New Luggage Tag Wording re: Wine

[caribill]

From the cruise contract:

 

"At embarkation, all luggage will be scanned for suspected alcohol in excess of the one bottle policy as provided herein. Your luggage will undergo a secondary inspection by a security team operating under CCTV (closed circuit surveillance) or in the event Your luggage is locked, You will be notified and are required to attend the secondary inspection where any alcohol found in violation of the one bottle policy will be removed and discarded."

 

OK, a ship with 3100 passengers will likely have a minimum of 3100 pieces of checked luggage for the securtity team to check for the forbidden bottle.

 

The way it is worded, any of these 3100+ pieces of luggage that is locked will require the owner to come down to unlock it for the seconddary inspection.

 

Since almost all people will prudently lock their luggage, it is going to be a very long line on the ship on embarkation day on every voyage.

 

I cannot even begin to estimate how long it will take for the person at the front of the line to have his/her suitcase(s) located among the 3100 pieces there in the ship's hold. If I assume it will take an average of five minutes and then another couple of minutes to open it up, rummage through the contents, lock it up, and return it to Princess for delivery to the cabin.

 

So, if it averages 7 minutes per person for this, it will take 15 days before all the luggage can be checked. Of course, if there are two lines instead of one, everyone can have their luggage checked in a little over 7 days, just in time for disembarkation on a 7 day cruise.

[pablo222]

This bit about alcohol was not on the luggage tag a few weeks ago.

• One 750 ml bottle of wine or Champagne per adult.
  
• Additional wine & Champagne bottles are welcome for a $15 corkage fee each, per voyage.
  

 

I'm sure all the CCL shareholders will appreciate this change!

 

I always wondered how long it would be before someone at

princess caught on to the endless bragging here.

 

"Hoist with his own petard"

 

(Petards are probably not allowed onboard, either)

[pablo222]

OK, a ship with 3100 passengers will likely have a minimum of 3100 pieces of checked luggage for the securtity team to check for the forbidden bottle.

 

The way it is worded, any of these 3100+ pieces of luggage that is locked will require the owner to come down to unlock it for the seconddary inspection.

 

Since almost all people will prudently lock their luggage, it is going to be a very long line on the ship on embarkation day on every voyage.

 

I cannot even begin to estimate how long it will take for the person at the front of the line to have his/her suitcase(s) located among the 3100 pieces there in the ship's hold. If I assume it will take an average of five minutes and then another couple of minutes to open it up, rummage through the contents, lock it up, and return it to Princess for delivery to the cabin.

 

So, if it averages 7 minutes per person for this, it will take 15 days before all the luggage can be checked. Of course, if there are two lines instead of one, everyone can have their luggage checked in a little over 7 days, just in time for disembarkation on a 7 day cruise.

 

Carnival already does this, with just as many pax.

Google "naughty room"

[caribill]

Carnival already does this, with just as many pax.

Google "naughty room"

 

Do they open up every suitcase coming on board as the Princess contract states?

 

Or do they x-ray them and only open up the suspicious ones?

[Shogun]

Hi All

 

If your bags are of interest to Princess they do not open them,

 

they are tagged details written on a card and taken down to deck 4

 

security will call you, request you attend and open it,

 

inspect it in front of you,

 

then some poor porter will carry your bag back to your cabin for you,

 

 

yours Shogun

[whitecap]

Just looked at our luggage tags and boarding passes; we printed them out some time back for our Mar 2013 cruise. The luggage tags and boarding passes printed out several weeks ago have no "alcohol policy reminder" however the current luggage tag and boarding pass have the reminder BUT each reminder is different:

 

Luggage Tag: Please remember our carry-on alcohol policy: one 750ml bottle of wine or Champagne per adult; Additional wine & Champagne bottles are welcome for a $15 corkage fee each, per voyage; other liquors, spirits or beers are prohibited; luggage is subject to search.

