What Are Wine Packages

[sawtooth]

We are sailing on the Island Princess in January.

I have read about buying a wine package.

We enjoy wine with our meals and would like to know more about that.

We will also bring some bottles on board ourselves.

Thanks.

[Gunner22aa]

Princess offers two. You can either get 6 or 12 bottles in each. The cheaper of the two allows you to pick any wine off the list up to about $30. The more expensive any wine up to about $40-43. The exact amounts can be found on there web site with a little digging. Everyone in the stateroom over 21 may bring one bottle onboard free. You are welcome to bring more but all bottles above your entitlement are subject to a $15 corkage fee or confiscation if you hide them and they are discovered. I have gone both ways. There are some great wines that I have found on sale and it turned out to be cheaper to pay the corkage. Other times it wasn't. Hope this helps.

[Bogof1]

If you are going to buy a bottle of wine each evening at dinner it is better to buy the wine package. We bought the 12 bottle silver package which worked out at $20 per bottle and we could choose bottles off the wine list to the value of $29 without paying xtra. If we chose a more expensive wine the $29 was refunded to our account and the price of the wine added.

[capriccio]

Princess offers two. You can either get 6 or 12 bottles in each. The cheaper of the two allows you to pick any wine off the list up to about $30. The more expensive any wine up to about $40-43. The exact amounts can be found on there web site with a little digging.

 

They also offered a 10 bottle package this summer on our 12 night British Isles cruise. The wine package wasn't advertised in the Patter but luckily we stumbled upon a table outside Horizon Court that was selling both coffee cards and the wine package (the display wine bottles are what caught our eye) on the first day. We purchased a 10 day Gold package. My husband especially loved it - we had a bottle of wine each evening and saved substantial amounts of money. Whats not to like?!

 

Towards the end of the cruise we made friends with another couple and started discussing wine -- they had no idea about the wine packages because they had not seen the table and none of the waiters brought it to their attention (unlike all the 'selling' of the coffee cards). It pays to ask!

[IECalCruiser]

Check out this post for wine package details.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=38226569&postcount=2

 

During trials they also offered a 5 bottle package and offered them on 7 day cruises. A recent post stated the packages were offered on a 7 day coastal on the Golden. I have no idea if they will start to be offered on any other cruises shorter than 10 days.

[sawtooth]

Thank you all.

This explains it very well.

I think we will try it on our Panama cruise

[Fletch1]

It does work out to be good value. Pity they don't offer it on Australian ships.

 

On a side issue, we were recently on a RCI ship and the cheapest bottle of wine on their list was US$33 and it went up from there.

[Love.II.Cruise]

If you are going to buy a bottle of wine each evening at dinner it is better to buy the wine package. We bought the 12 bottle silver package which worked out at $20 per bottle and we could choose bottles off the wine list to the value of $29 without paying xtra. If we chose a more expensive wine the $29 was refunded to our account and the price of the wine added.

 

Okay, so 12 bottles at $20 each = $240. Do they add the !5% gratuity on to that?

 

If so, and you buy something more than $29, do they refund the $29 bottle + 15% gratuity and then add on the more expensive one with gratuity?

 

We may consider the package for our next cruise (but have never done a wine package before).

[IECalCruiser]

Okay, so 12 bottles at $20 each = $240. Do they add the 15% gratuity on to that?

 

If so, and you buy something more than $29, do they refund the $29 bottle + 15% gratuity and then add on the more expensive one with gratuity?

 

We may consider the package for our next cruise (but have never done a wine package before).

Princess adds 15% gratuity to all beverage purchases so the cost of the 12 bottle silver package is $240 + $36 or $276. I can't say that this is done on all ships but on the Coral in January we were only charged for the cost of the bottle w/o gratuity added and then we were credited $29. We paid an additional $3 for a $32 bottle of wine and an additional $9 for a $38 bottle of wine. I would be OK with paying gratuity in the difference, but that was not the case for us.

