A Question To Diamond Members

[gadaboutgal]

How many Diamond Members drink their Voyagers Club gifted Spumante in their cabins only?

We do not care to drink in our cabin; so, where and when are we supposed to drink it. My question comes as a 

result of a difficult situation we experience this week on Meraviglia.  We reserved the Butcher's Cut for one nights dinner and decided to bring our Spumante with us which we have done several times on Seaside.                                                                                                                                                       When we arrived at the restaurant, we were told that it was not permitted to bring it into the restaurant and that they would have to charge us a corkage fee for shoreside alcohol.  No amount of explaining that we did not bring it aboard and that it was a gift of the ship would change their minds.  So we requested to speak with the Manager.  After about half an hour of waiting, we were told that the Manager was in a meeting would not be able to come to the restaurant.   We said we'd wait and we did but finally they relented and dismissed the corkage fee.

No where is anything written about "corkage" fee.  

This experience was unpleasant and really left a  bad impression of MSC Meraviglia for us.

[George C]

Interesting that they do not allow you to bring wine on board but they have a corkage fee. 

[Beamafar]

The whole experience in the Speciality Restaurants onboard Meraviglia is very different to anything else we've ever experienced on any other ships and we found that the only word in the SR manager's vocabulary was "No".

 

We've certainly brought our (erstwhile) Black Card bubbly to SRs in the past on other ships without any problems.

[cellfree]

We had the Easy Package on the Meraviglia so in order to avoid paying for beverages at Butchers Cut we picked up our red wine and bottled water on way to restaurant. We are Diamond on MSC and do get the “bottled beverage” in our cabin but since we had unlimited beverages on last few MSC cruises we took it home with us. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

Still not as bad as NCL.  You can't bring anything onboard their ships – even bottled water that you bought on the NCL ship and brought with you on an NCL shore excursion!  [Full disclosure:  this didn't happen to me, but we were told this by an NCL employee with nods all around from the other employees nearby.]  That is why I haven't – and probably never will – try the Haven.

[LMaxwell]

We have taken the bottle with us; no problem, no questions asked.  You were right to ask for a manager and wait it out.  The staff were stupid to even try to impose a corkage fee on a bottle gifted to you by the company.  Your sour aftertaste is justified.  

[sidari]

The Drink provided is usually the Dry type so we don`t drink it, we either give it away to another guest or bring it home for others to drink.

I wish I had £50 for every time they pulled out the old "the manager is in a meeting" statement which appears to be the MSC default position because no one is allowed to make a decision.

 

gadaboutgal ... You should ask to speak with either the Hotel Director or the Food and Beverages Director, they need to have this issue resolved right away.

[ziggyuk]

9 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Still not as bad as NCL.  You can't bring anything onboard their ships – even bottled water that you bought on the NCL ship and brought with you on an NCL shore excursion!  [Full disclosure:  this didn't happen to me, but we were told this by an NCL employee with nods all around from the other employees nearby.]  That is why I haven't – and probably never will – try the Haven.

 

You can take as much wine as you wish on NCL, you will be charged $15 corkage per a bottle but there is no limit.

[Hlitner]

ARGH!  What a "bummer."   Many of MSC's undertrained crew has not been taught that the customer is always right (or at least most of the time right).    Funny thing about that free bottle.  When we were on the Divina we stayed in the Yacht Club where we did back to back cruises.  On the first cruise that bottle was in our cabin (and chilled in an ice bucket) and we never touched the stuff.  There was no reason for us to drink a so-so quality bottle of Asti when we had access to decent French Champagne (included for the YC) in the Top Sail Lounge.  On the 2nd cruise our stewardess actually asked us what we wanted to do with that free bottle and we simply suggested we would be pleased if it "disappeared" from our cabin.

 

But even in the Top Sail Lounge, if one ordered "Champagne" they would usually try to serve a pretty decent prosecco.  One had to specifically order "French Champagne" to get the real thing.  One real treat in the YC was being able to get mimosas made with fresh squeezed OJ and Nicholas Feuillatte Champagne.   That was enough to convince DW that she really "liked" being in the YC :).

