Wine package on RCCL

[CH_ca]

I'm interested in buying the wine package. It says on their website that you can order pre-cruise and save 25%. Do they mean you can order before you cruise (which of course you can), and also the cost of the package itself is cheaper by 25% (regardless if you buy before or after you board) than if you buy each bottle separately? Or, do they mean you have to order before you cruise in order to save that 25%? Will there be taxes on top of the price posted?

 

Also, if you buy the wine package when the ship is in international water, will you save the tax (if any)?

[BillB48]

I believe what they are referring to is you will save the 25% as opposed to buying the same bottles by the bottle when you are on board. The price of the package is the same either pre cruise or if you decide to buy it once you are on board. The benefit of purchasing it pre cruise is you will have it paid for and therefore not on your final sea pass bill. The biggest drawback would be you could not use any on board credit to offset the package (assuming you had some).

 

Also there is no tax applied to the package regardless of when you buy it other than the 15% gratuity. In actuality they really don't process the transaction until after you have sailed no matter when you purchased it. I frequently have OBC so I normally wait until I'm on the ship to purchase the package. Go ahead and purchase the package which ever way is most convenient to you.

[Clarea]

To add to the good explantion Bill gave above, purchasing the wine package MAY save you 25%, but it may also be MORE expensive than purchasing single bottles of wine. It all depends on what wine(s) you select.

 

Five years ago, the wine package pretty much saved on every bottle of wine, but as time has gone by, the prices have changed and now that is not the case. There is an old thread, which I still believe is accurate, that is called something like "Wine Package Over Analysis". This is a very thorough analysis of the prices of each wine in each package and you can clearly see which wines are better purchased via the package and which are better bought singly.

[Sinppu]

We ordered the Gold package and drank only the sparkling wine. We ended up saving something along the lines of $2 per bottle. Our friends had the same package and they had mostly red wine. They saved almost $15 more than we did.

Or maybe not...maybe we would not have drank as much wine if we hadn't had the packages :p

[richardb]

Another thing to keep in mind is that there are three tiers, gold, platinum, diamond, each building on the previous one. So if you buy the most expensive package but consistently order wine from the cheaper package, you very well may pay more than paying by the bottle.

 

I believe the actual wording is something along the line of "save up to 25%" as opposed to a guaranteed 25% savings.

 

We always wait and buy after boarding. There is no benefit to pre ordering the package.

[peteukmcr]

I believe what they are referring to is you will save the 25% as opposed to buying the same bottles by the bottle when you are on board. The price of the package is the same either pre cruise or if you decide to buy it once you are on board. The benefit of purchasing it pre cruise is you will have it paid for and therefore not on your final sea pass bill. The biggest drawback would be you could not use any on board credit to offset the package (assuming you had some).

 

Also there is no tax applied to the package regardless of when you buy it other than the 15% gratuity. In actuality they really don't process the transaction until after you have sailed no matter when you purchased it. I frequently have OBC so I normally wait until I'm on the ship to purchase the package. Go ahead and purchase the package which ever way is most convenient to you.

Actually it depends on the departure port of the ship on which you are sailing as to whether any additional tax is applied. If you are sailing from a Spanish port and not visiting a non European Union country, an additional 8% tax will be added to the cost of the package in addition to the 15% gratuity. So unfortunately to say no other tax is applied is incorrect. In fact all purchases including speciality restaurant cover charges attract this tax under these conditions.

[CH_ca]

Actually it depends on the departure port of the ship on which you are sailing as to whether any additional tax is applied. If you are sailing from a Spanish port and not visiting a non European Union country, an additional 8% tax will be added to the cost of the package in addition to the 15% gratuity. So unfortunately to say no other tax is applied is incorrect. In fact all purchases including speciality restaurant cover charges attract this tax under these conditions.

 

Thanks everyone for the replies. That Wine Analysis document is especially useful.

