Wine Discrimination

[Yehootu]

Why is it that you can bring on one bottle of wine per person for in room consumption, but no other alcohol. I prefer Fosters bitter. Not onboard, so why can't I bring on one large can per adult? I like Barley Wine, is that allowed under the one bottle of wine per person? Just wondering.

Tim

[rkmw]

Why is it that you can bring on one bottle of wine per person for in room consumption, but no other alcohol. I prefer Fosters bitter. Not onboard, so why can't I bring on one large can per adult? I like Barley Wine, is that allowed under the one bottle of wine per person? Just wondering.

Tim

 

thats the ships policy, one bottle of wine per person and no other alcohol, any other wine will be charged a corkage fee, Barley wine should be allowed as long as its 750m

[Working 2 Cruise]

Also keep in mind that Princess still is the most lenient cruise line with regard to alcohol and wine policies!

[hrhdhd]

Also keep in mind that Princess still is the most lenient cruise line with regard to alcohol and wine policies!

 

No, they're not. Disney allows you to bring any amount of wine, liquor, or beer, as long as you can carry it on. So does Azamara.

[LindaM]

No, they're not. Disney allows you to bring any amount of wine, liquor, or beer, as long as you can carry it on. So does Azamara.

 

Azamara now includes alcohol. We thought HAL would follow suit with Princess, but it hasn't happened. They went from the most liberal, to the most strict!

[Working 2 Cruise]

No, they're not. Disney allows you to bring any amount of wine, liquor, or beer, as long as you can carry it on. So does Azamara.

 

Possibly but the fares are so much higher! I'd rather pay lower fares and enjoy longer cruises! For one week on Disney or Azamara, you can cruise for much longer on Princess (at a minimum 10 to 14 days) in most cases.

[windsor26]

If the bar does not have the type I usually purchase I enjoy the chance to try something else. The difference between Carnival and Azamara prices enables me to try more than usual

[drakes2]

I just got off the Royal and brought on two bottles of wine, they did not blink an eye.

thats the ships policy, one bottle of wine per person and no other alcohol, any other wine will be charged a corkage fee, Barley wine should be allowed as long as its 750m

[Loonbeam]

As to the actual question, the answer is partially simple at least as far as hard liquor and to some extent beer.

 

Insurance.

 

From an actuarial standpoint, hard liquor and beer are involved in more serious incidents than wine by a large margin. Cruise lines must insure themselves against incidents especially when service is not controlled. Allowing more booze on board uncontrolled = higher premiums. (Disney has an advantage here, they are insured in group with the Parks I beleive plus self insured - not like they don't have the cash.)

 

Profits are a factor as well of course, but honestly I suspect Princess makes FAR more money off wine overall than hard spirits. Margins may not be as high, but when we toured the wine locker the amount of wine versus spirits was easily a 30 or 40 to 1, which is more than would be accounted for portioning.

 

There is also the issue of alcohol by volume. Someone can get nicely buzzed or maybe even inebriated on a bottle of wine. Someone drinks the same amount of Jack Daniels, whole other story. So it becomes a question of do you allow the same amount of alcohol per passenger by limiting the bottles of JD to those little airline ones, 2 per passenger?

 

Obviously there are tons of drink variations, so I assume the goal was to find a policy that protected the lines revenues while also allowing some flexibility and a modicum of control. This is what they came up with, and like all compromises, since some people hate it and some are fine with it, its probably pretty good.

[rkmw]

I just got off the Royal and brought on two bottles of wine, they did not blink an eye.

 

your lucky but really its a hit & miss....sometimes it gets thru and other times it doesnt

[Woobstr112G]

Possibly but the fares are so much higher! I'd rather pay lower fares and enjoy longer cruises! For one week on Disney or Azamara, you can cruise for much longer on Princess (at a minimum 10 to 14 days) in most cases.

 

My opinion as well.....:):):)

 

Bob

[hrhdhd]

Possibly but the fares are so much higher! I'd rather pay lower fares and enjoy longer cruises! For one week on Disney or Azamara, you can cruise for much longer on Princess (at a minimum 10 to 14 days) in most cases.

