Surcharges for drinks in Retreat Lounge

[tfred]

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

With due respect to your server -   First step I would recommend is to verbalize your displeasure via the online attention to detail form.   You will probably get a call from the Cellar Master next day and he will sit down with you do discuss.   

 

WE had a similar problem and he fixed it instantly.   Iain wasn't asking for a wine above drink package just trying to get a wine he likes that we knew was available but the "Sommelier" couldn't find it.    After that meeting it was available every night in every restaurant we dined in.

I would be alot happier if the PDP wine selection was a tad more expansive   Mouton Cadet red blends are pretty low end for "Premium"

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, HMR74 said:

I received Vikings regularly  scheduled  snail mailed brochure today. They have an 8 day cruise from Toronto to Milwaukee. , startng at 6k PP.

 

The introduction made a point about not nickle and diming.

Drinks only at lunch and dinner.

 

Whatever vacation one chooses, you need to look at the total picture of what you get and how much enjoyment you get.

 

I still really enjoy motor trips, drive your own car. No forced schedule. Just like to be in a new town/city at dusk. Even then the  technology on tablets  and gps/nav systems makes it pretty easy to find where you are going. That used to be the stressful part. Where you could drive for 30 minutes in wrong direction, pretty difficult now.

 

Road trips are my absolute last choice.  Fly somewhere and spend 3-5 days exploring pre and post cruise is my #1 choice.  Cruise and return 2nd choice, AI resort 3rd choice.  Road trips only if necessary to see family.

Great that there are options.

[HMR74]

1 hour ago, jelayne said:

Road trips are my absolute last choice.  Fly somewhere and spend 3-5 days exploring pre and post cruise is my #1 choice.  Cruise and return 2nd choice, AI resort 3rd choice.  Road trips only if necessary to see family.

Great that there are options.

Talking about foreign road trips. Even then only 1-3 hours actual driving on our driving days. Lots of stops and unplaned short side trips if we find anythign interesting, even if stopping only for 20-30 minutes looking out from a mountain. As we have the car, we buy a couple of cheap shoulder type folding chairs and a cooler and a small table to put between us and have a nosh along the road. I am talking about a month or more say exploring Spain and Portugal.

 

 Have seen the good old USA by road, with many stops along the way. Back roads, not interstates unless no choice. Then B and B's where like cruising ,you meet new and interesting (for the most part) folks.

 

My wifes cousin just nought a motor home. Now thats not my thing--speaking mostly about the clean up maintenance and size which preculdes many back roads.

 

Cruising--like the concept of catching a cruise in one country and ending in another country, so we can do some pre and post cruise exploring.

[riredsox]

21 hours ago, 39august said:

Are Azteca and the two Zacapa drinks  the only drinks in World Class Bar that are over the $17 limit, please?. Of course these are my favs there but I can get by on some of the others. 

Also the Violet Hour.  I love the Azteca and will pay the extra a couple of nights.  I have a cruise on the Ascent in 3 weeks and the Mardi Gras cruise in February on the Connie. These are cruises number 43 and 44 on Celebrity.  After that I have 3 MSC YC’s booked.  Then on to other lines to try.  

[riredsox]

10 hours ago, tfred said:

I would be alot happier if the PDP wine selection was a tad more expansive   Mouton Cadet red blends are pretty low end for "Premium"

$8.99 a bottle in Walmart!  And Celebrity always said they had the best wine at sea.  Fancy Celebrity, real fancy!

[HMR74]

19 minutes ago, riredsox said:

$8.99 a bottle in Walmart!  And Celebrity always said they had the best wine at sea.  Fancy Celebrity, real fancy!

X did not just say it had the best, it promoted it as a differentiator from other cruise lines.

 

 

[drakes2]

22 minutes ago, riredsox said:

$8.99 a bottle in Walmart!  And Celebrity always said they had the best wine at sea.  Fancy Celebrity, real fancy!

Who are they kidding? HAD, as in years gone by.  I have a cruise booked in March on the Beyond and will take note of their offerings by the glass.

