Silver Spirits Beverage Package Option

[Twitchly]

We like to have a glass of wine with dinner, but we weren’t impressed by the “included” wines on our Viking cruise a few years ago. A few questions:

1. Are the non-included wines much better?
2. Are some of the non-included wines offered by the glass, or do you have to buy a bottle?

3. If you do buy a bottle of wine, can you save half and bring it to dinner another day? 

[Peregrina651]

5 minutes ago, Twitchly said:

We like to have a glass of wine with dinner, but we weren’t impressed by the “included” wines on our Viking cruise a few years ago. A few questions:

1. Are the non-included wines much better?
2. Are some of the non-included wines offered by the glass, or do you have to buy a bottle?

3. If you do buy a bottle of wine, can you save half and bring it to dinner another day? 

 

I can't answer your first question (taste and quality are subjective) or the third because I would just be guessing .  I do know that  you can purchase wines by the glass at lunch/dinner and that the sommelier will tell you what is available that day. They try to change it up throughout the cruise.

 

Moreover, Viking has a very liberal BYO policy and no corkage fee in the dining room. It will be more difficult under the Covid protocols and these days your shopping may be limited to the duty free stores in the airports.

[Heidi13]

41 minutes ago, Twitchly said:

We like to have a glass of wine with dinner, but we weren’t impressed by the “included” wines on our Viking cruise a few years ago. A few questions:

1. Are the non-included wines much better?
2. Are some of the non-included wines offered by the glass, or do you have to buy a bottle?

3. If you do buy a bottle of wine, can you save half and bring it to dinner another day? 

 

1) Sorry, too subjective. However, some pax, even with the SSBP accepted the "Included" wines.

 

2) The wine list has a fairly extensive selection of wines available by the glass. On the World Cruise, we could request any of them that were included with the SSBP, provided they were in stock. Due to supply problems, since we couldn't get into port, we were offered bottles that weren't included in the SSBP.

 

3) Yes, an unfinished bottle is corked and brought to the table the next evening. We sat in the same section, so our waiters stored it safely and had it at the table the next evening before we arrived.

[Little Monty]

4 hours ago, Twitchly said:

We like to have a glass of wine with dinner, but we weren’t impressed by the “included” wines on our Viking cruise a few years ago. A few questions:

1. Are the non-included wines much better?
2. Are some of the non-included wines offered by the glass, or do you have to buy a bottle?

3. If you do buy a bottle of wine, can you save half and bring it to dinner another day? 

G'day everyone.

 

We would not get onboard without the SS package. For us it is the convenience first and foremost, we don't add up or calculate the cost / benefit.

 

From our experience the included wines are usually better. Once we find a wine we like with stick with it. If we are in Explorers and they don't have it (or run out) .. the wonderful staff often go looking around the ship for what we want and bring it to us. Fantastic service as always.

 

That said, each cruise is different and we have tried the included wines several times - 'research' purposes of course (even though we had the SS package) and have found several included wines which we quite liked and asked for them rather than the SS package options. Again, we don't worry about the cost of one v the other or whether it is included or only in SS package. If it tastes good, that is all we want.

 

Re 2/ above .. all the SS wines come by the glass.

 

Re 3/, once we have the SS package this is not an issue.

 

I went into some detail about this issue in one of our cruise reviews (maybe Aust - NZ?). If I can find I will copy it back into this thread.

 

Cheers everyone.
Regards, LM

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Little Monty]

.. I found my Aust - New Zealand review (2019).

 

In that review I did actually say the included wines were generally better. Of course tastes vary so .. as some famous people say in this forum .. your mileage may be different.  😀

[Little Monty]

.. I didn't mean to suggest anyone should pay for SS package and then drink included wines etc. My point was not to over think it all, just go with what you are comfortable with and don't look back. 

Cheers again, LM

[zitsky]

At Chef's Table one of the wines from the premium list was some forgettable white but the included wine was a Petit Manseng, one of my favorites.  So I swapped with my husband,  who had the included wines..

[Twitchly]

14 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

1) Sorry, too subjective. However, some pax, even with the SSBP accepted the "Included" wines.

 

2) The wine list has a fairly extensive selection of wines available by the glass. On the World Cruise, we could request any of them that were included with the SSBP, provided they were in stock. Due to supply problems, since we couldn't get into port, we were offered bottles that weren't included in the SSBP.

 

3) Yes, an unfinished bottle is corked and brought to the table the next evening. We sat in the same section, so our waiters stored it safely and had it at the table the next evening before we arrived.

Excellent. Thanks. 
 

We’ll probably pass on the Silver Spirits plan because we don’t drink enough to make it appealing. But we will probably splash out on some other wines.

[Mich3554]

When we did the South America trip, we hit a couple of vineyards in Chile before the cruise and bought wines we tried and liked.  So we brought wine on board with us and drank it throughout the trip.  

[vslparis]

One thing to consider when not taking the SSP is that  if you like a cocktail ( or two )  with a specific liquor ,such as Manhattan with Makers Mark vs a Manhattan with whatever house liquor they  use for the standard drink, there will be an up charge on the price that is listed in the drinks menu at the bar.   So that $9 Manhattan is now $12-$15 . Found that out on one cruise where we didn’t take the SSP .

 As others have mentioned, it is a personal choice but I think that if you think that you would average 2-3 cocktails ( closer to 2 per day if you like top shelf liquor )  per day, then the SSP is a good value.  If you are just a wine drinker, maybe not. 

How many days at sea you have can also affect the value of that package 😉. Always seem to spend a bit more time at the bar or having poolside drinks on those days ! 

