Utilizing Wine Corkage

[Guest]

Can anyone who has used wine corkage fee tell me who we notify at Waves and Terrace Cafe

that we have wine somewhere on the ship. Is there a table server at both Waves and TC?

And just out of curiosity, does anyone know if a call is made to the “wine holding area” and someone

is in charge of delivering said wine or does the busy server have to go back and forth?

Thanks!

[LHT28]

AFAIK  you just tell the  wine server you have a bottle  of XXX  & give them your cabin number

They will fetch it

Never  tried in the Terrace or Waves   Just the GDR & Specialties

 

[Cruzin Terri]

You notify the wine steward just like any other dining venue on the ship.  They will fetch the wine once you give them your cabin number.  We have never had a problem in the Terrace Cafe.  Have not done it in Waves but I am sure it is the same procedure.

Terri

[Flatbush Flyer]

Wine stewards cruise the GDR, Specialties and Terrace. At Waves and Bars, just asked a bartender/server who will arrange for it to get to you wherever you are located.

[Cliff-FLL]

I've had some mixed results in retrieving a partially-consumed bottle when eating at Waves and Terrace.  Quite frankly, it can take a bit of time and, on more than one occasion, I'd already finished the meal by the time they brought the wine - and I'm not a fast eater.  I've found this to be a more frequent occurrence at Waves than Terrace.  I have, now and then, taken the bottle of wine back to the suite with me and returned with it (in a wine sleeve, of course) the next day.  If there's a concern, I simply show them yesterday's receipt. 

[pinotlover]

This issue can be one of many of why the Terrace is for Teatotallers! When the one assigned wine steward, to your area, disappears for 15+ minutes to retrieve a wine bottle from storage, everyone else suffers. When that bottle got left in Jacques, instead of being returned to the normal storage, and the wine steward has to spend extra time finding it, many of us in the Terrace have finished our meal before the steward reappears to take our orders! 🤬

[mexicobob]

We got off The Riviera about ten days ago. Some nights we had a partially consumed bottle of wine left over. We never had a problem getting it retrieved either in Terrace Cafe or the specialty restaurants the next night. Took only a few minutes at best. Maybe we, and other diners, were lucky????? Never ate at Waves but at night appeared the Pizza place was doing a booming business. Packed to the gills.

[Flatbush Flyer]

9 hours ago, Cliff-FLL said:

I've had some mixed results in retrieving a partially-consumed bottle when eating at Waves and Terrace.  Quite frankly, it can take a bit of time and, on more than one occasion, I'd already finished the meal by the time they brought the wine - and I'm not a fast eater.  I've found this to be a more frequent occurrence at Waves than Terrace.  I have, now and then, taken the bottle of wine back to the suite with me and returned with it (in a wine sleeve, of course) the next day.  If there's a concern, I simply show them yesterday's receipt. 

I suggest that you have a wine steward notate the bottle (or the receipt) before you remove it from the dining or other public venue. After all, yesterday’s receipt could be for any previously opened bottle.

[LHT28]

23 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

. After all, yesterday’s receipt could be for any previously opened bottle.

Now that is a good idea   & get some proper wine glasses from the bar so we can drink our own wine  in the public spaces 😈

No one will know 🍷

[Guest]

Thanks everyone for your replies!

 

[mexicobob]

On 4/27/2023 at 9:58 PM, LHT28 said:

Now that is a good idea   & get some proper wine glasses from the bar so we can drink our own wine  in the public spaces 😈

No one will know 🍷

On our recent cruise on The Riviera in a PH2 there was not a difference between the wine glasses in our suite and the ones in all restaurants and bars. We were drinking white wine. I wear glasses but......if there was a difference, it was minor.
We enjoyed some excellent Italian and Greek wine we brought from shore on our balcony or cabin. So as not to incur the wrath of folks like Flatbush Flyer we never took it out of our cabin.

[sofietucker]

We bought a bottle in La Reserve and then they kept it for us--in, they said, their own cooler. Next night in MDR, they tried to serve us someone else's "room wine" (the gratis bottles they give out). I stopped them before they poured. Someone's handwritten 4 and 9 looked similar. Then they couldn't find our own LR bottle until towards the end of the meal. And apparently LR doesn't HAVE a separate cooler for storing guests' wine...it all goes into a big locker. A good argument for simply schlepping it back and forth ourselves (though to be honest we don't usually have much leftover wine).

Now, wine glasses? On Celebrity, if we leave Lumiere with wine in our glass, they will hasten to switch out the wine from Riedel to what we call a go-cup--not the usual red plastic solo cup!--a cheaper stemmed glass. Suite's bar glassware is not fancy either. Hadn't paid attention to that on O, but will see what's what in 3 weeks...

