Wine Corkage Fees!!

[mjkacmom]

Well, 2 bottles of wine for a 7 - 10 day cruises doesn't go very far. We bought plenty of glasses also directly from the line as I am sure other guests would too.

 

If I am paying $15 per bottle corkage fee and the wine I like is $12 per bottle at the liquor store then I am paying $27 per bottle. I might as well just buy it from the ship when onboard and save the space in my carryon. :-)

 

It's still more on the ship, after the 18%, and that's on a bottle I can buy for $5. I'd much rather bring my $12 drinkable bottle and pay corkage (we drive to the pier, and I put wine in a rolling cooler).

[rvsullivan]

What is the name of the $49 Moscato wine that they carry on board?

 

There is no $49 bottle of Moscato, there is a good $29 bottle. Lindemans Bin 90, pretty good stuff.

[robin13]

I don't have a problem paying the $15 corkage fee and being able to bring as many bottles as I please. I am curious though it seems NCLs .co.uk site says NO alcohol period in their faq and yet the .com site says wine and champagne CAN be brought onboard. :eek: so which is it. Cos it can hardly be allowed that European passengers can bring NOTHING but American passengers can bring what they want. And I don't want to bring wine in my hand luggage all ready to pay the corkage fee, only to have it confiscated. ESPECIALLY if my fellow American traveller next to me is allowed on their way with theirs.

Also do they charge you cash on embarking for the corkage or charge it to your SailPass card?

TIA

 

H

 

Alcohol is different than wine. When they say alcohol they mean vodka, whiskey, bourban etc. Wine and champange are treated completely different as it says the same thing on the US website.

 

They will charge the fee to your SailPass card at the table after you board.

 

I am planning on buying the 6 bottle wine package and splitting it with my friend. That will be 3 bottles each which should last a while as we are on a very port intensive Med cruise so not much time to drink except at night. If we do find some really cheap wine in our ports I might buy it and pay the $15 corkage fee but right now not planning on doing that.

[newmexicoNita]

Alcohol is different than wine. When they say alcohol they mean vodka, whiskey, bourban etc. Wine and champange are treated completely different as it says the same thing on the US website.

 

They will charge the fee to your SailPass card at the table after you board.

 

I am planning on buying the 6 bottle wine package and splitting it with my friend. That will be 3 bottles each which should last a while as we are on a very port intensive Med cruise so not much time to drink except at night. If we do find some really cheap wine in our ports I might buy it and pay the $15 corkage fee but right now not planning on doing that.

 

even though the mark up on the ship is awful, we do what you are doing: we buy the wine package, We ised tp bring our own on board for comsumsion in our cabin, bur unless you live near the port of embarkation it became too much of a hassle.

Edited April 28, 2015 by newmexicoNita

[SullytheBFG]

We have taken wine onboard the Epic a couple of times and paid the corkage. We have flown in from the UK a couple of days before and rented a car and have been able to go to a supermarket. Chilean wine seems to be very cheap in Florida and what would cost me $25-$30 in the UK was about $8!

 

We also brought a bottle of rum, 1.75L in the Caribbean, didn't hide it coming back on the ship and were allowed to take it to our cabin.

 

Also had some duty free from the UK in our checked bags (no we were not trying to smuggle!) and were not pulled up on it either.

 

When you go through there is a table and they put stickers on the bottles and charge your room.

 

The thing that made me laugh was I took a bottle of red wine to Le Bistro one evening, the waiter took it, uncorked it and offered me it to try. Not sure what they would have done if it was corked etc. as I brought it on myself!

 

No need this year as we have the UBP! :-)

Edited April 29, 2015 by SullytheBFG

[hawkeyetlse]

The thing that made me laugh was I took a bottle of red wine to Le Bistro one evening, the waiter took it, uncorked it and offered me it to try. Not sure what they would have done if it was corked etc. as I brought it on myself!

If you pay the corkage, you are entitled to the full wine service. It may seem unnecessary in your situation, but if the wine is corked, it's better for one person to find out by tasting it than for everyone at the table to be served a full glass of it. (Also, even in your situation, you might conceivably want to take the bottle back to whoever sold it to you, in which case it should be full, not half empty!)