[vslparis]

9 minutes ago, Mich3554 said:

When we did the South America trip, we hit a couple of vineyards in Chile before the cruise and bought wines we tried and liked.  So we brought wine on board with us and drank it throughout the trip.  

Did that too when we went from SA to Australia . We also had purchased some single malt whisky at the airport to take on board. Viking as a wonderful BYOB policy and the bartenders are very accommodating about giving out glasses .

[vnb2003]

27 minutes ago, vslparis said:

One thing to consider when not taking the SSP is that  if you like a cocktail ( or two )  with a specific liquor ,such as Manhattan with Makers Mark vs a Manhattan with whatever house liquor they  use for the standard drink, there will be an up charge on the price that is listed in the drinks menu at the bar.   So that $9 Manhattan is now $12-$15 . Found that out on one cruise where we didn’t take the SSP .

 As others have mentioned, it is a personal choice but I think that if you think that you would average 2-3 cocktails ( closer to 2 per day if you like top shelf liquor )  per day, then the SSP is a good value.  If you are just a wine drinker, maybe not. 

How many days at sea you have can also affect the value of that package 😉. Always seem to spend a bit more time at the bar or having poolside drinks on those days ! 

Great point.  
If you would like to have any soft drink or a cocktail with it (coke,, sprite, etc) or a glass of juice, any specialty coffee, mineral water, etc, you’ll pay for those unless you have SSP.

it’s nice to have mimosa for in room breakfast during sea days, beer after sauna, digestive after diner, and espresso any time 😇😂

 

so, think about it, check the prices from the lists provided on page 6, and see if SSP will work for you.

 

Happy and safe sailing 🍷🍸🍹🍺🥂🥃🥤🧃🧉
 

[Twitchly]

Very helpful info here. The wine list a couple pages back was very enlightening. 
 

So if you have the drinks package, can you order an entire bottle of wine? I assume there’s some sort of maximum price? (Like the $15 mixed drink limit.)

[vslparis]

16 minutes ago, Twitchly said:

Very helpful info here. The wine list a couple pages back was very enlightening. 
 

So if you have the drinks package, can you order an entire bottle of wine? I assume there’s some sort of maximum price? (Like the $15 mixed drink limit.)

Bottles of wine not included ,but with the package you get 15% off a bottle over $50. 

[SantaFe1]

2 minutes ago, vslparis said:

Bottles of wine not included ,but with the package you get 15% off a bottle over $50. 

Now granted it was on a WC, but they delivered our requested bottles of wine to our cabin every day with the mini frig replenishment service.

[zalusky]

If you are in a PV or higher room they stock liquor in the room.  As a newby to Viking my question is what Mini-bar choices do we have beyond the generic aspect of Coke/Vodka/Sevenup/beer?

 

How much choice is there?  Anybody have a list?

 

 

[Jim Avery]

19 minutes ago, zalusky said:

If you are in a PV or higher room they stock liquor in the room.  As a newby to Viking my question is what Mini-bar choices do we have beyond the generic aspect of Coke/Vodka/Sevenup/beer?

 

How much choice is there?  Anybody have a list?

 

 

It can change based on availability so any past lists would be only ."ball park" useful.  The general rule I go by on Viking is if you don't see it, ask for it.  Unless the ship is completely out of something we always got our choices.  

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, vnb2003 said:

and espresso any time 

 

Coffee of any variety is free 24/7 -- unless you are adding spirits to it.

[SantaFe1]

1 hour ago, SantaFe1 said:

they delivered our requested bottles of wine to our cabin every day

I should add that the bottles they delivered were bottles of the wine that you could get by the glass with the package.  They didn’t deliver any chateauneuf du pape!  No Dom Perignon!

[LindaS272]

1 hour ago, zalusky said:

If you are in a PV or higher room they stock liquor in the room.  As a newby to Viking my question is what Mini-bar choices do we have beyond the generic aspect of Coke/Vodka/Sevenup/beer?

 

How much choice is there?  Anybody have a list?

 

 

We were on four Viking cruises—July 2019/Baltics—Sept. 2019 No. Trans-Atlantic—Nov. 2019/SE Asia—Feb/Mar. 2020 in PVs. Coke of our choice, tonic water, beer. Alcohol was mini-bottles of whisky (usually Dewar’s); gin (Beefeaters); vodka; white rum. Definitely able to get soft drinks of choice, mini alcohol not so much (no mini Bailey’s :-(). And then the PV inclusive fine bottle of French champagne.

[rbslos18]

1 hour ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Coffee of any variety is free 24/7 -- unless you are adding spirits to it.

This is so wonderful. It feels like we are back! I love the focus on cruises and not COVID!

Bob

[duquephart]

1 hour ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Coffee of any variety is free 24/7 -- unless you are adding spirits to it.

 

In which case it's not coffee.

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, SantaFe1 said:

Now granted it was on a WC, but they delivered our requested bottles of wine to our cabin every day with the mini frig replenishment service.

 

Same with us and also on a World Cruise with SSBP included. We requested a bottle of Grand Marnier and Rum in the cabin. Both full size bottles were there upon boarding. I requested IPA for the fridge and often received 1/2 dozen cans. Small bottles of spirits were also provided and replaced daily.

 

Our cabin was a DV 4.

 

If you asked, the crew made it happen.😀🍺

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

I  noticed that in the drinks lists for various venues they showed bottles of Crystal and Dom for less than normal retail in the US.  That alone sold me on Viking 🥂

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

Now, does anyone know if the have Caspian Sea (farmed, of course) caviar available, free or purchased?  Yes, yes, I’m a snob about my fish ovum....