 

Agreed, but your wording ("the most lenient cruise line") didn't refer to the cost of the cruise.

 

And Disney has good last-minute deals, while Azamara can be pretty reasonably priced on certain itineraries.

[Pam in CA]

Azamara now includes alcohol.

I would never cruise on a line that includes alcohol in the cruise fare as I don't want to pay for someone else's booze. :(

[AE_Collector]

thats the ships policy, one bottle of wine per person and no other alcohol, any other wine will be charged a corkage fee, Barley wine should be allowed as long as its 750m

 

I think the OP's "Barley Wine" has hops in it as well :). (IE: he means beer). If so I suggest taking a couple of cans in your carry on luggage and quite likely for a couple of cans of beer you won't have a problem. My experience is that if you don't go crazy (bringing on large quantities), they most likely can't be bothered giving you a hassle.

 

Terry

Edited January 26, 2014 by AE_Collector

[Working 2 Cruise]

I think the OP's "Barley Wine" has hops in it as well :). (IE: he means beer). If so I suggest taking a couple of cans in your carry on luggage and quite likely for a couple of cans of beer you won't have a problem. My experience is that if you don't go crazy (bringing on large quantities), they most likely can't be bothered giving you a hassle.

 

Terry

 

Bad advice. If they see beer, they will confiscate it!

[caribill]

As to the actual question, the answer is partially simple at least as far as hard liquor and to some extent beer.

 

Insurance.

 

From an actuarial standpoint, hard liquor and beer are involved in more serious incidents than wine by a large margin. Cruise lines must insure themselves against incidents especially when service is not controlled. Allowing more booze on board uncontrolled = higher premiums.

 

There is still the possibility of service of alcohol not being controlled.

 

a) You can order 375ML bottols of spirits for your cabin as well as all the beer you want. Princess has no control over how fast these titems are consumed by the passenger.

 

b) You can go from bar to bar to bar ordering drinks. Unless you are obviously drunk, you will be served.

 

c) The beverage package that Princess is testing on a couple of ships will likely encourage some people to see how much more than the cost of the package they can consume.

 

Main difference from a liability insurance view is that Princess is not responsible if you get inebriated on what you bring aboard, but can certainly be accused of encouraging drunkeness if all the alcohol came from sales by Princess.

[rbt001]

Profits are a factor as well of course, but honestly I suspect Princess makes FAR more money off wine overall than hard spirits. Margins may not be as high, but when we toured the wine locker the amount of wine versus spirits was easily a 30 or 40 to 1, which is more than would be accounted for portioning.

 

A 750 ml bottle of spirits can generate revenue at least 10 times its cost. Remember there are 25 - one oz pours in that bottle.

 

A particular wine may be marked up 3 to 5 times its cost.

 

As for observations as to the volume of wine the poster saw, as compared to spirits... there's another reason for that.

 

As a simplified answer, replacing spirits inventory is typically easy and plentiful. The contracted wholesaler is always going to have the same rum, gin or vodka, so inventory levels on board need only be enough to supply the anticipated demand until the next point of replenishment (of course with some AMPLE margin to avoid running of this high profit margin item.)

 

Whereas the ship may have a number of choices for each spirit, Princess wine lists are extensive. Each wine on the list is specific and most are produced in limited quantities. This means wine purchases (co-ordinated on a fleet-wide basis) are done so in large quantities to ensure there will be sufficient inventory until the wine list is next updated.

 

Sure, the "house wines" and most popular wines are chosen because they are plentiful and probably restocked often. But more than half of the wine list probably doesn't get replenished nearly as often, in part, because the inventory sits, taking up space on board, until someone orders it.

 

It's typicaly not published, but ask sometime about "Clearance" wines. More likely than not, you can find a good wine at a reduced price. Why? It's been carried on the wine list and just hasn't sold at the price offered. Or the wine list has been updated and it's been removed because there's only a limited quantity that won't be replenished.