[riredsox]

8 minutes ago, HMR74 said:

X did not just say it had the best, it promoted it as a differentiator from other cruise lines.

 

 

They actually said they had an ‘award winning list’ which of course they did.  They just never had the wines that were on the list!

[CruiseRQA]

8 minutes ago, riredsox said:

They actually said they had an ‘award winning list’ which of course they did.  They just never had the wines that were on the list!

That's spot on!

 

Last year in Fine Cuts (Beyond) I tried to order a bottle of  CA cab from their "list".   Didn't have it.   Moved onto a Malbec from somewhere.  Didn't have it.  Okay, how about a glass of cab from your list?  Didn't have that.   Eventually they brought me something that wasn't on the list.

[HMR74]

18 minutes ago, riredsox said:

They actually said they had an ‘award winning list’ which of course they did.  They just never had the wines that were on the list!

Back a few years ago we were on a TA that I wanted to buy a package to buy several bottles at a discount. While I thought about it X pulled the special, and told me the reason was that there was so much demand , but there was not space on the ship for it.

 

I though that was a fishy excuse then, more so now. Because statistically they know how much booze they will go thru on probably any cruise, given demographics etc. They even know what we have had for our drinks making it more predictable.That stat changes if we cannot get the drinks we want.

 

How well they use the info is another subject. Subjective because they can use the info to reduce their financial exposure to lowest margin drinks, by running out of stock early in a cruise. Sorry!

 

eg, I do not understand how Heineken can be on Classic and Stella on Premium. Both basically a mass produced beer. Retail they are priced the same. A buck a bottle perhaps a little over that. $13-$15 a 12 bottle case. but I like Stella better. Do they sell more Stella and that fact gets it into Premium?

 

Edited January 3 by HMR74

[Ex-Airbalancer]

2 hours ago, riredsox said:

$8.99 a bottle in Walmart!  And Celebrity always said they had the best wine at sea.  Fancy Celebrity, real fancy!

Only $19.95 CAD ($14.95USD) in Ontario , bottle deposit included 🤣

[Ex-Airbalancer]

1 hour ago, riredsox said:

They actually said they had an ‘award winning list’ which of course they did.  They just never had the wines that were on the list!

Whose listed 🤔😁

 

[HMR74]

Just received an e mail on this--at Liquor Barn in Illinois. This is an example of when there should be an upcharge.

 

 

But this caught my attention

Edited January 3 by HMR74

[markeb]

6 hours ago, riredsox said:

They actually said they had an ‘award winning list’ which of course they did.  They just never had the wines that were on the list!

Although everyone’s having fun with this, it would help to know what the award is and what it recognizes. It’s a very real award, from Wine Spectator. If memory serves, Celebrity was the first cruise line to be rated. It’s by “restaurant”. They treat each venue/ship combination separately. For instance, Le Voyage and Tuscan on Beyond are both individually rated.

 

The awards revolve largely around the variety and strength of the wine list. The by the glass offerings don’t appear to have any impact. Wine Spectators last awards were in August of 2023 and Celebrity received 18. And quite frankly their wine lists are pretty amazing. I suspect availability of the high end wines is good. There won’t be as many of them, and there likely won’t be as much demand. Wine Spectator doesn’t visit every restaurant it reviews and I suspect there’s an assumption that if you’re listing a 2005 Chateau Lafite Rothschild you can actually source it. 
 

Having a 20,000 case (or more) a year production wine available in a drink package isn’t a criteria. You can have an amazing wine list and still not have decent wines by the glass at a reasonable markup…
 

 

[TourDeCruise]

I can check out about wine in Retreat lounge on Beyond starting Monday. We will be in Aqua Class on this sailing so cannot check out the Retreat sundeck or Luminae as we only have Retreat lounge access for being Zenith. We have been in Retreat/suite class before but not for this sailing. I will be checking out wine list in Blu too.

[Moby Jones]

7 hours ago, riredsox said:

$8.99 a bottle in Walmart!  And Celebrity always said they had the best wine at sea.  Fancy Celebrity, real fancy!

