Should we Preorder our Wine?

[cruzinchar]

We are going on the Statendam from Seward to Vancouver on Aug. 22-29th. It's my first cruise on HAL, and I'm a little confused about the pros and cons of ordering wine ahead of time. I understand that we can bring wine on board with no problem (might bring one or two bottles - no more). I understand that if we take that wine to the dining room, we pay a corkage fee. But, everyone on this board is talking about ordering wine ahead of time to be delivered to the cabin or the dining room. Is there any cost savings to ordering wine ahead of time? We love to drink wine...not only in the cabin before dinner, but also at dinner. We're not all that fussy (don't need expensive wine), but we don't want to pay more than we have to. When I cruised on Royal Caribbean, they had a wine package which you ordered on the first day of the cruise and if you ordered a bottle of wine each night, and you signed up for the wine package, you ended up getting one free bottle (7 bottles for the price of 6). Is there any financial advantage to ordering bottles of wine before we get on the ship? I have not really seen a complete wine list on the web site....only a very small one. If there is something more complete, where would I find it? I'm anxiously awaiting my documents. Will there be more information in there about this? I'm perfectly ok to wait until we get on the ship to make these arrangements, unless we can save a little money by doing it now. Please advise.

[peaches from georgia]

I'm always surprised here how many people talk about wanting to order their wine before they are on the ship. We like to order our dinner and discuss with the wine steward what might be nice that evening with that particular meal.

[RevNeal]

In the past we've always waited until we reached the port of embarkation and, in the waiting area prior to boarding, made our selections for a wine package; the wine stewards have always set up a table where one can review the various wine offerings and package deals and place one's order.

 

The last couple of years they've also set up Pinnacle Grill reservations, and hence we clobber two birds with one stone.

 

As for price savings ... while I seem to remember that there has been a minor savings, that's less importance than the hassle. If we have a wine package then the wine steward has always been quick to appear and discuss with us which wine we want to open that night. And, after dinner there's no bill to sign -- unless we've ordered something extra or different than our wine package (happens, sometimes). On shorter cruises we almost never need to buy much additional wine (maybe one night worth). But on a longer cruise we've usually drunk our way through our package by about 3/4 of the way through the cruise and, so, from that point on we order an extra couple of bottles for the rest of the cruise. By that time the wine steward has a good idea of what we like and is able to make excellent suggestions.

 

Ease and convenience. :) That's why we do it.

[Leslieswiger]

I agree with Peaches from Georgia. You have a short cruise so I would go on the advise of my wine steward. My thoughts on the pre order wine is, that its okay for the cabin terrace during the afternoon or as a late night cap.:rolleyes:

It also has gone up in price...now $18.00USD pb.

[jhannah]

However, if you want Thunderbird wine, you should plan on bringing it with you! :D Seriously, the wine steward is a great source of information and can direct you toward a pleasing wine in their cellar. HAL has some good vintages, but overall isn't known for having an abundance of "finer" wines. If such is your preference, you might want to bring those with you.

[dakrewser]

We like to order our dinner and discuss with the wine steward what might be nice that evening with that particular meal.

We like to, at the end of dinner, ask the wine steward for the next night's menu & wine list then decide at that time what we'll have the next night. Its always ready and waiting at our table when we get there ;)

[Roboat]

Can someone tell me the corkage fee on the Zuiderdam? Is it the same in the Pinnacle Grill as the main dining room? And I read someone that you can bring 4 bottles of wine aboard, is that right?

 

How about the markup of the ship's wines? Is the standard 2.5 to 3 times retail? Or more? Or better yet, is there a published wine list?

 

Thanks!

[Krazy Kruizers]

:)

 

There isn't a corkage fee if you order HAL's wines.

We also like to wait and order our wine at dinner. Being in a suite, we get the dinner menus delivered to the cabin and usually decide what we want to eat. If we are in a win mood, we always know where our wine stweard is, so we will go and look him up and ask what he thinks will be a good wine for what we want for dinner. Then he can have it ready for us - especially if we are ordering a white wine that needs to be chilled properly or a red wine that needs to breathe.

Some of the wines are about 2 times higher in price - others higher.

