Our Own Wine??

[Barkingowl]

Has anyone ordered wine off the Carnival web site to be delivered to your room on the sailing day???

 

Dan

 

Yes. It was delivered along with roses for my wife. The only problem was that the steward didn't bring enough ice.

[JPH814]

We were on a 12 day Med cruise with Carnival last month. We bought wine in most ports and brought it to our room. We enjoyed a glass of wine while dressing for dinner. Our first night there, we told our cabin steward we will be keeping a bottle of wine chilled at all times and gave him $10. He brought in a second ice bucket. We kept a bottle in the ice bucket and twice a day he filled it with fresh ice. Needless to say, at the end of the cruise, we gave him more than the minimum tip as well.

In the dining room, we brought one or sometimes two bottles to the table (we were travelling with 2 other couples) virtually every night. The first night we told our server we would be doing it. He said the normal corkage fee was $10, but that went to Carnival and not to him. The first night I gave him $20...a couple other nights we gave him $10. A corkage fee was never on our bill.

Carnival's wine was not really expensive - $35 to $45 for a decent bottle. But we wanted to try the wines from the areas we were visiting. Most were inexpensive - even some very good wines from Tuscany were $20. We - and our server - came out way ahead on the deal.

[winewanderer]

No problem bringing wine aboard.

 

To avoid a corkage fee, uncork it in your room and bring it to dinner.

[Cotton]

No problem bringing wine aboard.

 

To avoid a corkage fee, uncork it in your room and bring it to dinner.

 

Surely you aren't serious...?

 

Corkage fee has absolutely nothing to do with the physical act of corking or uncorking a bottle of wine.

 

Corkage fee is charged for the privilege of bringing your own wine into any restaurant, land or sea.

 

The reason? When restaurants allow this, they lose money on wine sales, so they charge a fee for allowing you to bring your own.

[MMW37]

While Cotton is of course correct, that they charge you a "corkage fee" to get something out of you, and as a convenience fee for allowing the outside wine in, I think if you wanted to get around it opening it in the room might work. We bought a bottle of champagne at the wine bar before dinner one night last year and had a glass there before bringing it into the dining room. We bought the wine from CC so of course we were not charged corkage, but if you brought wine with you that was on Carnival's wine list...see where I'm going with this? Not necessarily advocating, though.

[piginmud]

Now that you know the rules let me say that we did bring 2 bottles of wine on when we got on the ship in Tampa, and also bought wine in Grand Cayman and Costa Maya and brought it on board in our bags from those two ports. The bags did go through the x-ray machine, but nobody said anything to us or asked to see what was in our bags. We did the same on the Glory last year and also had no problem. I would think as long as it was not obvious and hidden in a bag they wouldn't bother you.

 

Okay now I'm confused...

Are you allowed to buy liquor on the islands and bring it onboard? I know on my last cruise they "confiscated" the liquor and gave it back to us on the last day (or night, can't remember).

 

I wanted to get some cheap coconut rum!!!

debbie

[lrk]

We asked our PVP what amount of wine we could bring.. she told us 2 bottles... boy did we make a lot of friends hauling around those 2 huge 1.5 liter bottles to the various shows and such....LOL

 

 

This is exactly what I was wondering.....They just say bottle of wine and don't specify the size. I have plenty of 1.5 liter Little Penguin Merlot in my wine rack, so thought I would bring one of those. So they don't care if you bring a large one to dinner? A small bottle of wine sure doesn't go far. Especially, if you're going to share it with your tablemates.

[Cotton]

Okay now I'm confused...

Are you allowed to buy liquor on the islands and bring it onboard? I know on my last cruise they "confiscated" the liquor and gave it back to us on the last day (or night, can't remember)./quote]

 

Debbie, their policy has not changed. You are NOT allowed to bring liquor from a port. Many folks do this by putting their purchases in the bottom of a tote bag they took into a port, and putting any other souveniers on top. Most times, the shopping bags are not checked, and the boarding officers will ask if you have liquor. Just say no, and keep walking.:D IF they do check, and find the liquor, same will happen as it did to you last time.

[JPH814]

On our Carnival Liberty Mediterranean trip, we walked on in virtually every port with wine. Sometimes in bags, at least twice in boxes with the names of wineries on the outside. They went on the X ray conveyor. No one asked me about it and no one said a word.

[braydin]

Surely you aren't serious...?

 

Corkage fee has absolutely nothing to do with the physical act of corking or uncorking a bottle of wine.

 

Corkage fee is charged for the privilege of bringing your own wine into any restaurant, land or sea.

 

The reason? When restaurants allow this, they lose money on wine sales, so they charge a fee for allowing you to bring your own.

