Wine shortage on Enchanted Princess September 17, 2022 and terrible boarding experience at Brooklyn Cruise Terminal

[SuiteTraveler]

My husband and I were on the Enchanted Princess for the September 17, 2022 cruise and found that they literally have perhaps 10 bottles of wine onboard, none of which were very good.  The staff said there was a logistics problem.  Consequently there were none of the wines by the glass such as Grgich Hills or Cloudy Bay or Stag's leap which they promise with their Premier beverage package.  We were willing to buy wine by the bottle, but they didn't have any better bottles on board either.   I wish that Princess had notified us about this situation BEFORE the cruise as we spent the night in Brooklyn and could have bought a case of wines we like to bring onboard there.  It would have also been appropriate for Princess to not charge the corkage fee under the circumstances.  The wine that they had onboard was not very good, honestly and to a great extent spoiled the cruise experience for my husband.  We had a lovely suite onboard and found the food in the MDR to be good to excellent, service in there was great. We enjoyed the ship, but the lack of quality wine was a major disappointment.  All it would have taken is Princess notifying us of their logistics problem and we could have brought a case of wines we enjoy onboard.  We are very easy going and just want to have wine we like on our cruise.  Logistics problems happen and this is one with an easy solution until Princess can get it resolved - just notify the guests ahead of their cruise so they can bring their own wine.

 

I also want to note the bizarre experience at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.  We checked in and as far as we could tell, there was not a lounge for suite guests - not a problem.  The port employees told us to sit in the terminal.  As full suite guests I knew that we are supposed to have priority embarkation.  After about 15 minutes of waiting, almost an hour past the beginning of embarkation I asked one of the port employees about this, explaining that we are suite guests and are supposed to have priority embarkation.  She shouted at me that it was not about our status and that there was a massive line to get onboard so sit down and wait.  Her reaction in shouting at me was very perplexing as I was not rude to her in any way.  So we sat and waited around 40 minutes more.  I noted many, many people being allowed to board, so I finally thought something isn't right, so I told another port employee that we were suite guests and supposed to have priority boarding.  He allowed us to board.  We found there was no line whatsoever for boarding, not even one guest ahead of us on the gangway, and we literally walked right onto the ship, got an elevator immediately and were in our suite within minutes.  All the staterooms on our floor were ready for new guests - no cabin stewards in sight cleaning.  We dropped our stuff off and went to the Club Class dining room, again getting an elevator immediately,  where the waiter remarked to us that the waitstaff was wondering where all the suite guests were that day since the Club Class dining room would close in 15 minutes and hardly any suite guests had come there for lunch - perhaps 4 other tables were occupied when we were in there.  Well, I'm pretty sure the majority of the suite guests were being forced to wait down in the cruise terminal for no reason whatsoever!  I hope someone with Princess will get in touch with the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal and straighten out this situation for future Princess cruises departing from there.

 

Although 3 ports had to be skipped due to the hurricane, we did enjoy this cruise.  It is unfortunate that it was marred by the complete lack of wine that Princess advertises.

 

 

[LACruiser88]

4 minutes ago, SuiteTraveler said:

found that they literally have perhaps 10 bottles of wine onboard, none of which were very good.  The staff said there was a logistics problem.  Consequently there were none of the wines by the glass such as Grgich Hills or Cloudy Bay or Stag's leap which they promise with their Premier beverage package.  We were willing to buy wine by the bottle, but they didn't have any better bottles on board either.

They really should be embarrassed by the lack of quality wine onboard.  Even though we purchase the Plus Package this has caused us to bring bottles from home or purchase them in port. 

[SuiteTraveler]

5 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

They really should be embarrassed by the lack of quality wine onboard.  Even though we purchase the Plus Package this has caused us to bring bottles from home or purchase them in port. 

I agree and it is a form of false advertising.  Their website states:  "The Premier Beverage Package includes everything the Plus Beverage Package has and:

• Top shelf spirits, reserve wines by the glass and new high-end crafted cocktails by Mixologist Rob Floyd
• Selection of 75+ spirits, 40+ wines by the glass, 20+ high-end, crafted cocktails
• Premier wines by the glass including Cloudy Bay, Stag's Leap, Grgich Hills and Cattier Champagne
• Private Woodford Reserve Bourbon Selection created exclusively for Princess
• Personalized Jack Daniel's Whiskey Single Barrel Select
• 25% discount on wine bottles (including rare vintages)
• 25% discount on large bottles of water and cans of soda

 

But NONE of the advertised wines were onboard or available as a glass of wine nor as a bottle.  We would have purchased wine in port BUT due to Hurricane Fiona, we missed 3 of 5 ports.  The first port, we didn't know about the lack of quality wine and the last port we visited, we went on a long excursion and didn't have time to take a taxi to a liquor store.  We had the Premier Beverage Package as well.

