Do you buy wine package on board?

[paul929207]

We have ordered 2 or 3 packages over the longer cruises. I buy the second one when we finish the first. I am sure you can buy two at one time. 

 

We have had no problem using the card on both legs of a b2b.

[rockdoctor]

On 9/12/2018 at 10:37 AM, paul929207 said:

If you are on a b2b, you can continue to use a card purchased on the first leg thru the second leg.

Unless the b2bs are one week cruises. No wine packages on 1 week cruises.

[Renmar]

19 hours ago, geoherb said:

We had the silver package last month on the Royal's 15-day trans-Atlantic cruise. That worked out about right for us, although I did start ordering wine at lunch to make sure we'd use up all 10 bottles. They would store the wine left in the bottle and find it for us at dinner. I also ordered a bottle one day at Alfredo's, and they were able to find the leftover wine at dinner.

Were the prices still the same as Astro Flyer mentioned in post #5? We have a 19 day coming up and the 10 bottle package would be just fine. Looking at the 10 bottle package instead of the homemade wine we were planning on. Still bringing our 2 free of charge bottles. 

Thanks,

 

Theo

[1emerald1]

I have always bought wine by the bottle when onboard.  However for my upcoming cruise I will be bringing me on.  I can drive to the port so that makes it easier.  Plus with the stories I'm hearing about the ships running out of wine, that scares me.  Plus I can buy what I like and even with the corkage fee it is still cheaper than buying on board.

[paul929207]

3 hours ago, rockdoctor said:

Unless the b2bs are one week cruises. No wine packages on 1 week cruises.

So you are saying that you can't use the card you didn't purchase on the first cruise on the second cruise?

[geoherb]

On ‎10‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 5:23 PM, Renmar said:

Were the prices still the same as Astro Flyer mentioned in post #5? We have a 19 day coming up and the 10 bottle package would be just fine. Looking at the 10 bottle package instead of the homemade wine we were planning on. Still bringing our 2 free of charge bottles. 

Thanks,

 

Theo

 

 

Yes. The 10-bottle silver package worked out to be $241.50 including the 15 percent gratuity. It's how I used up most of my shareholder credit.

[paul929207]

Great use of the Shareholder OBC.  🙂

[kellig]

On 10/29/2018 at 5:03 PM, wheezedr said:

You are allowed 1bottle per person without corkage.  Those bottles are supposed to be for personal consumption in your cabin, so if you take them to the MDR you can be charged corkage.  Varies with your waiter if they actually do it.  The bottles above 2 are supposed to be recorded at the time you board and the corkage is then processed.  You get a stamp or labels on those bottles to acknowledge that corkage has been paid.

This is great news!  I thought I was limited to only bringing 2 bottles of my own when I read the rules on princess. We’ve grown to love good wine and hate overpaying for crappy wine. 

If you ask the room steward for wine glasses, are they decent or the lower quality thick rimmed tiny glasses?

[Renmar]

On 11/1/2018 at 2:59 PM, geoherb said:

 

 

Yes. The 10-bottle silver package worked out to be $241.50 including the 15 percent gratuity. It's how I used up most of my shareholder credit.

Thanks for the info.

 

Theo

[AlibearNS]

 

We always buy the Gold Wine Package on cruises 10 nights or more. We were on the Emerald Princess 10 night Vancouver Coastal on the 24th September this year and looked forward to the package again, especially with the demise of BOGO$! On the first night the waiters were confused by our request, knew nothing about it, so went to ask the head waiter. Came back and said it was not offered! I'd heard this can be the case if there aren't enough supplies, but we headed to LA so I hoped perhaps it might be available later into the cruise. We went to reception the next day who told us the wine package was "discontinued." I made sure to ask whether they meant "unavailable on this particular cruise" or discontinued on all the ships. He went into the back office, returned, and said it was being discontinued across the fleet. There were new wines coming, therefore the whole thing was being looked at, to create a new special deal and pricing not yet in place. I asked again if this was like the BOGO$ and he said yes, discontinued like the BOGO$ until something new is in place.

Needless to say this was a HUGE disappointment to us! Later in the week, when we dined at the Crown Grill we had a very knowledgeable waiter who had been with Princess many years. I asked him about it, he confirmed the package had been discontinued because of the new wine list coming in!

I meant to make a thread about it when I got back, but what with the changes on CC, I stopped logging in for a while then forgot. I'd like to know the current situation on other ships? Is it gone?

[freetocruise]

Just off the Royal Princess from Quebec to FLL.  The new wines were in place and due to selection, there is no longer a Silver Package offered, only a Gold Package.  The price of the Gold Package appeared to be the same as previous purchases.

[Astro Flyer]

That’s very disappointing! 😠

 

Thanks for diligently checking for information & apparently this great option is ending.  I think it’s a bad decision & will purchase less wine onboard & instead will bring more wine & pay corkage.

 

I was leaning towards bringing wine onboard due to the uncertainty of the package being available.  RCI had wine packages even on 7 day cruises which Princess wouldn’t do.