[Philob]

The thing that made me laugh was I took a bottle of red wine to Le Bistro one evening, the waiter took it, uncorked it and offered me it to try. Not sure what they would have done if it was corked etc. as I brought it on myself!

 

We were invited to a particular restaurant in Yountville, CA for dinner; the dinner host brought his own wines and the waitstaff went with the whole wine service that night. The host was the vintner and was debuting his wine at the restaurant that night :cool:

[mrdrdoso]

There is no $49 bottle of Moscato, there is a good $29 bottle. Lindemans Bin 90, pretty good stuff.

 

Actually there was, we were on the epic and went to the jazz brunch at le bistro and had it there, and bought 3 other bottles because it was so good, The may not have it now but they did.

[missintuitive]

I think most of us know Carnival allows 1 bottle, in fact if you read the postings here,this has been mentioned several times, but the difference is 1 bottle versius as many as you want to bring on. That is why some are saying every line has their way of getting a little of the action. The only line that we have cruised with no restrictions on the number of bottles is Princess. In fact that may have changed; we cruised them about 2 years ago. And yes, the cabin steward does provide glasses. As for bringing your own wine on, no corkage, pouring a glass in your cabin and taking it into the public area, well I will save my comments on that for another time. But, could that have something to do with the reason cruise lines limit the number of bottles allowed or why NCL charges the corkage fee up front?

 

 

Fwiw, Disney has absolutely no corkage charges or restrictions on bringing alcohol on the ship. You can bring as much as you like. Sure, it's a niche type cruise but they also have awesome all adult areas and very awesome service. The cons are no casino onboard and the food could be a little better but everything tastes better with wine:) And yes, Disney can run expensive but when you factor in the costs of the udp (you rotate restaurants every night, free room service, free pizza, etc) and ubp plus other misc charges, it really comes out very similar for a inside or OV. Plus the rooms are huge with free Disney movies.

However, I do have to admit that the Getaway caught my eye when we were parked next to her on the Disney Dream while in the Bahamas.

The water slides, climbing walls, and rope courses Looked so fun even though the balconies looked tiny. I can't wait to try her out in Dec.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited April 29, 2015 by missintuitive

[newmexicoNita]

Fwiw, Disney has absolutely no corkage charges or restrictions on bringing alcohol on the ship. You can bring as much as you like. Sure, it's a niche type cruise but they also have awesome all adult areas and very awesome service. The cons are no casino onboard and the food could be a little better but everything tastes better with wine:) And yes, Disney can run expensive but when you factor in the costs of the udp (you rotate restaurants every night, free room service, free pizza, etc) and ubp plus other misc charges, it really comes out very similar for a inside or OV. Plus the rooms are huge with free Disney movies.

However, I do have to admit that the Getaway caught my eye when we were parked next to her on the Disney Dream while in the Bahamas.

The water slides, climbing walls, and rope courses Looked so fun even though the balconies looked tiny. I can't wait to try her out in Dec.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

TYou are right about Disney, but Disney is not considered a mass marketed line, it is upscale and even with things like restarurant choices and byob, the prices are still much higher than mass marketed lines, plus, for the most part they are gearned to a certain cliente. The discussion here relates to mass marketed lines.

[wildeklave]

I am on the Pride of America in July. I am thinking of picking up a couple of inexpensive bottles of Hawaiian wine. Since the ship likely won't have them they will be a novelty for the corkage fee. If I buy a California type wine that the ship sells the price will be similar. It may be a $15-25 bottle of wine plus a $15 corkage fee for $30-40 vs. paying $27-41 for a bottle of wine on board. If the price is within $5-10 I might as well buy on board and not worry about carrying it around. I may buy 1-2 bottles of the local wine to bring on board and then maybe a bottle or 2 at the various ports based on whether I am done with what I brought on already.

 

As an example the Estancia Pinot Grigio is $38 on board NCL but is $13 at a store I saw online that is near my house. So it is $13 on shore plus a $15 corkage fee for a total of $28. I am not sure how much California wines cost in Hawaii but I am guessing they may be a few dollars more than on the mainland which would lessen the difference in my example.

