Mondavi Wine Package

[nreeder]

A while ago Princess announced a wine package available on board that included Opus One, Mondavi Reserve Cabernet, and a couple of other special wines. I've never seen anyone comment on this. We haven't been on board since last May, and it wasn't yet in place. Has anyone tried this or found it to be still available? Comments on wines? We already know about the "second" wine tasting that includes some of these.

 

Thanks

Norm and Maureen

[LARGIN]

Interesting. I will have to check this out next month..

[Mike2131]

A while ago Princess announced a wine package available on board that included Opus One, Mondavi Reserve Cabernet, and a couple of other special wines. I've never seen anyone comment on this. We haven't been on board since last May, and it wasn't yet in place. Has anyone tried this or found it to be still available? Comments on wines? We already know about the "second" wine tasting that includes some of these.

 

Thanks

Norm and Maureen

 

Hi Norm and Maureen:

I attended both tastings aboard the Coral in December and there were 2 featured packages, one that included Opus One and one that did not. For thise who attended the second tasting, they were offered at a fairly decent discount. I did not pay a lot of attention since I am not a huge fan of reds, but I did enjoy the Opus at the second tasting.

[sunprincess]

There are 2 wine tastings on most cruises. The package that included the Opus is previewed more at the Maitre D Wine Tasting. The entry fee for this one is $25. The wines offered are more upscale. The Opus is a wonderful wine. I have had it. The Robert Mondovi Select is nice too.

If you enjoy wines the package is an excellent offer.

[Hulagirl]

We were just on the Star Princess the beginning of April. Husband and I always do the wine tasting too. Last summer in the Baltic was the first time we did both tastings and had the Opus One. It was wonderful and ordered a bottle. Was looking forward to that this time on the Star. Signed up for both tastings, but Opus One was not offered. They substituted it with another Mondavi wine, that was in the same price range as the Opus. They offered a box of 4 wines, which included the Mondavi wine, for $199, which now we wish we would have bought. After pricing the wines at home, it really was a better deal than we could get here. The Mondavi they have was $99 on the ship (they were offering it as a better deal, but it made no difference if you bought it at the wine tasting or not) and we just found it at a wine shop for $128 at home. Asked about the Opus and were told that Princess had very little of it (at least on the Star) because Mondavi is wanting to go a different direction with the wine and it isn't as available now for them.

 

The Mondavi wine offered is called the "2001 Cabernet Savuignon Reserve" and received 95 points. On the ship this was offered $99 with two crystal souvenier glasses. It really is very, very good. We are saving our bottle for Mother's Day and looking forward to the wine. One of the other wines offered in the box is by Caymus. It is also another red wine. Will be buying this box on our June cruise if it is still offered.

 

Enjoy the wine!

[nreeder]

The box of 4 wines was I think what we saw described, but haven't had a chance to try. We've been to the two wine tastings with the second one being the one where they have Mondavi reserve or Opus One (and their price for that is what you will find it for in a wine shop here, and certainly not what you would find it for in any restaurant here!). We don't often splurge like that, but the package sounded like it would be a good deal to taste some things we don't often have at home (I guess $6.99 Gallo Sonoma doesn't quite make it on their wine list!).

 

Thanks for the info.

Norm and Maureen

[LARGIN]

Great deal on the Mondavi Cab.. Just saw it for $150 without the glasses..

[sultan_sfo]

The Mondavi "Special Selection" that is on the Princess dinner menu sells in discount stores for about $7.99 and on Princess it is $28! If they had Gallo Sonoma, it would be about $24 on the ship! On the Dawn Princess Carib cruise, the 4-bottle pack seemed overpriced but that may be because we had brought some wine from FLL. For our next long Copenhagen to FLL cruise in Sep., we are preparing outselves for the on-board wine sticker. shock because we have wine with every dinner and we can take only a few bottles with us. We don't mind the corkage but our favorites are marked too high! BTW on our Panama Canal Island Princess we did buy Opus but took it with us for a especial occasion /Sultan

 

Partial Quote

(I guess $6.99 Gallo Sonoma doesn't quite make it on their wine list!).

Norm and Maureen

[Hulagirl]

Just to make sure everyone knows, the Mondavi wine offered for $99 is not the one that you get in the dining room for $28. That is the Mondavi Private Selection that we can get on sale here for $7.99 a bottle. The wine is decent, but nothing like the one offered at the higher end wine tasting. It really compared quite well with the Opus One. Either wine would be a good choice.

 

Sultan: When we were in Copenhagen last year for our Baltic cruise, we found some very good wines there that really weren't that expensive. Took them on the ship to have at dinner a few times. Was worth finding them. If you are there for a few days before your cruise, Helsingor has a lot of wine stores. Many of the people from Sweden come over and basically load up to take back home with them from there. Was surprised how good the prices were.

 

Hulagirl

[trish1c]

Although I haven't sailed Princess yet (I'm here b/c I'm thinking about a cruise in October), most wine lists & from what I can tell these too, heavily mark up the low end wines but the price differentials on the mid-price to the expensive stuff is less, as a percentage of the total price.

