Holland America Wine Packages, Wine List and Prices
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If you’re going on a Holland America cruise, you might be interested to know about the wines you can enjoy onboard.
They offer various drinks packages for purchase.
But we’re more into wine than cocktails or hard liquor. So on our HAL cruise on the Rotterdam, we bought one of the Holland America Sommelier Suite packages.
These wine packages bundle wines by the bottle. HAL says they can save you up to 25% off the price of a bottle.
Let’s go into the details of these packages, onboard wine menus, wine prices and more…
Note: All prices shown below are in U.S. dollars.
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Contents: HAL wine packages, wine list and prices
Can you bring wine on a Holland America cruise?
Pssst! Also see comments and questions from readers at the end of this post!
Holland America wine packages
You can choose from three Sommelier Suite wine packages on your Holland America cruise.
All bottles have to be picked from the same Cellar in the package (or the next Cellar down). So if you’ve bought Cellar No. 2, you can choose a wine from Cellar No. 1 (but not usually from Cellar No. 3, unless your Cellar is out of a particular wine).
Many of the Cellar wines aren’t found on the wine list in the main dining room or wine menus in Holland America’s specialty restaurants.
Three Cellar wine packages
Prices have shifted a bit since our cruise. Cellar No. 1 has gone up slightly, while some of the Cellar No. 3 prices have actually come down a few dollars.
(An 18% service charge is added to the price of each package.)
Here are the latest prices for 2025:
1) Cellar No. 1
This package contains what’s referred to as “popularly priced wines”:
- 4 bottles = $134
- 6 bottles = $188
- 8 bottles = $244
2) Cellar No. 2
This HAL wine package features premium wines:
- 4 bottles = $152
- 6 bottles = $224
- 8 bottles = $292
We went with the Cellar No. 2 wine package on our latest Rotterdam cruise – largely because we’re fans of the Meiomi Pinot Noir.
It wasn’t available one evening, though, and we were offered a Robert Mondavi Pinot as a substitute.
A few other wines from the Sommelier Suite list were also missing. But the replacements were solid – like a crisp dry Gewurztraminer we enjoyed in place of the Ruffino Pinot Grigio from Italy.
Check out: You may want to see the wines offered in the different Cellar packages on our cruise.
3) Cellar No. 3
The third and most expensive of Holland America’s Sommelier Suite packages bundles some wine aficionado favorites – like the Boom Boom! Syrah from Washington and California’s Chamisal “Stainless” Chardonnay:
- 4 bottles = $179
- 6 bottles = $258
- 8 bottles = $334
Mariner discount
Are you a repeat HAL cruiser? As a member of HAL’s Mariner Society (their loyalty rewards program), you’ll enjoy a discount off the Sommelier Suite packages:
- 4-star and 5-star Mariners – Get 50% off
- 3-star Mariners – Get 25 % off
Package details: Purchasing, sharing and more
Unlocking your wine package
So you’ve bought a wine package… Now, when you want a bottle of wine, simply let your waiter know, browse the wine list and pick your preferred bottle from your Cellar package.
Your waiter will ask for your room key card. It does the magic – it contains your booking details and is linked to all your onboard purchases, including your wine package.
Swapping out a wine or two
Want to switch a wine in your package for something else? Chat with the sommelier – HAL is usually quite accommodating.
Also, if a wine’s unavailable, you might even get a pleasant upgrade.
So if you’ve bought the Cellar No. 1 package, but they’re out of a certain variety, they often let you swap in a wine from Cellar No. 2 or 3 (or even from the main wine list). Cheers to that!
Two bottles, twice the taste
Want both a red and a white wine with dinner? No problem. You can have two bottles opened at a time – perfect for pairing with different courses.
Do you both have to buy a Sommelier wine package on Holland America?
No. On our Rotterdam cruise, we only bought one package for the two of us. Each night, we’d share a bottle of wine.
Mind you, we thought about buying a second package after we finished our package. But it was better wallet-wise to buy just two more bottles to see us through to the end of the cruise (rather than another new package).
Can you enjoy a bottle or two in your stateroom?
Absolutely! If you’d like to sip some of your Cellar wines on your balcony, ask any wine steward or the sommelier know and they’ll have it delivered to your stateroom.
What if you don’t finish a bottle at one sitting?
No worries – just ask your waiter to save it for you. They’ll label the bottle with your cabin number and store it for another night.
You can even ask for your unfinished bottle of wine at a different restaurant on another evening (though there might be a short wait while it’s retrieved).
What if you don’t finish all the wines you buy? You can take any unopened bottles home with you in your checked luggage.
How do you buy HAL’s wine package?
You can purchase a wine package before your cruise in a few different ways:
- Log into your Holland America account to buy it online.
- Call the Ship Services department at 1-800-541-1576.
- Email HAL_Ship_Services@HollandAmerica.com and the Ship Services department can help.
You can also buy one or more of the Sommelier packages onboard.
About Holland America’s wine list
HAL’s wine list has been chosen by James Suckling.
A former senior editor and European Bureau Chief at Wine Spectator, he’s one of the world’s top wine critics.
All the wines on the list have consistently scored 90 points or above (on the 100-point scale) in recent vintages. A score of 90 to 94 is “outstanding” and a score of 95 to 100 is “truly great” – so you can count on sipping some seriously good bottles!
You’ll find a great selection – more than 100 wines by the bottle – from France, California, Washington state, Italy, Spain, Chile, New Zealand and other places around the world.
Holland America wines by the glass
Of course, you don’t have to buy a package to enjoy a glass of wine – it’s also sold by the glass.
Or, if you have one of HAL’s alcohol packages (allowing up to 15 alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks a day), you can opt for wines by the glass.
- Elite beverage package – Includes wines up to $15 a glass
- Signature beverage package – Includes wines up to $11 a glass
In both cases, if you pick a pricier wine by the glass, you just have to pay the difference.
We learned that some wines by the glass are highly ranked by James Suckling.
Holland America’s sparkling, white and rosé wines by the glass
Holland America’s red wines by the glass
Holland America’s white wines by the bottle
HAL’s 2025 prices for bottles of white wine range from $40 (for example, for New Zealand’s Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc) to $100 (for the Cakebread Chardonnay, Napa Valley).
Most whites are in the $40 to $60 range.
Holland America’s rosé and red wines by the bottle
Red wines outnumber whites on the wine menu.
Holland America’s wine list prices for rosé and red wines by the bottle range from $40 (for the Beringer White Zinfandel and a Chilean Malbec) to a high of $145 (for the Col Solare Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington).
The only wine that’s more expensive is the Opus One from Napa (which we’ve tried before – scrumptious!). It goes for an eye-popping $524.
Don’t have a heart attack though! Most reds are priced between $44 and $70.
HAL’s 2025 rosé and red wine menu (with prices) is shown below.
Can you bring wine on a Holland America cruise?
Yes, you can bring wine onboard. But you’ll have to pay to do so. For each bottle of wine you bring, you’ll be charged a $20 corkage fee.
However, Holland America’s wine policy doesn’t apply to wine you buy on a wine-focused shore excursion organized through the cruise ship. In this case, you may bring one bottle back to the ship without having to pay the corkage fee on it.
That’s it for our HAL wine guide! We hope you’ve found it helpful.
Oh, and don’t forget to check out the Comments section below to see questions and feedback from other readers! Feel free to ask a question or to share your thoughts here too…
See our other Holland America cruise guides
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