Spillage on a Ship — a Dilemma?

Before you start accusing us of wining about wining, the following is not a complaint, just an observation.

During one of our cruises this month, we did what we usually do with wine. In our bags were three nice bottles. They didn't make it through the scanner, as we expected they wouldn't, so we happily paid the $15 corkage fee that allowed us to consume them during a week on the ship.

However, one night — and our closest friends will understand — we, uh, ran out.

So we ordered a bottle from the menu. The way these things work, if you don't finish a bottle one night, the waiter will see that it's corked and stored for you to drink the next night. As difficult as this may be for our friends to swallow, that's precisely what we did. 

Twenty-four hours later, the junior waiter was pouring the wine when, for whatever reason, he spilled some onto the table. Hey, it happens. We've done the same thing at home…well, one of us has.

So, the question is: What to do about the missing wine?

The senior waiter took the bottle away, returning a few minutes with it in one hand, and a small carafon half full of wine in the other hand. In other words, he more than replaced the wine once he had found another bottle that was the same…and it was the same.

Now, what if that had been a bottle we'd brought onto the ship? None was a wine on the ships menu, so how would he have replaced the wine? What if it had been a special wine, a special vintage, the kind that on a ship you will only get in a specialty restaurant and maybe not even there?

We're just saying…


Disney Wonder
4 nights
February 21, 2013
Miami (return): Key West, Nassau, Castaway Cay
Inside: $399
Cost per day: $99
www.disneycruise.com