 

Boarding Pass: Thank you for observing our carry-on alcohol policy. As a reminder, adult passengers are permitted to bring one 750 ml bottle of wine or champagne onboard per voyage, which will not be subject to a corkage fee if consumed in the stateroom. Additional wine or champagne bottles are welcome, but will incur a $15 corkage fee each, IRRESPECTIVE of where they are intended to be consumed. Liquor, spirits or beers are not permitted. Please remember that luggage will be scanned and alcohol outside of our policy will be removed and discarded.

 

Key phrase on the Boarding Pass is IRRESPECTIVE OF WHERE THEY ARE INTENDED TO BE CONSUMED. I read this to mean that you can bring a case of wine, turn it in as checked luggage or carry on yourself and two bottles will be "free" but each of the additional bottles will cost a $15 corkage fee each.

[Debe7ing]

In this day and age of competing for the business of those that can afford to travel, I suppose it is a risky call with the potential to alienate those that have enjoyed the luxury of selecting and bringing their own wine onboard and chose to consume in their staterooms with restrictions.

 

Time will tell, when people are REALLY upset about something, they tend to vote with their wallet...others will just grumble and press ahead.

 

MY issue with the restriction is that they are limiting us, but not offering a wine package...I am assuming that the port of call pubs will fare better tho, since any way you look at it most of them serve cheaper spirits than onboard ship prices.

 

Would be interesting to know how this plays out revenue wise for Princess...

[sminfiddle]

Additional wine or champagne bottles are welcome, but will incur a $15 corkage fee each, IRRESPECTIVE of where they are intended to be consumed. Liquor, spirits or beers are not permitted. Please remember that luggage will be scanned and alcohol outside of our policy will be removed and discarded.

 

Key phrase on the Boarding Pass is IRRESPECTIVE OF WHERE THEY ARE INTENDED TO BE CONSUMED. I read this to mean that you can bring a case of wine, turn it in as checked luggage or carry on yourself and two bottles will be "free" but each of the additional bottles will cost a $15 corkage fee each.

This would indicate that the Big Change is:

"where the corkage gets charged" has moved from the table to the boarding gate. No one would stand for the same fee to be imposed twice on the same bottle.

 

Is it in force yet? We will likely hear back soon.

Will it be consistently enforced? Well, we are talking about Princess...

 

Rick

[Debe7ing]

The way I read it is not a change. If you bring a bottle of wine to a dining room or restaurant, you'll be charged a corkage fee. That's been the case for a while but enforcement was spotty. I know on our Island cruise last September/October, it was enforced no matter where we were. If you bring wine to drink in your cabin, I don't think they will charge you a corkage fee.

 

No Pam, my boarding statement states specifically "Additional wine or champagne bottles are welcome, but will incure a $15 corkage fee each, irrespective of where they are intended to be consumed." Can't help but believe that last few words was placed there to ENSURE you realized you were paying $15 per bottle over the 1 carry on, REGARDLESS.

[Ontario Cruiser]

They did not have the wine packages on our Emerald 10 day cruise Jan 16th.

So let me understand if we bring on a case of wine they will charge us $15 per bottle and we can bring it to the dining room or will they charge the $15 plus corkage in the MDR. How do we find out if they will have wine pkg for our Emerald crossing in April

Tks Ontario Cruiser

[Carolyn R]

Is it too early for popcorn?

[Debe7ing]

They did not have the wine packages on our Emerald 10 day cruise Jan 16th.

So let me understand if we bring on a case of wine they will charge us $15 per bottle and we can bring it to the dining room or will they charge the $15 plus corkage in the MDR. How do we find out if they will have wine pkg for our Emerald crossing in April

Tks Ontario Cruiser

 

I think the charge in the dining room is out...because EVERYTHING brought on board over the one bottle per person is already charged...boy, the waitstaff must REALLY love this..cause if you are going to bring your own, you can certainly keep them busier than they have ever been having them serve it to you at dinner vs just enjoying in your cabin on your own....:(

[LunaSeaRetreat]

Wow! I wonder how embarkation is going to be effected. Are they going to collect the money at check in? I haven't printed out our boarding passes yet, but we will be on a 28 day cruise in March. If they have the wine package, it won't be too bad, but if they don't, there will be a very unhappy passenger.:(

 

We usually cruise Celebrity, but always enjoyed Princess and their liberal wine policy. I'm sure if this continues we will stick with Celebrity and enjoy our free wine and cocktails at the Elite event most every night.

