Booze legally on HAL

[mickey]

I had read on the board before our 34 day Rotterdam cruise that someone ordered the gift wine for themselves at $14 a bottle. They said the wine steward offered them a great selection every night of either reds of whites. We ordered 16 bottles for the trip. There is no corkage fee........but the wine was mostly awful. We're not wine snobs,just enjoy a decent glass of wine with dinner. We were offered only two labels. One was Ariana, a Chilian wine and the other a California. Both were the kinds of wine you'd buy for $5 in the grocery store.Now there are some great $5 wines, but not these. We asked for a different selection, but were told that was it. There were 4 of us sharing it and most nights we didn't even finish the first glass. Not a great bargain!

[superstein61]

No corkage fee for that wine? How about taxes for preordering? Decent deal, if there are no add'l fees...

 

 

Superstein, I notice you are a fellow BYO, and you seem quite confident that your checked luggage is that way to go. I was under the (possibly incorrect) impression that they are now X-raying all checked luggage, for security reasons? Is this accurate?

 

Divinggirl - from everything I read - there still should be no problem bringing your liquor on in a checked bag. Even if they x-ray it - they really aren't looking for liquor. Now carry-ons are a different story

[divinggirl]

OK I'm going to split hairs here, all the while gaining valuable info...Do you have to give your luggage to the HAL people to be delivered to your stateroom, or can you keep it and take it to your room yourself? We are not using HAL's transfer to Port Everglades...and if we keep it, do they go through that luggage like they would a carry on?

[ekerr19]

That is a hell of a deal you got on RCI! I don't think HAL offers anything close to that, which is unfortunate. Still think it's pseudo-extortion but that's for another thread...

:D

 

You CAN buy the liquor specials - on the Maasdam 4/3/04, they had two bottles of Absolut for $18 - the difference now is you can no longer take it back to the cabin and drink it. They hold it til the last day and you have to take it off the ship. We'd rather not have to carry liquor on the plane - no matter how great the price.

 

We pre-ordered 1-liter Absolut and 1-liter Bacardi (with sodas/mixers) before we left, the total charged to our credit card was about $45, which we thought was a good deal.

[ekerr19]

I had read on the board before our 34 day Rotterdam cruise that someone ordered the gift wine for themselves at $14 a bottle. They said the wine steward offered them a great selection every night of either reds of whites. We ordered 16 bottles for the trip. There is no corkage fee........but the wine was mostly awful. We're not wine snobs,just enjoy a decent glass of wine with dinner. We were offered only two labels. One was Ariana, a Chilian wine and the other a California. Both were the kinds of wine you'd buy for $5 in the grocery store.Now there are some great $5 wines, but not these. We asked for a different selection, but were told that was it. There were 4 of us sharing it and most nights we didn't even finish the first glass. Not a great bargain!

 

This has been our experience as well - the list contained wines like Sutter Home White Zinfandel and Walnut Crest Merlot - and a couple other very inexpensive wines of less than average quality. Not a decent Chardonnay in the bunch - I think only one Chardonnay, which I tried and didn't like. When you think of it, at $14 a bottle, it's almost a 300% mark-up.

 

This is why some cruisers like to bring their own wine - I think HAL's regular wine list is OK and we usually order from it - it was better on the Maasdam than it was on the Zuiderdam, for some reason.

[elmorejj]

If you decide to walk your own luggage on the ship, it will have to fit through the scanner that hand luggage goes through. I`m sure that if they spot a bottle of liquor it will be pulled aside. However, if you let the longshoremen handle your luggage, they don`t have the time or the manpower to be looking for bottles of liquor and you luggage will be brought to your cabin as usual......jean

[divinggirl]

 

We pre-ordered 1-liter Absolut and 1-liter Bacardi (with sodas/mixers) before we left, the total charged to our credit card was about $45, which we thought was a good deal.

