Carry On Wine - Not allowed?

[LMaxwell]

Just booked a Nieuw Amsterdam cruise; my first Holland America cruise. I am used to boarding with a bottle or two of wine for our cabin on....well, every single cruise ship I've ever been on. I was just told HAL allows no outside wine/champagne/soft drinks. Is that correct? I had, perhaps wrongly, assumed it would be 1 bottle per guest over 21 years old.  Want to know what to be prepared for. 

[fatcat04]

 

Revised Policy effective June 1st, 2021

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/faq/know-before-you-go.html

 

Guests are not allowed to bring alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages on board for consumption or any other use except as follows:

 

Guests may bring Wine and Champagne onboard, however a corkage fee of USD $20.00 (which is subject to change without notice) will be applied to each bottle (max 750 ml in volume or less). Limitations apply. Wine brought in quantities deemed to be excessive by the vessel or security will be refused.

 

Wine purchased during company-sponsored shore excursions that visit local wineries are exempt from the on-board corkage fee (offer limited to one bottle of wine per person).

 

Items such as sodas, energy drinks or other non-alcoholic items are not allowed on board in any form. Plastic water bottles are not allowed. However, an allowance of six liters, twelve (12) cans or cartons (500 ml in volume or less) or six (6) cans or cartons (1 liter in volume or less) of water are allowed per stateroom.  Any amount in excess of this allowance will be not be allowed onboard. Water in plastic bottles will not be allowed onboard in any quantity, including in ports of call. Guests will be asked to discard open beverages in plastic containers prior to boarding. 

 

All checked and carry-on luggage will be scanned and any prohibited items, including alcoholic/nonalcoholic beverages will be removed, confiscated, and discarded.  If Your luggage is locked, the lock may be removed by security or, alternatively, the luggage will be held by security until you can be present for an inspection and any items in question further identified and/or surrendered.  Holland America Line shall not be responsible for any loss, cost, disappointment or damage of any kind as a result of any luggage lock removal, alcoholic/nonalcoholic items, or other prohibited items removed and discarded in violation of the policy. You agree to surrender alcoholic beverages that are purchased duty free from the ship's gift shop, or at ports of call, to Holland America Line, which will be delivered to your stateroom just prior to disembarking the voyage. Any wine or champagne supplied by the Holland America Line to you is not subject to a corkage fee.  Purified or distilled water in factory-sealed containers (including plastic containers) for use in conjunction with medical device(s) are allowed in checked luggage and must be packed with the device(s). Distilled/purified water in factory-sealed containers (including plastic containers) for the reconstitution of infant formula is allowed in checked luggage for staterooms with infant bookings. Limitations apply. Allowances are subject to change without notice and remain subject to situational assessments by both security and the vessel.

An 18% Service Charge is automatically applied to all Beverage Purchases, Bar Retail Items, Specialty Restaurant Cover Charges and all For Purchase A La Carte Menu Items. Local Sales Taxes Applied where required.

[LMaxwell]

So it is allowed; but each bottle is $20 corkage fee at time of boarding? And the number can be greater than one, but up to them how many? 

[taxmantoo]

1 hour ago, LMaxwell said:

So it is allowed; but each bottle is $20 corkage fee at time of boarding? And the number can be greater than one, but up to them how many? 

Nobody knows.  They do mention a "reasonable" amount but nobody has ever come back and said they were denied "x" number of bottles.  We have often brought on in excess of a case.

Edited July 10, 2022 by taxmantoo

[The-Inside-Cabin]

42 minutes ago, taxmantoo said:

Nobody knows.  They do mention a "reasonable" amount but nobody has ever come back and said they were denied "x" number of bottles.  We have often brought on in excess of a case.

I have asked people checking us in about what is reasonable and also found out that no one knows.   I don't think there is a set number.    There have been some cases where people who owned a vineyard rented a uhaul and brought aboard a couple dozen cases - that is probably too many.

