Bringing your own alcohol on board a cruise ship is a popular money-saving cruise hack. Most mainstream cruise lines allow passengers who are 21 or older to carry on at least one unopened 750-milliliter bottle of wine or Champagne per person. Most cruise lines also allow you to bring one or two bottles on board at each port of call.
A corkage fee typically applies if you want to bring your own bottle of wine into a dining room on a cruise ship to enjoy with your dinner. Corkage fees vary by cruise line and run anywhere from $10-$35 per bottle.
Related: Carnival Cruise Line shares a strict dining policy
Disney Cruise Line allows passengers to bring two bottles of wine per person on board but charges one of the highest corkage fees among all cruise lines. And now the cruise line just increased its already high fee.
As of September 2024, Disney Cruise Line passengers who bring their own bottle of wine or champagne to drink with their meal in one of the dining rooms will be charged a corkage fee of $29 per bottle. The previous corkage rate of $27 was already significantly higher than what most other cruise lines charge.
Many cruise lines including Royal Caribbean and Celebrity rarely, if ever, enforce the corkage fee.
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Image source: Disney Cruises.
Disney Cruise Line’s corkage fee is now nearly double what some other cruise lines charge
Royal Caribbean and Carnival Cruise Line both charge a $15 corkage fee per bottle for personal wine or champagne consumed in dining rooms. Carnival’s Princess Cruises and Holland America Line charge a corkage fee of $20 per bottle.
Related: Comparing prices between Disney and Royal Caribbean cruises
No matter which cruise line you sail with, the best way to avoid being charged a corkage fee is to open your personal wine bottles in your stateroom. Just ask your stateroom attendant for some wine glasses and a corkscrew.
Most cruise lines advise passengers to only consume their personal wine in their stateroom to avoid a corkage fee, but you typically won’t be charged if you bring your own glass of wine with you to dinner. Many passengers purchase a glass of wine in a shipboard bar prior to dinner and then bring it into the dining room with them anyway.
For Disney Cruise Line specifically, planDisney panelists advise passengers planning to sail with the cruise line that they can in fact bring a glass of their personal wine to dinner without being charged.
Disney Cruise Line wine packages offer savings
If you don’t want to bring your own wine bottles on board but still want to drink wine during your Disney cruise, you can save money by purchasing a Disney cruise wine package.
While Disney Cruise Line doesn’t present passengers with the option to save on alcohol costs by purchasing alcoholic drink packages like other cruise lines, it does offer savings of up to 25% with its wine packages.
Related: 3 popular amenities you won’t find on a Disney Cruise Lines ship
Disney cruise wine packages offer wines to be paired with your dinner each night. Both classic and premium wine packages are available with 3- to 7-bottle options. Prices start at $105 for a 3-bottle classic wine package. A beer mug savings package is also available.
After purchasing a wine package for your Disney cruise, you will have the opportunity to select your bottles of wine from the available options on embarkation day.
If you don’t drink all the wine bottles included in your package during your cruise, you can take them home with you. Passengers are allowed to carry up to two bottles of wine off the ship. Alcohol items may not be taken off the ship if opened however.
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If you don’t finish a bottle during dinner, you can take it back to your stateroom with you, or your serving team can save it for your next dinner. They’ll rotate it to the next dining room you’ll visit with Disney Cruise Line’s rotational dining system. You’re also free to order more than one bottle of wine from your package per evening.
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