Did you get some sort of discount for ordering multiple bottles ahead of time? The going rate for two "mixer" packages is $32 a package, minimum, and just a bottle of those is $29...you must know someone!! :D

[ekerr19]

Did you get some sort of discount for ordering multiple bottles ahead of time? The going rate for two "mixer" packages is $32 a package, minimum, and just a bottle of those is $29...you must know someone!! :D

 

I don't think it was because we knew anyone special :D

 

We paid $19.95 for the Bacardi with sodas and $24.95 for the Absolut and tonic... this was in April. I think the price has gone up due to it's popularity. It is a shame HAL can't just leave the price alone. I think it may have been cheaper initially because they had just implemented the new liquor rules and used this as a bit of a pacifier for cruisers already booked.

 

We were also not subject to the auto-tip, so no 15% was added... why they add gratuity to a bottle they place in your room is beyond me. Because we left from Norfolk, the liquor was in our room when we boarded.

[divinggirl]

Jeez, that's a 33% increase on the Bacardi since April!! Really ridiculous, I would have paid the $20 for the bottle...they tell you on the liquor doc they emailed me that a 15% "service charge" is included...interesting that they don't call it a gratuity here, but a service charge. Why, for walking to my cabin? I feel you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. You can't bring it on, you can't buy it onboard and take it to your cabin, so if you do the only permissible thing, they find a way to tack on more $$ anyway...:mad: They don't include a 15% "service charge" for room service, right? Maybe I can ask them to hold off on delivering the bottle until my first room service order...:confused: :eek: :cool:

[raydon]

I am an HAL fan so no flames but we purchaseda liter of Bombay delivered to our cabin in May on the Grand Princess and the cost was 28 plus tip. HAL sounds a little high but we will still pay it rather than go to the trouble of smuggling.

[divinggirl]

To each his own...A liter of Bombay on HAL now is $38, so I'd agree that HAL is definitely high!!

[divinggirl]

 

I think the price has gone up due to it's popularity.

You must mean because pax have no choice but to pay their extortive rates...it will only go up higher as pax continue to pay it. :(

[superstein61]

OK I'm going to split hairs here, all the while gaining valuable info...Do you have to give your luggage to the HAL people to be delivered to your stateroom, or can you keep it and take it to your room yourself? We are not using HAL's transfer to Port Everglades...and if we keep it, do they go through that luggage like they would a carry on?

 

If you don't check your luggage - then it has to go thru HAL's scanner they use for carryons. I would not risk that if you want to carry on liquor

[ekerr19]

If you don't check your luggage - then it has to go thru HAL's scanner they use for carryons. I would not risk that if you want to carry on liquor

 

I think if you want to pack in your checked bag, it should be ok. We've watched the bags handlers many times in the past - some are much better than others. On some ships (in FLL is where we've seen this) they use a crane to load the metal containers holding the luggage (much like cages - but I don't know the name for them) onto the deck of the ship - once we saw the crane operator drop a cage from high in the air and all the bags went tumbling...

 

The Norfolk handlers didn't even load our bags, DH put them onto the cage, all at the very top. We had our bags right away - also if you find a steward who is working the luggage sort on your cabin deck - tip him $10 and your bags will be delivered right away. This also may help further "mis-handling" of your bags.

 

I alsways double seal (in big zip lock bags - the kind with the actual pink zipper) anything I do not want to leak. We do this with our shampoo, conditioner, sunscrenn, aloe, perfume/colognes, hair spray - everything) just in case. We have never had anything actually leak - but we've had shampoo open once. Also, we come from high altitude - so our containers always shrink and contract when we travel.

 

Good luck - let us know how this turns out. We will probably still pay the higher prices for the liquor on the ship. I don't want to bring it from home - my bags are already close to the weight limit - and I don't ever seem to have time to purchase it when we get to the port city.

[jascruise]

I think that the prices discussed here are for alcohol purchased in advance through the ships service department.

 

Can you buy a bottle through room service, and if so, is it for the same price as pre-ordered through ships service?

[elmorejj]

On our April/May repo cruise on the Zaandam, there was a list in the cabin of available liquor that could be purchased through room service. The prices were so low that everyone was doing it. We would watch in the Ocean bar as the calls came in and the servers would take them down to the cabins. Because of this the bars were empty most evenings. I`m sure HAL re thought this plan and now the prices have tripled from what they were then.......jean

[HeatherInFlorida]

It's funny the areas we get sticky about costs. We spend thousands on a cruise and worry about a few dollars extra to buy the liquor from HAL. I have to admit I just don't get it. Isn't it ever so much easier to just order it and have it waiting for you in your cabin than the hassle of packing it in your luggage? After all, it's heavy, it can break....it's a pain in the neck!

