Wine drinkers

[fanfare]

Hi-

My husband and I are wine drinkers and are considering the "Wine and Dine" packages. When I look at the lists on the RC site, they all look the same (diamond, gold, platinum)? My question is, while on board will we be able to drink this wine only in the dining room, or will we also be able to drink it in the other bars/lounges? We'll be on Splendour of the Seas and this will be the first cruise for us.

Thanks for the help!

R

[thepeacha]

I cannot answer your question, as I don't care for the package. But I sure do enjoy my wines- and I had a miserable wine tasting on the BOS last month. So my off- topic response to your post is to be leery of the wine tasting onboard. They had one poor- quality white wine glass, one poor quality red glass- not one per wine... it was simply very poorly done and if you truly are a wine fan you may want to stick to your trusted and true land- based wine tastings.

 

Happy sails!

[AMommyof2]

We've always gotten ours in the dining room. It's available during lunch and dinner in the main dining room. You can take the unfinished portion with you to your stateroom after your meal. We've also had them uncork a 2nd bottle so we'd have a full one in our stateroom. Don't know if you can also request it at other locations. We've just never tried to.

[KarinaGW]

You can also drink it in the Windjammer and the specialty restaurants. If you have not finished all your bottles (hard to believe, but, I guess, it's a possibilty), you can take unused bottles home with you.

 

You want to have a good time? Ask for your wine at lunch in the Windjammer. It's perfectly legitimate, but it puzzles the heck out of everybody because it's hardly ever done.

[AMommyof2]

We've never had any bottles left at the end of the cruise so I had completely forgotten you can take it with you. We usually end up having to buy extra bottles.

 

Happy sailing.

[KarinaGW]

We've never had any bottles left at the end of the cruise so I had completely forgotten you can take it with you. We usually end up having to buy extra bottles.

 

Happy sailing.

 

Me neither. On our last 9-nite on Explorer, we bought 2 7-bottle packs (he does white and I do red). and then a 5-bottle. None left for us to take home either.

[pinklucky61]

how do prices compare between pre-cruise purchase of single bottle to buying 1 onboard when needed?

[pjsugg]

If I am understanding their policy on wine, you do not have to pay a corkage fee if you get your wine in the dining room, but you can take the unfinished back to your cabin. Now, we could open two bottles, drink one and take the other back to our cabin, cork it and drink later in the evening on our balcony....no corkage fee. Does that sound correct? No sense in ordering for our cabin, if we can finish the bottle later. Thanks???

 

Patti

[robtulipe]

how do prices compare between pre-cruise purchase of single bottle to buying 1 onboard when needed?

You pay $2 extra per bottle to buy precruise but don't pay the 15% gratuity so this offers the most savings for the higher price wines. Also you can have them in dining room with no corkage fee added.

[robtulipe]

If I am understanding their policy on wine, you do not have to pay a corkage fee if you get your wine in the dining room, but you can take the unfinished back to your cabin. Now, we could open two bottles, drink one and take the other back to our cabin, cork it and drink later in the evening on our balcony....no corkage fee. Does that sound correct? No sense in ordering for our cabin, if we can finish the bottle later. Thanks???

 

Patti

Yes you can take back partial or full bottles back to your cabin and there is no corkage fee for any of their wines whether bought precruise or on board.

[pjsugg]

Thanks Bob. Guess we will just order wine at dinner and take back any we did not drink.

 

Patti

[pjsugg]

Bob,

 

I just told my husband it would appear we should order the wine pre-cruise and that it would save money, especially considering the 15% vs. $2 per bottle option. Most of the wines we like are a bit expensive. Am I correct?

 

Also, before I ask too many stupid questions, I guess I better find the order information on the RCCL website. thanks

[island pat]

We bought a wine package last year and chose the wine we wanted with supper and usually had 1/2 bottle left and or waiter would have it sent to the room for us. We really liked this feature and will do it again this cruise

[GrammyJill]

Bob,

 

I just told my husband it would appear we should order the wine pre-cruise and that it would save money, especially considering the 15% vs. $2 per bottle option. Most of the wines we like are a bit expensive. Am I correct?

 

Also, before I ask too many stupid questions, I guess I better find the order information on the RCCL website. thanks

 

When you find the information on RCCL would you post a link for me? I have tried in vain to find any info on the wine & dine specials. I love the fact so many have posted the wine lists!

 

So if you pre order can you have a bottle in your room for bon voyage?

[allthatjazz]

We usually get the middle of the 3 levels offered, and you pick the kinds of wine you want with your dinner, if you want to take it back to your cabin you can, unfortunately we dranks ours at dinner! I am not sure about the bars or not, but I do know that you can have it in Chops or Portofinos. Enjoy Splendour, she was the 1st cruise we went on!

Sandy :)

[allthatjazz]

We usually get the middle of the 3 levels offered, and you pick the kinds of wine you want with your dinner, if you want to take it back to your cabin you can, unfortunately we dranks ours at dinner! I am not sure about the bars or not, but I do know that you can have it in Chops or Portofinos. Enjoy Splendour, she was the 1st cruise we went on!

Sandy :)

[KarinaGW]

When you find the information on RCCL would you post a link for me? I have tried in vain to find any info on the wine & dine specials. I love the fact so many have posted the wine lists!

 

So if you pre order can you have a bottle in your room for bon voyage?