 

On my European cruise with NCL, I attended a $25 wine tasting with no more than two dozen fellow passengers. All of the wines we were served were no longer on the wine list. They were good wines and were available for purchase at a "clearance sale" reduced price in any dining room or lounge on the ship; you just had to know to ask.

 

Lastly, there are the storage conditions: wine requires climate control whereas spirits aren't so temperamental.

 

So... wine is profitable --but not as profitable as spirits-- and certainly more headache.

 

All this, yet the OP asked about beer. (And this next part has probably been addressed by other posters in the time it's taken me to write all this.)

 

Beer? What? You wanna take on ... one bottle/can? A six-pack? Or a case? What's the limit? Well then there's probably a need for that IGLOO Cooler you wanna bring on to store it, right? And the ice to keep it cold? No problem when the ice melts: just drain the water over the balcony railing! [remove tongue from cheek]

 

But I digress.....

[hrhdhd]

I would never cruise on a line that includes alcohol in the cruise fare as I don't want to pay for someone else's booze. :(

 

I guess I don't follow this logic. I don't use MUTS on Princess ships; does that mean I'm paying for someone else's use of it? What about if I bring my own shampoo? Am I paying for everybody else's cruiseline-provided shampoo? Of course. We all pay for the stuff included in the cruise fare that we don't use.

 

I'd rather look at the ship, the itinerary, and the cost, then decide if there's value in the price for ME. I don't care what value others may or may not be getting.

[FritzG]

Granted, everyone pays for things that are offered. However, the costs of unlimited liquor would be much higher than many of the things you mentioned. I would avoid a line that offered this not only for the cost, but also because I think there would be more people drinking to excess.

Edited January 26, 2014 by FritzG

[Loonbeam]

The insurance premiums still take that into account. I don't pretend to understand the math behind it, but apparently there is clear statistical evidence that sold alcohol is less of a factor than carried (I guess if nothing else, at least the line knows you ordered the equivalent of a tank of vodka, or maybe its a pricing disincentive) And with a served drink, at least there is the opportunity to assess the drinker, even if not always done.

 

I would suspect, unless they self-insured the difference, the premium for ships offering the package will rise, the question will be do added revenues offset it. And of course, at least as compared to carry-on, they are making some money on the deal, passenger carry-on, except for maybe a corkage fee (which BTW adds a whole new level of liability) is risk only.

 

The interesting thing is that in a lot of cases, lines/hotels/etc has been found liable EVEN in the case of passenger provided alcohol, if there was any evidence of risky behavior. The implied scenario is that the line should disembark or restrain individuals in those situations.

 

There is still the possibility of service of alcohol not being controlled.

 

a) You can order 375ML bottols of spirits for your cabin as well as all the beer you want. Princess has no control over how fast these titems are consumed by the passenger.

 

b) You can go from bar to bar to bar ordering drinks. Unless you are obviously drunk, you will be served.

 

c) The beverage package that Princess is testing on a couple of ships will likely encourage some people to see how much more than the cost of the package they can consume.

 

Main difference from a liability insurance view is that Princess is not responsible if you get inebriated on what you bring aboard, but can certainly be accused of encouraging drunkeness if all the alcohol came from sales by Princess.

[blitznbobs]

P and o you can bring as much booze as you can carry too..

[Loonbeam]

I was thinking more overall volume. A lot more wine is consumed on cruise ships overall than beer, even taking into account portion size. One bar manager on RCCL told us Wine represented about 65% of their onboard revenue at least, with the variance depending on how much high end hard liquor was sold (they had a $1600 bottle of Cognac for example). It also varies a bit by itinerary. Europe goes through a LOT more wine than Australia/Asia and also the older the crowd skews, the more skewed towards wine and high end spirits.

 

I don't know if Princess does the same thing, but for RCCL, ships based out of FL at least are resupplied from a logistics center, so only wine/spirits projected to be needed for one trip plus a buffer are loaded each turnaround day. Anything to keep extra weight off the ship.

 

As to beer, I think I mentioned that as well and the issue is one of quantity as you noted.