 

Peteukmcr: Is there any way to avoid this 8% tax if one is sailing from a Spanish port like buy the package after the ship sails out of the Spanish boundary (if ever)?

[peteukmcr]

Thanks everyone for the replies. That Wine Analysis document is especially useful.

 

Peteukmcr: Is there any way to avoid this 8% tax if one is sailing from a Spanish port like buy the package after the ship sails out of the Spanish boundary (if ever)?

No, unfortunately not, if the cruise is returning to the Spanish port e.g. Like our recent Liberty sailing from Barcelona and back. However, as I said if your cruise is visiting a non European Union country e.g. Turkey, then the tax is not applied. The other route would be when sailing on a transatlantic as we did last year. The tax was still charged until we headed towards the Canaries which are tax free anyway, and so part way through the sea day from our last mainland Spain port of call, the tax was dropped.

[MS52]

If you purchase pre-cruise as we always do, make sure that you print out the confirmation (as we forgot to on our last cruise). When we tried to order wine the first night, our order was not in the system. It wasn't a big deal - we got a bottle from our friends package and returned the favor later (their order was in the system - go figure). After dinner we went to guest services and got it straighened out. Life would have been easier if we had the printout.

[medviewtwo]

Picked this up on another thread.

 

Someone's gone to a lot of trouble!

 

Just shows, choose the 'wrong' wine and a package can cost you more than purchasing 'by bottle'!

 

Link:

 

.pdf"]File Type: pdf RCI-WineDine-v3[1].pdf

[medviewtwo]

- sorry, trouble attaching '.pdf'

 

- here goes....

 

.pdf%20%28"]File Type: pdf RCI-WineDine-v3[1].pdf (

RCI Wine Package Comparisons.pdf

[cmason]

We looked hard at the packages, and the middle one, the Platinum looked the best. We were not sure we really wanted 5 bottles, because we would be drinking other drinks throughout the day. Anyway, we looked long and hard at it, and decided that it would only be a deal if we purchased the more expensive bottles and we drank 5 of them. The stewards say you can take the bottles home, but that didn't seem like a good idea.

 

Instead, we decided that we would hold ourselves to $155 for wine, and enjoy what we got, vs being limited. However, we did even better: every day there was a 'special' at the Vintages wine bar, and the bottles were super cheap, $18-$24 for white or red. So, we purchased a few of those, and took the bottle to dinner with us. We spent something like $100 on wine, buying glasses and bottles, so that worked perfectly for us.

[Clarea]

We looked hard at the packages, and the middle one, the Platinum looked the best. We were not sure we really wanted 5 bottles, because we would be drinking other drinks throughout the day. Anyway, we looked long and hard at it, and decided that it would only be a deal if we purchased the more expensive bottles and we drank 5 of them. The stewards say you can take the bottles home, but that didn't seem like a good idea.

 

Instead, we decided that we would hold ourselves to $155 for wine, and enjoy what we got, vs being limited. However, we did even better: every day there was a 'special' at the Vintages wine bar, and the bottles were super cheap, $18-$24 for white or red. So, we purchased a few of those, and took the bottle to dinner with us. We spent something like $100 on wine, buying glasses and bottles, so that worked perfectly for us.

Thanks for the info. I had not realized that Vintages might have specials on wine. I'll be sure to check with them next cruise.

 

Bob

[CH_ca]

However, we did even better: every day there was a 'special' at the Vintages wine bar, and the bottles were super cheap, $18-$24 for white or red. So, we purchased a few of those, and took the bottle to dinner with us. We spent something like $100 on wine, buying glasses and bottles, so that worked perfectly for us.

 

That sounds great! In fact consuming 5 bottles in 7 days (plus other drinks) is really stretching for us. We're not heavy drinkers. Does the Vintages Wine Bar advertise the daily "special" on the compass or do we have to visit the bar to find out? When you purchase by the bottle, do they just give you the bottle or do they open it there and expect you to drink there and take whatever you can't finish elsewhere (like dining room)?

