Wine drinker...plus package warning.

[lhsail]

2 minutes ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

 

It also reduces the number of glasses used. On the Enchanted last fall, very odd, but they kept running out of wine glasses in multiple bars. They were serving wine in tumblers......

I had forgotten that. Same on the Enchanted in April, No excuse for not having enough wine glasses. Think we‘ll be back to Celebrity for the next several cruises. 

[geoherb]

2 hours ago, Canuker said:

Doubles, on a drinks package? What am I missing? Why not just hand out full bottles?

 

The bartenders at Vines did this for my friends on the Caribbean. It made sense to me as well.

[DallasGuy75219]

2 hours ago, geoherb said:

 

The bartenders at Vines did this for my friends on the Caribbean. It made sense to me as well.

I'll proactively order a double pour at Vines on the way to dinner to get something slightly better with Plus than the Canyon Road I'd be served in the dining room.

[voljeep]

7 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

I'll proactively order a double pour at Vines on the way to dinner to get something slightly better with Plus than the Canyon Road I'd be served in the dining room.

Publix - Black Box Cab - 3L - $19.99

Urban Barn Cab - BOGO Free - $17.49

Made by James Cab - BOGO Free - $20.99

 

Peroni - 6 pack - BOGO Free - $12.99

Landshark - 6 pack - BOGO Free - $11.29  Note: Little store close to home has it on sale for $7.99 six-er

Edited Wednesday at 01:02 PM by voljeep

[lhsail]

10 hours ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

 

It also reduces the number of glasses used. On the Enchanted last fall, very odd, but they kept running out of wine glasses in multiple bars. They were serving wine in tumblers......

Same experience in April. 

[JimmyVWine]

7 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

I'll proactively order a double pour at Vines on the way to dinner to get something slightly better with Plus than the Canyon Road I'd be served in the dining room.

We tried to have the server at Vines hand over a full bottle to us and take 6 credits off of our accounts (2+2+2) but he wouldn't bite.  We explained that we would sit at the bar and have 2 glasses each and drain the bottle so wouldn't it be easier to just hand over the bottle and let us take it back to our balcony, but it was a no go.

[BamaVol]

3 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

We tried to have the server at Vines hand over a full bottle to us and take 6 credits off of our accounts (2+2+2) but he wouldn't bite.  We explained that we would sit at the bar and have 2 glasses each and drain the bottle so wouldn't it be easier to just hand over the bottle and let us take it back to our balcony, but it was a no go.

On Sapphire in September the Vines-tender kept a steely eye on his glasses which are far superior to any used elsewhere on the ship. We did not attempt to leave with them. 

[JimmyVWine]

23 minutes ago, BamaVol said:

On Sapphire in September the Vines-tender kept a steely eye on his glasses which are far superior to any used elsewhere on the ship. We did not attempt to leave with them. 

We were using our own glasses.

[HMSDingy]

42 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

We were using our own glasses.

Does the wine taste better in your own glasses. Sarcasm!

[JimmyVWine]

24 minutes ago, HMSDingy said:

Does the wine taste better in your own glasses. Sarcasm!

Of course it does.  (Not sarcasm.)  There is no way that anyone can swirl and sniff a wine in Princess' standard glasses.  Even most of their Riedels are Sauvignon Blanc glasses and not Burgundy or Bordeaux glasses and are too small for a bold red. Post 122 shows the Bordeaux stems that we bring along and the photo below shows the Burgundy stems. I can actually swirl my wine without wearing it.  Tends to taste better in my mouth than on my shirt! 😆

 

 

 

 

 

[no1superfan]

2 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

We were using our own glasses.

Last year we cruised from Galveston in a Club Class Mini Suite and one of the perks was a bottle of wine in our cabin, but there were no wine glasses to be found. So we used the water glasses for the sail-away.  
Texas has a silly law forcing you to pay for alcohol in Texas waters. I am wondering if that was the reason wine glasses were not provided? This year we're packing wine glasses in our carry on.