 

When it comes down to it, I think there is a matter of perception as well. Wine is viewed as a more 'social or casual' drink, beer with drunken sports fans (look at the majority of beer ads versus wine ads). Now, that may not be true but I suspect it influences decisions.

 

A 750 ml bottle of spirits can generate revenue at least 10 times its cost. Remember there are 25 - one oz pours in that bottle.

 

A particular wine may be marked up 3 to 5 times its cost.

 

As for observations as to the volume of wine the poster saw, as compared to spirits... there's another reason for that.

 

As a simplified answer, replacing spirits inventory is typically easy and plentiful. The contracted wholesaler is always going to have the same rum, gin or vodka, so inventory levels on board need only be enough to supply the anticipated demand until the next point of replenishment (of course with some AMPLE margin to avoid running of this high profit margin item.)

 

Whereas the ship may have a number of choices for each spirit, Princess wine lists are extensive. Each wine on the list is specific and most are produced in limited quantities. This means wine purchases (co-ordinated on a fleet-wide basis) are done so in large quantities to ensure there will be sufficient inventory until the wine list is next updated.

 

Sure, the "house wines" and most popular wines are chosen because they are plentiful and probably restocked often. But more than half of the wine list probably doesn't get replenished nearly as often, in part, because the inventory sits, taking up space on board, until someone orders it.

 

It's typicaly not published, but ask sometime about "Clearance" wines. More likely than not, you can find a good wine at a reduced price. Why? It's been carried on the wine list and just hasn't sold at the price offered. Or the wine list has been updated and it's been removed because there's only a limited quantity that won't be replenished.

 

On my European cruise with NCL, I attended a $25 wine tasting with no more than two dozen fellow passengers. All of the wines we were served were no longer on the wine list. They were good wines and were available for purchase at a "clearance sale" reduced price in any dining room or lounge on the ship; you just had to know to ask.

 

Lastly, there are the storage conditions: wine requires climate control whereas spirits aren't so temperamental.

 

So... wine is profitable --but not as profitable as spirits-- and certainly more headache.

 

All this, yet the OP asked about beer. (And this next part has probably been addressed by other posters in the time it's taken me to write all this.)

 

Beer? What? You wanna take on ... one bottle/can? A six-pack? Or a case? What's the limit? Well then there's probably a need for that IGLOO Cooler you wanna bring on to store it, right? And the ice to keep it cold? No problem when the ice melts: just drain the water over the balcony railing! [remove tongue from cheek]

 

But I digress.....

[Thrak]

I like to drink but I don't like drunks. When my wife finally got me to try cruising we were fortunate to try Princess. We started with a trip to Alaska and had a wonderful and relaxing trip. We both fell in love with cruising.

I have friends who cruised only one time and decided it was absolutely horrible. They started with a Caribbean cruise on Carnival and it was filled with drunken "young adults". They will never cruise again and tell everyone how horrible and stupid cruising is.

Being on a ship with a bunch of boorish drunks is not the way to "escape completely".

Alcohol can definitely be a mixed bag and I would hate to see Princess become like Carnival.

 

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

[audobon_tx]

Possibly but the fares are so much higher! I'd rather pay lower fares and enjoy longer cruises! For one week on Disney or Azamara, you can cruise for much longer on Princess (at a minimum 10 to 14 days) in most cases.

 

I fail to see the connection between fares and carry on alcohol policies, but I am not a Princess loyalist. If you want quantity (days per dollar) vs. quality Princess certainly wins vs. the better lines, but Carnival should be your go to line.

Edited January 26, 2014 by flyingshoes

[donaldsc]

thats the ships policy, one bottle of wine per person and no other alcohol, any other wine will be charged a corkage fee, Barley wine should be allowed as long as its 750m

 

I posted an extensive mathematical analysis on CC of when it becomes financially advantageous to just pay the corkage fee rather than try to sneak it on or buy it on board. I factored in the cost of the wine, the corkage fee, the Princess markup versus your in store price and even wine store case discounts -

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1976818

 

Check it out.

 

DON