Suite Amenities Package, personal experience or info anyone?

[SLOTheta]

Here's what ship services sent me. Also, what's Tia Maria, Cointreau, and Drambuie, and Grand Marinuer. Can't spell any of them:

 

All of those are liqueurs = sweet mixing alcohols for drinks.

 

Cointreau - orange-flavoured liqueur. Usually used as a mixer for Margaritas and Cosmos. Some people will use it instead of triple sec in cocktails.

 

Drambuie - scotch whiskey. I've seen it in Rusty Nails.

 

Grand Marnier - orange-flavoured liqueur. Similar to Cointeau that it's used as a mixer and also in place of triple sec in cocktails. Used in Margaritas, cosmos, sidecars, sometimes in bubbly.

[knittinggirl]

From this list the sweetest wines are the HOUGE GEWURZTRAMINER and the MONDAVI PRIV.SEL.JOHANNISBERG RIESLING. They are both high in residual sugars. I've had both, both are fairly sweet (at least for me - I don't drink sweet wines typically), but they are not as sweet as a dessert wine such as Moscato.

 

The Zinfandel listed here, is Ravenswood. It is NOT a sweet wine (I know several growers who supply to Ravenswood). WHITE Zinfandel is sweet, traditional Zinfandel (red wine) should not be sugary sweet. It will be slightly jammier than other reds. Zins are sweeter than other reds, but a good Zin should not be at the sweetness level of a white wine. The Zin on this list, if you wanted to drink red wine, would be your best bet. But, don't expect the sweetness of white wines.

 

The HOGUE, Mondavi and Ravenswood are about $10-$12 retail and can be found at BevMo! and Total Wine and More (I'm not sure where you live, but you can probably find it). I would buy all 3 and see what you like!

 

I studied enology, teach wine appreciation and have over 1600 bottles of wine. I love my wine!

Thanks, we knew the Ravenswood Zin was DRRRRYYYY, we had it as one of our Diamond+ amenity wines, and let's say we didn't finish the bottle.

 

Sounds like we'll try the two wines you mentioned.

 

Are there code words to look for? What does light wine mean? Is it sweet? What does Crisp mean? We've heard Brut is dry.

 

In the store, we look for those that are listed as sweet in the description.

 

We went to a wine tasting in Astoria, and some of those wines were too fancy for us. For us, we have a few bottles of Twin Springs Sweet Red, and another of Twin Springs Moscato.

 

DH won't let me bring wine aboard, so I'd better pick well.

[knittinggirl]

All of those are liqueurs = sweet mixing alcohols for drinks.

 

Cointreau - orange-flavoured liqueur. Usually used as a mixer for Margaritas and Cosmos. Some people will use it instead of triple sec in cocktails.

 

Drambuie - scotch whiskey. I've seen it in Rusty Nails.

 

Grand Marnier - orange-flavoured liqueur. Similar to Cointeau that it's used as a mixer and also in place of triple sec in cocktails. Used in Margaritas, cosmos, sidecars, sometimes in bubbly.

I'd like to try some of the other drinks on our next cruise. DH has told me to get Kahlua and Bailey's. We tried an old bottle of Kahlua at home, and it was good, but gnarly. Considering the Tia Maria, but not sure it's enough better for two for one.

[SLOTheta]

Are there code words to look for? What does light wine mean? Is it sweet? What does Crisp mean? We've heard Brut is dry.

 

In the store, we look for those that are listed as sweet in the description.

 

We went to a wine tasting in Astoria, and some of those wines were too fancy for us. For us, we have a few bottles of Twin Springs Sweet Red, and another of Twin Springs Moscato.

 

DH won't let me bring wine aboard, so I'd better pick well.

 

 

If you want to make sure you like the wines before you commit, I would buy them first and do a home taste test. Invite some friends over! Have a nice wine tasting evening. It's about a $30 investment and you may have some new factories.

 

There really aren't code words in descriptions, unless it specifically says it's a sweet wine or have "sec" in the name. Sec in wine names such as Demi-Sec usually means it's sweet. "Late Harvest" is also another good key that the wine is going to be very sweet. Most late harvest wines are made like port.

 

"Crisp" is usually a tart, fresh taste. Sauvignon blanc usually is described as having a crisp taste.

 

"Brut" is only used to describe champagne or sparkling wine. Brut is used to describe "dry" and low residual sugar taste. Ironically, for champagne, if you want a sweet bubbly you want to look for "Dry" and "Extra Dry" - those are the sweet ones (some Asti sparkling is very sweet). There are some Demi-Sec sparkling wines that are also sweet.

 

I would stick with wine varietals that you know are traditionally sweet that are high in residual sugar, such as (sweetest first, to less sweet):

Port, Tokaj/Tokaji, Sauternes, Moscato (Muscat), Ice Wine, gewürztraminer, Riesling, Vouvray (made from Chenin Blanc - not as sweet as the others, slightly sweet) and Pinot Gris.

