Wine on board (again!)

[uneamie]

You have your answer. Put it in your carry on. If asked gladly pay the $15. If the person working the desk that day wants more let them know you will pay the $15 or they can hold the fine vintage. Bet you end up paying nothing or $15 :)

 

Good idea Shoreguy! It pays to have a "vintage" cruiser on board. ;)

I can just play dumb and if they discover it they will get $15 bucks and not a penny more. :D

[newmexicoNita]

I do hope that if you decide to take wine in a box, you'll come back and let us know how you made out. We're sailing end of October and I would like to bring some wine as well, found a really nice boxed sangria that we just love.

 

Bon Voyage!

DD did take a 3 liter in her shipped luggage last April; no problems. the 2 bottles we carried on we paid cockage on. NMnita

[newmexicoNita]

Actually I remember someone on here mention that she packs a box of wine in her carry on and they've never confiscated it yet, nor has she paid any corkage fee for it.

However, my luck they will discover ours and I don't really want to smuggle if it's a no, no. I'd rather know up front what the fee would be so I am prepared to pay it if need be. I should probably call customer service but ya know how they never seem to know the answer to things like this or you get a multitude of answers so it may be a waste of my time to that.

That said....I also do not want to pay a $30 fee for a $15 box of wine either. :eek: I will gladly pay the $15 normal fee but I have a feeling the fee is much more for boxed wine since there is significantly more wine in the box then there is in a bottle. :rolleyes:

I can guarantee you if she carries it on she will not get far. When we went to the holding room to pick up what we had bought duty free in St Thomas there was a row of 5 liter boxes. AS for calling customer service, this is one question they probably do not have an answer for. Of course if you want to carry it on and can get by with $15 what a deal that would be...I would gladly pay $15.00. NMNita

[garycarla]

Wondering if there is a "no liquids" rule for cruise ships as there is for airplanes? If so, wonder if taking that boxed wine or any wine for that matter would go thru in a carry on? Hmm!

 

Why would this be a problem?

[photomikey]

Hi all,

 

Just returned from the Sun's 7-day Inside Passage. (Only a few hours ago!)

 

We took one box of Cabernet and one box of Sangria (both 3 liters, a 4-bottle equiv.) in my checked-luggage, and we didn't get caught. My impressions from this board was that if you are caught, it is a $15 per box corkage. Others have reported that getting caught with a magnum resulted in double corkage. I would certainly try and negotiate if you get busted. Also, if you're brought to the confiscated wine room, they don't label your luggage with how many bottles you've got -- you can always pull out just one.

 

I drank the wine out of the room's water glasses -- same with the sangria. We ordered fruit from room service, or picked it up from the buffet.

 

I will warn you that they are HEAVY, and caused the baggage to go over 50 lbs -- thus we got charged by Alaska Airlines on the way. Perhaps drinking it all will bring the baggage under the limit for the trip home.

 

Good luck!

 

-MW

[West Coast]

Wondering if there is a "no liquids" rule for cruise ships as there is for airplanes?

 

No. Not yet!

[newmexicoNita]

Hi all,

 

Just returned from the Sun's 7-day Inside Passage. (Only a few hours ago!)

 

We took one box of Cabernet and one box of Sangria (both 3 liters, a 4-bottle equiv.) in my checked-luggage, and we didn't get caught. My impressions from this board was that if you are caught, it is a $15 per box corkage. Others have reported that getting caught with a magnum resulted in double corkage. I would certainly try and negotiate if you get busted. Also, if you're brought to the confiscated wine room, they don't label your luggage with how many bottles you've got -- you can always pull out just one.

 

I drank the wine out of the room's water glasses -- same with the sangria. We ordered fruit from room service, or picked it up from the buffet.

 

I will warn you that they are HEAVY, and caused the baggage to go over 50 lbs -- thus we got charged by Alaska Airlines on the way. Perhaps drinking it all will bring the baggage under the limit for the trip home.

 

Good luck!

 

-MW

Did you think of taking them out of the box and just putting them into another plastic bag for double protection? No I don't mean emptying the wine, just remove it from the box and keeping it in the bladder.LOL NMNita

[ScubaJim]

I guess it depends on the ship, how busy they are and what time of year it is.

[bubiesmom]

...with the least amount of squacking. That's what taxation is, and that is what cruise ship wine markups seem to be. C'mon NCL, give us a package like MSC (package of 7 wines for an all in great reasonable price) and passengers will stop the hide and seek games. I have already noticed a trend that should be a real wake up call to cruise lines. Passengers are starting to party at local watering holes on shore before they board. This is a good thread - kudos to all the contributors.