 

Like canceling the BOGO$, canceling wine packages will probably result in less income from onboard wine purchases.

[Renmar]

5 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

That’s very disappointing! 😠

 

Thanks for diligently checking for information & apparently this great option is ending.  I think it’s a bad decision & will purchase less wine onboard & instead will bring more wine & pay corkage.

 

I was leaning towards bringing wine onboard due to the uncertainty of the package being available.  RCI had wine packages even on 7 day cruises which Princess wouldn’t do.

 

Like canceling the BOGO$, canceling wine packages will probably result in less income from onboard wine purchases.

I posted this same info on an other wine tread.

 

Theo

 

We are going on the Coral this coming Saturday and I wanted to make sure that the winepackage is available so I phoned Princess today and they confirmed that the package WIL BE available. I also asked if the price was still $ 210.00 for the silver package and the answer is YES. However, we can now pick any wine with a price up to $ 31.00 (not that there are many in that price range) instead of the $ 29.00 that was mentioned here before. I did not ask about the gold package so no info for that.

I hope it will still be the case when we are on board.

[Astro Flyer]

15 minutes ago, Renmar said:

I posted this same info on an other wine tread.

 

Theo

 

We are going on the Coral this coming Saturday and I wanted to make sure that the winepackage is available so I phoned Princess today and they confirmed that the package WIL BE available. I also asked if the price was still $ 210.00 for the silver package and the answer is YES. However, we can now pick any wine with a price up to $ 31.00 (not that there are many in that price range) instead of the $ 29.00 that was mentioned here before. I did not ask about the gold package so no info for that.

I hope it will still be the case when we are on board.

Thanks Theo & hopefully it works for you.

 

I'm skeptical about what a Princess rep tells us & even onboard have been told the wine packages were unavailable while they attempted to sell me an expensive all-inclusive drink package.

[crawford]

Definitely hope the gold package is offered when we are on the Sapphire next month.

 

On both our Panama Canal (15 day) and Wine Country (7 day) cruises this year, we asked for and received gold packages for both.

 

I never saw either of them advertised but both were promptly provided upon my requests.

 

Mike  

 

 

[Sea&SkiCruiser]

I'm currently on the CB for a 14-night cruise.  I was able to purchase the gold package and was told they weren't offering the silver package.  Makes sense to me since there are no wines under $30.

[lhsail]

2 hours ago, Sea&SkiCruiser said:

I'm currently on the CB for a 14-night cruise.  I was able to purchase the gold package and was told they weren't offering the silver package.  Makes sense to me since there are no wines under $30.

We are on the next sailing of the CB. My husband called Princess a few weeks ago when there were postings of the package not being available on certain sailings and he was assured they would be available for us. The gold package is what we would want. Not sure what leverage we have if we find out differently once we get onboard. I think we should board early and if the packages are not available get back off and head to Total Wine. 

[paul929207]

We got the silver package $31. That is up for $29. That sounds good, but it appeared that they had raised most bottles $2 or $3.

[kellig]

Someone in another thread said we had to put the wine we are bringing on board in our carry on as if it's in our checked bag they will dispose of it. Is that true? We leave Saturday and we packed it in our checked bag and just planned to pay the corkage fees on check in, but it sounds like your separated from your checked bags as soon as you arrive. Advice?

[crystalspin]

If your bag will fit through an airport-style xray machine, you CAN keep it with you. The corkage table in near (after) that machine. Any bags you give to porters will NOT be with you at this point but will be x-rayed before delivered to your stateroom. I do not know if Princess calls you to the "naughty room" to pay up as other lines do, but obviously they could not dispose of your wine in a locked bag without calling you first.

 

You can skip the naughty room step by keeping all wine with you!

[kellig]

Just returned, thought we'd give an update on this thread. 

 

We asked at the port when we arrived how to bring on the wine and were instructed to take it out of our checked bag and carry it through security.  The corkage table on the other side of security happened to be unmanned that day and so we carried on 4 bottles without paying corkage.  Took one to the restaurant and told them we needed to pay corkage and so they charged us.  The second bottle we showed up with in the restaurant we didn't mention the need to pay corkage and the waiter never asked us to pay it.  We drank one bottle in the room and the 4th one never opened and took it back home with us. 

 

Wine list in dining rooms has been updated with a large number of options. Seem to be a little bit more than twice retail for a couple I recognized. Selection at vines wasn't that great. Good options in Share.  Very poor options by the glass at the lounge bars unfortunately. 

 

Wine glasses are ridiculously tiny... doesn't allow for any aeration. We brought our own Govinos for use in our room and were glad we did. Were tempted to bring them to diner with us, but didn't want to be obnoxious. Asked waiter to put our wine we purchased in a water glass since it was larger, and once they did that, and once they went to get slightly larger glasses from Share (though still smaller than many white wine glasses on the market), and another time on Thanksgiving they showed up with the large cab glasses from Vines.  Wouldn't normally expect the latter though as Vines would not let us leave with those glasses to go to the dining room earlier that same night.