Wine Specials for Captain Club members

[vvnh16a]

I noticed that Celebrity now has a house red (Cabernet) and white (Chardonay) wine and are offering captain club members 20% off the price ($24.95) through March 31, 2005 if you purchase 2 bottles. However, I was uncertain if you needed to preorder this wine on the internet or can you simply order it on-board and mention the discount code that is provided on teh Celebrity web site. Considering what some of the wine costs onboard for dinner, these prices are reasonable assuming the wine itself is decent. Has anyone done this...How is the wine????????

 

Rich in N VA

[canderson]

Posted an answer on the previous thread where you posed this question.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=116495

[vvnh16a]

Thanks and I will try your receipe for the Cabernet blending...BTW did they actually check at the Cabernet blending if you were a select or elite member...we are travelling with 2 couples who are only classic members who may want to join us! Was this blending well attended?

 

Rich in N VA

[canderson]

Thanks and I will try your receipe for the Cabernet blending...BTW did they actually check at the Cabernet blending if you were a select or elite member...we are travelling with 2 couples who are only classic members who may want to join us! Was this blending well attended?

 

Rich in N VA

No, no one checked. I guess they assume that if you know the when and where for the event (2 were held on our recent Summit trip), you must have received an invite. However, they DO know how many to expect at each session, so if four or five extras showed up, I'm not sure what they'd do. It's certainly worth a go to see if they'll accomodate all of you.

 

My prior experience working with wines in the cellar has been in Germany where blending isn't done between different top quality varietals, just with different picks/vineyards of the same grape. I knew that one almost never has an opportunity to play with straight cabernet, so the chance to fiddle around a bit was great fun.

 

In the beginning, you'll have a chance to taste each of the separate wines and come up with a strategy for a blend that you'd like. Although I'm not a huge Napa fan (for example, I prefer Silver Oak's Alexander Valley to their Napa products), the K-J cabernets we had to work with from Napa seemed nearly ready to drink and the Somona pair did not. For that reason, I had to pass on the Sonoma altogether. The 40%/40% between the upper and lower Napa vineyards got me right where I thought I needed to be for the cabernet. Again, the objective was to come up with something drinkable, and these were NOT aged cabernets, so the 15% merlot was added to smooth things out just a bit. If I were going to cellar the stuff, I'd probably have used less merlot and touch more cab franc. The last 5% cab franc added that bit of floral bite that keeps it all interesting.

 

Hope you have a good time. Which ship will you be on?

[katiel53]

Rich in VA,

I know I will be flamed for this, but I don't feel you should have your select member friends join you at the wine blending. So many people on other threads are complaining about the very few benefits given by Celebrity to Captain's Club members. Celebrity is listening and trying to have a few more perks for Elite and Select members. By encouraging people who are not invited to attend the functions, I feel Celebrity will not continue with their offerings as the cost will just be too high. (At least in their minds.) When the Captain's Club had a fee to join, there weren't many members so there were lots of coupons for money off cruises. Now that the membership is free, and many more people are members, there are far fewer discounts. It all boils down to making money for the cruise line. I would not like my perks to be taken away because others abused them. Sorry, that I don't agree with CAnderson. But, that's JMHO.

 

Katie

[canderson]

Rich in VA,

I know I will be flamed for this...

...Sorry, that I don't agree with CAnderson. But, that's JMHO.

Katie

No flame, but it's evident that you didn't understand what I meant. I noted rather specifically that they keep a count of invited guests. The OP asked directly if invitations were being checked. The answer was indeed, "no". However, what I may not have made clear is that they had prepared seating and set-ups for a specific number of people. We're talking seven or eight glasses per setting, so they don't set more places than they need.

 

Whether Celebrity could accomodate his friends would depend on whether the event was well or poorly attended. They would be unable to displace invited guests if the attendance was at its norms as there would be insufficient places set for them. The operative word here was "accomodate". Whether that would mean filling in empty spaces for invited guests that neglected to attend, I can't say. All one can do is ask.

[niborHS]

We just received our new CC cards, and I was surprised to find out that although we are taking our 6th Celebrity cruise, we are only Classic members. I think that's a little strict, so I don't think I would quite have that attitude about Elite, etc members. This is going to be our 12th cruise, and as I said 6th on Clebrity. We have many to go, so if we don't think they treat us right, we may feel differently about the line.

[hajekfam]

Robin- did you call them to verify your cruises? There was letter with our new CC cards that said that you should call by 1/15 to verify. Otherwise, you will have to prove your cruises. We got our elite cards immediately after cruising our tenth cruise. So- you should have been moved up to select after your fifth. They might have lost one of your cruises!

[vvnh16a]

Katie

No Flame......I was just asking a question and I appreciated the response from Canderson......its what I expected. Not everybody participates in these functions and I think that Celebrity would rather have a full house (guests joining invitied members) rather than a bunch of no shows which frequerntly happens for the cruise critic parties.

 

Rich in N VA