Pre-Buy Wine Package and have it delivered to room - which wines

[Wayfairers]

I’ve bought wine packages several times, but never pre-bought one.  I always just pick out the next bottle when I empty one and keep all the bottles at various bars and the MDR.  I am considering pre-buying a package this time and ask that it be delivered to the room on embarkation day.  Each package has various wines to choose from.  How do they choose which ones to have delivered to the room?

[Boatdrill]

Beware of pre-buying. The ship may not have the wines you chose.

[USN59-79]

As you said, each package has various wines to choose from.  You are the one who chooses which wine in the package you purchase to be delivered to your room.  Yes, they may not have the one you chose, whether you chose it before or after boarding.

Ray

[pmjnh]

I have  been tempted to pre-buy the package but decided against it. You can buy it when on board and have them deliver them all to your stateroom if desired. I did that once and one of the waiters walked to the stateroom with me with my package of 4 chosen bottles in hand.

[Sea42]

2 hours ago, pmjnh said:

I have  been tempted to pre-buy the package but decided against it. You can buy it when on board and have them deliver them all to your stateroom if desired. I did that once and one of the waiters walked to the stateroom with me with my package of 4 chosen bottles in hand.

We bought an 8 bottle package on our last cruise (NS) and were only allowed to have 2 delivered to the stateroom at a time. Just a little bit extra effort in having to call when we wanted the next bottle and to keep a tally so we remembered how many bottles we had left. But what I really didn't like is that my favorite wine of the package was not available the next time I asked for it!

We wait until we're onboard to use our OBC.

[Wayfairers]

I’ve had the ship run out of my favorite wines before too and had to pick something else.  On one cruise HAL actually substituted a wine I had never tried but loved.  I rarely drink the same wines and enjoy trying new ones.  Since I’ve always bought a bottle at a time I’ve never asked to have them all delivered to my room.  I will be buying a 24 bottle package (long cruises B2B).  Good point on waiting until I’m onboard and using OBC to buy the package.

 

But, I am still curious about how I would choose the wines if I order online to have it delivered to room embarkation day.  I didn’t see any way to do that while picking the package.  I didn’t actually purchase the package - do you choose later in the purchasing process?

[bcummin]

Each ship is different, especially now.  Your dining steward will try to be helpful, but the Cellar Master decides.  I got to talk to the Cellar Master a day or two after the cruise started.  And some new wines were available mid cruise. (My favorite changed labels.)

Barbara

 

[Wayfairers]

4 hours ago, bcummin said:

Each ship is different, especially now.  Your dining steward will try to be helpful, but the Cellar Master decides.  I got to talk to the Cellar Master a day or two after the cruise started.  And some new wines were available mid cruise. (My favorite changed labels.)

Barbara

 

So are you saying the Cellar Master decides which wines are sent to your room when you pre-order a wine package?  Since there doesn’t see a way to choose wines online, I don’t see how else they could do it, unless it was purely random

[bcummin]

The Cellar Master lets you know what your choices are.  Your dining steward will deliver messages to the Cellar Master, who will be very busy the first few days.  Eventually he will visit your dining table.

 

We order our wine package on board after leaving port which adds taxes.  Your dining steward will be happy to make the sale.  We do not pre-order, but we have traded bottles in the dining room when we had something (gift) that we did not want.

 

On one cruise the supply of our favorite wine was running low, so the rest of our eight bottles were delivered to our room.  They went into a bottom drawer with towels.

The Cellar Master can help you choose what they have available that will add to the joy of your voyage.

Barbara

[pmjnh]

20 hours ago, Sea42 said:

We bought an 8 bottle package on our last cruise (NS) and were only allowed to have 2 delivered to the stateroom at a time. Just a little bit extra effort in having to call when we wanted the next bottle and to keep a tally so we remembered how many bottles we had left. But what I really didn't like is that my favorite wine of the package was not available the next time I asked for it!

We wait until we're onboard to use our OBC.

 

That's interesting. Once you purchase the package it's yours. I don't understand why they would restrict the number. There was no question about that when they delivered mine...and that would have been 4 had I not left one in the MDR.

 

 I have a favorite in cellar 2 that I always order . I am always hoping that they have it available!

[pmjnh]

17 hours ago, Wayfairers said:

I’ve had the ship run out of my favorite wines before too and had to pick something else.  On one cruise HAL actually substituted a wine I had never tried but loved.  I rarely drink the same wines and enjoy trying new ones.  Since I’ve always bought a bottle at a time I’ve never asked to have them all delivered to my room.  I will be buying a 24 bottle package (long cruises B2B).  Good point on waiting until I’m onboard and using OBC to buy the package.

 

But, I am still curious about how I would choose the wines if I order online to have it delivered to room embarkation day.  I didn’t see any way to do that while picking the package.  I didn’t actually purchase the package - do you choose later in the purchasing process?