Edited October 11, 2022 by SuiteTraveler

[PacnGoNow]

13 minutes ago, SuiteTraveler said:

My husband and I were on the Enchanted Princess for the September 17, 2022 cruise and found that they literally have perhaps 10 bottles of wine onboard, none of which were very good.  The staff said there was a logistics problem.  Consequently there were none of the wines by the glass such as Grgich Hills or Cloudy Bay or Stag's leap which they promise with their Premier beverage package.  We were willing to buy wine by the bottle, but they didn't have any better bottles on board either.   I wish that Princess had notified us about this situation BEFORE the cruise as we spent the night in Brooklyn and could have bought a case of wines we like to bring onboard there.  It would have also been appropriate for Princess to not charge the corkage fee under the circumstances.  The wine that they had onboard was not very good, honestly and to a great extent spoiled the cruise experience for my husband.  We had a lovely suite onboard and found the food in the MDR to be good to excellent, service in there was great. We enjoyed the ship, but the lack of quality wine was a major disappointment.  All it would have taken is Princess notifying us of their logistics problem and we could have brought a case of wines we enjoy onboard.  We are very easy going and just want to have wine we like on our cruise.  Logistics problems happen and this is one with an easy solution until Princess can get it resolved - just notify the guests ahead of their cruise so they can bring their own wine.

 

I also want to note the bizarre experience at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.  We checked in and as far as we could tell, there was not a lounge for suite guests - not a problem.  The port employees told us to sit in the terminal.  As full suite guests I knew that we are supposed to have priority embarkation.  After about 15 minutes of waiting, almost an hour past the beginning of embarkation I asked one of the port employees about this, explaining that we are suite guests and are supposed to have priority embarkation.  She shouted at me that it was not about our status and that there was a massive line to get onboard so sit down and wait.  Her reaction in shouting at me was very perplexing as I was not rude to her in any way.  So we sat and waited around 40 minutes more.  I noted many, many people being allowed to board, so I finally thought something isn't right, so I told another port employee that we were suite guests and supposed to have priority boarding.  He allowed us to board.  We found there was no line whatsoever for boarding, not even one guest ahead of us on the gangway, and we literally walked right onto the ship, got an elevator immediately and were in our suite within minutes.  All the staterooms on our floor were ready for new guests - no cabin stewards in sight cleaning.  We dropped our stuff off and went to the Club Class dining room, again getting an elevator immediately,  where the waiter remarked to us that the waitstaff was wondering where all the suite guests were that day since the Club Class dining room would close in 15 minutes and hardly any suite guests had come there for lunch - perhaps 4 other tables were occupied when we were in there.  Well, I'm pretty sure the majority of the suite guests were being forced to wait down in the cruise terminal for no reason whatsoever!  I hope someone with Princess will get in touch with the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal and straighten out this situation for future Princess cruises departing from there.

 

Although 3 ports had to be skipped due to the hurricane, we did enjoy this cruise.  It is unfortunate that it was marred by the complete lack of wine that Princess advertises.

 

 

If I were you, I would definitely email

John Padgett and Jan Swartz.  Absolutely no excuse. Rude port employee, no priority seating, limited

wine…

 

Jswartz@princesscruises.com

JPadgett@Carnival.com

Yes, definitely should be allowed to bring on a case of wine, no corkage fee.

 

 

[SuiteTraveler]

2 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

If I were you, I would definitely email

John Padgett and Jan Swartz.  Absolutely no excuse. Rude port employee, no priority seating, limited

wine…

 

Jswartz@princesscruises.com

JPadgett@Carnival.com

Yes, definitely should be allowed to bring on a case of wine, no corkage fee.

 

 

Thank you,  I think I will notify them as I am concerned for the many other guests who should have been able to have lunch in the Club Class MDR but I guess were stuck sitting in the cruise terminal instead.  That was not right at all.

 

I would have been more than happy to solve the wine problem myself had I known about it in advance.  As it was, my husband became increasingly unhappy about the situation as the week progressed which kind of spoiled the cruise.  

[PacnGoNow]

3 minutes ago, SuiteTraveler said:

Thank you,  I think I will notify them as I am concerned for the many other guests who should have been able to have lunch in the Club Class MDR but I guess were stuck sitting in the cruise terminal instead.  That was not right at all.

 

I would have been more than happy to solve the wine problem myself had I known about it in advance.  As it was, my husband became increasingly unhappy about the situation as the week progressed which kind of spoiled the cruise.  

So sorry this happened. We would have been upset too.  

