Anyone know about wine on Princess?

[wishfulone]

Does anyone have the current wine lists for Princess cruises out of Aust/NZ? Do you remember what wines you had to drink on your last cruise? :D

[GUT2407]

Does anyone have the current wine lists for Princess cruises out of Aust/NZ? Do you remember what wines you had to drink on your last cruise? :D

 

 

I'll preface by saying I'm a non drinker. But live in the Hunter's wine region, havemany friends in the industry and some, including a cousin, who own vineyards. So I do take interest.

 

I should add I haven't cruised on Sun, Sea or Dawn recently, only on those that are only here Part Time, so that may have an impact.

 

I noticed a good range of wines, from the Hunter, Barossa, Margaret River and a few NZ brands, as well as a wide range from Europe and the USA.

[GUT2407]

I have a few photos somewhere there from our Dec 2915 trip on Diamond, if I can find them I will post some.

[linanles]

Does anyone have the current wine lists for Princess cruises out of Aust/NZ? Do you remember what wines you had to drink on your last cruise? :D

The beauty of a Princess cruise is you can take your favorite wine with you. You are allowed to take two bottles of wine on board at embarkation and not have to pay corkage on them. If you take more than two, the is no limit, you will have to pay $15 corkage on each extra bottle. That way you are sure of getting your favorite wine. Wine list prices on board are similar to what you would pay in a restaurant in Australia.

[Blue Elephant]

My experience of Princess wine comes from two cruises. A Mediterranean cruise on the Emerald Princess in 2015 and a Sydney to Hong Kong cruise on the Golden Princess last year. Both cruises had little (187 ml) bottles of Chilean wine that you could order through room service on a "5 bottles for the price of 4" deal. I really enjoyed those.

 

However, I should mention that I am not a well educated wine drinker.

[wishfulone]

Thanks for your replies. I really wanted to know brand names and whether there were more AusNZ wines than on cruises outside the region. Think I asked the question badly but thanks anyway.

Blue Elephant - I agree about the small Chilean bottles in room service. In fact the Chilean reds are often our whole bottle choice in the MDR too.

[Dates]

Hi,

 

I have a few questions about alcohol on Princess. I'll be cruising in April and on the website they have 375ml bottles of alcohol available are we able to drink those while on-board, they were listed under the wines which I've seen mentioned many times but me and my wife don't drink much wine. Trying to decide if we will buy a drinks package, also on the website the price is listed as 79.60pp a day is that price correct?

 

Appreciate any help I haven't been on a cruise since 2000.

[Womble99]

Hi,

 

I have a few questions about alcohol on Princess. I'll be cruising in April and on the website they have 375ml bottles of alcohol available are we able to drink those while on-board, they were listed under the wines which I've seen mentioned many times but me and my wife don't drink much wine. Trying to decide if we will buy a drinks package, also on the website the price is listed as 79.60pp a day is that price correct?

 

Appreciate any help I haven't been on a cruise since 2000.

 

The small bottles listed on the website are for your use in the cabin just pre order if you would like to, i believe you can reorder on board if you need more :)

 

The drinks package was $59pp per day on our last cruise in Jan but the website has issue with the fact it is a US site and tries to convert everything from USD to AUD even if it is already in AUD..... Buy it on board, even though you are apparently only charged the correct amount if you pre purchase.

[GUT2407]

Thanks for your replies. I really wanted to know brand names and whether there were more AusNZ wines than on cruises outside the region. Think I asked the question badly but thanks anyway.

Blue Elephant - I agree about the small Chilean bottles in room service. In fact the Chilean reds are often our whole bottle choice in the MDR too.

 

 

I know they had among others

 

Penfolds

Oyster Bay

Some of Col Petersons, including his champers

McGuigans

[GUT2407]

Hi,

 

I have a few questions about alcohol on Princess. I'll be cruising in April and on the website they have 375ml bottles of alcohol available are we able to drink those while on-board, they were listed under the wines which I've seen mentioned many times but me and my wife don't drink much wine. Trying to decide if we will buy a drinks package, also on the website the price is listed as 79.60pp a day is that price correct?

 

Appreciate any help I haven't been on a cruise since 2000.

 

 

The price is $59 a day, there is a website issue, that they don't seem interested in fixing.

[OzKiwiJJ]

We've had the drinks package on our last three Princess cruises and I haven't been all that impressed by the selection of wines by the glass. Although there is a decent range of wines the quality isn't great. The only riesling is a sweet one, there is only one pinot grigio and on two of those cruises they "ran out" of that a couple of times in the MDR although they did track some down in the end. The four chardonnays weren't great, the best of them was a bit acidic for my palate. I can't drink sauvignon blancs so can't comment on them but I think there were four - one or two might have been semillon blends.

 

There were two pinot noirs, a nice red zinfandel (which is simlar to the Aussie durif), and a decent merlot. I think there were four shirazes, all very heavy from memory, and four cabernets/blends which I also can't drink.

