Bring Your Own Wine Tasting Event on Board?

[SLOTheta]

I recall seeing on someone's trip review, they hosted a wine tasting evening for our Cruise Critic friends and their families. How does one go about arranging this? It appeared it looked like there were snacks, too. Is that an additional cost, other than an additional tip?

 

We have several people in our group who work in the wine industry and we would like to pay corkage and host a wine night with our friends.

 

Thanks.

 

 

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[dakrewser]

I recall seeing on someone's trip review, they hosted a wine tasting evening for our Cruise Critic friends and their families. How does one go about arranging this? It appeared it looked like there were snacks, too. Is that an additional cost, other than an additional tip?

 

We have several people in our group who work in the wine industry and we would like to pay corkage and host a wine night with our friends.

 

Thanks.

 

 

Start by calling the Ships' Services coordinator for your ship...

[aliaschief]

We have hosted a Wine Tasting Party in a Neptune Suite. Every couple or single had to bring one very good quality bottle of wine. I will say we did this before current wine policy. In a suite we limited it to 12-14 people and hoped weather allowed access to the Verandha.

 

We ordered and paid for hors devours and arranged extra glasses from Concierge and Beverage Manager who did a fantastic job.

 

We have done three and they have always been popular with our fellow Roll Call members.

Edited June 11, 2016 by aliaschief

[iceman93]

Similar to aliaschief, we hosted wine tasting parties in our penthouse suite on several sailings. Folks literally brought a range of bottles from Two-Buck Chuck to Caymus Special Select. The Neptune Lounge and F&B management folks were quite accommodating about bringing wine glasses and appetizers for us all to share. We have participated in Cruise Critic "meet and greets" in common areas as well, but I never set those up so can't help so much with that.

[Vict0riann]

On our "Pearls of the Pacific" cruise in April on the Westerdam we had two CC wine tastings - they were held in the Piano Bar. The first one, Kazu and Taxmantoo brought on a few dozen bottles of two different wines (and paid the corkage) and Taxmantoo, being a sommelier, gave us a talk on each and we had proper drinks of each. That cost each person $15 to cover the wines and the corkage. The second, everyone brought their own contribution (one bottle per couple, corkage paid) and everyone had tastes of whichever they wanted, after the contributor gave a short spiel on their choice, and there were votes taken later on best red, best white, and tasters' favourite. There are probably descriptions of the goings on in the "Live From" that Kazu did.:)

[boze9999]

Thanks for the share - a wonderful idea when traveling with friends!

[SLOTheta]

On our "Pearls of the Pacific" cruise in April on the Westerdam we had two CC wine tastings - they were held in the Piano Bar. and tasters' favourite. There are probably descriptions of the goings on in the "Live From" that Kazu did.:)

 

 

Yes! That's where I saw it had been done before. How did you arrange it? Did you also have nibbles?

 

There's 40 of us, so even though we have a Neptune suite in the group, it won't fit our group.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

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[kazu]

Yes! That's where I saw it had been done before. How did you arrange it? Did you also have nibbles?

 

There's 40 of us, so even though we have a Neptune suite in the group, it won't fit our group.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Happy to help:). I arranged our meet and greets and asked the ship co-ordintor if it was possible to arrange our own wine tastings. HAL does have one where they supply their own wine and charge (which I was aware of).

 

We did two. I explained to her that we had our own sommelier with us (taxmantoo) and he was doing a"wine tasting for dummies". For the other,

explained to her that we wanted to bring unique wines and were aware we we would be paying corkage fees. And we did have some pretty amazing wines.

 

I also told her that many of our group would be going to the wine tastings onboard as well as the Master Chef and Cellar Master dinners (all true) and this was over and above those activities.

 

She contacted the ship and arranged for the piano bar for us and the wine glasses. We did not have any nibbles.

 

The wine steward came around to make sure that we were ok (and that there were stickers on the bottles). I was told to make sure that our stickers were on the bottles.

 

I have dealt with this ship's co-ordinator a fair bit so I don't know if that made it easier or not, but it is a lot easier to arrange it in advance than when you are on board.

 

Of course, if your wine bottles have stickers, you can theoretically take them to any public area and do it -

 

It is the ship's decision. I am sure it depends upon the ship and the length of the cruise. On a 7 day it would probably be more difficult. We were on a 33 day cruise.

 

The previous year we did a wine tasting in our Neptune Suite and prior to that in the PS. You would be surprised how many people you can fit in the N.S. We had a over 25 :). When we did it there ,we had tons of delicious nibbles and wine glasses supplied as part of the N.S. Perks. There are pics on my previous live Westerdam and Prinsendam threads.

 

Hope this helps

Edited June 12, 2016 by kazu