If you purchase online pre board I do not think you can chose til you are on board. 

[Wayfairers]

5 hours ago, pmjnh said:

If you purchase online pre board I do not think you can chose til you are on board. 

That makes sense. 

[Wayfairers]

16 hours ago, bcummin said:

 

We order our wine package on board after leaving port which adds taxes.  

That is a great idea!

[bcummin]

Since you are preparing for such a marvelous voyage, I will share more.

My favorite wine is not in the wine list packages, so I always make sure that they will substitute it to be in my wine package.  Now, this means asking the dining steward and waiting for the Cellar Master's reply maybe the next day.  Then I purchase.

You could verify what wines are onboard that you like, and have them deliver all eight bottles to your room.

 

I brought wine aboard after wine tours in Arrecife and Cape Town to enjoy in my room.  Surprised that my wine bottle was confiscated by security onboard in Arrecife "to be confirmed."  It was delivered to my room a few days later.  No problem in Cape Town. 

Funchal has amazing exotic flowers, so I bought some.  Wrapped them in plastic bags for protection and brought them through security to my room.  Room Steward brought me a nice vase, and I enjoyed those flowers the whole voyage.  Another sweet lady's flowers were confiscated by onboard security, never to be seen again.

 

It sounds like your voyage is turning into a party boat.  🙂   Pinching pennies, my plan was for my eight-bottle wine package to last the whole voyage.  I enjoyed small glasses of wine at dinner most evenings.  There were times that I did not want a glass of wine.  I finished the last glass on the last day of my voyage. 

Barbara  

Edited August 25, 2023 by bcummin

[Wayfairers]

On 8/25/2023 at 10:41 AM, bcummin said:

Since you are preparing for such a marvelous voyage, I will share more.

My favorite wine is not in the wine list packages, so I always make sure that they will substitute it to be in my wine package.  Now, this means asking the dining steward and waiting for the Cellar Master's reply maybe the next day.  Then I purchase.

You could verify what wines are onboard that you like, and have them deliver all eight bottles to your room.

 

I brought wine aboard after wine tours in Arrecife and Cape Town to enjoy in my room.  Surprised that my wine bottle was confiscated by security onboard in Arrecife "to be confirmed."  It was delivered to my room a few days later.  No problem in Cape Town. 

Funchal has amazing exotic flowers, so I bought some.  Wrapped them in plastic bags for protection and brought them through security to my room.  Room Steward brought me a nice vase, and I enjoyed those flowers the whole voyage.  Another sweet lady's flowers were confiscated by onboard security, never to be seen again.

 

It sounds like your voyage is turning into a party boat.  🙂   Pinching pennies, my plan was for my eight-bottle wine package to last the whole voyage.  I enjoyed small glasses of wine at dinner most evenings.  There were times that I did not want a glass of wine.  I finished the last glass on the last day of my voyage. 

Barbara  

Thanks for telling me you’ve been successful asking for a substitution in the wine package.  That is good to know.

 

I agree, sounds like the voyage is turning into a party boat which might be interesting with it being a long cruise.  We originally bought the beverage package but after I ran the numbers based upon what we expect to drink, the cost was better for us to hit happy hour and buy wine packages.  So I cancelled it yesterday.  We learned last summer that daily both of us try to make sure we get our moneys worth with a beverage package and that wouldn’t be good on a 7 month voyage. 

[Real NHDOC]

The wine packages are a great deal, especially if you get the mariner's discount.  We usually stick to cellar 1 for a couple of reasons.  We like most of the wines in that cellar and because quite often the particular one you want will be out of stock so they substitute something usually from one of the higher cellars or off the wine list and they are almost always better wines.  One of our favorites is the french dry rose Domaine Houchart.  It is on package 1 and is very drinkable wine with most anything. The french Pinot Noir is also very good.  Almost as good as our go-to which is the Evolution from Oregon which they have often substituted when the P-N from package 1 is sold out.  

[Wayfairers]

1 hour ago, Real NHDOC said:

The wine packages are a great deal, especially if you get the mariner's discount.  We usually stick to cellar 1 for a couple of reasons.  We like most of the wines in that cellar and because quite often the particular one you want will be out of stock so they substitute something usually from one of the higher cellars or off the wine list and they are almost always better wines.  One of our favorites is the french dry rose Domaine Houchart.  It is on package 1 and is very drinkable wine with most anything. The french Pinot Noir is also very good.  Almost as good as our go-to which is the Evolution from Oregon which they have often substituted when the P-N from package 1 is sold out.  

I have been buying the wine packages since we became 4 star a few years ago and agree they are a great deal.  I also stick to cellar 1 since I like the wines I see no reason to pay more for the other cellar packages.  Pinot Noir is one of my favorite types of wine and yes, the one in cellar 1 is great.