Unless you're planning to consume gallons in your cabin, it's not going to add a heck of a lot of $$ to your expense. Or is it all about the principal of the thing ... that you feel you're being taken advantage of? I'm not trying to be difficult; I would honestly like to know.

[gizmo]

It is pure principle with me. In the past, sometimes we would purchase a bottle of Bailey's in the ship's store or the duty free store at the dock (which disappeared after 911). Now they are charging you double or more for it. It is a [b]RIP OFF.[/b]

On our last cruise we picked up some champagne on the way to the port to bring on board with us. Funny, but we never did this before, we always ordered some from the ship.

[divinggirl]

Agreed it's a [b]rip-off[/b]! If it were even remotely reasonable I would do it, but it just isn't. As I said in an earlier post, they'll just keep raising the prices until people stop paying them, look at what's happened between April and now--33% increase. But I look at it this way, I have extra room in my suitcase for all the duty free I can bring back. :D Plus, they don't carry my brand.

[superstein61]

[quote name='ekerr19']I think if you want to pack in your checked bag, it should be ok. [/quote]

Agreed. I just make sure to pack it well.

[quote]I alsways double seal (in big zip lock bags - the kind with the actual pink zipper) anything I do not want to leak. We do this with our shampoo, conditioner, sunscrenn, aloe, perfume/colognes, hair spray - everything) just in case. We have never had anything actually leak - but we've had shampoo open once. Also, we come from high altitude - so our containers always shrink and contract when we travel.

[/QUOTE]

Good advice - I do the same after one trip a bottle of after sun lotion popped open. Luckily didn't do much damage -but I wrapp everything now in zip lock bags.

Thanks !!!

[superstein61]

[quote name='HeatherInFlorida']Or is it all about the principal of the thing ... [/QUOTE]


For me - choice and principal.

And as to lugging things - I never pick up my Mountain Dew until I am in FLL. So no lugging of that on the plane.

BTW Heather - I couldn't answer on the other thread because Walt locked it for some unknown reason - but no, the Mountain Dew is not to mix with my rum :).

I just happen to like Mountain Dew as a soft drink (actually Diet Mt Dew) - and its impossible to find onboard.

The rums gets mixed with other things :)

[ekerr19]

[quote name='superstein61']For me - choice and principal.

And as to lugging things - I never pick up my Mountain Dew until I am in FLL. So no lugging of that on the plane.

BTW Heather - I couldn't answer on the other thread because Walt locked it for some unknown reason - but no, the Mountain Dew is not to mix with my rum :).

I just happen to like Mountain Dew as a soft drink (actually Diet Mt Dew) - and its impossible to find onboard.

The rums gets mixed with other things :)[/QUOTE]

I was wondering about this also... my DH will drink rum with just about anything, but Mountain & rum didn't sound so appealing to me ;)

[gizmo]

[quote name='superstein61']
Good advice - I do the same after one trip a bottle of after sun lotion popped open. Luckily didn't do much damage -but I wrapp everything now in zip lock bags.
Thanks !!![/QUOTE]
I double zip lock bag things. Had one leak through one time so now I double a lot of things.

[Krazy Kruizers]

:)

[font=Comic Sans MS][color=magenta]For years we have packed all clothing, etc., in plastic bags. Began this pratice back in the 60's when we were leaving from Pittsburgh on a very snowy day to go to Ft Lauderdale. While looking out the window of the plane, I saw a luggage cart slide in the snow and luggage went spilling everywhere. A couple of the suitcases opened up and clothes went into the dirty snow. The man just pushed all those dirty clothes into the suitcases, shut them, and put them on the plane.[/color][/font]
[font=Comic Sans MS][color=#ff00ff][/color][/font]
[font=Comic Sans MS][color=#ff00ff]At least now if a suitcase accidently opens on the ground, all clothes are in plastic bags to help protect them.[/color][/font]
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:)