Bringing a case of wine on board CB in Houston

I am wondering what other's experiences have been bringing wine on board at this port. On many other FLL embarkations we have brought 12 to 16 bottles in our checked luggage without a problem. Never paid a corkage fee and had the luxury of having plenty of wine in our rooms for consumption during the day and evening on our balcony. Reading these message boards ( which is a new find for me) is causing me some concern. Just trying to plan ahead for a March cruise. Thanks!

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

Last year Princess changed their policy. Each adult can now bring on one bottle of wine. There is no corkage charge for it unless it is brought to the dining room.

Any additional bottles are charged $15 at embarkation.

This policy has been rolled out to all ports of embarkation, but is not always enforced.

Yes, but that is what the policy has always read in the last 5 years we have been cruising with them. Did they just decide to randomly beef up enforcement of this?

Yes, but that is what the policy has always read in the last 5 years we have been cruising with them. Did they just decide to randomly beef up enforcement of this?

There was never any corkage fee collect at the gangway until the last few months. That is a new policy.

The new policy is now in effect at most ports, if not all. If you check that case if wine, expect to be called and pay $15 per bottle. You can, however, bring a bottle per person for use in your cabin at no charge.

This is now being enforced everywhere.

I am wondering what other's experiences have been bringing wine on board at this port... to plan ahead for a March cruise. Thanks!

I can answer about Houston. But it may change at any time -

We boarded a Houston B2B last month with enough champagne for both weeks (6 or 8 bottles) and were prepared to defend our 3rd and 4th free bottles (for the second "voyage"), and pay for the ones over that. We carried them on in a wheely and never got an opportunity to pay. We have not heard of any checked wine boxes being charged or quarantined in Houston, and I have been reading ALL the reports.

At ports of call they took our visible hard liquor for holding, not asking for our wine.

Again, as we say in the financial biz, Past Performance Is No Guarantee Of Future Results!

~sent using Cruise Critic app~

Is it recommended to bring the wine in your carry on or pack it in a suitcase?

Is it recommended to bring the wine in your carry on or pack it in a suitcase?

Carry it as you board, never know how rough the checked bags will be treated.

The best way to transport a case of wine is in a shipper, then you can check it in with your luggage without any worries

The best way to transport a case of wine is in a shipper, then you can check it in with your luggage without any worries

That is if you are willing to pay the $15 per bottle fee or risk having all that wine destroyed! Princess advises that the wine should be in your carry on...

One CASE of wine for a 7 day cruise?????? Seriously????????

That would be one very expensive case of 12 or 16 bottles after the corkage fee was added. :eek:

One CASE of wine for a 7 day cruise?????? Seriously????????

That's what I was thinking! OP must be planning on spending the entire cruise in his or her cabin!

That would be one very expensive case of 12 or 16 bottles after the corkage fee was added. :eek:

Agreed... $15 per bottle multiplied by 16...= $240 plus the cost of the wine... Yikes!

That would be one very expensive case of 12 or 16 bottles after the corkage fee was added. :eek:

Not necessarily. You have to compare the total cost of the wine including the corkage fee with the price of the same wine on board. Remember, the corkage fee is a fixed price per bottle regardless of the cost of the bottle.

Consider 2 wildly different scenarios.

1) You love to drink "2 buck chuck". At $2 per bottle, the stuff with corkage fee will cost you $17 per bottle. Princess charges $8 for a bottle of 2 buck chuck. That means that you come out $9 per bottle behind if you bring on 2 buck check.

2) You have a wine that you love that costs $50 per bottle. Using the same logic, it costs you $65 per bottle to bring it on board. Princess is going to over charge you $200 for that bottle of wine so you save $135 on each bottle or $1620 for each case you bring on board.

You need to do the math before you decide whether to buy on board or bring it on. The more expensive the wine, the better off you are to bring it on board.

You also need to consider what wines Princess has available. I will bet that the wines that you love to drink are not available on board. How much is this worth?