 

I would speculate that if you can handle the wine yourself as you board - a couple of cases - you would be fine...

[Djb4CC]

In my mind, “reasonable” is at most bottle/person/day… beyond that, I would think HAL gets concerned about if the “excess” is being sold to other guest… they don’t want anything eating into their profits.

[LMaxwell]

Where do they charge the corkage at? Shoreside or onboard? Better to have as carry on or packed in bags?  Fort Lauderdale departure 

[Traveling Dot]

10 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

Where do they charge the corkage at? Shoreside or onboard? Better to have as carry on or packed in bags?  Fort Lauderdale departure 

Must be carried on or your bags will end up in the "bad boy/girl room" and you will be wondering where they are.  Also bottles may break all over your clothes.😯

[LMaxwell]

3 minutes ago, Traveling Dot said:

Must be carried on or your bags will end up in the "bad boy/girl room" and you will be wondering where they are.  Also bottles may break all over your clothes.😯

True; have always carried it on.  Probably 1 bottle is sufficient, maybe 2. I have no interest in lugging a case nor would I ever finish it. 

[DENIE]

Thanks for the clarification.  We are on the Koningsdam Mexican Riviera in December 2022, and we love to taste tequila in Puerto Vallarta.  In fact, we have a $100 HAL shore excursion with our package, and plan to use it on a day that includes tequila tasting in Puerto Vallarta.  Our plans were to purchase 2 or 3 bottles (assuming we enjoy it) and take home.  It sounds like we surrender it when we get back on board (totally fine with that, as we are not purchasing to drink on board) and will get it shortly before disembarkation. We are driving to San Diego and parking a car, so have an easy means to transport back to Arizona. No flights on this trip.

[PFU92038]

You might want to check out customs restrictions on bringing more than 1 liter of alcoholic beverage from Mexico.

[trk_koa]

We did that excursion and I remember the tour host telling us what the limit is. I believe it’s 1 liter per person duty free. Reality was no one asked. 
 

You will need to surrender it when your reboard the ship and it will be delivered to your cabin the night before disembarkation.
 

There were two excursions for tequila tasting. We did one that was put on by a coop the first time in November 2021. That one didn’t include any food and so after tasting we were a little tipsy. There was a restaurant on the premises and so we bought lunch. There was plenty of time allowed to do that and the food was very good and reasonably priced. We did the one that goes to the “factory” in March 2022. The factory one was more educational and entertaining. It included a nice buffet lunch and entertainment of dancers, tortilla making and a dancing horse. 
 

Both excursions were well done and the tequila was good. We bought one liter of tequila plus a sampler pack of the flavored tequilas each time.

[DENIE]

1 hour ago, trk_koa said:

We did that excursion and I remember the tour host telling us what the limit is. I believe it’s 1 liter per person duty free. Reality was no one asked. 
 

You will need to surrender it when your reboard the ship and it will be delivered to your cabin the night before disembarkation.
 

There were two excursions for tequila tasting. We did one that was put on by a coop the first time in November 2021. That one didn’t include any food and so after tasting we were a little tipsy. There was a restaurant on the premises and so we bought lunch. There was plenty of time allowed to do that and the food was very good and reasonably priced. We did the one that goes to the “factory” in March 2022. The factory one was more educational and entertaining. It included a nice buffet lunch and entertainment of dancers, tortilla making and a dancing horse. 
 

Both excursions were well done and the tequila was good. We bought one liter of tequila plus a sampler pack of the flavored tequilas each time.

Thanks trk_koa!  It is the one that includes the food, entertainment, etc. Will be sure to confirm limits before buying and taking back. We did something like this on a 2010 HAL cruise, and I believe we brought 3 small bottles back.  But, times do change...