Celebrity has great wines at sea. This is true. 

They're just not in the beverage packages and you have to buy by the bottle with a massive mark up.....

 

[Moby Jones]

2 hours ago, HMR74 said:

Just received an e mail on this--at Liquor Barn in Illinois. This is an example of when there should be an upcharge.

 

 

But this caught my attention

The Macallan M decanters are bought as collectibles and traded on the secondary market. Here in the UK we have a large number of specialist secondary market auction sites selling rare and collectible bottles. It's common here for specialist retailers to buy bottles from these auction sites and offer them at ridiculously high prices such as the place you mention.

The thing to bear in mind here is that practically no one drinks them. The true value of the liquid inside the bottles bears no relation what so ever to the cost. You are paying for the name and the glass bottle in the case of the higher end offerings whisky hoping they will become more collectible in the future. 

Prices for the core range expressions are a lot more realistic than the collectible examples pictured. 🙂 

[riredsox]

17 hours ago, HMR74 said:

Just received an e mail on this--at Liquor Barn in Illinois. This is an example of when there should be an upcharge.

 

 

But this caught my attention

Santa left that Macallan Harmony under the tree for me!  Of course he also left me Covid in my stocking!  I thought I had been good but I think it’s the new coal! 

[riredsox]

14 hours ago, Moby Jones said:

The Macallan M decanters are bought as collectibles and traded on the secondary market. Here in the UK we have a large number of specialist secondary market auction sites selling rare and collectible bottles. It's common here for specialist retailers to buy bottles from these auction sites and offer them at ridiculously high prices such as the place you mention.

The thing to bear in mind here is that practically no one drinks them. The true value of the liquid inside the bottles bears no relation what so ever to the cost. You are paying for the name and the glass bottle in the case of the higher end offerings whisky hoping they will become more collectible in the future. 

Prices for the core range expressions are a lot more realistic than the collectible examples pictured. 🙂 

I purchased the Macallan Enigma on MSC (at the 25% off sale with OBC).  It was a beautiful bottle and box.  I didn’t care too much for the scotch itself but my friend loved it!  When the bottle was empty he dropped me off a bottle of The Glenlivet 18 which I though was superior in taste. The only bottle I ever kept when empty was my Papi from a milestone birthday.  

[Diav]

On 1/2/2024 at 1:28 PM, High on the Seas said:

With the premium package we shouldn’t have to “get by” with drinks like this. There will always be an extra charge for some cocktails and wine but it’s turning into more the norm. 

High Seas,

Since there is no World Class Bar on the Apex, I checked out the Craft Social Bar. They said that the zacapa  are included in the pop, no up charge. They did not have Azteca. 

the Wi-Fi on the apex is absolutely terrible for the past few days!

[High on the Seas]

3 minutes ago, Diav said:

High Seas,

Since there is no World Class Bar on the Apex, I checked out the Craft Social Bar. They said that the zacapa  are included in the pop, no up charge. They did not have Azteca. 

the Wi-Fi on the apex is absolutely terrible for the past few days!

Thanks for the update!

[Diav]

On 1/2/2024 at 1:28 PM, High on the Seas said:

With the premium package we shouldn’t have to “get by” with drinks like this. There will always be an extra charge for some cocktails and wine but it’s turning into more the norm. 

There was such a glare in Luminae but here goes

[drakes2]

2 minutes ago, High on the Seas said:

Thanks for the update!

Would anyone know if the WCB is on Beyond. I had read they were going to add it since it is so popular. I do like the odd drink even though I don't have a package.

 

[HMR74]

13 minutes ago, Diav said:

High Seas,

Since there is no World Class Bar on the Apex, I checked out the Craft Social Bar. They said that the zacapa  are included in the pop, no up charge. They did not have Azteca. 

the Wi-Fi on the apex is absolutely terrible for the past few days!

where is the ship when wifi is bad?

[39august]

Thanks for the menu from Luminae. Disgraceful, Castle Rock!  Fortunately, they usually have several wines not on the list. I will hope for the best in two weeks.