 

NCL Wine list:

https://www.ncl.com/sites/default/files/WineList_Fleetwide_03172014.pdf

[khaide612]

I am on the Pride of America in July. I am thinking of picking up a couple of inexpensive bottles of Hawaiian wine. Since the ship likely won't have them they will be a novelty for the corkage fee. If I buy a California type wine that the ship sells the price will be similar. It may be a $15-25 bottle of wine plus a $15 corkage fee for $30-40 vs. paying $27-41 for a bottle of wine on board. If the price is within $5-10 I might as well buy on board and not worry about carrying it around. I may buy 1-2 bottles of the local wine to bring on board and then maybe a bottle or 2 at the various ports based on whether I am done with what I brought on already.

 

As an example the Estancia Pinot Grigio is $38 on board NCL but is $13 at a store I saw online that is near my house. So it is $13 on shore plus a $15 corkage fee for a total of $28. I am not sure how much California wines cost in Hawaii but I am guessing they may be a few dollars more than on the mainland which would lessen the difference in my example.

 

NCL Wine list:

https://www.ncl.com/sites/default/files/WineList_Fleetwide_03172014.pdf

 

Wine list on the NCL bon voyage gifts site:

 

https://www.ncl.com/sites/default/files/WineList_Fleetwide_02262015.pdf

 

Estancia now listed at $39 plus 18% gratuity = $46

If you bring it onboard, you save $18 per bottle.

[khaide612]

Pride of America wine list - Estancia isn't listed.

 

https://www.ncl.com/sites/default/files/WineList_POA_02262015.pdf

[brino99]

So, how many bottles of wine ARE you allowed to bring aboard the Pride of America? I have never liked any of the wine they offer in the UBP on the other ships, so bringing our own is a must!

 

We sailed on the Pride of America in January 2015 and took two bottles with us that we left in our luggage. They confiscated both bottles and told us we had the choice of paying them a corkage fee of $15.00/bottle or leaving them until the following Friday evening and picking them up then. I asked what would happen if I paid them $15.00 and then never opened it. The answer was "tough luck" and don't take it if you don't think you are going to drink it. Basically, they want to make sure they get their money, even if you open it in your room and drink it there. You can carry your wine bottle around the ship with you, which I found a little bizarre. We ended up taking both of our bottles to the restaurant and leaving them there so we could have wine with our dinner each evening. Bottom line, even with the $15.00 fee, it is still cheaper than buying a bottle of equal quality wine on the ship and chances are, they won't have your favorite, so you may as well bring it yourself.

 

By the way, do the wine tastings on the Pride of America. The sommelier is excellent.

[brino99]

We sailed on the Pride of America in January 2015 and took two bottles with us that we left in our luggage. They confiscated both bottles and told us we had the choice of paying them a corkage fee of $15.00/bottle or leaving them until the following Friday evening and picking them up then. I asked what would happen if I paid them $15.00 and then never opened it. The answer was "tough luck" and don't take it if you don't think you are going to drink it. Basically, they want to make sure they get their money, even if you open it in your room and drink it there. You can carry your wine bottle around the ship with you, which I found a little bizarre. We ended up taking both of our bottles to the restaurant and leaving them there so we could have wine with our dinner each evening. Bottom line, even with the $15.00 fee, it is still cheaper than buying a bottle of equal quality wine on the ship and chances are, they won't have your favorite, so you may as well bring it yourself.

 

By the way, do the wine tastings on the Pride of America. The sommelier is excellent.

 

Also, I think two bottles is the limit. There is an area on the NCL web site that address wine. It fails to mention the fact that they confiscate it from you until you pay up.

[mrdrdoso]

Also, I think two bottles is the limit. There is an area on the NCL web site that address wine. It fails to mention the fact that they confiscate it from you until you pay up.

 

 

I have checked in 4 bottles last time, I found a new cab sauv on ship it was $39 on ship and in local stores it was 11.99 so we bought 1/2 case and got it for 10 a bottle with corking fee its still a saving, we will continue to pay fee and still save money

[hawkeyetlse]

There is an area on the NCL web site that address wine. It fails to mention the fact that they confiscate it from you until you pay up.

You have the choice of signing for the corkage right away (if you want to have the wine on board), or letting them hold your wine until the end of the cruise (for example if you bought the wine as a souvenir in port and plan to take it home). I have never heard of them "confiscating it until you pay up". Are you saying that they took your wine because you declined to pay the corkage immediately, and you were able to get the bottles back mid-cruise when you finally decided to pay?