I wonder how we could know about the wine shortage in the future?  I really don’t believe they would divulge that information.  Would be a great question to ask the top executives.

 

 

[LACruiser88]

1 minute ago, PacnGoNow said:

So sorry this happened. We would have been upset too.  

I wonder how we could know about the wine shortage in the future?  I really don’t believe they would divulge that information.  Would be a great question to ask the top executives.

 

 

We are very into wine and believe me, there is no wine shortage on the open market.  I think it is more a "shortage" of Princess wanting to spend the money on wine.

 

[PacnGoNow]

4 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

We are very into wine and believe me, there is no wine shortage on the open market.  I think it is more a "shortage" of Princess wanting to spend the money on wine.

 

You’re probably right.  We’ve not seen sny shortage either.

Sad….

[riffatsea]

I agree that the wine situation sounds ridiculous!

We were on the Aug 31 sailing and there was a separate area in the terminal for Elite/suite guests

it actually just said Elite but that b is where we s a t and we're allowed to board early

There was no sign saying suites could also go there but that's what we did anyway

[SuiteTraveler]

14 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

We are very into wine and believe me, there is no wine shortage on the open market.  I think it is more a "shortage" of Princess wanting to spend the money on wine.

 

The employees told us it was a "logistics" issue and that when they left Europe there was wine sitting on the dock they could not onboard.  They didn't explain why it could not be onboarded.  But Princess either needs to solve this problem or be honest with guests about what wine is onboard and let us buy and bring onboard the wine we do want.  The wine they did have was pretty awful.

[SuiteTraveler]

9 minutes ago, riffatsea said:

I agree that the wine situation sounds ridiculous!

We were on the Aug 31 sailing and there was a separate area in the terminal for Elite/suite guests

it actually just said Elite but that b is where we s a t and we're allowed to board early

There was no sign saying suites could also go there but that's what we did anyway

Where was this area of the terminal?  Once through security we went to the table to get our medallions and after that, there was just a huge room in the terminal where we were directed to sit although I asked about a lounge for suite guests.  I was looking all around for a separate area for suite guests, but saw nothing.  We've cruised in suites on MSC, NCL and other lines and I know there is usually a place for suite guests just after security...but couldn't see one in the Brooklyn terminal.

[CineGraphic]

They really dumbed-down the wine list when they added the premier package.

When selecting wines for an entire fleet, availability should be one of the main concerns.

Years ago I grew tired of ordering wines that are out of stock and have been bringing our own wines ever since. I just started packing for our Virgin Voyages sailing last night.

 

 

[SuiteTraveler]

Quite honestly if this is the way Princess intends to dumb down their wine program with the cheap wines that were mostly one brand, then we won't be cruising Princess any longer as my husband was very unhappy about the situation.  Even several wines that were on the very, very limited room service list were not available so I had the lady on the room service phone go over what she did have in stock as I had selected two different wines they didn't have in stock.  They literally had no good quality white wine and the only wine that was decent was Stag's Leaf Cabernet Sauvignon - not a good choice when you want a white wine, but at least it was a decent wine.   I truly hope this is just a temporary problem.  

[SuiteTraveler]

5 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

They really dumbed-down the wine list when they added the premier package.

When selecting wines for an entire fleet, availability should be one of the main concerns.

Years ago I grew tired of ordering wines that are out of stock and have been bringing our own wines ever since. I just started packing for our Virgin Voyages sailing last night.

 

 

Do they not know that Mondavi wines are highly rated and the most widely distributed wines in the world? Good grief, they need to get someone who understands wine distribution and knows how to judge wines to make the selections.  What they had onboard was awful.

[sonomaphil]

47 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

We are very into wine and believe me, there is no wine shortage on the open market.  I think it is more a "shortage" of Princess wanting to spend the money on wine.

 

This.

[WatchHill]

Logistics is another word for someone was too lazy to do his/her job to see that the ship is well supplied with a wide variety of quality wines. Maybe Princess should stop selling Effy and/or close one of the poorly appreciated a la carte dining places and have Trader Joe's set up a wine shop in its place!

 

I need my unoaked chardonnay

Dacry

[HBCcruiser]

48 minutes ago, WatchHill said:

Maybe Princess should stop selling Effy and/or close one of the poorly appreciated a la carte dining places and have Trader Joe's set up a wine shop in its place!

They'd probably make more money doing this! 😜

[riffatsea]

3 hours ago, SuiteTraveler said:

Where was this area of the terminal?  Once through security we went to the table to get our medallions and after that, there was just a huge room in the terminal where we were directed to sit although I asked about a lounge for suite guests.  I was looking all around for a separate area for suite guests, but saw nothing.  We've cruised in suites on MSC, NCL and other lines and I know there is usually a place for suite guests just after security...but couldn't see one in the Brooklyn terminal.

