Bringing your own wine to MDR

[critterchick]

For those bringing just their bottle to the table and being charged, was it open or unopened when you arrived at the table? If it's opened already then I don't see how they can assume you haven't already been charged the fee.

 

Princess has stickers that they will put on your bottle once you've opened it and been charged the corkage. I saw that for the first time on Golden in Vines - the bartender put a sticker on our bottle so we could bring it to dinner and not be charged.

 

I'm sure they could... and that server would a) find it a horrible use of their time and b) know it might affect his tips. So it's highly unlikely that would happen.

 

Bingo.

[alinnj]

We get two empty glasses from the bar earlier in the day, pour the wine in our room and carry it to our meal :D:D Works every time !

[BonTexasNY]

As a rule we aren't wine drinkers so we didn't know anything about corkage fees. What a suprise when we brought a bottle into the MDR, to find out the gift our TA left us in our cabin came with a $25 fee we had to pay if we wanted to enjoy the wine at dinner. Waiter was super nice when he saw our confusion, and although didn't wave the fee himself, called over the Head Waiter (the guy with the red jacket who shows up to cut your lobster tail) who then waived the fee. And yes we overtipped both at the end of our cruise. Just because people try to avoid paying a corkage fee doesn't mean they are poor tippers.

[Merion_Mom]

Wow. That's pretty bad - another $3.75 just for the privilege of charging you $25 to drink your own wine. I was one of the lucky ones who didn't get asked to pay corkage, when we brought a bottle to dinner.

 

I stand (or sit) corrected. :D

 

It's worse than that, Paul.

 

Now, admittedly, this particular receipt is from Summit, but I don't think that I have any of my RC receipts.

 

Check it out!

 

[BonTexasNY]

Carol, isn't a "tip" and "gratuity" the same thing? So you were actually charged $28 total for a $20 corkage fee? Something just not right about that.

 

BTW I love your Maher quote. lol

[sherilyn70]

As for how it might affect their tips...well...a passenger who is carrying around open bottles of wine for the express purpose of avoiding a corkage fee are probably not going to be the biggest tippers, anyway. :p

 

Actually, I am a good tipper having worked in the service industry in my 20s. But if a server goes out of his way to verify something that silly then he's going to lose his tips. I don't need or want service from someone that underhanded and/or greedy.

[Paul65]

Actually, I am a good tipper having worked in the service industry in my 20s. But if a server goes out of his way to verify something that silly then he's going to lose his tips. I don't need or want service from someone that underhanded and/or greedy.

 

Ha! I think pretending that you already paid a corkage fee elsewhere is underhanded. But I'm sure you really are generous. (Well, at least to those who look the other way at your dishonesty.) :rolleyes:

 

 

PS - For what it's worth, I don't really care if you want to try to pretend that you've already paid a corkage fee elsewhere on a bottle of wine, so you can get out of paying it in the dining room. I just found it humorous that you seemed to be puffing yourself up about being a good tipper, but then saying you'd deny tips to someone who called your bluff on such a lie.

Edited November 8, 2013 by Paul65

[CruisinYaya]

Actually, I am a good tipper having worked in the service industry in my 20s. But if a server goes out of his way to verify something that silly then he's going to lose his tips. I don't need or want service from someone that underhanded and/or greedy.

 

Maybe he or she is just trying to follow the rules to avoid being reprimanded by a supervisor. What is underhanded or greedy about that? The server does not pocket that $25. :p

 

It really irks me when people want to give someone a hard time for just doing their job or not making an exception for them. :mad:

When your job requires that you operate under certain protocol, and your customers want you to make exceptions for them, that puts you in a VERY awkward spot. It's really not fair.

 

Also, I haven't encountered an automatic 15% gratuity on the corkage fee, but I definitely tip the server that is opening my bottle of wine. Jus' Sayin' :rolleyes:

[bala1130]

Thank you for the replies, that is a very reasonable fee. What kind of tip do you think we should leave?

 

I disagree. On in the Allure MDR a few weeks ago we were offered a $35 bottle of wine off the wine list for a discounted special price of $25 + the 15% and no corkage. How can the same $25 price be reasonable for just opening your bottle? :rolleyes:

[gerif]

We've only taken our own bottle to the DR once - usually just order a bottle with dinner and drink our own in the cabin. It was the last night and we had an unopened bottle left so took it to dinner and were not charged. Now, granted, it was the last night so that could have been a factor. In any event, we gave the waiter an extra $10.