Confused about the all inclusive- newbie

[fancymeetingyouhere]

I'm a little confused about the liquor part of the all inclusive. Did I read that you can request certain bottles of liquor in your room and if so then what is it that you are mixing with it and do they also stock these items.

If you order a martini at the bar is there a charge or is it all included in the price. I'm thinking with the price I am paying for the cruise I should have a bartender in my room shaking up martini's upon request.

Do they also hand you a wine list in the dining rooms or do they have recommended wines to go with each course - like a tasting menu. How do you know when you are ordering something that is an additional cost.

 

How soon do you make your dinner reservations - can I do this on-line.

[Cruisedreamer1]

In the dining room each menu has the featured wine for the meal. If you don't want it you can ask for something different. We found all of the wines very nicely matched with the meals. You can ask for any drink at the bar and there is no charge. Premium liquiors will cost you but I have yet to pay for anything. The liquior used is good and are not the low end ones. As for the liquior in your stateroom you will need to request from your steward the list. If you don't ask, they won't give it to you.

 

PS I agree with you about the bartender!:)

[Travelcat2]

You can make dinner reservations 28 days before your cruise. Go into the RSSC website and enter your cruise reservation number in "My Cruises". This is where you can eventually make the reservations.

 

Also, they stock your mini-refrigerator with beer and soft drinks. If you ask your Stewardess, she'll make sure your favorite mixer(s) are stocked for you!

[RachelG]

As far as dinner reservations, you only have to make those for the 2 specialty restaurants. For Compass Rose and La Veranda, you do not need reservations.

As far as drinks in your room, when you board, your frig will be stocked with a variety of soft drinks, beer, club soda, and bottled water. I have them take out everything except the diet coke, bottled water, and Heineken (for hubby) as that is all we drink. I am sure they would be happy to stock whatever mixers you want in the frig.

[fancymeetingyouhere]

Thank you everyone! I found what I was looking for.

[NC&KY]

I still have a question. If I drink Manhattans and my wife drinks martinis, I understand I can ask for the bourbon I want and she can get the gin she wants, but how about the Italian (for me) and French (for her) vermouth? How do the vermouths factor in the "free" bottles?

[Hambagahle]

All you have to do is tell the bartender which drinks each of you wants...then you get them! So French vs Italian vermouth is not an issue! You might be interested to know that we like Tanqueray gin. Never had a problem (nor were we charged) in getting our drinks made with this.

The wine served at dinner is usually very nice. However sometimes there might be a wine you don't like (I hate Sauvignon blanc, for example!) Just tell the wine steward to bring a wine you do like -- ie substitute with a chardonnay etc etc.

[Jim B]

I usually ask for a bottle of Crown Royal and my wife asks for Grey Goose.

No problem.

I also ask them to take out the foreign beers and put in Bud Light.

No problem.

(Nothing wrong with foreign beer, but when Bud Light is what you have most of the time it is hard to get use to anything else LOL).

[Cruisedreamer1]

The liquor list may vary by ship. We found that the list on the PG was much smaller than on the Mariner. If you like a particular type of soda or beer and want it in your room, contact your TA and they will request it for you.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Funny, my husband takes out the Bud Light and gets it replaced with Heineken!

 

NC&KY, I understand your question. You can't really get 4 different bottles in your cabin. You can, however, order from room service any time you like. Or, if you do what we've done, pack a small bottle of each kind of vermouth in your luggage, then just order the gin and bourbon. We've done this with Cointreau for Cosmopolitans, usually try to buy it locally before we board. We have a plastic martini shaker that we pack as well.

 

With the free-flowing cocktails, however, we've found that we've been drinking less and less in the cabin. Last December I asked for a bottle of white wine, and I didn't finish it. My husband stuck to his Heineken, saving the martinis and cosmos to the graces of those fine bartenders!

[NC&KY]

Thank you, Wendy, yes you did understand the question. Do I take it that we can order our martinis and Manhattans and not expect to pay for them? We are really early-to-bedders; we'll have a cocktail and dance a few dances, go to dinner around 7:30, and then hit the hay. If we can get the cocktail at the dance floor, we won't need any alcohol in the room.

[Jim B]

NC&KY

You are correct in what you just said.

[goldenrod]

Thank you, Wendy, yes you did understand the question. Do I take it that we can order our martinis and Manhattans and not expect to pay for them? We are really early-to-bedders; we'll have a cocktail and dance a few dances, go to dinner around 7:30, and then hit the hay. If we can get the cocktail at the dance floor, we won't need any alcohol in the room.

Hi, believe me you've paid for them, weather you drink them or not.:cool:

[DebbieH103]

You can order the two bottles of liquor for the room, as others have said from the list they have. You can also request them in advance, but they may not be there when you arrive. The stewardess will get them there as soon as they are permitted if you speak with her. Some ports have lockdown issues, so you just wait a few hours.

 

Whatever you drink at the bars is included as long as it isn't something they consider premium, but that very likely will not be an issue at all.

 

We drink more in our room than in bars since we like drinks on our balcony or when getting ready, etc., but I only drink wine and not hard liquor, so it becomes an issue for me where I have to deal with room service. Sure they come, but I can't just order from the stewardess even though I can order a bottle from room service. Odd, but that is how it works for wine.

 

There are plenty of places to socialize over drinks, always included. Most Regent loyalists on this board don't think the two bottle limit is that restrictive, but I do for cases like yours. However, they do not reuse what is leftover from cabins, so that is why they'd rather you order by the glass after your allotment is used.