[retiredgram]

That sounds great! In fact consuming 5 bottles in 7 days (plus other drinks) is really stretching for us. We're not heavy drinkers. Does the Vintages Wine Bar advertise the daily "special" on the compass or do we have to visit the bar to find out? When you purchase by the bottle, do they just give you the bottle or do they open it there and expect you to drink there and take whatever you can't finish elsewhere (like dining room)?

I be checking back for the answer to this. Will have to let son know this.

[cmason]

Does the Vintages Wine Bar advertise the daily "special" on the compass or do we have to visit the bar to find out? When you purchase by the bottle, do they just give you the bottle or do they open it there and expect you to drink there and take whatever you can't finish elsewhere (like dining room)?

 

Vintages has a chalkboard outside with the daily specials. There is usually a Desert wine, a white wine and a red wine, though some days it was just red or white. It was not listed in the Cruise Compass, only on the chalkboard.

 

You can do whatever you want with the bottle. Some days we took it straight to the Dining room and our waiters opened it, other days, we enjoyed a glass first, then took it to dinner. At dinner, and this applies to any bottle of wine, you can have the waiter store it for the next nite, or take it with you to your room. We often took it to our room, along with the wine glasses to enjoy on the balcony.

[Mademypoint]

If the ship is docked in certain places you WILL be charged tax if that is the time you choose to do something like order a bottle of champagne or wine from one of the bars.

[f1mauro]

Some great tips from this thread. Thanks all!

[retiredgram]

Vintages has a chalkboard outside with the daily specials. There is usually a Desert wine, a white wine and a red wine, though some days it was just red or white. It was not listed in the Cruise Compass, only on the chalkboard.

 

You can do whatever you want with the bottle. Some days we took it straight to the Dining room and our waiters opened it, other days, we enjoyed a glass first, then took it to dinner. At dinner, and this applies to any bottle of wine, you can have the waiter store it for the next nite, or take it with you to your room. We often took it to our room, along with the wine glasses to enjoy on the balcony.

Thanks for the info.

[CH_ca]

Vintages has a chalkboard outside with the daily specials. There is usually a Desert wine, a white wine and a red wine, though some days it was just red or white. It was not listed in the Cruise Compass, only on the chalkboard.

 

You can do whatever you want with the bottle. Some days we took it straight to the Dining room and our waiters opened it, other days, we enjoyed a glass first, then took it to dinner. At dinner, and this applies to any bottle of wine, you can have the waiter store it for the next nite, or take it with you to your room. We often took it to our room, along with the wine glasses to enjoy on the balcony.

 

 

Thanks for the great tips. Wouldn't have known it without you! :)

[dandtgeddes]

Gidday CMason.

 

Just a query regarding purchasing in Vintages, if you wanted to have the wine with dinner in the MDR, is there any additional corkage fee with the wine being purchased at Vintages rather than in the dining room or as part of a package?

 

Newbie to RCI.

 

Thanking you in anticipation.

 

God bless you:)

 

TraceyG

[Clarea]

Gidday CMason.

 

Just a query regarding purchasing in Vintages, if you wanted to have the wine with dinner in the MDR, is there any additional corkage fee with the wine being purchased at Vintages rather than in the dining room or as part of a package?

 

Newbie to RCI.

 

Thanking you in anticipation.

 

God bless you:)

 

TraceyG

I have been told that there are no corkage fees anymore. However, in case that's not true, you can purchase in Vintages and specify delivery to the dining room.

[lisiamc]

- sorry, trouble attaching '.pdf'

 

- here goes....

 

.pdf%20%28"]File Type: pdf RCI-WineDine-v3[1].pdf (

 

Thanks for this! This is why I love cruise critic.:) What a helpful comparison chart! I've printed this out to help us decide if we want a package.

[Gordo]

Thanks for the tip on Vintages. We will check it out before ordering a wine package.

[newcruisergal]

Is there an equivalent to Vintages on Majesty?