Eno-Bob

I would agree that the Connoisseur Wine List prices are fair, for the most part I would consider them “high-end retail”. With wine purchased from the list you get full restaurant service, the Somms will decant the wine for you and keep your glass topped up. The Antinori Tignanello is probably the best bargain on the ship right now, the Tignanello vintage being served on Splendor in January was the 2018, we enjoyed a couple of bottles during our cruise. Wine Searcher shows the average price in the US as $197 and the lowest price listed is $145. So, $105 is a great bargain!

They did announce the winner on Splendor Today — they showed all of the decorated doors on the ship, the CD staff, the Captain and GM were shown viewing the doors and 3 or 4 winners were named by category.

I'm not sure that I would say it's "common" but people do bring their own wine onboard and it's perfectly acceptable. We almost always bring six bottles from our cellar on a cruise. We will also do some wine shopping along the way if we visit a winery of we find a nice wine shop. What is your cruise on Grandeur next year?

Most of the wines listed are Napa 2018 & 2019 - both were highly rated vintages and we bought many. Checked Wine Advocate - 2018 rated 95 and 2019 rated 96. Wine Spectator has 2018 at 99 and 2019 at 97. Don't think that there's a really "bad" California Vintage for good wine makers. The bigger issue may be how young they are but restaurants and ships don't usually age wines, you get what's currently available. Regent does decant the wines and you can ask them to decant it early for you select the wine early.

Mike, A quick observation about booking excursions for back-to-back cruises. We are booked for back-to-back cruises, Hong Kong to Bangkok and Bangkok to Bali embarking on November 8, 2024. Yesterday evening our excursion window opened but we were only able to book excursions for the first segment, Hong Kong to Bangkok. When trying to book an excursion for the second segment the website shows: “Unfortunately this excursion time is currently sold out. Some tours have multiple start times, so please check the listing of available tours for additional opportunities or contact the Destination Services Desk once onboard.” We sincerely hope that not every excursion for the Bangkok to Bali segment is sold out – none of the excursions for the first segment were sold out. We’re assuming that what the website is really trying to tell us is that the excursions for the Bangkok to Bali segment are not available for booking yet. It would certainly be helpful if the website could state that as the reason the excursions are not available for booking at this time. Our back-to-back cruises are under one booking number which shows a cruise from Hong Kong to Bali. There is only one “Reserve Shore Excursions” date in “My To-Do List”, which is November 9, 2024 and it now shows “Shore Excursions Booked”. We can probably guess correctly that the second segment excursions will open on November 21st or 22nd. However, the “To-Do List” does not indicate that. These two segments are also part of the “Grand Asia Exploration” cruise that will embark on October 18, 2024. We assume that the Grand Cruise passengers were able to book excursions for the entire itinerary at the one year out point. That would indicate that the excursions for all segments have been finalized and should be available to book for a back-to-back cruise falling within that itinerary. Would appreciate your thoughts on this issue and any fixes that could be made to make it easier for us passengers to understand what’s going on when booking excursions. Thanks --

Blacklane is not always so dependable. Last year they sent us this message while we were flying to Copenhagen. Of course we didn't receive it until we landed. We've taken Blacklane off of our list... ------------------------------------ Dear Robert, Thank you for booking with Blacklane. Unfortunately, due to issues beyond our control, we are unable to fulfill your booking. We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience and assure you that you will not be charged for this ride. You may see a pre-authorization for the amount of the ride in your bank account, but the funds will be released to your account within the next few days. We do our best to avoid last-minute ride disruptions, and hope to earn your business for a future ride. We would like to offer you a 25EUR/25GBP/40NZD/250SEK/25USD voucher. Simply enter the voucher code in the final stage of the booking process. We hope to see you riding with Blacklane soon. Best regards, Your Blacklane Crew

They usually do a "Preview of Coming Attractions" show on embarkation day.

According to the latest intel, Georgiana has been promoted and will be the beverage manager onboard Voyager in the near future.

Glad to hear you survived! Another way to taste a few of the included wines is to catch one of the Somms at La Veranda during lunch. They usually have a small table set up with 8 or 10 of the more popular wines so they can just grab and pour. You can always ask them for a “taste” of the different wines to find a couple that you like and then just ask for one of those for dinner.

We have always found that there are a couple of the sommeliers working in La Veranda during lunch on the day you board. Again, look for the red vest and tastevin. You can request the list of included wines and, if your interested, this is the perfect time to tell the somm if your interested in the wine lunch. The lunch has limited seating so if you want to reserve a seat you need to do it early. When we sailed in April the lunch was $169 pp. There is also a tasting of some of the included wines in the atrium early in the cruise. If there’s a sea day within the first couple of days, it will be at 10:30 AM. However, if there are ports every day, they may set it up with at an earlier time before the tours leave – we’ve seen it as early as 9:00 AM. A great way to start the day!

Great advice above – you should be able to ask for any of the house wines in any of the restaurants for any meal. For the most part, there is one sommelier per restaurant, or, in the case of Compass Rose, there are usually three, left side, right side, and center. Most of the drink “servers”, are more bar waiters, not sommeliers and they usually don’t know a lot about the entire wine list, they carry around that evenings featured wines. The sommeliers will be in a red vest or red jacket and will have a silver tastevin around their neck. The drink servers are in more of a brownish vest if memory serves. The sommeliers must handle all the purchased wines for the restaurant, including opening and decanting those wines, so when the restaurant is full, they are usually running at full speed. The head sommelier is usually in a white jacket with red lapels in the evenings and he or she makes the rounds of the restaurants each evening. If any of the restaurant somms gets real busy the head somm will usually jump in and help out on the floor. If one of the drink servers doesn’t understand what you would like with your meal, ask them to have the somm come to the table and explain to him/her what you would like, and they will take care of it. Tastevin

We spent a month on Mariner last Dec into Jan and had no problems at all -- loved every minute! It was absolutely 5 Star for us. We're boarding Mariner again on Sep 3 for 28 nights and absolutely looking forward to it.

Only the Regent Suite, Master Suites and Grand Suites receive "Guaranteed Reservation Each Night in Specialty Restaurant of Your Choice". The Regent Suite also has access to a private dining room, "The Study", which is located between Prime 7 and Chartreuse.

Here are the List Champagnes from the Explorer as of May -

Just checked on the website again and we're seeing the cost by cabin category for the cruises we've looked at. London to Amsterdam in Aug 2025 shows you can have the Regent Suite for only $83,999 per person!