 

What a wonderful idea and it is multipurpose, too. You can enjoy the flavor of the islands, contribute to their economy and party before heading back to the ship, therefore saving money.

[shoreguy]

What a wonderful idea and it is multipurpose, too. You can enjoy the flavor of the islands, contribute to their economy and party before heading back to the ship, therefore saving money.

 

Except you will be in Hawaii - the prices on the ship might seem like a bargin :rolleyes:

[Oakville]

What a wonderful idea and it is multipurpose, too. You can enjoy the flavor of the islands, contribute to their economy and party before heading back to the ship, therefore saving money.

 

Recently, at a small port in Chile, we noticed a lovely hotel with a bar overlooking the town square. The owners were delighted to have us and, over the space of the afternoon, brought us lovely plates of assorted Argentinian and Chilean soft cheeses while we enjoyed their 2 for 1 pisco sours. Six pisco sours later and $10 poorer, we were happy to let the shuttle driver bring us back to the ship.

[theabteam]

I love the idea of packing the "bladders" of wine in your suitcases! DH and I are fans of the Target (with the french pronunciation of course) boxes of wine for an every day wine. We went there today and stocked up, we'll each put a bladder in our suitcases, and if anyone mentions it to us on board, we'll just pay the corkage fee (which is a funny expression to use in this particular scenario, but I digress.) We'll still buy drinks in the bars and restaurants to have with dinner, but it'll be nice to have the "bladder" (gosh, that just doesn't sound appetizing, does it?) to enjoy whilst sitting on our lanai in our cabin in the late afternoon or late evenings.

 

Thanks for the great idea! FYI - I weighed it today with myself on the bathroom scale. 6.5 pounds for the bladder of the target box 'o wine (the large box that has the same amount of vino as four bottles.) Another FYI - gallon size ziplock didn't work to reinforce the bag, it split it at the seam (actually tore the ziplock, not just opened the closure.) We also tried our dry packs but they are sort of like a ziplock closure too, and a bit less secure actually. I think I saw 2 gallon ziplocks somewhere so I'll try to find those. Since we go through 1-2 bottles of wine a night on weekends/vacations, this is definitely worth it for us. I know the box o' wine sounds tacky to some, but really, the new designer boxes that are out now are not bad. This isn't your dad's box 'o wine. ;-) I like the cabernet/shiraz blend, and also the shiraz.

 

Anyway, thanks again whoever introduced this idea!

[garycarla]

Mathmatically, even if you paid corkage you might be okay.

 

Option A: buy 5 bottles at $30 onboard. Total around $150.00

 

Option B: Buy a 5 litre box. Pay $20 (probably less). Total $20

 

Option C: add corkage of $15 (you got lucky). Total $35

 

Option D: Pay corkage on 5 ltr x $15 = $75. Still $55 less than the ship.

 

This assumes you are okay with the box wine, and you ordered one of the cheaper wines onboard. Some would say paying $75 for $20 worth of wine is crazy. YOU do the math!

 

If NCL lowered the prices a bit, or offered bar setups in the cabin for wine, they could still make money and spend less time dealing with corkage. But, I guess they do not see it that way.

[photomikey]

This assumes you are okay with the box wine, and you ordered one of the cheaper wines onboard. Some would say paying $75 for $20 worth of wine is crazy. YOU do the math!

 

If NCL lowered the prices a bit, or offered bar setups in the cabin for wine, they could still make money and spend less time dealing with corkage. But, I guess they do not see it that way.

 

This is somewhat true, but with the added expense of buying it on the ship, you get to drink it anywhere, anytime -- at dinner, in the bars, at the pool, etcetera. Bring a box, and you're drinking on your balcony or in your room.

 

I did suck down my two boxes on my ship last week, for $20, and probably would have sucked it up and paid corkage on each ($15 per), but at $60/ea... thanks, y'all can just hold onto it until I depart.

 

I wouldn't recommend putting the "bladder" (funny, but accurate term for it) unprotected in your suitcase. The boxes are reinforced, and keep you from unzipping your luggage to let the contents of four bottles of wine pour out. Besides... where would you put the wine sack then? And how would you pour from it? ;-)

 

Perhaps NCL could start charging only slightly outrageous prices for drinks aboard (or at least having a happy hour, or daily specials), and then I could leave the boxed wine in the store!

[beachchick]

Except you will be in Hawaii - the prices on the ship might seem like a bargin :rolleyes:

 

Most places (at least the places we frequent) in Hawaii don't have drink prices that are particularly more expensive than on the ship. In fact, there are some good happy hour specials to be had that make the ship prices seem like highway robbery.

 

beachchick