Holland America... Can you bring wine on board without extra fees?

Hey forum,

We’ve cruised with other lines before, and we could bring a bottle of wine or prosecco/champagne on board without any corkage fees, as long as we drank it in our stateroom. If we wanted to drink it elsewhere, then there was a corkage fee.

I understand that with Holland America we can also bring one bottle each, but from what I’ve read online, it looks like they charge a corkage fee for every bottle, no matter where we drink it. Is this true? We haven’t sailed with Holland America yet, and I wanted to check with anyone who’s been on board. Other lines let you bring one bottle per person without a fee in your room, and then charge for additional bottles. Do you know if that’s how it works on Holland America too?

Thanks in advance!

The following is a copy of the original post to keep the post as it was written.

Hi forum,

We’ve cruised with other lines before, and we could bring a bottle of wine or prosecco/champagne on board without any corkage fees, as long as we drank it in our stateroom. If we wanted to drink it elsewhere, then there was a corkage fee.

I understand that with Holland America we can also bring one bottle each, but from what I’ve read online, it looks like they charge a corkage fee for every bottle, no matter where we drink it. Is this true? We haven’t sailed with Holland America yet, and I wanted to check with anyone who’s been on board. Other lines let you bring one bottle per person without a fee in your room, and then charge for additional bottles. Do you know if that’s how it works on Holland America too?

Thanks in advance!

Qi said:
It’s true.

Good to know! So, we can only bring one bottle per person, right? We’re going on a longer cruise, and we don’t drink much, but we do have a few wines we like. I thought we might bring 2 bottles each and then pay the corkage for each. Thanks for confirming! We’re used to the guidelines from our recent cruises on Princess.

Here’s the official policy from Holland America: you can bring as much as you want (within reason), but there’s a $20 corkage fee per bottle when it’s brought on board. They also let you bring a bottle from HAL organized winery excursions with no corkage fee.

Holland America Alcohol Policy

@Ziv
Thanks! I must have gotten confused with the one bottle rule for winery tours. I see now that you can bring more, but there’s the corkage fee unless it’s from a Holland America excursion.

@Ziv
Can we bring sparkling water like Bubly, or does it have to be flat? Thanks again! We’re excited for our cruise and looking forward to experiencing Holland America.

@Ziv
They charge $20 corkage for any wine you bring on board. It’s getting a bit greedy, to be honest. Other lines only charge if you want to drink it in a public area like a restaurant, but it’s free to drink in your room.