Have Vino, Will Travel
I often take my own wine when traveling, especially when we
cruise.
I’m lucky to live in the Yakima-Columbia Valley area of Washington
State where great wines are plentiful and, especially if you belong to a wine
club, relatively inexpensive. We also visit Napa and Sonoma with some
regularity and have some of our favorites shipped to us by the case a few times
a year. I’m not a wine snob, but I know what I like and I have a good idea of
what wine costs.
Sometimes I bring my own wine because there is a particular
vintage that I want to enjoy on a special night, or sometimes it is because I
plan to open a bottle to have in our stateroom when cruising. Often, we bring
our own wine to avoid the ridiculous markup that many cruise lines and restaurants
charge- sometimes 400% or more over wholesale (not kidding!). I do my homework
and figure out if my bottle is going to be a better deal after factoring
corkage fees than what’s on the wine list where I’m going, many times makes
sense to BYOW (Bring Your Own Wine).
When cruising, the BYOW policy of the cruise line is
important to know and understand. I print a copy to take with me on embarkation
day, just in case there’s ever a question about the policy when boarding.
Recently we sailed on Royal Caribbean and were allowed to bring two bottles of wine per stateroom. It didn’t matter how long we were going for or how many people were in the room. There was a corkage fee to drink our wine in the restaurants of $25 but we wouldn’t have had to pay this if we enjoyed our wine in our stateroom. By contrast, Norwegian Cruise Line doesn’t have a limit on the number of bottles that we were allowed, and the corkage fee was only $15 per bottle, but the fee was charged to us when we boarded the ship regardless of where the wine was consumed - so I paid a corkage fee for wine that I uncorked myself in my room. Disney Cruise Lines allows passengers to BYOW with no limit (except a corkage fee applies in their specialty restaurant) Disney is unique in that hard alcohol can also be brought onboard. Some luxury cruises are truly all inclusive and then BYOW probably isn’t worth the trouble.
Recently we sailed on Royal Caribbean and were allowed to bring two bottles of wine per stateroom. It didn’t matter how long we were going for or how many people were in the room. There was a corkage fee to drink our wine in the restaurants of $25 but we wouldn’t have had to pay this if we enjoyed our wine in our stateroom. By contrast, Norwegian Cruise Line doesn’t have a limit on the number of bottles that we were allowed, and the corkage fee was only $15 per bottle, but the fee was charged to us when we boarded the ship regardless of where the wine was consumed - so I paid a corkage fee for wine that I uncorked myself in my room. Disney Cruise Lines allows passengers to BYOW with no limit (except a corkage fee applies in their specialty restaurant) Disney is unique in that hard alcohol can also be brought onboard. Some luxury cruises are truly all inclusive and then BYOW probably isn’t worth the trouble.
If you are planning to BYOW, you should also plan to carry
on for the cruise – exactly the opposite of what one would do when flying.
Because you want to bring your wine through security with you and have it
checked in. If you put it in your checked bags, not only do you run the risk of
having your bottles manhandled and possibly damaged, but there is also a very
strong likelihood that you will get to spend some quality time with the security
guys in the "naughty room" who will want to know why you’re sneaking booze aboard the cruise ship.
For about $40 you can get a two bottle wine travel case
similar to this one I found at www.winevine-imports.com
Just remember if you’re flying to your point of embarkation, the wine has to go
in your checked bags on the plane and should be carried on when your board the
cruise ship.
If you’re really hardcore, you could get something like
this case, which would also make sense if you are visiting a wine region and want to
bring wine home with you. (Did you know that if you fly Alaska Airlines to
Washington Wine Country they will let you check a case of wine FREE with their
taste and tote program?
Of course, when picking your vintages, you should account
for the jostling of travel and go with a bottle that isn’t particularly fragile
in terms of contents – a delicate library wine for example would best be
enjoyed at home, and anything sparkling might be a tricky traveler too. Another
option is to locate a wine store at your embarkation point where you can get the
goods before you board the ship.
Anytime you BYOW to a restaurant or specialty dining venue on
the cruise ship you want to make sure that your wine isn’t already on their
wine list. It’s also nice to offer the sommelier a taste of what you brought,
especially if you’re cruising because if they know what you enjoy they may be
able to recommend other wines that you might like to try as well.
I always try to balance the BYOW with the opportunity to try
new things, especially when traveling, so don’t BYOW for every meal, but if you
do your homework or ask your travel agent, it might make sense to BYOW
sometimes to save a little money and perhaps enjoy a wine that you know and love rather than choosing blindly from a overpriced wine list.