Bringing our own wine

[MWINWI]

Hi,

I hope someone can help me with a question regarding bringing our own wine.

 

We are going on a cruise from Southampton to New York in December.

 

I would like to bring perhaps 8-10 bottles of wine to enjoy at lunch/dinner. I understand that I will have to pay the corkage fee.
 

But will I be able to hand over all the bottles to the staff?
 

Basically I would like to just hand them our 8-10 bottles, pay the corkage fee, and when we have lunch/dinner we can have a glass of our choosing from different bottles.

 

I would like to avoid bringing one bottle of white and one bottle of red to each meal.

 

If someone could shed some light on this it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Kind regards

M

[newjoisey]

From reading other posts i recall them saying to check with the matre d soon after you board and ask them who,what,where . 

[MWINWI]

 

Sorry if this is a question that has already been answered, I tried searching but couldn’t find an awnser.

 

Who, what, where, as in to who we could hand over the bottles to and so on?

 

 

[TheOldBear]

12 minutes ago, MWINWI said:

 

Sorry if this is a question that has already been answered, I tried searching but couldn’t find an awnser.

 

Who, what, where, as in to who we could hand over the bottles to and so on?

 

 

In your assigned restaurant [Britannia, BC, PG QG] the matre d is available on check in days - they are on duty to handle things like table assignments, special menu requests [e.g. gluten free] and wine corkage.

[MWINWI]

Ah, I understand!

 

is it your understanding that this arrangement can be handled? 

I would be surprised if we were the first with this request. 

[Colin_Cameron]

29 minutes ago, MWINWI said:

I would be surprised if we were the first with this request. 

I would too. I once met someone that didn’t bring their own wine with them, they kept their own stock onboard!

 

When you get to your cabin look at the daily programme. Somewhere in it there will be a notice saying that “the maitre d’ will be available from X to Y”. Be prepared for a long queue. It will be the sommelier/wine steward that will actually handle it, and he’ll be around somewhere. There may be somebody at the door asking the nature of your query (to thin out the simple yes/no answers) and they may pass you directly to the sommelier. 

 

You could wait wait until the first dinner and speak to your wine steward then, but they are very busy on the first night and I wouldn’t recommend it.

 

Just had a thought. All of the above applies to Britannia and Britannia Club. If you are in either of the Grills I’m fairly sure there’s no notice in the programme, but someone will be available either during lunch (if you’re in time) or at afternoon tea.

 

Have a great trip.

[MWINWI]

Thank you for the great and detailed response.

 

We are booked in the Britannia class so this is very helpful.

 

Looking very much forward to our upcoming honeymoon transatlantic cruise!

[Lakesregion]

If memory serves Cunard has reduced the amount of adult beverages one can bring one board on embarkation to one bottle per person. So you could bring two bottles on board with you. Corkage fees still apply. Additional bottles if found on check in will be returned to you on leaving the ship at your final port.

[MWINWI]

That has been discussed on multiple occasions. 
 

I have never been on Cunard but my understanding is that this rule is not enforced. 

[BigMac1953]

7 hours ago, Lakesregion said:

If memory serves Cunard has reduced the amount of adult beverages one can bring one board on embarkation to one bottle per person. So you could bring two bottles on board with you. Corkage fees still apply. Additional bottles if found on check in will be returned to you on leaving the ship at your final port.

 

What makes you think that? and where did you get the information about bottles being confiscated and returned?

[Host Hattie]

4 hours ago, MWINWI said:

That has been discussed on multiple occasions. 
 

I have never been on Cunard but my understanding is that this rule is not enforced. 

You're right, it's discussed very regularly here and nobody has reported having anything confiscated.

[MWINWI]

I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to find out what rules apply.

 

This is what I have found out:

 

1. On cunards webpage there is contradictory information stating both that you are aloud to bring one bottle onboard. But also information stating that you can bring anything you like for consumption in your room without paying corkage. If you consume it outside your room, your pay the corkage fee.

 

2. As far as I have read (and I have read a lot about this), no one has had anything confiscated either at embarkation or during the cruise.

 

3. My assessment is that Cunard needs to cover its bases in this matter. If for example someone would be excessively intoxicated they need to be able to confiscate alcohol for ship safety.

 

Basically, bring what you want for in room consumption without additional fees. If you bring wine to dinner you pay 20$. If you get to drunk, they take your booze.

 

 

[Host Hattie]

That's a good summary of our collective experience.

[exlondoner]

I would add that over the years, while I have seen many Cunard passengers drink a lot, I have never seen one I thought was drunk. Maybe I have just been lucky. 😀

[PORT ROYAL]

1 hour ago, MWINWI said:

I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to find out what rules apply.

 

This is what I have found out:

 

1. On cunards webpage there is contradictory information stating both that you are aloud to bring one bottle onboard. But also information stating that you can bring anything you like for consumption in your room without paying corkage. If you consume it outside your room, your pay the corkage fee.

 

2. As far as I have read (and I have read a lot about this), no one has had anything confiscated either at embarkation or during the cruise.

 

3. My assessment is that Cunard needs to cover its bases in this matter. If for example someone would be excessively intoxicated they need to be able to confiscate alcohol for ship safety.

 

Basically, bring what you want for in room consumption without additional fees. If you bring wine to dinner you pay 20$. If you get to drunk, they take your booze.

 

 

Re item 3 - Additional 

The T&C can be relied upon if there is an alcohol related accident, where consumption is proven from bottle/s exceeding stated limit..  Thereby nullifying any claim against the ship and/or Cunard as T&C were deliberately broken.  When one books one agrees to abide by all T&C

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by PORT ROYAL
Typo

[Colin_Cameron]

At one time the T&Cs about the one bottle rule contained something along the lines of, “We don’t intend to enforce this as a matter of routine, but reserve the right to do so.” 

[navybankerteacher]

On our last QM2 sailing (December 2019 -January 2020, NY to Caribbean) we brought about a dozen bottles on board for use primarily in our cabin with no comment or charge - except for the anticipated corkage fee on the few we brought to the dining room.

[MWINWI]

3 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

On our last QM2 sailing (December 2019 -January 2020, NY to Caribbean) we brought about a dozen bottles on board for use primarily in our cabin with no comment or charge - except for the anticipated corkage fee on the few we brought to the dining room.

I feel very comfortable bringing the wine onboard. 
 

Just hope we can hand over the wine bottles to the maître d so they can be kept by the staff.

Would be nice to enjoy different wines at the same seating without us carrying multiple bottles with us to each seating.

 

[Elephant1151]

When we were on Around South America we took 24 bottles of wine with us and bought more during the voyage. My husband arranged with the Sommelier to take several to him at a time and then we paid the corkage. This allowed us to have a choice of wine available, without any fuss.

 

On  other occasions we buy the Commodore Wine Package at $715 per 12 bottles as these are nice wines.

[MWINWI]

10 hours ago, Elephant1151 said:

When we were on Around South America we took 24 bottles of wine with us and bought more during the voyage. My husband arranged with the Sommelier to take several to him at a time and then we paid the corkage. This allowed us to have a choice of wine available, without any fuss.

 

On  other occasions we buy the Commodore Wine Package at $715 per 12 bottles as these are nice wines.

Lovely to hear, that is exactly the arrangement I’m looking for.