[lhsail]

Just now, no1superfan said:

Last year we cruised from Galveston in a Club Class Mini Suite and one of the perks was a bottle of wine in our cabin, but there were no wine glasses to be found. So we used the water glasses for the sail-away.  
Texas has a silly law forcing you to pay for alcohol in Texas waters. I am wondering if that was the reason wine glasses were not provided? This year we're packing wine glasses in our carry on.

I don’t think that why there were no glasses in your cabin. We always just ask our cabin steward for some. 
 

The Texas law is that any alcohol served/sold while in Texas waters has to be bought from a Texas provider. The cruise lines all seem to have a different way of implementing this. Princess choses to only purchase and offer a limited choice of alcoholic beverages and doesn’t honor the drink package until in International waters. They do give you some OBC to help defray the cost if you have a package. NCL, for example, purchases basically a full complement from the state and honors the drink package as soon as you board, believe you have to pay state taxes. When they get into International waters they quit using the alcohol purchased from Texas and start using what they can get a lower cost from other providers. 

[dreaminofcruisin]

13 minutes ago, no1superfan said:

Last year we cruised from Galveston in a Club Class Mini Suite and one of the perks was a bottle of wine in our cabin, but there were no wine glasses to be found. So we used the water glasses for the sail-away.  
Texas has a silly law forcing you to pay for alcohol in Texas waters. I am wondering if that was the reason wine glasses were not provided? This year we're packing wine glasses in our carry on.

You can just ask for wine glasses at any bar.

 

[DallasGuy75219]

4 hours ago, BamaVol said:

On Sapphire in September the Vines-tender kept a steely eye on his glasses which are far superior to any used elsewhere on the ship. We did not attempt to leave with them. 

When I get a double pour at Vines on the way to dinner, I tell the bartender I'm taking it to dinner so they don't give me Riedel.

[XBGuy]

4 hours ago, no1superfan said:

Last year we cruised from Galveston in a Club Class Mini Suite and one of the perks was a bottle of wine in our cabin, but there were no wine glasses to be found. So we used the water glasses for the sail-away.  

 

I am a bit of an iconoclast.  I think that it is fun to drink out of pretty stems, but I also know what kind of wines Princess tends to award as perquisites.  My guess is that no Riedel or Zalto or Schott-Zwiesel or Gabriel stem could have done much for your comped wine.  I'll bet your water tumblers worked fine.

 

Similarly, if they had comped you, say, a Tignanello, it would still have tasted darned good in one of those water tumblers.

[pppatpc2]

On 6/25/2024 at 12:09 AM, memoak said:

We just buy bottles at dinner with the 25% discount for dinners. Some Prosecco late morning and maybe plus wines in the casino. Vines still has an excellent Zin within the i

plus package 

Which Zin is it, may I ask?

 

I think there should be an option to PAY 25% of the bottle cost and 5 chits off your daily drink package.  Or else,  take any bottle on the regular wine list and divide by 5, if that price is $15 or less, you should be able to get the bottle for 5 drink chits.

[pppatpc2]

On 6/25/2024 at 2:40 PM, voljeep said:

Clay Creek Cab - BOGO - $17.99 - Is that a PLUS or Premier package wine?  4 pours ...

 

Is Clay Creek offered?  I would be quite pleased if it was, same with CS Substance, and Clay Shannon.

[memoak]

1 hour ago, pppatpc2 said:

Which Zin is it, may I ask?

 

I think there should be an option to PAY 25% of the bottle cost and 5 chits off your daily drink package.  Or else,  take any bottle on the regular wine list and divide by 5, if that price is $15 or less, you should be able to get the bottle for 5 drink chits.

If you have the plus package you can always get a 25% discount on bottles

[NMTraveller]

On 6/25/2024 at 7:23 PM, lhsail said:

I had forgotten that. Same on the Enchanted in April, No excuse for not having enough wine glasses. Think we‘ll be back to Celebrity for the next several cruises. 

Celebrity has nice wine glasses.  Most cabs even on the Celebrity premium package will require an upcharge.  I had about $300 of wine upcharges on my last Celebrity cruise.

 

My recollection is that even Whispering Angel was an upcharge ...

Edited 17 minutes ago by NMTraveller