 

Princess,

Your wine package is fair and I'll happily purchase it instead of lugging wine on board. The problem is I can't be sure it will be offered.

 

Cynthia

[PunkiC]

Disappointing if they follow through with this. Doesn't NCL do this? Never would have put them in the same category as Princess.

 

Yes, this is NCL's policy and the very reason that we sailed on NCL once and only once--it was a zoo with all of the agents running around and sending people to the naughty table. An untenable way to treat adults.

 

One of the primary reasons we settled on Princess as our line of choice was that they didn't hassle us about bringing wine on boad.

 

When I read this statement:

 

As a reminder, adult passengers are permitted to bring one 750 ml bottle of wine or champagne onboard per voyage, which will not be subject to a corkage fee if consumed in the stateroom. Additional wine or champagne bottles are welcome, but will incur a $15 corkage fee each, IRRESPECTIVE of where they are intended to be consumed.

 

it made me wonder. Will they mark the bottles on which the corkage fee has already been paid? If not how will they know which bottle you are bringing to dinner, the one bottle per person which had not corkage fee, or one on which the fee has already been paid?

 

Truth be told, beside being a royal pain, this will probably lose Princess money--at least from us. As it currently stands, we spend about $257 for wine on a 7-day cruise, but don't actually like the wine we buy on the ship any where near as much as we like Vinas Chilenas Merlot Reserva which we can buy for $3.49 per bottle in most states. So if we buy the Vinas Chilenas and take it on board for dinner, Princess makes only $105 off us for wine on a 7-day cruise. We can take an entire case on board and only pay $150 in corkage fees (remember two bottles are free of the fee) plus the cost of the wine, for a total of $191.88, which still saves us money. :) Maybe it won't be such a bad deal after all. :p

[IECalCruiser]

As with any other change, we will need to wait for actual reports from the ports. Let's see what they are actually doing at Port Everglades and San Pedro.

[sminfiddle]

So far this is "only" a change in:

• Printed Boarding pass language
  
• Printed Luggage tag information (that gets hidden when folded to attach to luggage ;) )
  

Has the Passenger Contract (that you actually accept and which becomes legal record) changed?

Don't Know

 

Has the Alcohol Policy actually changed?

The Princess Website still says this:

As provided in the Passage Contract, passengers agree not to bring alcoholic beverages of any kind onboard for consumption, except one bottle of wine or champagne per adult of drinking age (no larger than 750 ml), per voyage.* Princess Cruises reserves the right to remove any alcoholic beverage in excess of the above stated policy thresholds from both passenger suitcases and hand-luggage. Alcohol will be stored for safe-keeping during the course of the voyage and will be delivered to the passenger's stateroom on the final day of the cruise.

Consumption of personal wine or champagne is limited to your stateroom. A $15.00 per bottle corkage fee (which is subject to change without notice) will be applied to your shipboard account for any personal wine or champagne consumed in any public area of the ship. Any wines or champagnes supplied from the ship's stock to passengers would not be subject to a corkage fee.

Alcoholic beverages that are purchased duty free from the ship's gift shop, or at ports of call, will be collected for safekeeping and delivered to the passenger's stateroom on the last day of the cruise. A member of the ship's staff will be at the gangway to assist passengers with the storage of their shoreside alcoholic purchases while our Boutiques staff will assist passengers with shipboard alcoholic purchases.

*Princess Cruises is not responsible for any alcoholic beverages confiscated by shoreside security staff. Such items are not eligible for monetary refund or replacement.

