Corkage fee for wine purchased as gift?!!!

[zubee23]

Called the 800 number for RCCL Wine Cellar. Ordered 3 bottles of Beringer's White Zin for my sister and hubby's cruise. They asked if I wanted delivered to the cabin or dining room? I said "I guess cabin and if they choose to they can bring it to the dining room." Answer "Oh, no! There will be a corkage fee." A corkage fee for wine purchased through RCCL as a gift and deliverd on board? Could this be true?

[dougp26364]

If they were bringing their own wine onboard I could see this. But if you're purchasing the wine from RCI I'd say the person you were talking with might be mistaken. The price of wine through RCI is inflated plenty high enough to cover the corkage fee. Last cruise I paid over $20 for a bottle of wine I can regularly find for $9. By the time they added the tip the cost of that bottle was a little over $30. I decided that if I thought I'd like a glass of wine with my meals, from now on I'd bring my own wine and pay RCI the corkage fee.

[firedog001]

September 2005, TA had a bottle of wine in our cabin, there is no way that i would have finished this bottle myself, so we brought it to dinner one night, head waiter came up to us as we walked in to the dining room, he said let me take the bottle and get you a chilled one. He brought it to our table, opened it for our table of 8, never charged a corkage. I think they know their bottles, so i believe someone misguided you. Hope this helps.

[Schplinky]

There is no corkage fee on wine bought from the line, whether you do it yourself or receive it as a gift. They have ways of checking.

[tmessenger]

On AOS for our 25th. We received a bottle of wine from my wife's sister. We took it to the dining room to share with our tablemates and was charged a corkage fee.

[Schplinky]

You shouldn't have. Our waiter tried to charge the corkage fee but when we insisted it had been purchased as a gift through RCCL, he waived it.

[Merion_Mom]

We had a similar experience to Schplinky's. The key is to be an informed passenger, so you don't get "taken." :)