How do wines btg on the PBP work in Blu?

[warmwinds]

Never had a beverage package before our recent cruise in a suite. 

 

In Luminae you just picked the wine you wanted at the start of the meal and she just topped off directly from the bottle whenever you needed it, never had to show our card.

 

Does it work the same in Blu, or do you have to order a new glass and have it brought to you individually in a new glass with another use of seapass card each time?

Edited July 6, 2019 by warmwinds

[Jim_Iain]

Basically the same.   They usually ask for your card the first night depending on the wine steward.    When you check in at either Luminae or Blu you will notice the Restaurant Manager ask you your room number and then prints a little slip of paper.   From that the wait person knows your name and room number.    Servers can input any room charges by either room number or typing in your name. 

 

[vtcruising]

We have been in Blu on M and S Class fairly recently and had great wine service with the premium package. As with Luminae, after they take your info, the wine will flow! The first night they will ask what types of wines you like, if you want to go over the package ever or stick within the limit. We like to pair a different wine with each course so they get used to asking what we are ordering and then make recommendations. If they notice your glass is getting empty, they will keep it full.  Sometimes they will open a bottle of something that isn't normally sold by the glass, if they know you want something different, but that likely depends upon the sommelier.

 

Here is a Blu wine menu. Of course, each ship may have different wines.

 

Blu Wine.pdf

 

[Fogfog]

@vtcruising

TY for that BLU menu

We were trying to recall the wines we had (which were not on the glass list)

They were by the bottle

 

We had a terrible wine steward on a recent TA (had to get head sommelier involved)

In the end we had nice selections and service apart from the "steward" ...

 

Couldn't recall the two whites--found them on your menu post TY

[vtcruising]

22 minutes ago, Fogfog said:

@vtcruising

TY for that BLU menu

We were trying to recall the wines we had (which were not on the glass list)

They were by the bottle

 

We had a terrible wine steward on a recent TA (had to get head sommelier involved)

In the end we had nice selections and service apart from the "steward" ...

 

Couldn't recall the two whites--found them on your menu post TY

We had that happen in Blu on the Reflection about a year and a half ago. Where we were first seated, the sommelier acted rushed, we had to wait for our wine and he didn't refill glasses without asking. He was nice, but over his head, I think. The next night we asked to be moved to the back of the room since we saw that the wine steward back there was very attentive. The rest of the cruise was superb as we always were seated on the other side of the paint can wall (right next to it) and had the best waiter and sommelier. They both went out of their way to give us great service and made our dining experience so much fun.

Edited July 6, 2019 by vtcruising

[warmwinds]

Thank you all.

 

 

[Carnevale]

12 hours ago, vtcruising said:

We have been in Blu on M and S Class fairly recently and had great wine service with the premium package. As with Luminae, after they take your info, the wine will flow! The first night they will ask what types of wines you like, if you want to go over the package ever or stick within the limit. We like to pair a different wine with each course so they get used to asking what we are ordering and then make recommendations. If they notice your glass is getting empty, they will keep it full.  Sometimes they will open a bottle of something that isn't normally sold by the glass, if they know you want something different, but that likely depends upon the sommelier.

 

Here is a Blu wine menu. Of course, each ship may have different wines.

 

Blu Wine.pdf 3.21 MB · 44 downloads

 

Many thanks for taking the time to photograph and post this menu - very interesting and useful.  We only have the classic pkg but it is good to see we may have a few options of wines btg in Blu.

[vtcruising]

7 hours ago, Carnevale said:

Many thanks for taking the time to photograph and post this menu - very interesting and useful.  We only have the classic pkg but it is good to see we may have a few options of wines btg in Blu.

I have been impressed at how well the sommeliers do with finding something that they will like within someone's package. When we have had the Premium package and traveled with people with a Classic package, they received the same attention in choosing wines.

[Jim_Iain]

One thing we noticed recently on Summit is they were experimenting with 2 sommelier in Blu.   It worked very well and service was excellent.    I hope they roll this out fleet wide.

[vtcruising]

24 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

One thing we noticed recently on Summit is they were experimenting with 2 sommelier in Blu.   It worked very well and service was excellent.    I hope they roll this out fleet wide.

There were 2 on the Reflection 1 1/2 yrs ago, but that is a bigger venue, of course. They both were extremely busy! It would be great to see that on M Class as well.

Edited July 7, 2019 by vtcruising

[warmwinds]

The reason I asked this question, and I'm happy with the answers, is that I recall before we started AQ and Blu, I recall in the MDR that wines by the glass were handled by the cocktail server, not the sommelier...so we would watch that server with huge trays of various cocktails PLUS wines by the glass delivering to tables...we do not want to wait for that, we wanted the same (luminae) experience that we had that the sommelier had to just top off our glasses, not go and fetch and bring us a whole new glass of wine every time we needed one.