 

Hank

[sidari]

As posted earlier, we usually give ours away to another guest because it is the dry version or we bring it home with us.

Would rather have a bottle of Borgomolino Cuvee Dolce sweet.

Edited November 25, 2019 by sidari

[Beamafar]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

 

But even in the Top Sail Lounge, if one ordered "Champagne" they would usually try to serve a pretty decent prosecco.  One had to specifically order "French Champagne" to get the real thing.  One real treat in the YC was being able to get mimosas made with fresh squeezed OJ and Nicholas Feuillatte Champagne.   That was enough to convince DW that she really "liked" being in the YC :).

 

Hank

 

This thread is about the sparkling wine given to Diamond members and not about champagne in YC.  You were smart enough to take me to task when I elaborated on a thread about how the minibar is stocked on MSC, pointing out that the thread was about the YC minibar.  You really should practice what you preach!

[Boschmann]

17 hours ago, gadaboutgal said:

When we arrived at the restaurant, we were told that it was not permitted to bring it into the restaurant and that they would have to charge us a corkage fee for shoreside alcohol.  ...

This experience was unpleasant and really left a  bad impression of MSC Meraviglia for us.

The exact same thing happened to friends of ours, but they were not offered to open it for a fee, just flat out denied.  What was more offensive was even with us having the Deluxe drinks package there were only two mediocre wines included.  Specialty restaurant wines officially available to YC passengers were ever worse.  My Meraviglia Black card specialty restaurant experiences were overall dismal, to the point I cancelled the Tryptic dining package I had pre-purchased.

[CruisingFox27]

During a disastrous meal in butcher's cut on Meraviglia I had to resort to going downstairs to the edge bar to get our drinks. I should of thought to go and retrieve our VC bottle of bubbly from the cabin! 

 

We usually have a few days post cruise wherever we disembark and take ours to drink there. 

Edited November 25, 2019 by CruisingFox27

[pizza123]

We took our bottle and arranged a meeting spot with 2 other couples up by the buffet and made ourselves mimosas - some with oj and some with pineapple juice. We had the cheap drink package and used the juices from the buffet. It served it 's purpose and was a great Sunday pregame meetup. Next week will be on a B2B and just might do the same thing both weeks.

[Bollinge]

It was completely wrong for them to try to charge you corkage in the steakhouse - complete lack of training.

 

When we were on Armonia in September, a bottle of Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne mysteriously arrived in our cabin in lieu of Prosecco, as did another one a week later (we were on a back to back). Maybe we have friends in high places - I am just about to email the Hotel Director on Armonia with our cabin number on our next cruise on board Opera next month, to forewarn the crew there that troublemakers are on the way. We’ll see if anything comes of it. 
 

Anyway, although I am a Champagne addict, as evidenced by my nom de plume, we ended up giving both bottles away to two very worthy crew members. Nothing wrong with Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne, by the way.
 

Cheers, John.
 

 

[PRH]

We were not charged corkage in Butcher’s Cut on the Seaview for exactly the same situation.  In fact, our waiter went out of his way to chill it for us and opened it with flair. The inconsistency between ships is notorious.  Very frustrating.

[jdvmd]

We took ours to dinner on the Seaside in the main dining room and had not issues. Staff put it on ice.

Ridiculous what you had to go through with Mera's Butcher's Cut.

[jdvmd]

On 11/24/2019 at 9:32 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

Still not as bad as NCL.  You can't bring anything onboard their ships – even bottled water that you bought on the NCL ship and brought with you on an NCL shore excursion!  [Full disclosure:  this didn't happen to me, but we were told this by an NCL employee with nods all around from the other employees nearby.]  That is why I haven't – and probably never will – try the Haven.

NCL allows you to bring on unlimited amounts of wine - you just have to pay a $15 per 750-ml bottle corkage fee and can enjoy anywhere on the ship including your cabin, dining room, bars, specialty restaurants. Wish all the lines had a policy like this.