[Travelcat2]

I mentioned this on another thread-- however, it may be worth mentioning here. Regent appears to be doing away with the "almost" automatic 2 bottles of alcohol (or 1 premium). I believe Regent's literature used mention "bar set up" in the room. This has not been in their ads for a while. To us, it appears to be a conservation issue. For those who rarely drink in their suites, it is such a waste to open a full bottle -- have maybe 2-3 ounces and leave it to be thrown away at the end of the cruise. You can still order what you like through your Stewardess/Room Service.

 

For passengers booked in Penthouse or above suites, there is still an on-line ordering menu that is filled out in advance. I have noticed that the listing of available alcohol varies (and is usually incomplete). Just ask when you on board.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Debbie, last time on Voyager I asked for white wine, with the understanding that they would replenish it when I needed more (turns out I didn't need more.) So I'm surprised that they did not do that for you.

 

Of course, when you order room service, you can ask for white and red, and they will bring you a bottle of each (at least that's what I've read, never done it myself.)

[NC&KY]

Hi, believe me you've paid for them, weather you drink them or not.:cool:

 

Ah yes, how true. But the great thing about cruises (and other pre-paid vacations) is that it hurts when you have to pay, but by the time the documents arrive and you start thinking about packing and boarding passes, etc., that's all just a memory. So it's painless now. Our first Regency cruise (twice previously on mega-Celebrity ships, to Alaska and the eastern Mediterranean) and first time south of the Equator, so we're pretty excited.

[DebbieH103]

Wendy, that is what we do on Silversea is tell the stewardess that we will want more chardonnay when the one is empty, but on Voyager in October the stewardess was really upset about it (that she was denying my request) and spent a lot of time showing me the form and talking about procedures. On Navigator, I just used room service and only needed one refill. Will try talking to the stewwardess on Voyager next time in December and see.

[wishIweretravelling]

Debbie, I'm wondering if you had a poorly trained stewardess on Voyager. On Navigator in December, we asked our stewardess for a bottle of Shiraz, and when we returned to our room, there it was. As it turns out, we never even opened it, but we had no trouble getting it.

[AbeFrohman]

On the Navigator I asked the pool bartender for a Peroni. He did not know what a Peroni was and I explained to him it was an italian beer. We were in Rome at the time after being in other parts of Italy for the previous two days and I had read on here that the bars on board would serve local beer/liquor. Anyway, as for the liquor bottles in the room...we were given one bottle each of gin, vodka, and I think rum. We didn't even open them and left them behind when we disembarked(I really hope the ship used them). What would have been better imo would have been a nice assortment of airplane bottles in the mini fridge along with a few mixers. Either way we drank anything we wanted. Regent was being extremely liberal with the alcohol for sure. My wine glass at dinner was filled back up before I even got done with it.

[Breezes06]

We also had resistance when requesting anything different for our room. Even Perrier water. The stewardess was fabulous and a veteran, but she had to make "special requests" for Perrier, and it wasn't replenished quickly or at all for the last day.

 

We drink very little, but we found that other than wine in dining areas, it required effort to get a second drink anywhere. In some lounges, we waited a very long time for a waiter to appear the first time. These areas were NOT busy so no excuse for that. And they never returned to check on us or ask if we needed anything else. Having to get up and go to the bar to get either a first or second drink is NOT luxury.

 

My question: Is Regent using lack of service to control costs?

[Travelcat2]

We also had resistance when requesting anything different for our room. Even Perrier water. The stewardess was fabulous and a veteran, but she had to make "special requests" for Perrier, and it wasn't replenished quickly or at all for the last day.

 

We drink very little, but we found that other than wine in dining areas, it required effort to get a second drink anywhere. In some lounges, we waited a very long time for a waiter to appear the first time. These areas were NOT busy so no excuse for that. And they never returned to check on us or ask if we needed anything else. Having to get up and go to the bar to get either a first or second drink is NOT luxury.

 

My question: Is Regent using lack of service to control costs?

 

I'm really curious to know what ship you were on when you had difficulty receiving Perrier water:confused: If I were to guess, I'd say PG since that ship isn't quite up to RSSC standards. However, we had poor service on another ship last year that has had good reviews recently. IMO, the area they are controlling costs is the automatic bottles of liquor in the room -- slighly smaller menu and 1 Stewardess per suite instead of two.

[xrvlcruiser]

when there were two people cleaning the rooms, they had twice as many cabins to do.

[azgkrudi]

What would have been better imo would have been a nice assortment of airplane bottles in the mini fridge along with a few mixers.

 

What a fantastic idea!!! I wonder why they don't do this????

[Bob and Peg]

We also had resistance when requesting anything different for our room. Even Perrier water. The stewardess was fabulous and a veteran, but she had to make "special requests" for Perrier, and it wasn't replenished quickly or at all for the last day.

 

We drink very little, but we found that other than wine in dining areas, it required effort to get a second drink anywhere. In some lounges, we waited a very long time for a waiter to appear the first time. These areas were NOT busy so no excuse for that. And they never returned to check on us or ask if we needed anything else. Having to get up and go to the bar to get either a first or second drink is NOT luxury.

 

My question: Is Regent using lack of service to control costs?

We just returned from a cruise on the Voyager; we never had any problems getting a drink (except maybe in the theater at night). In fact, the bartenders in the Voyager Lounge would bring our after-dinner port out into the foyer (we couldn't stand drinking inside the Lounge because of the smoke); and come offer us a second glass as soon as we were finished with the first.

 

BTW, if you drink port, the Sandeman's Reserve that they serve is absolutely fabulous. DH and I drank a lot of it on our two-week voyage.