Premium wine package?

[galeforce9]

Hi everyone.  It’s been a while since I sailed and I am interested in the premium wine packages.  I’ve had a wine bundle before. I think I picked so many from a certain list and there may have been two levels.    How does it work now and what price is it/do people think it is good value or is it better to buy as you go?   Thank you. 

[Sucellos]

Last summer I just bought wine from the premium list whenever I felt like it, and the sommelier reminded me when I was about to cross the threshold for a discount/bonus that could be applied to the next bottle. The info on the Seabourn website (https://www.seabourn.com/en/experience/seabourn-wine) described a more rigid system, indicating that you need to choose the desired tier and bottles at once, but my experience was a more pragmatic and customer friendly approach in real life. As always, your mileage might vary though.

 

Some of the wines on the premium list are fairly good, but some have ridiculous mark-ups and some are way too young to show their actual quality, so I recommend to pay attention. 

[Isr45]

2 hours ago, galeforce9 said:

Hi everyone.  It’s been a while since I sailed and I am interested in the premium wine packages.  I’ve had a wine bundle before. I think I picked so many from a certain list and there may have been two levels.    How does it work now and what price is it/do people think it is good value or is it better to buy as you go?   Thank you. 
 

My husband always buys the wines.

He picks as he goes and as stated they tell you when due a free one. A free one keeps being given when you spend the required amount again etc.

As to price (we are diamond so receive 25% discount) there are great deals, ok deals and poor deals. My husband is charged less for Opus One onboard than we could buy it at a wine shop in the UK. You really need to check the wines on the list that appeal and then decide if you are comfortable with that price for that wine 😀

[frantic36]

1 hour ago, Sucellos said:

I just bought wine from the premium list whenever I felt like it, and the sommelier reminded me when I was about to cross the threshold for a discount/bonus that could be applied to the next bottle.

 

46 minutes ago, Isr45 said:

He picks as he goes and as stated they tell you when due a free one. A free one keeps being given when you spend the required amount again etc.

Agree with both these as we experienced this on our Jan/Feb '24 cruise. 

 

We ask the Sommelier for the premium wine list and take photos of the list so we could go through it later to make a list if some of our favourites. We also ask the Sommelier for recommendations because sometimes there are odd bottles tucked away not on the list. On longer cruises the list can be updated if they get new provisions loaded as happened on our cruise.

 

We were lucky on our last cruise we had Joanne and Phillipe and their backups, though not as knowledgeable, were learning quickly with Jo & Phillipe's mentoring.

Edited May 10 by frantic36

[2SailingNomads]

Phillipe is my favorite.  Knows his stuff, takes great care of us, and also always have a good time just chatting with him.