Corkage fee desk not available on embarkation.

[bigwally]

I don't know how common this is, but there was no corkage fee desk for our embarkation in Yokohama and it almost cost us (access to) an expensive bottle of champagne I'd purchased to celebrate our wedding anniversary and my wife's birthday during our cruise. Compounding the issue was a Japanese speaking security guard who would not let us proceed from his scanner without first surrendering it.

 

Eventually we did end up finding a port official who spoke enough English to have a F&B person brought from the ship, and she did take our cabin number and tell us the fee would be applied, but it was never actually charged to our account until we presented the bottle in the dining room that evening.

 

On the plus side, it appears that, in these circumstances, we could have theoretically bought a bunch of wine to drink in the cabin instead of just the two allowed free bottles, but on the minus side it would have been even more of a headache in the terminal if we'd had a whole case of wine.

 

That said, the situation would have been a lot simpler to navigate if I'd spoke more Japanese and the security guard spoke more English. :halo:

[taxmantoo]

That has happened to us also in the Mediterranean (forget which port). The only solution is to do what you did ... hold your ground and request to see someone from the ship, preferably a Manager.

[freestyling]

This happened to us in Hong Kong. We had google translate on our phone so I typed in that I would be paying corkage on all 12 bottles...the security person smiled and let me thru. I paid corkage when I presented our wine during dinner. No biggy but it was the 1st time HAL didn’t have a table setup for corkage by security screening section.

[leanstostarboard]

From my experience the whole "corkage desk" is a non entity. There was no "corkage desk" in Fort Lauderdale in March 2017, in Amsterdam in June 2017, and in San Diego in March of 2018. I just walked aboard with my wine and when I could not find the "desk" went to my cabin. When I brought the wine to the dining table the wine steward was happy to charge corkage.

[Harry1954]

There was a corkage fee desk at start of World Cruise in Ft Lauderdale in January 2018. Before they let me check in, they confiscated my three cases of wine, charged me corkage fees, indicating they would send wine to my cabin. When the wine did not show up in my cabin that afternoon, I demanded to know where it was. I was informed that I needed to pay corkage fees and the wines would not be released to me until I did so. I indicated I had already paid same and they required proof. So I gave them the receipt for the 3 cases. My wine magically showed up in about 20 minutes. It was frustrating and stressful. Not how it should have worked.

So be prepared.

harry

[ThePenguin1]

We took a dozen bottles of red aboard at Yokohama, a staffer just asked how many bottles, we said 12 and he just wrote it on a scrap of paper and must have lost it. We had all bottles in the MDR and was never questioned or charged corkage. Saved a fortune and the MDR staff were tipped extremely well.

Edited May 7, 2018 by ThePenguin1

[ZSandy25]

Reading a recent post from Kazu about bringing wine onboard. They are on the Prinsendam. She said the wine was tagged and sent to one of the bars onboard (she didn't say which one) you then went there and paid your fee's and got you wine. Will be interested to see what others have to say about how this is handled

[Mlb4chris]

We just got off the westerdam and brought 6 bottles with us, desk was stationed right before entering the gangway entrance. He just wrote the total # of bottles (less 2 free) and we were charged 4-5 days into the cruise. I will say, other than a few bottles of bubbles, I don’t think I’d bother bringing that much on board if I did another 7 day cruise. We are big wine drinkers and I was pleasantly surprised with the selections and prices. You must know what you’re buying however, their California wines are ridiculously over priced. Old world wines were well priced. We enjoyed having a glass of wine in different bar, wine hopping🍷😋

 

Btw, just got back yesterday, will post my review ASAP! Spoiler alert..... loved it!!😍

[sapper1]

Six of us boarded in Vancouver for a Hawaii trip last month on the Westerdam with our supply of wine in tow. The wine was in plain view and not mentioned at security. We looked for a corkage desk and there was none so we were all able to walk on the ship with no charge for our wine.

[bigwally]

Old world wines were well priced. We enjoyed having a glass of wine in different bar, wine hopping🍷😋

 

I'm not sure I'm in agreement, unless you're talking about by-the-glass happy-hour (second glass $2) or Sip and Savor event ($5 per) pricing. Certainly everything I recognized from the Volendam's wine list was at least twice the retail price, which I suppose is to be expected. Though I will concede that my wine knowledge is California heavy.

[joekerstef]

I have boarded in Seattle, Boston, and San Diego, and I have not seen a corkage fee desk at any of these locations. We stopped at Fort Lauderdale and did see a desk there that would be used for corkage were it an embarkation port.

[Harry1954]

It is my understanding that the wine stewards get a commission from wine sales, but the corkage fee is split amongst all of them. However, if you don't pay a corkage fee, I trust/hope you will tip your wine stewards well.

harry