[suemiks]

Am I understanding correctly that if we each bring one bottle of wine on board to be consumed in our cabin we still pay a $20 corkage fee? 😱

[VMax1700]

23 minutes ago, suemiks said:

Am I understanding correctly that if we each bring one bottle of wine on board to be consumed in our cabin we still pay a $20 corkage fee? 😱

Correct.  

[Hobby3333]

Is there a wine package that one could purchase?   We have the drink package but sometimes the wine might be better in a package

[wdw1972]

36 minutes ago, Hobby3333 said:

Is there a wine package that one could purchase?   We have the drink package but sometimes the wine might be better in a package

Yes, you can buy wine packages.  They have 3 tiers (cheapest to highest), each with 4, 6 or 8 bottle packages.  You can find them on the website and based on the wine selections find the tier you're interested in, then determine how many bottles.  There's no advantage to booking before you get onboard - I wait until I'm on the ship to book it.  Mariner 3, 4 & 5 star discounts apply, but if you book before boarding you'll pay full price and get the discount back as refundable onboard credit once on the ship.  

 

The wine packages work great in the restaurants/MDR but my one time trying to get one of our bottles in a lounge (Ocean Bar) was disappointing.  We ended up just ordering and paying for wine by the glass.  So depending on where you plan to drink your wine it may or may not make sense to just do the wine package.  Of course if you drink red wine you could get a bottle while at dinner and keep it in your stateroom - then just bring it to whatever bar you're going to spend time in.  In my case I only drink white and I expect mine to be COLD so toting a bottle around the ship isn't what I want to do.

 

Sue/WDW1972

[Hobby3333]

35 minutes ago, wdw1972 said:

Yes, you can buy wine packages.  They have 3 tiers (cheapest to highest), each with 4, 6 or 8 bottle packages.  You can find them on the website and based on the wine selections find the tier you're interested in, then determine how many bottles.  There's no advantage to booking before you get onboard - I wait until I'm on the ship to book it.  Mariner 3, 4 & 5 star discounts apply, but if you book before boarding you'll pay full price and get the discount back as refundable onboard credit once on the ship.  

 

The wine packages work great in the restaurants/MDR but my one time trying to get one of our bottles in a lounge (Ocean Bar) was disappointing.  We ended up just ordering and paying for wine by the glass.  So depending on where you plan to drink your wine it may or may not make sense to just do the wine package.  Of course if you drink red wine you could get a bottle while at dinner and keep it in your stateroom - then just bring it to whatever bar you're going to spend time in.  In my case I only drink white and I expect mine to be COLD so toting a bottle around the ship isn't what I want to do.

 

Sue/WDW1972

Only an empty bottle will leave dinner.  

[fatcat04]

5 hours ago, suemiks said:

Am I understanding correctly that if we each bring one bottle of wine on board to be consumed in our cabin we still pay a $20 corkage fee? 😱

Yes.

 

That said dh and I have been going over the wine list (thank you Roger Jett, just google his HAL reference site, it is spectacular!) and there are some fantastic everyday $30-45 bottles of wine on the ships now, and many are included by the glass in the Elite bev package. Let me reassure you 10 years ago this was not the case. The change in the wine list is one of those really good things HAL has done and should keep up. We used to schlep on a case of wine for a week long cruise a decade ago. No need to now. Maybe a couple of special bottles only now. And yes you can buy bottles on the ship and take them back to your cabin, either through one of the wine packages or stand alone. 

Edited July 22, 2022 by fatcat04

[suemiks]

Thank you all for your answers and suggestions.  We are long time cruisers; just haven’t been on HAL much.

[tundra1]

Yes, I looked through the wines offered with the Have It All package.  There is an amazing selection and I will enjoying trying some new wines.  I will be purchasing a few bottles along the way on our land tour, however!

[john2003]

We have a Celebrity cruise booked for October. I used to think HAL had a more enlightened policy for bringing wine onboard. I gather as we have the drink package we can bring 2 bottles each onboard with no corkage. Seems a pretty smart move. Let us drink some of our wine rather than theirs at no cost!