Wine Onboard

[Samanthac25]

I will be boarding NA next weekend for 7 nights over Christmas. A while ago when I spoke with a HAL representative on the phone while asking general questions she mentioned that if I don't see a bottle of liquor available for pre-purchase online that we could call and request that it be ordered for us. I am wondering if this is also applicable to wines on board? They don't have my favorite wine listed on any of the menus or on the beverage page for pre-purchasing (nor do they have anything close to it that I could substitute for) and I would love to have more than the 1 bottle I can carry on with me.

 

Has anyone had any experiences with requesting a specific bottle ahead of time? Thanks in advance!

[fatcat04]

Even better, if you can carry it on yourself, you can bring on unlimited wine just paying the $18 corkage per bottle past the one no corkage charged bottle per 21+ adult. All bottles on which corkage has been paid may be consumed anywhere on the ship, any restaurant or lounge, anywhere. The 1 non-corkage bottle can only be consumed in your cabin.

 

We generally bring on a few bottle of our favorites via the handy little 6 pack bag most wine shops sell or give away. It is a nice perk of Holland America. There is often a booth near the embarkation security area where you can register your bottles and pay your corkage. They will put a sticker on your bottle showing you paid your corkage or alternatively, when we didn't know which bottles would be consumed in cabin or out, we just ask for the stickers themselves and put them on later. Once that sticker is applied, that bottle can be taken anywhere on the ship to be enjoyed. 

 

Edit: and if for some reason there is no wine corkage table at embarkation (there have been reports that sometimes this is missing), any lounge or restaurant can charge corkage for you. 

Edited December 11, 2019 by fatcat04

[cat shepard]

The only thing I would add is add to @fatcat04‘s very informative post is an example from my October cruise. I paid $17 for my fave Pinot Noir, and the HAL price for the same wine was $54. Even with corkage, I saved a significant amount.

 

Love the idea of putting the stickers on yourself!

 

 

[ottahand7]

We just boarded the Zuiderdam yesterday.   We got to the port early and were early through security.  We carried on 10 bottles.  No one from the ship was there to charge us so security waived us through.  This is the second trip in a row, one Tampa now Fort Lauderdale where we were able to get our wine on without the corkage.    Extra luck for us was that the computer system isn't up and running well after dry dock and we had no charge for our corkage at the PG.  

 

If you are leaving from FLL there is a great wine store Total Wine very near the port and port hotels.   

 

[Samanthac25]

13 minutes ago, fatcat04 said:

Even better, if you can carry it on yourself, you can bring on unlimited wine just paying the $18 corkage per bottle past the one no corkage charged bottle per 21+ adult. All bottles on which corkage has been paid may be consumed anywhere on the ship, any restaurant or lounge, anywhere. The 1 non-corkage bottle can only be consumed in your cabin.

 

We generally bring on a few bottle of our favorites via the handy little 6 pack bag most wine shops sell or give away. It is a nice perk of Holland America. There is often a booth near the embarkation security area where you can register your bottles and pay your corkage. They will put a sticker on your bottle showing you paid your corkage or alternatively, when we didn't know which bottles would be consumed in cabin or out, we just ask for the stickers themselves and put them on later. Once that sticker is applied, that bottle can be taken anywhere on the ship to be enjoyed. 

 

Edit: and if for some reason there is no wine corkage table at embarkation (there have been reports that sometimes this is missing), any lounge or restaurant can charge corkage for you. 

 

4 minutes ago, cat shepard said:

The only thing I would add is add to @fatcat04‘s very informative post is an example from my October cruise. I paid $17 for my fave Pinot Noir, and the HAL price for the same wine was $54. Even with corkage, I saved a significant amount.

 

Love the idea of putting the stickers on yourself!

 

 

 

4 minutes ago, ottahand7 said:

We just boarded the Zuiderdam yesterday.   We got to the port early and were early through security.  We carried on 10 bottles.  No one from the ship was there to charge us so security waived us through.  This is the second trip in a row, one Tampa now Fort Lauderdale where we were able to get our wine on without the corkage.    Extra luck for us was that the computer system isn't up and running well after dry dock and we had no charge for our corkage at the PG.  

 

If you are leaving from FLL there is a great wine store Total Wine very near the port and port hotels.   

 

 

Oh my goodness, I love this community of fellow cruisers!!! I had NO idea that I could carry on more than 1 bottle!  I thought everything I had read said only one bottle could be carried on... Thank you so much, I'll be taking a few and paying the corkage fee with a smile on my face 🙂 

[RocketMan275]

10 minutes ago, ottahand7 said:

We just boarded the Zuiderdam yesterday.   We got to the port early and were early through security.  We carried on 10 bottles.  No one from the ship was there to charge us so security waived us through.  This is the second trip in a row, one Tampa now Fort Lauderdale where we were able to get our wine on without the corkage.    Extra luck for us was that the computer system isn't up and running well after dry dock and we had no charge for our corkage at the PG.  

 

If you are leaving from FLL there is a great wine store Total Wine very near the port and port hotels.   

 

We too arrived early at FLL a couple of cruises ago.  No one was there from the ship.  Security first told us we could only take one bottle on board (we had six) and we would have to forfeit the rest.  After my objections, they told me I would have to leave the extra bottles and ship's personnel would bring them to my cabin.  After my objections, I was allowed to proceed with all my wine.  I did pay the corkage once on-board.