 

(FAQ, Cruise Answer Place, Alcohol Policy)

[sminfiddle]

As with any other change, we will need to wait for actual reports from the ports. Let's see what they are actually doing at Port Everglades and San Pedro.

Yes.

And Galveston, where they are said to have the pickiest inspectors. ("He seemed to take great pleasure in examining each and every wine bottle in the case...") And where Pam is boarding the Crown soon.

 

Rick

[whitecap]

So far this is "only" a change in:

• Printed Boarding pass language
  
• Printed Luggage tag information (that gets hidden when folded to attach to luggage ;) )
  

Has the Passenger Contract (that you actually accept and which becomes legal record) changed?

Don't Know

 

Has the Alcohol Policy actually changed?

The Princess Website still says this:

As provided in the Passage Contract, passengers agree not to bring alcoholic beverages of any kind onboard for consumption, except one bottle of wine or champagne per adult of drinking age (no larger than 750 ml), per voyage.* Princess Cruises reserves the right to remove any alcoholic beverage in excess of the above stated policy thresholds from both passenger suitcases and hand-luggage. Alcohol will be stored for safe-keeping during the course of the voyage and will be delivered to the passenger's stateroom on the final day of the cruise.

Consumption of personal wine or champagne is limited to your stateroom. A $15.00 per bottle corkage fee (which is subject to change without notice) will be applied to your shipboard account for any personal wine or champagne consumed in any public area of the ship. Any wines or champagnes supplied from the ship's stock to passengers would not be subject to a corkage fee.

Alcoholic beverages that are purchased duty free from the ship's gift shop, or at ports of call, will be collected for safekeeping and delivered to the passenger's stateroom on the last day of the cruise. A member of the ship's staff will be at the gangway to assist passengers with the storage of their shoreside alcoholic purchases while our Boutiques staff will assist passengers with shipboard alcoholic purchases.

*Princess Cruises is not responsible for any alcoholic beverages confiscated by shoreside security staff. Such items are not eligible for monetary refund or replacement.

 

(FAQ, Cruise Answer Place, Alcohol Policy)

 

As of a couple of hours ago, the passenger contract reads the same as always.

 

But on the lighter side of things:

What will the charge be called if the wine is in a bottle with a screw cap; a screwage charge?

And how about a box with a bladder and nipple: bladderage charge or better yet, a nippleage charge.

 

Oh may, what's next! :eek:

 

Sorry, just couldn't resist! :D

[luvseaside]

Thanks for the heads up! Just printed my boarding pass and tags for our trip this Sunday on Ruby and I didn't even notice that. We were planning a trip to Total Wine - we going to bring on @ 6 but we may have to rethink now.

 

Of course, I have to wonder how quickly they will adapt to this new policy. In other words, will they be lenient for the next few cruises? :confused: It certainly seems inefficient to charge folks $$ while trying to embark. Only real way to know for sure is to go over 2 bottles and see how they respond. And I may do just that! :) I'll try to report back.

[Kaitlyn2]

They could just stop you from bringing wine on board at any port other than embarkation.

The other factor in all of this is it is unfair to allow only 1 bottle per passenger whether on a 7 day cruise or a 49 day cruise. It should be tiered per number of days on a cruise.

[highheel girl]

Yes.

And Galveston, where they are said to have the pickiest inspectors. ("He seemed to take great pleasure in examining each and every wine bottle in the case...") And where Pam is boarding the Crown soon.

 

Rick

 

Up to this point embarkation port security personnel could care less whether you have alcohol/coke/wine etc in your carryon/luggage/checked luggage.

They can examine all they want but did they take it? No.

They are not there/hired to enforce Princess rules. :)

[Loonbeam]

If I had to make an educated guess, Princess is ramping up plans to curtail the systematic excesses that have been glibly documented on the board.