 

 

 

 

 

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[SLOTheta]

I'd like to try some of the other drinks on our next cruise. DH has told me to get Kahlua and Bailey's. We tried an old bottle of Kahlua at home, and it was good, but gnarly. Considering the Tia Maria, but not sure it's enough better for two for one.

 

 

Kahlua on its own isn't great. But, it's a nice mixer to make yummy drinks such as a Black Russian or Mudslides. Yummy sweet! You could mix it with Kahula and baileys to make a modified White Russian. I drink Baileys on the rocks or over vanilla ice cream. Baileys and Kahula are good mixed in coffee or hot chocolate.

 

 

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[knittinggirl]

Thanks for the good information.

 

We tried Ice Wine on Celebrity Infinity, and wondered why it was so expensive. We used to get Twin Springs Sweet White for about $8 for a bottle before the supermarket stopped selling it. But then the markup is pretty high on cruise ships. We had a bottle of Beringer's White Zinfindel cost $34 on Legend of the Seas, and I found it in the supermarket for around $4.

 

Where does Riunite's Lambrusco fit into the sweetness scale? When I was waitressing, Lambrusco was the most often ordered type of wine.

Edited March 22, 2016 by knittinggirl

[SLOTheta]

Thanks for the good information.

 

We tried Ice Wine on Celebrity Infinity, and wondered why it was so expensive. We used to get Twin Springs Sweet White for about $8 for a bottle before the supermarket stopped selling it. But then the markup is pretty high on cruise ships. We had a bottle of Beringer's White Zinfindel cost $34 on Legend of the Seas, and I found it in the supermarket for around $4.

 

Where does Riunite's Lambrusco fit into the sweetness scale? When I was waitressing, Lambrusco was the most often ordered type of wine.

 

 

Ice wine is very expensive because it's rare. Ice Wine is made from grapes left on the vine until very late in the season and must be harvested under the almost perfect frost conditions. They are harvested when the grapes have been frozen, yet still are alive and have juice. There is a limited amount of juice that is left, which makes the quantities available limited. What's left in the juice is sugar in concentrated levels, which is why Ice Wine is sweet.

 

I've never had Lambrusco, but from reading the tasting notes, it appears to be a sweeter red wine.

 

 

 

 

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[knittinggirl]

Ice wine is very expensive because it's rare. Ice Wine is made from grapes left on the vine until very late in the season and must be harvested under the almost perfect frost conditions. They are harvested when the grapes have been frozen, yet still are alive and have juice. There is a limited amount of juice that is left, which makes the quantities available limited. What's left in the juice is sugar in concentrated levels, which is why Ice Wine is sweet.

 

I've never had Lambrusco, but from reading the tasting notes, it appears to be a sweeter red wine.

 

 

 

 

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thanks for the information.

 

Where does Chianti fit into the sweetness scheme?

[SLOTheta]

thanks for the information.

 

Where does Chianti fit into the sweetness scheme?

 

 

Chianti is Sangiovese. Not sweet.

 

Red wines are not typically sweet. The only ones you'll find that are sweet are Late Harvest, Ports, and a few others that are made to be sweet.

 

I provided a list of sweet wines earlier in this thread, look for those.

 

 

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[knittinggirl]

Just got off the 35-Day Voyage of the Vikings, w/ the Suite Amenities Package. We got weekly flowers. We were told the afternoon tea had to be ordered the morning of the same day. It was not automatic. And we kept forgetting to order. They were out of monogrammed robes in our sizes. Only available in 4X. So they offered us the OBC. They first offered $98, which we accepted, but by the time they credited our account it was $73.50. When we asked the front desk about this, they said they'd made a mistake.

 

We got sick for a week during the cruise, and the doctor told us no alcohol. We were able to finish two bottles of wine, but about a half bottle of liquor.

 

The laundry service was superb!

 

Be sure to bring the paperwork with you. We originally were told five nights in the Pinnacle, but the paperwork said 3 nights. The manager in Pinnacle said he'd give us the five nights. DH thought that the paperwork only included Pinnacle for the first half of the cruise, since he had to load a different file to see the second half of the cruise. We think now we were supposed to get six nights in the Pinnacle, because our final bill showed one night Pinnacle credit as well as 82 cents beverage card refund.

 

Departure procedures was Breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill. We were told they didn't have a special departure lounge on the Rotterdam.

Edited August 29, 2016 by knittinggirl

[SLOTheta]

Did you find any sweet wines you liked?

 

 

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[knittinggirl]

Yes! We got Moscato, and they let us have two bottles of it! We also got a bottle each of Tia Maria (no double multiplier) and Baileys Irish Cream.

 

No one said anything to us, but I suspect they put bottles on their list & the wine package list that they're trying to clear inventory.

 

If we do this again, we may bring a bottle diaper so we can bring it home with us. As it was, our steward got a nearly full bottle and one half full. Maybe not, because of customs.

Edited August 30, 2016 by knittinggirl