[Flatbush Flyer]

12 minutes ago, sofietucker said:

We bought a bottle in La Reserve and then they kept it for us--in, they said, their own cooler. Next night in MDR, they tried to serve us someone else's "room wine" (the gratis bottles they give out). I stopped them before they poured. Someone's handwritten 4 and 9 looked similar. Then they couldn't find our own LR bottle until towards the end of the meal. And apparently LR doesn't HAVE a separate cooler for storing guests' wine...it all goes into a big locker. A good argument for simply schlepping it back and forth ourselves (though to be honest we don't usually have much leftover wine).

Now, wine glasses? On Celebrity, if we leave Lumiere with wine in our glass, they will hasten to switch out the wine from Riedel to what we call a go-cup--not the usual red plastic solo cup!--a cheaper stemmed glass. Suite's bar glassware is not fancy either. Hadn't paid attention to that on O, but will see what's what in 3 weeks...

Now, there’s a lesson learned: Open a bottle? Finish the bottle! It’s only four glassfuls 😉

[pinotlover]

53 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Now, there’s a lesson learned: Open a bottle? Finish the bottle! It’s only four glassfuls 😉

To be exact: there is a bit over 25 ounces in a 750 ml bottle. In restaurants, most wine pours are either 4 or 5 Oz pours. So I challenge your math as to 4 pours.

 

We do however, on a delightful cruise, have little problem finishing off a bottle at dinner. 😇. Rarely do we need to store a bottle! 🥂

[Flatbush Flyer]

2 hours ago, pinotlover said:

To be exact: there is a bit over 25 ounces in a 750 ml bottle. In restaurants, most wine pours are either 4 or 5 Oz pours. So I challenge your math as to 4 pours.…

Mea Culpa. I had forgotten that I always get the “good looking” (it’s mostly my blue eyes) extra pours/extra servings/extra discounts in the higher end restaurants I frequent. 
Plus, four (glasses) is such a more pleasant number than five.😎

[ORV]

3 hours ago, sofietucker said:

We bought a bottle in La Reserve

I'm still trying to get my head around this. Why? 

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 minute ago, ORV said:

I'm still trying to get my head around this. Why? 

Perhaps it’s because the LaReserve space is now also used for the Wine Bar event on some of the nights when there are no LaReserve dinners.

The Wine Bar is a terrific (relatively new) offering with comp. hors d’oeuvres, flights of wine and both glass and bottle service.

[sofietucker]

Just now, Flatbush Flyer said:

Perhaps it’s because the LaReserve space is now also used for the Wine Bar event on some of the nights when there are no LaReserve dinners.

The Wine Bar is a terrific (relatively new) offering with comp. hors d’oeuvres, flights of wine and both glass and bottle service.

Exactly so. It's a very nice space to just hang out, breezy, relaxed and not "inside" but not "outside"...

Edited May 4, 2023 by sofietucker

[LHT28]

Wine Bar nights  were "relatively new"   in 2019 

[Guest]

Are cruisers allowed to pay corkage and bring their bottle back themselves the following night. I do like to sit down and have a glass of wine while looking over the menu. Would not like waiting till middle of dinner before it arrived! Thank you.

[schmerl]

37 minutes ago, Guest said:

Are cruisers allowed to pay corkage and bring their bottle back themselves the following night. I do like to sit down and have a glass of wine while looking over the menu. Would not like waiting till middle of dinner before it arrived! Thank you.

 

We never had to wait long for our bottle. Just tell your server want your bottle and they will get the sommelier.

[1985rz1]

21 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Mea Culpa. I had forgotten that I always get the “good looking” (it’s mostly my blue eyes) extra pours/extra servings/extra discounts in the higher end restaurants I frequent. 
Plus, four (glasses) is such a more pleasant number than five.😎

“Good luck lies in odd numbers ... They say, there is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death.” —Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor. v. 1.

🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷

[Cliff-FLL]

On 5/4/2023 at 10:04 AM, Guest said:

Are cruisers allowed to pay corkage and bring their bottle back themselves the following night. I do like to sit down and have a glass of wine while looking over the menu. Would not like waiting till middle of dinner before it arrived! Thank you.

We've never had to worry about them fetching a bottle while we're dining in one of the specialties because we've always finished the bottle we've brought.  As I mentioned above, I have, occasionally, taken the bottle with me from Waves or Terrace because there can be a significant lag between requesting and receiving.  I bring the receipt with me and tell them it was the bottle I purchased in their restaurant.  No one has ever asked to see the receipt, perhaps because they recognize it as the schlock from their own wine menu.  Were you to enter one of the restaurants with your bottle from last night, I would just tell them it's last night's and you have the corkage receipt if they'd like to see it.

Edited May 5, 2023 by Cliff-FLL