are pretty pedestrian and I'm still not certain why people get excited about Opus One,especially at the price they are asking.There are SO many way more interesting wines at a quarter of the price.

Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio is there because people can pronounce it,same with Dom Perignon.Neither of these wine (in a blind tasting)rarely finish far from the bottom.

Coming from an extensive wine background with many years in the business,it pains me to see over-priced mediocre wine lists.I find it almost humorous to see the ship's "wine captain" get so excited extolling the virtues of some wine at their tastings that I can purchase at Trader Joes or Cost Plus for $6.99.

If these cruiseships had half a brain,they'd seek out interesting,unique wines from New Zealand,Spain,Australia,etc. and then mark them up accordingly.These wines would be dirt-cheap to acquire and after a keystone mark-up (or two:eek: ),the ship would still have their margins and we'd at least be getting unique wines we've yet to experience.

The wine values are out there.Instead of being like everyone else,I'd find it refreshing to see things being done differently.I know I'd certainly be more willing to drink off their list instead of mine.;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This wine afficianado finds the Princess offerings somewhat limited, so we always bring 5-6 bottles of our favorites. Bubble-wrapped and in large plastic bags, we've never had a problem with breakage.

 

We drink our wines in our stateroom and order from the ship's winelist in lounges and/or dining room. If we order a bottle in a lounge before dinner, it is collared for us to carry to the dining room. If we don't finish a bottle during our meal, it is saved for the following night.

 

We usually start our voyage with a bottle of champagne from room service.

 

Cheers!

Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This wine afficianado finds the Princess offerings somewhat limited, so we always bring 5-6 bottles of our favorites. Bubble-wrapped and in large plastic bags, we've never had a problem with breakage.

 

We drink our wines in our stateroom and order from the ship's winelist in lounges and/or dining room. If we order a bottle in a lounge before dinner, it is collared for us to carry to the dining room. If we don't finish a bottle during our meal, it is saved for the following night.

 

We usually start our voyage with a bottle of champagne from room service.

 

Cheers!

Chris

 

Chris,

We too usually order a bottle of bubbly from room service when we arrive and watch everyone else scurry to get on the ship.

I've always brought along a "wine shipper" with me (before I found out about JBOY) so I've never worried about breakage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We brought our own wine, mostly to enjoy on the balcony. I'm not sure how it happened, but we were in a full suite and there was not a corkscrew to be found. Called our cabin steward who called room service who sent someone to open our wine. They charged us $10 for uncorking it. Take a corkscrew onboard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We brought our own wine, mostly to enjoy on the balcony. I'm not sure how it happened, but we were in a full suite and there was not a corkscrew to be found. Called our cabin steward who called room service who sent someone to open our wine. They charged us $10 for uncorking it. Take a corkscrew onboard.

 

That's nuts!

 

I've called room service before for a wine key when I forgot one once and it was delivered to my cabin promply without a charge.

 

I would have been very upset at being charged...was this on a Princess ship?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Vibe Guy, I remember reading one of your posts where you stated something to the effect that you think it would be better if Princess listed thier wine by how it TASTES, and not by where it is from.

 

I totally agree!!

 

I would be much more likely to purchase wine on board, if it were listed in this format! (I love my riesling! But I'd be more willing to try others if I could "compare" the taste to those I know I enjoy).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When you bring wine unboard you can arrange to have you whites chilled and red stored and served to you at the table so there is no hassle with bringing bottles into the dining room.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...