Taste of Vineyards Package Info

[susie123]

We're just off Mercury, 9 day cruise to Bahamas, and bought the 5 bottle Taste of Vineyards Captain's Package. We have also bought the 7 bottle Captain's Package on Infinity. We're red wine drinkers, generally share a bottle each night with dinner, and enjoyed the choices we had in the packages. But if you're considering buying this you should know a couple of things that Celebrity never told us.

1. If you buy the package before you get on the ship, or while it's docked in a US port, you will pay an additional 7 ½ percent sales tax on the whole package. We didn't know that, bought our Mercury package in port in Baltimore, and the tax more than wiped out any savings on the bottles. You should wait until you're offshore to buy any package. You can buy a package at any time during the cruise, just ask your sommelier.

2. The 5 or 10 percent savings you might think you're getting is at best an average of all the prices of all the bottles offered. Depending on the wines you choose you may pay more than the cost on the menu. We enjoyed the Chateau Castera Medoc for $52 as part of the package, but could have bought it off the menu for $40 plus tip. We didn't try the Zeta Z Priorat ($52 as part of the package) but you could buy it from the menu for $35 plus tip. None of the other red wines offered in the Captain's Package were available on the menu so we could not check the prices.

On Infinity in January 09 we thought it was a much better deal -- no sales tax, and we think we did save some money on the wines. After this experience, we're not buying any more wine packages.

Current pricing from Mercury: Sommelier Package, 3 bottles $95, 5 bottles $158, 7 bottles $221. Captain Package, 3 bottles $129, 5 bottles $215, 7 bottles $301. Collector Package, 3 bottles $345, 5 bottles $577, 7 bottles $805. Add to these prices the 15% tip; also 7 ½ % sales tax if you buy before you cruise or in a US port.

[npb]

According to the website, tips are included in price of package?????

[susie123]

Yes, I noticed that too. I think you might find the prices higher on the website (ie, tips already figured in) than the prices I gave. The prices I'm quoting were those we were offered on board, and we were told that the 15% tip would be added.