What is Spotlight on Food and Wine?

[tak2]

When I booked my Mar 2009 cruise , the theme was Food and Wine.

When I checked Regent website a week or so ago, I was disappointed to read that our curise theme was changed from "Food & Wine "to "Wine & Music".

I e-mailed my TA expressing my disappointment , including the very real possibility in cancelling. She contacted Regent right away and was informed of the following:

 

" Please note the following.

 

This actually was changed to Food, Wine and Music, as there was high demand for the food portion. Our onboard chefs will lead a culinary demonstration.

 

The description of this program is online at http://www.rssc.com/voyage/details.jsp?code=NAV090311 . It reads:

 

Spotlight on Wine and Music

 

Usher in Spring in style with exceptional food, wine and music.

 

What better time to explore food, wine and music than the moment Spring comes to North America? As Seven Seas Navigator plots a course to explore the Caribbean in depth including the distant islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, we have the perfect opportunity to feature some of our favorite wine experts and musicians. The chef will also lead a culinary demonstration for food lovers. If you love food, wine and music, as well as sailing in luxury, this is the trip that will usher in Spring in style. "

 

Do you think Regent will just put in a touch of Food themed program,( such as ONE culinary demo) rather than the regular as in other " Food & Wine" cruises?

 

I cannot find any information on what actually was offered in the usual Food & Wine programs. Can anyone describe what they've experienced during these theme cruises? This will help me in deciding whether I should reconsider this cruise.

 

Thanks.

[Travelcat2]

I believe the programs may differ slightly -- depending upon who they are able to get on board . . . or, if they utilize one of their own chefs or sommeliers. On the Navigator last year (Food and Wine), we had two food demonstrations and two wine tastings (8 night cruise).

 

This year (May, 2008) on the Mariner (11 nights), they did not have food demonstrations. However, they had the heads of three California wineries on board. They had 3 indepth wine tastings -- paired with appetizers and were able to answer many questions. We got a lot more out of this than the previous cruise.

 

Personally, the "spotlight" portion of any cruise is not something that would cause me to cancel (or to book).

[dfb]

I would not base booking an RSSC cruise on any of the Spotlights. Last January, our Mariner cruise was advertised as Spotlight on Chocolate with John Scharffenberger. That changed at some point and I am not sure we knew until we were actually on board. At any rate, it was our 2nd Chocolate cruise (1st was on Voyager) and we already knew that it was something that would scarcely be noticed. I went through our Passages and menus from Mariner to give you an idea of what actually took place onboard our Spotlight cruise to give you some idea what kinds of things you might expect to occur. Day 2 there was a chocolate and rum tasting with Lyn Farmer. Then his presentations on wines and other spirits were run on the cabin TVs for the next 2 months. The guest chef (not Scharffenberger) was Stephane Motir, the pastry chef from Tribeca Grill. Chef Motir gave 2 dessert cooking demonstrations (day 11 and day 13) and they announced that they would feature signature desserts of his on 4 nights in Compass Rose. According to the menus, they served 7 desserts that they designated as Spotlight on Chocolate. (No indication as to which were Chef Motir’s and several such as chocolate soufflé we have had on every RSSC cruise we have taken.) Also, found a sheet of 2 recipes that he demonstrated and neither appeared on the Compass Rose menus. There was one Chocoholic Tea during the Spotlight cruise. (There was another Chocoholic Tea during the next 3 segments during a non-Spotlight on Chocolate segment.) Lastly, one afternoon in Constellation Theater they showed the movie Chocolat and were supposed to serve ‘chocolate delights’ during the film, but they didn’t. Just had the usual self-serve popcorn and drinks. Hope this helps to give you some idea what to expect, which may not be much different from any other sailing in my experience. Hopefully, this along with the info that your TA provided, will allow you to set out with realistic expectations and not be disappointed. Good luck, Debbie

[tak2]

Thanks, Travelcat2 and Debbie.

 

I appreciate your taking the time to share your experience.

Now I understand that the theme is not something that the daytime activities evolve around, I will not feel that I'm missing a big chunk should it not deliver. This being my first Regent cruise, I really don't know what to expect. Seems like the cruise wasn't selling as well as R wants, so they change it from Food & Wine to Food, Wine & Music for added value. I also notice that this cruise is one of two carribean sailings to offer Seven Seas Society savings, meaning that it's got vacant cabins to sell. I guess I get something more than just the original Food & Wine.:)

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Are there sea days on this cruise? When we did our spotlight on Food and Wine, on Voyager, it was a 10-day cruise with a couple and a half sea days, so it also included a Cordon Bleu cooking course.

 

But aside from the cooking course, there were 2 celebrity chefs, at least 2 cooking demonstrations. There was a champagne tasting, a Bordeaux tasting, and an olive oil tasting (we were in France, Spain and Portugal). There were special menus from the celebrity chefs. It was great fun, but I believe that's true that each one of these is a unique collections of events, and you can't really know until you get there.

 

We also did a chocolate cruise on Navigator, and as Debbie said, you could ignore it completely very successfully. We did have a chocolate tasting event, and special concoctions at dessert, and Valrhona chocolates on the pillow every night. Not a big deal at all.

[tak2]

We have 4 sea days on a 12 day cruise.

This is a carribean cruise, so it seems unlikely we get all the nice tasting events you had in France/Spain/Portugal.

Someone from my Roll Call suggested Regent may be in the process of finding a celebrity chef, so nothing more can be said at the moment.

[Travelcat2]

We have 4 sea days on a 12 day cruise.

This is a carribean cruise, so it seems unlikely we get all the nice tasting events you had in France/Spain/Portugal.

Someone from my Roll Call suggested Regent may be in the process of finding a celebrity chef, so nothing more can be said at the moment.

 

Interesting. . . we are on Feb. 23rd 11 night cruise -- it was changed to a Food and Wine spotlight (was spotlight on health or something -- wasn't too interested). Perhaps the celebrity chef will be on both cruises.

[tak2]

..... Perhaps the celebrity chef will be on both cruises.

 

Makes a lot of sense to have the celebrity chef do repeat programs, at tail end of yours and the beginning of mine.

How do they accomodtae 300+ passengers if that many want to attend wine tasting? On other( non luxury ) cruises it's not free so there's usually no such concern.

[BILLP1]

This cruise has actually sold quite well. You will never have 300 people on Regent doing a wine tasting. We have been on other themed cruises on Regent and never had to deal with a line or a crowd.

[Travelcat2]

On the Mariner, they set up tables in a section of Compass Rose. They had about 75 people -- so they had to set up more tables than anticipated.

 

On the Navigator, there was only wine (no appetizers). . . it was set up in Gaileo's (deck 11). They were setting up for 4 people per tiny table that didn't work well. There was probably 30 people (didn't count) -- it did work out fine.

 

We sailed Regent when it was not all-inclusive. So, at first (Navigator was our first all-inclusive cruise), having wine tasting included seemed to be a big deal. Then we discovered the wine tasting before dinner at Portofino (in addition to the wines you have in the other restaurants that change nightly).

 

So, if there is a celebrity chef on our February cruise, we will be anxious to attend. On the other hand, not sure we would attend a wine tasting unless nothing else was going on!