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My Suitcase full of Wine


Cruise Arizona

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OK, at the Last Minute I decided to bring some bottles of local Arizona Wine to share with my fellow cruise critic friends while on board. I carefully packed up about 6 bottles of wine into an extra suitcase with lots of bubble wrap. DH, was saying the whole time...."Why are you bringing all this wine....are you nuts????

 

One bottle was a gift to our friends from Australia who met us for dinner in San Diego (They were on the Mercury with us two years ago).

 

The next bottle was a gift to Gerardo.

 

Then what to do with the other bottles. We had two different bottles of red. So we had a few people we met on board over to have the reds.

 

Then we had dinner in the SS United States with a few friends, so our dessert wine came along with us.

 

And finally we had a few friends over for our last bottle of dessert wine and our dry reisling.

 

By the time we finished the wine DH was teasing me "How come you didn't pack more wine"

 

The best part, was that I now had an empty suitcase in which to pack my purchases. I'll have to pack more next time.

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Some friends of mine own Callaghan Vinyards in Eligin:

 

http://www.callaghanvineyards.com/Wines.asp

 

They make a wine called "Al's dessert wine" , but it is not listed on thier websitw.

 

Dos Cabezas is a winey and a vinyard.

 

Al's dessert wine is named after my friend Al, whos son is in my daugters second grade class. It is made by Callaghan Vinyards, with the Malvasia grape and neutral spirits. This is the wine I broght with me, but it is not listed on the Callaghan web site.

 

The other wine is the sherry by Dos Cabezas.

 

http://www.doscabezaswinery.com/default.php/cPath/24?osCsid=8ad92c7ebf635db1c58e782093d20458

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Is there a limit as to how much you can stuff into a suitcase to where the authorities think you are more of a dealer than a passenger? Nothing like bringing on board the local brews but there has to be a guideline for limits.

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We flew South West and they even have guidlines for wine. If you check it, the wine needs to be in a styrofoam protection and weigh less than 50 lbs per suit case.

 

I put mine into a rolling carryon, 6 bottles fit nicely, but I probably could have fit in a few more. Since it was in bubble wrap I thought it best to carry on.

 

I did the same when we boarded the ship, and nobody even looked twice or asked me about the wine at all, So I'm thinking 6-12 bottles is probably fine.

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Do you get a corkscrew from your steward? if flying, I'm not sure we can carry one.

 

I think if you just pack it in your regular non-carry on suitcase, it will be fine.

Also, apparently pocket knives are going to be allowed again. I have a Swiss Army knife with a built in corkscrew. Not the easiest one to use, but it will do in a pinch.

 

sable

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I flew on United, in September and October, with a metal corkscrew inside my CHECKED baggage. No problem there at all.

 

That's it. "Checked bag". Darned if I could think of that simple phrase.

Sometimes I have total brain failure. Well actually, I have it a lot.:D

 

 

sable

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If you read the Celebrity liturature you will get three or four different answers as to weather or not you can bring your own wine.

 

The reality is that as long as it is not duty free purchased in port, they don't even blink an eye. If have it served in a dinning area, you will be charged a corkage fee. They didn't even blink an eye when our entire party of winelovers all brought thier own wines to the SS United States. We had 4 bottles of wine, and three couples, they just split the corkage fee up three ways, $20 each.

 

I suppose at any point the policy could change, but at the very least they would just confiscate your wine until departure.

 

Our bar bill for a 14 day cruise was still about $100 a day atleast, so it wasn't like we were short changing the Celebrity bar.

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I think Celebrity appreciates the fact that a lot of people enjoy wines that Celebrity just can't stock on board. That is why they make a corkage fee available so one can bring one's favorite wine on a cruise! We too, have never had anyone question our wine carryon's and the sommelier has always been more than happy to serve our wines to us. There were times when we weren't charged the corkage either, always offer the sommelier to taste your wine, they seem to love doing that!:D

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