If you call ships services at 1-800- 541-1576, they should be able to fax a wine list to you or if you don't have a fax machine, maybe they can fax it to your TA.

:)

[Krazy Kruizers]

:)

 

HAL does have Navigator packages where you can order either 4 bottles or 6 bottles (don't know the prices) at a certain price from a certain list of wines.

Ship services can also give you that information.

:)

[Orcrone]

Can someone tell me the corkage fee on the Zuiderdam? Is it the same in the Pinnacle Grill as the main dining room? And I read someone that you can bring 4 bottles of wine aboard, is that right?

 

How about the markup of the ship's wines? Is the standard 2.5 to 3 times retail? Or more? Or better yet, is there a published wine list?

 

Thanks!

Roboat, the corkage fee is $15.00 per bottle plus 15% gratuity for a total of $17.25 per bottle.

 

There is an $18.00 per bottle pre-order available. You don't order specific wines, just specify red or white. According to others you can change even that selection once on board. Plus they've also said that the wine steward was very helpful. And this way you don't have to pay the corkage fee. So unless you want a specific wine that HAL doesn't carry, I don't see much sense to bringing your own and drinking it in the dining room.

[CDRMark]

I contacted Ship Services and they were nice enough to send me a list of wines available to pre-order. It is fairly comprehensive. It is often a matter of logistics. If you like specific wines, pre-ordering seems a good idea. If you are easy to please, going with what they have available is fine. HAL has a reputation for having a better than average selection of wines onboard. My DW and I are looking forward to our first cruise this Autumn and are probably over-planning everything. You all are great sources of info. Thanks so much for the benefit of your experiences.

MarkB

[jollycruiser]

I recently ordered several bottles @ $14 per bottle as it states on the gift list. Some say it has gone up to $18 but 2 weeks ago I got the $14 price no questions asked. Although you don't get a choice of wine labels you still specify Chardonney or Merlot. We are not wine snobs so most wines will do. And at $14 per bottle served at dinner with no corkage fee how can you go wrong? The corkage fee alone is more than this all inclusive price of $14. And I did verify that I was charged the proper amount on my charge card.

[sheldrvrT6A]

I have to agree with Jolly cruiser as we pre ordered our wine weeks before our July cruise to Alaska. We had one bottle for our leaving port celebration and the rest through the week including one night at the Pinnacle. Our wine steward was always very attentive to our needs and at $14 a bottle the wine was really pretty good as wines go. We had our choice of Merlot or Chardonnay and i would do this again in a heart beat. Have fun.

Jerry

[iluvcruzin]

Just something of interest. I was watching "cruise secrets" this past weekend which I taped from the Travel Channel a while back. One of the things they talked about was wine. They said that purchasing vintage wines are not recommended on cruise ships because they need to be kept still. Since the ship moves, they recommended the inexpensive house wines. Just food for thought...

[CDRMark]

Does corkage fee apply to champagnes?

[Roboat]

Wow, thank you all so much for your help. I called ship services and they emailed me the wine list and gift list.

 

I posted them and the link is below. I was quoted the $18 price for the generic Chard. and Merlot. She said the prices on the wine list she sent me are the same as in the dining room. But you can't get generic at $18 in the dining room.

 

To see what she sent go to

http://www.*************/JerryandSuzanne/documents.msnw

and open the 2 documents

 

Edit - well, I have to go see how to post a link - meanwhile replace the **'s with: msnusers (dot) com.

 

And here I was trying to save space on the CC server.

 

 

Thanks again, HAL CC'rs!!!

[AirGorilla]

My recommendation is to have your wine ordered prior to arriving at the dining room. The wine stewards have too many tables apiece to give really good, timely service. We always review the evening's menu, which is available several places onboard, and order our vino in advance.

[jazzsea]

We've done our wine order both ways. For our October 20, Rotterdam, Canada New England cruise we will pre order six bottles and purchase wine for the remaining four nights from the wine steward. This allows a little more variety. When we sail from Florida, we usually bring some of our own wine for the cabin. We can drive to the Florida ports so bringing wine is no hassle.

 

The wine selection on Holland America is excellent. We always give them high marks for price and variety.