 

To go up $20 on an $8 bottle of wine seems harsh. But to go up $20 on a $35 botle doesn't seem as painful. I was thrilled when I saw Verve Cliquot for $56 a bottle on the gift selection list.

 

The good news is that the motion of ship ages the wine faster & therefore usually improves the taste, unless it spends too much time aboard & then is ruined. That's why you're told not to drink really good wine on a cruise b/c it's probably been on board too long. I'd be reluctant to buy Opus One on a cruise for fear that it had been over-ripened & was now spoiled. Do they give you any information about when a particular bottle came aboard?

Now, can somebody please educate this Princess "newbie" about the two wine tastings. I get the feeling I'm going to like the second one better. Is there a secret to being invited to the second tasting? Do the wine tastings appear on the daily schedule?

[cpetcruiser]

I am also interested in finding out how you sign up for/get invited to both of the the wine tastings. We're not in a very swanky cabin, so I hope it's not based on that.

 

Hulagirl:

We are going to visit Helsingor on the morning of our departure (ship sails at 9PM) and I would be VERY interested in picking up a few bottles of wine. Do you remember the location and/or name of and of the wine stores in Helsingor? We've pre-ordered a few bottles of wins from the ship, but that's not going to cut it for a 10-night cruise. :)

[Mike2131]

I am also interested in finding out how you sign up for/get invited to both of the the wine tastings. We're not in a very swanky cabin, so I hope it's not based on that.

 

Hulagirl:

We are going to visit Helsingor on the morning of our departure (ship sails at 9PM) and I would be VERY interested in picking up a few bottles of wine. Do you remember the location and/or name of and of the wine stores in Helsingor? We've pre-ordered a few bottles of wins from the ship, but that's not going to cut it for a 10-night cruise. :)

 

The first wine tasting is held in one of the dining rooms so the attendance is pretty open-ended. It was very inexpensive ($7.00?) and you received a $5.00 discount on any bottle you ordered - either for the dining room or delivered to your cabin. In addition, you got to keep the rather interesting aperitif glass they used to serve the dessert wine (valued at about $3.50). As a result, the value exceeded the cost. It is held on a sea day and is on the ship's schedule of events.

The second tasting is priced at $25.00 and offers more upscale wines - and more of them to taste. It was held in Sabatini's and so is more restricted in the number of people that can be accommodated. It is also listed in the ship's activity list, but we signed up for it at the first tasting. Once again, it is held on a sea day.

Both were enjoyable and, I think, well worth the price.

[sultan_sfo]

Hulagirl:

Thanks for correcting the name of the inexpensive Mondavi -- it is Private Selection. As you have correctly said the 4-bottle packages have the expensive Mondavi.

 

We will arrive in CPH afternoon of the previous day and then board the next day around noon and then leave the ship. Can one go to Helsingor from the CPH Pier say around 1pm and be back at the Pier by 6pm? Star Princess departure time is 9pm. Did you find any wines at any of the other ports on the Baltic cruise? We are doing B2B -- Baltic (Oslo not Helsingor) then CPH to FLL! When i posted the wine question on the Baltic Section, the only advice I got was that wine was too expensive to buy there and I should stay with the ship wines! /Sultan

[Hulagirl]

We stayed in Copenhagen for 5 full days before our cruise which was so nice. We took the train to Helsingor which was probably about a 45 minute to an hour ride. As to being able to do it in an afternoon, it can be done, but I probably wouldn't be that brave. I do remember seeing wine stores in the city area of Copenhagen, but truly I can't give you any information on them. Wish I had paid more attention to that now. We walked so much during our stay, that some of the areas sort of blend together. So very sorry, I can't give you more information than that.

 

As to the wine shops in Helsingor. When you walk out of the train station, we saw shops just down the street. But the best prices we saw were up the hill (not really a hill, but it is up towards the main shopping street in Helsingor) on that main shopping street. Truly, there were several wine stores there. We saw people with carts pushing cases of wine out of there. We asked about that, and this is when we were told that so many people come over on the ferry from Sweden and buy their wine and other alchohol in Denmark because it is so much cheaper. We found a few really different wines there and were so glad we decided to try them. Was surprised at the good prices (compared to what we paid on the ship) in this area. Denmark is so expensicve for everything else, that this was a surprise to us. Hopefully this helps some. We had originally gone out to this area for the Kronberg Castle, which in itself is wonderful to walk through. This was my favorite town in Denmark that we went to. Took the train several times out in the country to explore.

 

The $25 wine tasting on the ship that time was actually held in the dining room. There were so many people that signed up for it that they used the dining room and made us all the most wonderful pasta to go along with the wine and treats that were served with the tasting. Truly, this was the best time we have had at any of the wine tastings we have done on Princess. Hopefully you will find the same.

 

Wish it was us going on the cruise again this summer. We loved the Baltic area, especially our 2 days in St. Petersberg.

 

Susan