Wine Auction?

[heid5]

Does anyone have the name or any phone numbers for the outfit that does the wine auction on the Century? One of my sailing companions "won" a bottle of wine on the 2/17 sailing of the Century. The auction manager made a big deal about sending the wine to her home.................. Obviously it never arrived. I would like to contact them first, before I try to make a stink with Celebrity. Any help would be appreciated. '

'

PS I would be concerned about buying anything from a company that does not deliver as promissed.

[dileep]

I would not have anything to do with the company does does the wine auctions!

 

The guy on our Millennium cruise was very unprofessional. The company is called Ocean Vineyard.

[Dick in Falls Church]

Well, I won a selection last year, as well as buying one. Best I recall, this was in early July. Stuff arrived considerably later than I expected--just before Thanksgiving.

Give them a bit more time--they are slow. They did reply to an email when I queried--something about import difficulties.

[Cptn. Heimlich]

In my opinion, the wine 'auctions' on X are not auctions at all. We sailed Summit to Hawaii Jan 06', and witnessed a joke of a thing called a wine auction. 3 guests were bidding each other up and when it settled on the 'winnning' bidder, they dropped the price to the second highest bid and told all 3 they had 'won' the wine (because they happen to have more than 1 on hand). The look on the faces of the other 2 guests (who had been 'out bid') was pure astonishment. Of course X would rather sell 3 cases at a slightly lower price than 1 at a fraction more. They seem to forget that the whole idea of an auction is to 'bid up the other guy'...etc.

[EMS8]

You can contact them at customerservice@oceanvineyard.com. I just did that for the wine I purchased on Century in February. The letter I received from the auctioneer said to allow up to 6 weeks. The reply I got from the customer service guy said 8 weeks.

[dmk]

On my cruise last March I had nothing to do with the Wine Auction because people on this board warned aboud the lack of professionalism. Thank you.

But I am curious. Do you get to sample these wines your bidding on? I didn't see any samples around. It would be odd to bid on something you have never tasted.:eek:

[Cptn. Heimlich]

Yes they were giving out samples but only 1 type of champaign from what I saw. They are also carefull to ask you when you register what kind you like. Then they single you out using your name saying "Fred here likes a nice sweet white" .... Poor ol' Fred kinda feels like he should bid now when the whole ship is watching him. VERY TACKY :(

[Dick in Falls Church]

Well, no, they don't let you sample the wine. But then, I've been into quite a number of wine shops that don't let you sample the wine, either.

 

The wines I bought were decent, but not superior. They were not available in the US, but a bit of time on the computer found at least some of them available for sale in Europe--and prices were a bit higher than what I paid.

 

Would I do it again? Maybe. Would I sit through another auction? Depends on what else might be going on, and on the salesman (auctioneer). The one we met (twice) on the Century last year was very personable, very knowledgable, and fun.