 

A couple of points. The new wording on boarding passes and tags is in complete compliance with the passenger contract as currently written which only guarantees the ability to carry wine on board but does not preclude a limit. HOWEVER the current contract also limits corkage fees to wine consumed in public areas (not necessarily just the MDRs but that has never been the case). So unless they change the cruise contract, wine in cabin is still charge free and charges can be disputed. They also need to change it to reflect that more than one bottle will be discarded.

 

The contract has been amended to talk about secondary screening and removal of alcohol. All bags brought on board are already scanned quickly via x-ray at the embarkation port in most cases. Large bottles of liquid are easily spotted, as are rum runners and the like. Those bags can be diverted from the load flow fairly easily for later checking to avoid backups. (Side note - I do not condone this, but if you are looking to move contraband onto the ship, arrive later when the backup has already possibly occurred and they are pushing bags through)

 

The contract has also been amended to cover surrendering of wine purchased at ports. I do not recall that language being in there before...

 

Watch the cruise contract. If amended to cover the new boarding corkage fee, that's when I think you will start to see enforcement, at least at the multiple bottle level. Until then, there's not a lot of incentive for the effort.

 

I'll revise the FAQ when we get reports of enforcement formally, right now I will add a note to it.

 

New Princess Contract wording:

 

"Passengers agree not to bring alcoholic beverages of any kind on board for consumption except one bottle of wine or champagne per person of drinking age (no larger than 750 ml) per voyage only in his/her carry-on luggage. A corkage fee of $15.00 U.S.D. per bottle (which is subject to change without notice) will be applied to wine and champagne brought aboard by You and consumed in the ship’s public areas. Any wine(s) or champagne(s) supplied by the Carrier to You as a gift are not subject to a corkage fee. At embarkation, all luggage will be scanned for suspected alcohol in excess of the one bottle policy as provided herein. Your luggage will undergo a secondary inspection by a security team operating under CCTV (closed circuit surveillance) or in the event Your luggage is locked, You will be notified and are required to attend the secondary inspection where any alcohol found in violation of the one bottle policy will be removed and discarded. Carrier shall not be responsible for any loss, cost, disappointment or damage of any kind as a result of any alcoholic beverages removed in violation of the one bottle policy. You agree to surrender alcoholic beverages that are purchased duty free from the ship’s gift shop, or at ports of call, to Carrier, which will be delivered to Your stateroom on the last night of the voyage."

[Astro Flyer]

MY issue with the restriction is that they are limiting us, but not offering a wine package.

With the stronger wording & more notification of the policy it appears that things will change. Other cruise lines such as RCI also have very restrictive policies for bringing wine onboard but at least they consistently offer a wine package which has not been my experience on Princess.

 

They did not have the wine packages on our Emerald 10 day cruise Jan 16th.

.

How do we find out if they will have wine pkg for our Emerald crossing in April

Tks Ontario Cruiser

My experience has been that's impossible to tell. :(. Princess HQ says they're available on ten-day or longer cruises however I took several 10+ day cruises last year and not one of them offered the wine package. :mad:

[Amuse Bouche]

I think some people aren't understanding this is a move toward leniency from Princess.

 

Instead of allowing ONLY ONE bottle per passenger, they are now not only still allowing your ONE bottle, but are also allowing you to bring on MORE than ONE, for a fee of course.

 

There also seems to be a misunderstanding what a corkage fee is. It's not a fee for the server to bring over a cork puller...it's a charge to allow you to bring in your own wine to consume, which began because many wine connoisseurs have a certain vintage they believe pairs perfectly with the restaurants meal, and if they don't allow this, the patrons meal would not be as perfect as he/she would like.

 

"

[pablo222]

Up to this point embarkation port security personnel could care less whether you have alcohol/coke/wine etc in your carryon/luggage/checked luggage.

They can examine all they want but did they take it? No.

They are not there/hired to enforce Princess rules. :)

 

Right after 9/11, port security did flag liquor on Princess's behalf.

 

And, in a port like Ft. Lauderdale -- where there are both princess

ships and carnival ships -- obviously, port security has been scanning for liquor in the carnival bags. No reason to assume they won't be able

to do the same for princess.