[caber]

The wine we like is $32. If we purchased 10 it would be a saving. How do you find out if they will add the 15% or not? Can you get the bottles to drink in your cabin? I wondered how they would differentiate between bottles drunk in a bar or restaurant and one drunk in your cabin.

[capriccio]

Princess adds 15% gratuity to all beverage purchases so the cost of the 12 bottle silver package is $240 + $36 or $276. I can't say that this is done on all ships but on the Coral in January we were only charged for the cost of the bottle w/o gratuity added and then we were credited $29. We paid an additional $3 for a $32 bottle of wine and an additional $9 for a $38 bottle of wine. I would be OK with paying gratuity in the difference, but that was not the case for us.

 

Same on the Caribbean Princess this summer - the gratuity was added to the cost of the package but the night we splurged on an expensive bottle we were charged just for the price of that bottle (no gratuity) and credited with the per bottle 'up to' price allowed in the package.

[Putterdude]

We purchased the upper tier package last month on the Ruby and while we found it to be excellent value, we found very few wines in the $45 range and even fewer in that range and we particularly enjoyed. In the future we would purchase the package to $35 and pay the extra for the few bottles that we purchase in excess of this amount. Incidentally, our experience was that the only the difference was charged to our account...which was never more then a dollar or two.

[LovesCruising]

Reading all of this - wine packages are not available on 7 night cruises?

We are doing 7 night Alaska

[IECalCruiser]

...Can you get the bottles to drink in your cabin? I wondered how they would differentiate between bottles drunk in a bar or restaurant and one drunk in your cabin.

Order an extra bottle when you are in the DR to bring back to your cabin. You can't order from room service, a bar or Vines. I didn't notice this on our bottles with the package, but when we got a bottle of wine in exchange for a mini-bar set-up (we were doing a B2B and didn't need any more beer or mini bottles) there was a Sea Witch stamp to let waitstaff know they should not charge corkage.

[IECalCruiser]

Reading all of this - wine packages are not available on 7 night cruises?

We are doing 7 night Alaska

Not on 7 night Alaskan cruises in 2012. There was one post of the packages being offered on a recent 7 night coastal but this appears to be an isolated case.

[canadarocks]

You can't order from room service, a bar or Vines.

 

That's disappointing about Vines. So you can only use the Wine Package in the MDR and specialty restaurants?

[LovesCruising]

Not on 7 night Alaskan cruises in 2012. There was one post of the packages being offered on a recent 7 night coastal but this appears to be an isolated case.

 

I haven't seen any info on it for Alaska 7 night.

 

So, the alternative if you want more than the 2 bottles you can carry on is to order from Bon Voyage department? Prices seemed reasonable. Or just buy on board and take back to cabin?

[Bushycomm]

It does work out to be good value. Pity they don't offer it on Australian ships.

 

We poor Aussie travellers seem to lose out on all the best things about Princes

No wine package, no anytime dining, No ???:mad::mad::mad:

[IECalCruiser]

That's disappointing about Vines. So you can only use the Wine Package in the MDR and specialty restaurants?

On our January cruise on the Coral we only ordered bottles in the MDR and the Bayou Cafe and Steakhouse. You should also be able to order in the HC but we did not try that.

[Cruise_me_Crazy]

Oh dear. This was an enjoyable thread until I read it doesn't apply to Aussie sailings. :mad: I hope they change & bring in the wine packages soon!

[IECalCruiser]

Oh dear. This was an enjoyable thread until I read it doesn't apply to Aussie sailings. :mad: I hope they change & bring in the wine packages soon!

Sorry they discriminate against those of you down under. However, one if the best ships in the fleet, the Sapphire will be much closer to you now.

[Deal Freak]

If you are going to buy a bottle of wine each evening at dinner it is better to buy the wine package. We bought the 12 bottle silver package which worked out at $20 per bottle and we could choose bottles off the wine list to the value of $29 without paying xtra. If we chose a more expensive wine the $29 was refunded to our account and the price of the wine added.

We also bought the wine package and asked for 50-50 split, half with our meal and half in our cabin. They duly obliged!