The area was on the left side of the big room next to the doors that led onto the ship

The sign only said Elite

The workers didn't know that suites should be on the sign too

The area had water,juice, and pastries

They did not have anyone escorting suites to the cabin as they do in the LA terminal

 

 

[Ombud]

Enchanted Princess was supposed to pick up supplies in Boston on 9/15/22 (or so I was told-- I disembarked 9/17/22) but we had to cross Atlantic near Bahamas bc of a hurricane. It was still very rough. So we missed Boston. In that they had 2 days noticed that we were too far south to hit Boston, I'm surprised they didn't reschedule delivery and pick it up when you stopped there

[NSWP]

3 hours ago, HBCcruiser said:

They'd probably make more money doing this! 😜

They already make plenty with massive marks ups, like Aussie Debortoli, $8 in the Aussie wine stores and $54 on the ships.(price on Coral recently.)

 

Some of the Aussie cruisers on my cruise who took the premium package also complained of poor premium wine choice.

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by NSWP

[Ombud]

3 hours ago, HBCcruiser said:

4 hours ago, WatchHill said:

Maybe Princess should stop selling Effy and/or close one of the poorly appreciated a la carte dining places and have Trader Joe's set up a wine shop in its place!

They'd probably make more money doing this! 

I'm not aware of any decent wine sold at Trader Joe's 

 

Will be boarding Caribbean Princess with 1-2 bottles in 8 weeks. Has anyone found the wine desk at FLL terminal? I didn't find it last December.  Is it a thing of the past?

[dog]

5 hours ago, SuiteTraveler said:

The employees told us it was a "logistics" issue and that when they left Europe there was wine sitting on the dock they could not onboard.  They didn't explain why it could not be onboarded.  But Princess either needs to solve this problem or be honest with guests about what wine is onboard and let us buy and bring onboard the wine we do want.  The wine they did have was pretty awful.

 

49 minutes ago, Ombud said:

Enchanted Princess was supposed to pick up supplies in Boston on 9/15/22 (or so I was told-- I disembarked 9/17/22) but we had to cross Atlantic near Bahamas bc of a hurricane. It was still very rough. So we missed Boston. In that they had 2 days noticed that we were too far south to hit Boston, I'm surprised they didn't reschedule delivery and pick it up when you stopped there

 

1 hour ago, riffatsea said:

The area was on the left side of the big room next to the doors that led onto the ship

The sign only said Elite

The workers didn't know that suites should be on the sign too

The area had water,juice, and pastries

They did not have anyone escorting suites to the cabin as they do in the LA terminal

 

 

Thanks for sharing. I board there in a couple of weeks. 

[Ombud]

12 minutes ago, dog said:

The employees told us it was a "logistics" issue and that when they left Europe there was wine sitting on the dock they could not onboard

Was that the dock in Ringaskiddy? Heavy rain there. We did not dock in Cobh (shifted by port) and I doubt supplies would have been brought on in Azores .... with up to 15 drinks pp & 7 days without bringing onboard there's a supply issue. Should've loaded it in Brooklyn or when it did make it to Boston

 

Yep, 15 pours a day × up to 2600+ pax × 7 days = major issues

 

Bringing 1-2 bottles on

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by Ombud

[dog]

4 minutes ago, Ombud said:

Was that the dock in Ringaskiddy? Heavy rain there. We did not dock in Cobh (shifted by port) and I doubt supplies would have been brought on in Azores .... with up to 15 drinks pp & 7 days without bringing onboard there's a supply issue.

 

Yep, 15 pours a day × 2600+ pax × 7 days = major issues

 

Bringing 1-2 bottles on

 

Quote was from OP, not dog.

 

dog says thanks for sharing.

 

dog will look for elite sign at Brooklyn terminal & carry on wine.

[Ombud]

6 hours ago, SuiteTraveler said:

I also want to note the bizarre experience at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.  We checked in and as far as we could tell, there was not a lounge for suite guests - not a problem.  The port employees told us to sit in the terminal.  

This had to be my most confusing disembarkation ever. I went through customs on the 16th as that was my 1st stop in USA. Disembarked the next day and was escorted to a side room, 16" carryon torn apart, several questions re: where the rest of luggage was / what did I do with the other luggage / what sharp things am I carrying / is this my only passport?? Mind you I entered USA the previous day!! I guess traveling for 3 weeks with a small carryon made me a target? Can't be how I look as I'm rather ordinary, dress conservatively, not a kid. I even started collecting SSA this year!!

 

And yeah. Outside of the CBP room Brooklyn terminal is more like a big barn

 

I was not the only one so yes that delays embarkation 

 

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by Ombud