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/giftcatalog/category/home.do;jsessionid=00008sb7rF7DivaS3jgg0v0tE42:12hbioan0?catCode=WINDIN

[critterchick]

Bob,

 

I just told my husband it would appear we should order the wine pre-cruise and that it would save money, especially considering the 15% vs. $2 per bottle option. Most of the wines we like are a bit expensive. Am I correct?

 

Also, before I ask too many stupid questions, I guess I better find the order information on the RCCL website. thanks

 

Although you will save a few dollars by buying the wine ahead of time, you will (1) not have access to the full wine list (there are pictures in the link in my signature; it's the same list on every ship, I think) and (2) risk the ship not having the wine you select onboard and substituting something else. We had that happen to us on the Jewel - they substituted a $15 less bottle with no offer of a refund, saying that our chosen wine wasn't onboard. So we made a discreet fuss with the Concierge and lo and behold, our choice was waiting in our cabin after muster drill. For those reasons I wait until I'm onboard to order.

 

On many ships (maybe all of them) you can order from the full wine list through room service so long as there's somebody to unlock the wine cellar (so usually during dining room hours only).

[fanfare]

Wow- thanks for all the info - and the shots of the wine list are very helpful! I am curious though about the comment about ordering a bottle of wine with lunch at the Windjammer - why is this not generally done? The only wine restrictions I have so far had have to do with my inability to find a good breakfast wine, and thus I don't drink wine before noon!:D

[Lawrence22]

Wow- thanks for all the info - and the shots of the wine list are very helpful! I am curious though about the comment about ordering a bottle of wine with lunch at the Windjammer - why is this not generally done? The only wine restrictions I have so far had have to do with my inability to find a good breakfast wine, and thus I don't drink wine before noon!:D

 

Isn't champagne supposed to be a breakfast wine:D .

[OttoCal]

We didn't have lunch or dinner at the windjammer, but there was a little wine card on the tables at breakfast. Our thought was 'why bother to order wine there for such a quickie buffet meal?'

 

We pre ordered the mid-price wine & dine, 5 bottles. Drank 1 bottle each of 5 nights in the dining room, friends bought wine 1 other night, & just had a glass each on the 7th night. So it worked out perfect.

 

We printed out the full wine list from the 'gifts & gear' section on RC website (I think), then printed out the 3 'wine & dine' lists, did the math, and made sure not to order from the bottles that were less expensive than the W&D package! We ended up with the Faustino Rioja every night, which we enjoyed, and it was more expensive than most of the other wine & dine choices, so we felt we got a great value.

[captjaneway]

Wow- thanks for all the info - and the shots of the wine list are very helpful! I am curious though about the comment about ordering a bottle of wine with lunch at the Windjammer - why is this not generally done? The only wine restrictions I have so far had have to do with my inability to find a good breakfast wine, and thus I don't drink wine before noon!:D

You can order it in WJ but be prepared to wait for it. They have to go get it and find someone to open it.

Hmmm my DH seems to think any good red can be used as a breakfast wine. I agree that the champagne mixed with a bit of OJ is better.

[captjaneway]

Although you will save a few dollars by buying the wine ahead of time, you will (1) not have access to the full wine list (there are pictures in the link in my signature; it's the same list on every ship, I think) and (2) risk the ship not having the wine you select onboard and substituting something else. We had that happen to us on the Jewel - they substituted a $15 less bottle with no offer of a refund, saying that our chosen wine wasn't onboard. So we made a discreet fuss with the Concierge and lo and behold, our choice was waiting in our cabin after muster drill. For those reasons I wait until I'm onboard to order.

 

On many ships (maybe all of them) you can order from the full wine list through room service so long as there's somebody to unlock the wine cellar (so usually during dining room hours only).

 

When we had ordered the Gold package they did not have our selection available in Chops so they gave us a better one.:D We made sure to order a second bottle that night to drink in our cabin. BTW the selections were available in the main DR just not Chops.

[txcrsr]

I always order at least a couple of bottles of wine from the RCI website before we board. It has always been waiting for us when we arrive at our stateroom (with glasses and opener), so we have it available in the afternoon before we sail. I never use the Wine and Dine package, because I like to order different wines to complement whatever food I decide upon in the dining room. You can order a bottle with your meal, and it will be brought to you again the following night if you do not finish it. The only time I have ever taken a bottle of wine from the dining room to our stateroom was when we didn't finish the second bottle at Chops and took the remainder with us. Once our travel agent also sent a bottle to our stateroom so we had an unopened "spare", which we were able to take off the ship at the end of the cruise with no questions asked. (Be sure to take some of those reusable rubber stoppers in your luggage.) Now, where are all of you when DH and I cruise? We have NEVER had any dedicated wine drinkers assigned to our table, and I have always thought it would be fun to share.

[skandls]

I am the real Wino in the family. DH always has wine with dinner but he is a lot less fussy about his wines. Before you preorder the wine and dine make sure you check out the full wine as suggested by critterchick.

 

I will not buy the wine and dine because the regular list has much better wines. The markups on the better wines are not as much as on the lower priced wines. I would rather pay $50 for a $20-25 retail wine than $30 for an $8-9 bottle.

 

Because of the 'no liquor' allowed rule we have to pay more now than we used to when we could bring our own wine and pay corkage.

 

You can go to the wine tasting - they often have wines from the wine and dine package during the tasting. So you can try before you order with your dinner.