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Corkage Fee. Sailing tomorrrow!!

Kenster

By Kenster,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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Kenster

Kenster

Posted
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We're bringing on a couple of bottles of wine and champagne for our Ecstasy cruise which sails tomorrow!!! May 8. I know the literature says they charge a $10 per bottle corkage fee. In my previous two cruises with Carnival our waiter did not charge us this fee. I did, however, tip him more generously at the end of the cruise.

In your experience, do they typically charge the corkage fee?? I am considering letting him/her know up front that if they will waive the fee, I'll make it up to them personally.

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XTEACH281

XTEACH281

Posted
Posted
We're bringing on a couple of bottles of wine and champagne for our Ecstasy cruise which sails tomorrow!!! May 8. I know the literature says they charge a $10 per bottle corkage fee. In my previous two cruises with Carnival our waiter did not charge us this fee. I did, however, tip him more generously at the end of the cruise.

In your experience, do they typically charge the corkage fee?? I am considering letting him/her know up front that if they will waive the fee, I'll make it up to them personally.

 

On an Ecstasy trip in Feb. ---we took wine twice to the dining room --we were charged once ---but not the other time ! What we have also noticed is that on all the trips ---we were never charged on the last night (I guess to leave us happy ?) We always were prepared to pay ---when not charged --we gave the $ right to the waiter ....

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Thirsty Cruiser

Thirsty Cruiser

Posted
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We're bringing on a couple of bottles of wine and champagne for our Ecstasy cruise which sails tomorrow!!! May 8. I know the literature says they charge a $10 per bottle corkage fee. In my previous two cruises with Carnival our waiter did not charge us this fee. I did, however, tip him more generously at the end of the cruise.

In your experience, do they typically charge the corkage fee?? I am considering letting him/her know up front that if they will waive the fee, I'll make it up to them personally.

Only brought wine once, was charged corkage for both bottles. Since it was only $10, it was no big deal.

Many others here claim that they were not charged corkage. Not sure why you would want to discuss waiving the fee, though. Seems improper.

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big_duck

big_duck

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Only brought wine once, was charged corkage for both bottles. Since it was only $10, it was no big deal.

Many others here claim that they were not charged corkage. Not sure why you would want to discuss waiving the fee, though. Seems improper.

 

Agreed, except I've never been charged.

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LRene

LRene

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All the ships I've been on in the past year have cracked down on charging the corkage fee. While you'll still get lucky sometimes, you will probably be "told" that they need to charge it. Sometimes they wait until the last night to bring you the ticket to sign and sometimes they only make one $10 charge even if you had wine multiple nights. It seems to me that the waiters have been reinforced on charging it.

 

One thing that seems to work is to take brands that Carnival carries on the ship - if you like them. If they see a familiar bottle, they have no way of knowing if it was a gift or purchased through the Bon Voyage Dept.

 

Last cruise, others at our table were charged once even though they had wine about every night but we were never charged because we had all the brands CCL carried.

 

Bottom line - expect to pay it. Then if you don't...it's all good. If you get charged, you expected it and it's only $10.

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petro772

petro772

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How much wine can you bring on? Should I pack it in my check in luggage? Or can I just carry it on?

 

Thanks

 

CuriousCat

One bottle per person--approx. 2,200 bottles, depending on the ship. Your choice to check it or carry it on. ;)

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cstandish

cstandish

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We brought 2 bottles of wine (in our carryon, of course you need to check the wine if you are flying) on or our April 19th trip and brought one of them to the diningroom and expected to pay the fee, but our waiter told us he was not going to charge us. It definetly depends on your waiter. :cool:

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happy cruzer

happy cruzer

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We plan to bring wine on the Ecstacy too. A $10 corkage fee is very reasonable. Other lines charge as much at $25. RCI allows no wine to be brought on. Carnival is very wine friendly that's why we are going to give them a try this Dec. Woo Hoo.

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curiouscat

curiouscat

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One bottle per person--approx. 2,200 bottles, depending on the ship. Your choice to check it or carry it on. ;)

 

 

Thanks,,, with only a $10 corkage fee I"m gonna carry some on and put a couple in the luggage!!!:D

 

CuriousCat

 

I can tell Carnival is wine friendly... they are doing a "Caribbean Wine Cruise" soon.

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luckycruzer

luckycruzer

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a gift last cruise from my pal Ajimi, and also another bottle for the cabin, and my fave rum for my personal DOD fruity thang..and a new coekscrew like a Swiss Army knife thingy..it's my "Ho"-liday Homage"..yummy

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LRene

LRene

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Someone on another thread said that they just open the bottle in their rooms before they head to dinner and don't get charged a corkage fee.

Not sure if that's legal, but hey...it's 10 bucks!

 

LOL...the corkage fee really doesn't have anything to do with whether they remove the cork or not. It's for the convenience of bringing your own wine to the dining room.

 

If you open in your room and take a glass, you won't be charged. If you take the bottle, you might - open or not. We sometimes uncork in the cabin and put the cork back in and carry to the DR just so we don't have to wait on the waiter to get around to it. We started that after waiting 30 minutes every night on one cruise (not Carnival).

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