dinner in the Windjammer and wine questions

[39august]

I understand that the Windjammer has many of the same selections for dinner as the dining room. However, how can you get wine with your dinner if you eat in the Windjammer? We'd like to purchase the wine package on our Vision cruise, but we are waitlisted for first seating. We will not eat as late as second seating, so if the maitr'd can't accomodate us, we will be eating in the Windjammer or our JS. If we purchase the wine package, can we take a bottle to the Windjammer?

[island lady]

Hmmm. That IS an interesting question.

Can you "get fries with that?"

There are some McDonald's restaurants in Europe that offer wine at their place.

Cheers!

[Pumbaamd]

When you purchase the wine package they give you a card. As you receive each bottle, it is checked off on the card. I took the card with us to the Windjammer one night and presented it to the person at the door. He found some one to go get us the wine we wanted. It only took a short time, no longer then ordering wine in the dining room. We ate at Chop's one night and took the card there also. It works fine in all the dining places.

[dc-snoopy]

I don't know the answer for sure, but I can give you some tips from our cruise this week. Two couples at our table ordered the "Wine & Dine" package on the cruise. Each night, they were given the option of taking the leftovers back to their cabin or with them if they wanted. There is no proscription against alcohol in the Windjammer as I saw some folks bring beers from the pool deck into the Windjammer at times. So if you end up with the second seating and opt to do the Windjammer, you should find out who your waiter will be and make arrangements with him/her for you to stop in during first seating, order your wine, have them open it for you and take it to the Windjammer. It won't be as nice as having it served to you in the Windjammer, but at least you can have the wine with your meal. And since the Windjammer is significantly less busy than the main dining room, you can still go down, get your wine, bring it up and have dinner in less time than you would spend in the dining room.

[39august]

DC Snoopy and Plumaband-Thanks so much for these suggestions. Sound like we will have no problem with using the wine package!

[39august]

DC Snoopy and Plumaband-Thanks so much for these suggestions. Sound like we will have no problem with using the wine package! Does the wine package have to be purchase in the dining room the first night, or is there a set-up somewhere else on the ship to purchase on the Vision?

[Pumbaamd]

When we were on the Brilliance in January, a table was set up in front of the Windjammer the afternoon we boarded offering the deal. It had all the info you needed with an attendant there to take your order.

[wardnlis]

Just wondering how this wine package works? How much is it? Is it available on every cruise? We'll be on the VOS in Sept? Thanks!

[dc-snoopy]

When we boarded the ship, there was a table on deck 5 (the deck the gangway entrance was on) which featured the "wine & dine" packages. You could sign up for it then or any night at dinner. There was a "wine & dine" information card on the table every night.

 

Basically, you pay a flat price for one bottle of wine per dinner remaining. Each night, there is a card that features several selections (I think it is somewhere in the 4-6 options) and you choose the bottle of wine you want that evening. You have a subscription card that they tick off each bottle that you get. It works out nicely for a couple or three people who will be drinking a bottle of wine per dinner. But since DW is now on medication that keeps her from drinking alcohol, it wasn't worth it for us. Instead I bought a bottle of wine and if I didn't finish it, the asst waiter would cork it and put it aside for me until the next night when I could come in and continue. They made sure to put plastic corks into the bottles to help keep out as much oxygen as possible and make the wines last. Kept correctly, the wine can easily last 4 nights, but I had two bottles over the course of the week and each bottle lasted two nights (either first night or second night, I would have an extra "top off" of my glass which I would take to the Coral Theatre for the show). It worked very well for me and I got a much bigger selection of wine to choose from. I was also lucky that the assistant waiter at our table and the next table (where we ate one night so that we could sit with dc-diva) were both pretty knowledgable about wines. The asst waiter at the next table was from Chile and Christian gave me the low-down on the various Chilean wines on the menu...and he was dead-on. The Saugignon Blanc that he recommended (Caliterra I think 2002 but maybe 2003) was extremely good.

[wardnlis]

Cool! It might be a good idea for us, not sure if my sister or her husband drink wine or not! But, it's nice to know they'll keep a bottle for you too! Thanks for all the info!!:)

[Beelady]

I seem to remember waiters with a push-cart in the windjammer going from table to table to see if anyone wanted a glass of wine with their dinner. They had several selections of wine, and were selling them by the glass. Anybody else remember this? This was on the Serenade last month. We only ate one dinner in the windjammer, and it was kinda rushed because we were on our way to something that we didnt' want to miss, but I think I remember wine being offered there.

[mimis]

How much is the wine and dine? Is it available on the Rhapsody?

[epdion]

How much is the wine and dine? Is it available on the Rhapsody?

 

The wine and dine package was offered to us by our waiter at the first dinner on board the Rhapsody. There were two price levels (around $125 and $165). The waiter pointed out that the more expensive package is a better "value" because it has a bigger discount from the wine list prices (he showed us). A tip is added to the price of the package.

 

We took the more expensive package and were very please with the selections. Turns out almost every choice in this package was sampled during the wine tasking they held on the second day of the cruise. It was really great to have had the chance to taste the wines before having to make a selection the next night.

 

We will do this again on our Rhapsody cruise in March!