wine in a soft sided cooler?

[DVC Jen]

Is it possible to put wine and some soft drinks (for the stateroom) into a soft sided cooler (no ice) and check it with our luggage when we get to the port?
I was just wondering how to handle bringing a few bottles of wine with us. The price for them on the ship is enough to make my head spin.

 

[lbgraves]

You can take them onboard in the cooler with no ice as you said but I would not check it with the other luggage. If your cooler has wheels & a handle that retracts just keep it with you. There is too much of a chance that the bottles will be broken & if so, everyone's luggage underneath whereever your cooler is placed/tossed will be affected.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Is it possible to put wine and some soft drinks (for the stateroom) into a soft sided cooler (no ice) and check it with our luggage when we get to the port?
I was just wondering how to handle bringing a few bottles of wine with us. The price for them on the ship is enough to make my head spin.

DCL asks you not to check any liquids. There are folks on this board who have reported doing so anyway -- but I wouldn't recommend it regardless of the rule, just based on how checked luggage is often thrown around.

If you want to enjoy some wine in your stateroom, it makes sense to bring some onto the ship with you. I brought two bubble-wrapped bottles in my carry-on bag. (DCL allows you to bring your own wine. Most other cruise lines do not.) I didn't bother to carry my wine in a cooler. The electric cooler in the room did a good job bringing the wine to an appropriate temperature for white wine (cool but not ice cold).

I wouldn't bring wine onto the ship for consumption in the dining rooms, unless you have a specific reason, such as wanting a sentimental favorite wine on your anniversary.

If you bring a bottle of wine into a dining room, there is a corkage fee ($15 + 15% automatic gratuity). That's not a fee for pulling the cork. It's a fee for bringing your own to a dining room instead of purchasing wine from DCL. (Some folks on this board have thought they could avoid the corkage fee by bringing a screw-top bottle or bringing their own corkscrew, but that's not the case.) You can avoid the corkage fee by drinking the wine in your own stateroom.

When you consider the corkage fee, it's just not worth the trouble to take wine into the dining rooms. Anyway, it's better to pick wines that are appropriate for your dinner from the wine list, rather than being tied to what you carried onto the ship.

 

[ljql_5969]

We recently went on RCCL and bubble-wrapped our beverages also. We didn't have any problems.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

We recently went on RCCL and bubble-wrapped our beverages also. We didn't have any problems.

Cruise Critic researched and published Cruise Line Alcohol Policies.