DON

Don, I understand that logic but you are on the Princess board, not HAL...

Most of us probably would never drink 16 bottles of expensive wines... I'd rather bring two very good bottles and savor those on a 8 day cruise... For dinner, one bottle lasts us two days so... For us, it works better to get our wine from Princess... And no taxes charged to boot!

It seems odd that people are almost challenging what and how much wine other passengers drink on their cruise!!! Each to his own!

That is if you are willing to pay the $15 per bottle fee or risk having all that wine destroyed! Princess advises that the wine should be in your carry on...

My answer was for another poster, still the best way to transport wine is in a shipper the come in many sizes. Much better than have a bottle break in your carry on.

Don, I understand that logic but you are on the Princess board, not HAL...

 

Most of us probably would never drink 16 bottles of expensive wines... I'd rather bring two very good bottles and savor those on a 8 day cruise... For dinner, one bottle lasts us two days so... For us, it works better to get our wine from Princess... And no taxes charged to boot!

No argument. Somewhere between the 2 buck chuck @ $2 and the good $50 stuff is the break even point. I am just not exactly sure where it is and it also depends upon how much Princess marks up the stuff. I did one check and found that Princess gets $25 for a Kenwood Sauvignon Blanc that I can pick up at Total Wines in Ft. Lauderdale for $10 so on this wine at least, they have a 250% markup.

DON

No argument. Somewhere between the 2 buck chuck @ $2 and the good $50 stuff is the break even point. I am just not exactly sure where it is and it also depends upon how much Princess marks up the stuff. I did one check and found that Princess gets $25 for a Kenwood Sauvignon Blanc that I can pick up at Total Wines in Ft. Lauderdale for $10 so on this wine at least, they have a 250% markup.

 

DON

Don, you make some good points, I agree if total wine is selling the wine for $10 I agree Princess purchased it for far less but you are on the right track.

Don, you make some good points, I agree if total wine is selling the wine for $10 I agree Princess purchased it for far less but you are on the right track.

I forgot to include in my calculations that many wine places offer a case discount of 10% or more. That makes my $10 wine cost only $9 which lowers my break even cost. Also, does Princess add a 15% tip when I buy a full bottle? I know that they do if you purchase wine by the glass. If they do and you factor that into the Total Wine purchase, it reduces the effective cost of the $10 Total Wine purchase to $7.65.

Nobody ever bothers to figure out all these things when figuring out if it pays to bring wine on board. And to think - I am a mere chemist and not an accountant.

At this rate, Princess will be paying me to drink wine.

LOL!!

DON

I saw a post by a pax boarding in port everglades and they put a luggage tag on their box of wine and checked it. They got a message to come down and pay the fee to get their box of wine. I used to take a case of wine for a 10 day cruise out of that port and do the same thing to check it. I never had a problem. TW would give me a shipping box that they had received wine in and would tape it up for me.

I agree that it is far cheaper for me to buy the wine I like which is moderately priced in the $10 to $20 range, carry it on board and pay the $15 charge than to drink their wine. We will be doing that on our cruise next month out of port everglades after a visit to TW of course. I love that place!

BTW we finally got a TJ here and their $2 chuck is now $3 chuck! The locally owned grocery chain is selling $3 bottles of wine also since TJ showed up. I have tried them both and they are not half bad for the price. We also just got a TW here so we are in the big time now.

Also, does Princess add a 15% tip when I buy a full bottle?

Yes

1.8 Euro per liter Chuck. Bring your own container

Or 1 Euro/liter Chuck

Is it recommended to bring the wine in your carry on or pack it in a suitcase?

It's my understanding that the ONLY way to definitely be permitted your free bottle is to hand-carry it onboard. Any wine found in scanned checked luggage will be subject to a fee or confiscation. Still, YMMV.

1.8 Euro per liter Chuck. Bring your own container

 

 

 

 

 

Or 1 Euro/liter Chuck

 

OH My a fueling station

Not sure if that's allowed in the US with TTB laws