 

On our next Princess cruise, a Mediterranean cruise on Royal, I think we're not going to bother getting the package. I've seen comments that they offer a wine package onboard so we might just choose that and pay as we go for cocktails and liqueurs.

[wishfulone]

On our next Princess cruise, a Mediterranean cruise on Royal, I think we're not going to bother getting the package. I've seen comments that they offer a wine package onboard so we might just choose that and pay as we go for cocktails and liqueurs.

 

 

The wine package you're referring to is excellent value for wine drinkers. We always buy the Silver 12 bottle at lunch the day we board. This generally covers at least one decent red, white or sparkly up to $30-32. We've had the Gold package but for the extra price you're not necessarily getting better wines. You can always pay a couple of dollars difference if there's a bottle you'd like to try from the more expensive range.

 

The first bottle goes straight back to our room if it's a cold white otherwise we just leave it for drinking later. We don't drink cocktails or spirits so the wine package is definitely the way to go for us. Just a shame you can't buy wine this way on Australian based cruises for some reason. It's not as if they have a better or bigger choice of wines.

[LokiPoki]

I'm not really a drinker (odd sip now and then) ... only paid attention to the whites as that's what family members prefer - but there were a few Aus & NZ wines - Know they've a Nobilo sav blanc, think a McWilliams chardonnay and a semillon sav blanc, and some Seahorse Bay - definitely a chardonnay, maybe a semillon sav blanc. Sparkly stuff best avoided...sugary sweet headache in a glass is a generous description...

 

None cheap - from memory the Nobilo is around $40/bottle, the others around $30 - so if you've a preferred drop, you might be better as someone else suggested to buy your wine onshore and pay corkage.

[OzKiwiJJ]

The wine package you're referring to is excellent value for wine drinkers. We always buy the Silver 12 bottle at lunch the day we board. This generally covers at least one decent red, white or sparkly up to $30-32. We've had the Gold package but for the extra price you're not necessarily getting better wines. You can always pay a couple of dollars difference if there's a bottle you'd like to try from the more expensive range.

 

The first bottle goes straight back to our room if it's a cold white otherwise we just leave it for drinking later. We don't drink cocktails or spirits so the wine package is definitely the way to go for us. Just a shame you can't buy wine this way on Australian based cruises for some reason. It's not as if they have a better or bigger choice of wines.

 

Thanks, wishfulone, that's good to hear. I'll have to see which package fits for the types of wines we like to drink. The Silver package seems to only cover the same wines as are available by the glass on the drinks package, from what I've seen of the non-Aussie wine lists. We do like cocktails, liqueurs and speciality coffees though. However on a port intensive cruise we probably won't drink a lot of coffee onboard as we'll be out and about at the ports.

 

We tried this on Carnival last year and it worked well. We usually kept a bottle of red and a bottle of white rotating through at dinner so we had suitable wines for most foods.

[wishfulone]

Thanks, wishfulone, that's good to hear. I'll have to see which package fits for the types of wines we like to drink. The Silver package seems to only cover the same wines as are available by the glass on the drinks package, from what I've seen of the non-Aussie wine lists. We do like cocktails, liqueurs and speciality coffees though. However on a port intensive cruise we probably won't drink a lot of coffee onboard as we'll be out and about at the ports.

 

We tried this on Carnival last year and it worked well. We usually kept a bottle of red and a bottle of white rotating through at dinner so we had suitable wines for most foods.

In terms of the package we're basically red drinkers. There's a great little Chilean number that we quite enjoy on the Silver package. If you buy the Silver and figure you've made a mistake you can upgrade to the Gold.

 

Port intensive in the Mediterranean is good. You know you can bring a bottle on board at each port? So many choices :D

[OzKiwiJJ]

Is that the Carmenere? If so, yes, it's very nice.

 

But even if you bring a bottle in at every port you still have to pay the $15 corkage to take it to the MDR, surely?

 

I'm planning on bring a couple of bottles of champagne on when we embark but not sure I can be bothered tracking wine down the various port stops.

[wishfulone]

Is that the Carmenere? If so, yes, it's very nice.

 

But even if you bring a bottle in at every port you still have to pay the $15 corkage to take it to the MDR, surely?

 

I'm planning on bring a couple of bottles of champagne on when we embark but not sure I can be bothered tracking wine down the various port stops.

Most of our cruising has been outside Australia. and I don't recognise the name. The Sonoma/Napa Valley Californian wines are 'not to out palate' :D:D so we usually go with Chilean or Argentinian wines.

 

If you drink it on your balcony, pour a glass and go awanderin' you don't have to pay the corkage.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Carmenere is a variety that originated in the Medoc region of Bordeaux, but is now a popular wine in Chile. It's a lovely rich, but not too heavy, red wine. Worth trying if you get a chance

 

I'm not all that fond of the Californian wines either, except for Zen of Zin (red zinfandel) which is very similar to Australian durifs. I'm hoping there might be some interesting European wines on the wine list when we do the Med. cruise.