How does bringing wine aboard work?

[Augustsunshine]

I understand the corkage fee. Do you keep the wine with you and bring it to meals? Do they confiscate it from your luggage and serve it in restaurants? Do you just declare it when you are checking in and pay the corkage fee? Sailing on the Jewel in early July. First time on Ncl :)

[KeithJenner]

You pay the fee when boarding, they put a sticker on the bottle and you carry it with you. You can drink it wherever you want, bar, restaurant or your room.

 

When I say you pay on boarding, I mean it is charged to your account

[MeHeartCruising]

You should carry it on with you. When passing thru security, they will PROBABLY see it and send you over to a nearby table. If they don't see it, it is up to you to decide if you go to the nearby table. There have been reports that at some times, the nearby table is not yet staffed. It's a busy time. At the table, they write down your cabin number and number of bottles and put a sticker on each bottle. You continue to carry on the bottles. You can drink the wine anywhere... in your cabins, in the hallway, bring the bottles with you or leave them in the cabin. It doesn't matter. After a day or two, you will see a bar or restaurant charge in the amount of the corkage fee show up on your onboard account. It doesn't show up right away and it's not usually labeled as corkage fee. They process them as a bar/restaurant purchase usually.

[ilovetotravel1977]

When we went on the Escape back in April, we brought 8 bottles with us.

 

We had them in carry-on bags. Once we put them through the x-ray machine, they took the bag and brought it over to the desk and the lady there tagged them with stickers that said "PAID". She recorded our room number and that was it.

 

The $120 ($15x8) charged showed up on our account a day or two later under the venue "Savor" (restaurant). We didn't even eat in there, so we went to guest services just to confirm the charge.

 

The process was really simple and I'd do it again if we didn't have the UBP.

[atomax]

You can bring the bottles with you to any dining room. Any unused portion can be stored behind the scenes and claimed at a later time (they give you a ticket to present to the server/wine steward). It was really simple, and well worth the corkage fee, IMO. We brought on a bottle of Malbec, that we bought in Miami for $8, that went for $40 on the ship. Since you don't pay gratuity on your own bottles, it was well worth the $15 corkage fee.

[Gregor4500]

If you drink it in your room save the sticker for your favorite bartender.

[punkincc]

No need to store the wine in your room and lug it with you when you go to dinner, especially if you bring on several bottles. You can drop them off at a bar or restaurant after you board. They will go to some centralized location. Regardless of where you dine, or even in a lounge, they can retrieve and serve the wine. Keep a bottle in your cabin if you want as well.

[kathybelcher2433]

We had the UBP and we also brought 6 bottles on board and paid the corkage for an 11 day cruise just so we could have some awesome wines with dinner. We were in Italy and Spain and it was easy to find some great wines in the ports to purchase.

[Lil_Em]

We took wine with us before and it was well worth it. We took bottles in the 8-10 dollar range - seemed weird to pay more in corkage fee than what we paid for the wine. But it still ends up cheaper than buying wine onboard. Also, if you don't drink any of the bottles you bring onboard, you can get the corkage fee reimbursed on the last night of the cruise.