Question about Wine onboard

[Iris]

I remember reading somewhere about being able to bring your own wine and paying a "corking" fee. Can anyone supply the information? Details on how this works if it is available.

Thanks.......

 

[Woobie]

I know the corking fee in the dining room is $15. Others should be along soon to provide more details.

Woobie

 

[Rikersmom]

I'm from Pennsylvania, and we have many fine restaurants here that do not have liquor licenses. We are allowed to bring in our own wine, and the restaurant provides the glasses and opens the bottle for us.

I explained this because I don't think it's worth $15 to have someone open my wine!

You can always ask for a wine glass at one of the bars. Open the wine in your stateroom, fill the glass (they're quite large), and carry it to dinner with you. People are always walking around carrying drinks, so no one will even notice.

This won't work if you need more than one glass at dinner--then you might just have to pay the $15.

 

[AnnMorin]

Bring a glassfull from your cabin, assuming that you only drink one glass at dinner (never would happen in this house )
The corkage fee is in my opinion reasonable, it equates to the loss tip revenue for the waitstaff as well as the lost profits of selling their own bottle to you. (there is not a bottle to be had for $15.00 on the ship) Years ago I worked for a fine restaurant and they charged far more than $15. for a corkage fee. Is it intended to discourage you from bringing your own wine? Possibly.. one would have to weigh the costs vs. savings. Say for instance one wanted to bring a very expensive fine burgandy from home that costs lets say $60.00 a bottle. The $15.00 corkage fee is far less than paying the mark up price to order that same bottle aboard ship. Guessing from my days at the restaurant our standard markup for wine was 2.5 percent. So that same $60. bottle would be $140.00 far more than the $15.00 corkage fee. I think Disney is quite generous allowing people to bring their own wine aboard. On other cruiselines you would not have the courtsey of a corkage fee, you would be forced to purchase their product or have none at all.

 

[twhipple]

We booked through AAA and got the free soda mugs. For the Sailaway party, we popped open a bottle of champagne and filled our soda mugs. One bottle filled up two mugs! Didn't try taking it to the dining rooms though.

 

[Iris]

We sailed two years ago and paid $50 for a bottle of wine that normally costs $10 at our local liquor store. This is why I am wondering.

There will be six adults in the party so we will easily go through at least one bottle of wine per night so it might be to our advantage to pay the cork fee.

If we bring wine on board, does the cruise line store the wine for us until dinner? Do we bring it with us to dinner?

 

[AnnMorin]

And want it for dinner you simply store in in your stateroom (the cooler will hold a bottle nicely, if you remove the rack you can hold a few of them. Bring it to the dining room and ask for it to be opened. Yours is the case where I was trying to point out the corkage fee is really a deal. You could have three bottles of the wine that cost you $10 each at home pay the $15 corkage on each (and maybe if you open more than one at a time they only charge once I don't know) and get the same wine for $25.00 which would have cost you $50.00 each plus 15% auto tip that brings the cost per bottle up to $57.50. That cost based on theree bottles is $162.50 verses $75.00 and if I did my math correctly ( I have been known to err...) for the three bottles you would be saving $87.50! That to me is a deal

 

[abitjaded]

Barb does have the wine list and the wine packages posted on her site, prices are listed. The packages are nice because they can pop open a couple bottles at dinner, say a white with your first course and a red with the main. The servers will mark your bottles and carry them to the next dinner. The major problem with the packages is the limited selection, one chardonnay, one cabernet, etc. If you buy the higher end wines in the lists, it is cheaper than by the bottle, and at least with the prices we pay at home for better wines, pretty much a wash cost-wise. If you do not see what you want on their list, calculate the savings by adding the corkage fee. Palo has a larger, and much more interesting list. We did do the premium package, but had brought on some special things to drink with certain meals. The gratuity WILL be added to the packages and individual list wines, so be sure and calculate that in. I am not sure if they will store and carry over your own unfinished selections that you pay corkage on. Have been curious about that (we finished ours each night). Anyone?

http://www.castawayclub.com:/

Carla