 

we asked the bartender at the Pool bar if we opened our wine ourselves would we be charged a corkage fee.

 

His response was No, you open it yourself.. I don't charge you fee.. and I will provide glasses and everthing... So while the corkage fee may not supposed to be for the act of uncorking it, aboard the ecstasy thats what it is. Uncork it yourself and they wont charge ya

[Cotton]

we asked the bartender at the Pool bar if we opened our wine ourselves would we be charged a corkage fee.

 

His response was No, you open it yourself.. I don't charge you fee.. and I will provide glasses and everthing... So while the corkage fee may not supposed to be for the act of uncorking it, aboard the ecstasy thats what it is. Uncork it yourself and they wont charge ya

 

So a bartender at the POOL BAR said that? Did you drink your wine at the pool bar? (I don't think I've ever heard of anyone taking wine to a pool bar.)

 

We're talking about the formal dining rooms.;)

[counsdr]

Is there any site that gives a more detailed wine list than the Carnival gift list? It's not very extensive.

I too was thinking of bringing my own cork skrew and maybe they wouldn't notice, but then I thought again.

I can't remember if Carnival has a seperate somelier for bottles of wine or if it's the bar waiter from whom one orders the wine. I hate spending $35-45 for a bottle that I can buy on land for $18. Even at $10 it's worth it.

I'd really like to be able to peruse a list ahead of time.

I found a link to a cruise site that showed everything one night. Forgot to save it and now I can't find it again. I got it off one of these threads.

Any ideas????

Thanks for letting me whine.

[winewanderer]

I am in the wine biz. so yes, I do know the fee is charged for bringing the wine not to open it. But, it is called a corkage fee. If I open it myself they have nothing for which to charge.

 

Hubby and and I do this on every cruise, no problem. It also allows the wine to breath before dinner.

 

In regards to bringing wine/liquor back from ports. I think it depends on the ship. On the Liberty in Europe we brought back several bottles of wine/liquor in a few ports, nobody said a word. Not to drink on the ship but to bring home. We were waiting for it to be taken but it wasn't.

[petro772]

The corkage fee is similar to the no shorts policy--it's left up to the discretion of the staff. Therefore, either way could be expected.

[Cotton]

I am in the wine biz. so yes, I do know the fee is charged for bringing the wine not to open it. But, it is called a corkage fee. If I open it myself they have nothing for which to charge.

 

What do you do in the wine business? Nevermind, it doesn't really matter. My credentials - Chef, Food & Beverage Director in hotels, TRAINER of sommerliers and waiters. I know what I'm talking about, so no further discussion needed - enough of this thread for me. :rolleyes:

[petro772]

Don't go away mad, just go away.

[GoinCruisin]

we asked the bartender at the Pool bar if we opened our wine ourselves would we be charged a corkage fee.

 

His response was No, you open it yourself.. I don't charge you fee.. and I will provide glasses and everthing... So while the corkage fee may not supposed to be for the act of uncorking it, aboard the ecstasy thats what it is. Uncork it yourself and they wont charge ya

 

Of couse the bartender at the pool bar would say that, they don't charge a corkage fee at the pool bar :p Sometimes you get charged in the dining room, sometimes you don't, but it has NOTHING to do with whether or not you open the bottle yourself. Otherwise everyone would just take the corkscrew from the waiter and do it themselves :rolleyes:

[spookwife]

Is there any site that gives a more detailed wine list than the Carnival gift list? It's not very extensive.

I too was thinking of bringing my own cork skrew and maybe they wouldn't notice, but then I thought again.

I can't remember if Carnival has a seperate somelier for bottles of wine or if it's the bar waiter from whom one orders the wine. I hate spending $35-45 for a bottle that I can buy on land for $18. Even at $10 it's worth it.

I'd really like to be able to peruse a list ahead of time.

I found a link to a cruise site that showed everything one night. Forgot to save it and now I can't find it again. I got it off one of these threads.

Any ideas????

Thanks for letting me whine.

 

We brought a travel corkscrew( got plenty of those lying around as it seems that every tasting room in the county gives them away at the various festivals) and had no issues when we used it to open one of our bottles in the room. Our regular waiter opened the bottle we brought into the DR, and we sent up the sparkling wine we brought the day before our reservations at David's. The sommalier opened it for us there.. the Bucket was already sitting at our table when we arrived.

 

The on board list on Pride was slightly better than the online list. Mr Spook found a Merlot or Cab or something that he enjoyed greatly and had a few times. While I do agree that over all the prices weren't terribly overpriced, we just preferred to bring our boutique wines. Had we not brought our own, I think we would have had no problems whatsoever buying a bottle or three there.