Royal Princess Wine List

[asdf1245]

Given all the virus stuff this is probably a bit of a long shot.

 

Does anyone have the current Princess Fleet Wine List that can be viewed online???

 

Many thanks.

[paul929207]

i would think the best you might find would be a year or so ago.

[franktown]

Won't be a current wine list available till sailings start again.  

[XBGuy]

The Princess web site has the list that was in use when cruising ceases, last year.

 

https://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/ships-and-experience/food-and-dining/beverages/Wine-Menu.pdf

 

Obviously, nobody knows for sure what the truth will be whenever cruising resumes.  Personally, I am of the opinion that it will be pretty similar to this.

[taxmantoo]

1 hour ago, XBGuy said:

The Princess web site has the list that was in use when cruising ceases, last year.

 

https://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/ships-and-experience/food-and-dining/beverages/Wine-Menu.pdf

 

Obviously, nobody knows for sure what the truth will be whenever cruising resumes.  Personally, I am of the opinion that it will be pretty similar to this.

Look at the bright side.  All wines in their cellar will have aged one more year...Bonus 🙂 

[nini]

Tough to get a Red Blend by the glass. Geeez..........

[CineGraphic]

5 hours ago, nini said:

Tough to get a Red Blend by the glass. Geeez..........

We always bring our own wine, as you never know what the ship will have or not have.

"We're out of that" is not something I like to hear when vacationing.

[nini]

4 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

We always bring our own wine, as you never know what the ship will have or not have.

"We're out of that" is not something I like to hear when vacationing.

Good point. However, the logistics of bringing bottles onboard  can be a hassle depending where you fly into, etc.

[XBGuy]

21 hours ago, nini said:

Tough to get a Red Blend by the glass. Geeez..........

 

It's not clear to me whether you are talking about ordering a glass in one of the lounges or with dinner in a restaurant or dining room.  If it is the latter, give thought to ordering by the bottle.  Princess pours five glasses of wine from a bottle.  If you order a glass of, for instance, The Renegade  blend by Ancient Peaks, the charge is $11.  If you order a bottle of the same wine, the charge is $42.  However, if you divide that by five, it comes out to $8.40 per glass.  (We'll see what the pricing is when cruising resumes.)  As I am sure you are aware, you do not have to finish the bottle at one meal.  The restaurant/dining room staff will save your bottle for subsequent visits.

 

Other than Vines, it is not clear to me that you can order by the bottle in the lounges.  I order bottles in Vines all the time.  The servers/bar tenders are happy to save unfinished bottles for me.

 

I just looked at the Princess wine list.  There are, really, not that wines that are specifically identified as blends on it.  Frank Schoonmaker did a pretty good job of convincing American winemakers to market varietal bottlings.  As a result, many Americans look for Chardonnays or Cabernet Sauvignons or whatever their single-grape variety favorite is.  Many European wines are blends--the most notable exceptions being Burgundy (Chardonnay or Pinot Noir) and Barolo (Nebbiolo).  Spanish wines are very reasonably priced.  Take a look at that Marques de Caceres Gran Reserva.  It is a good wine.  By law Gran Reserva wines are required to have two years of oak aging before they are bottled and three years of bottle aging before they are released.  So, they will, typically, be more mature wine than the U.S. wines on the Princess list.  The LAN Reserva (one year in oak and two years in the bottle) is, also, a good choice.

 

 

15 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

We always bring our own wine, as you never know what the ship will have or not have.

"We're out of that" is not something I like to hear when vacationing.

 

We also bring some of our own wine on cruises.  However, we also like to try new things in the various venues.  I am, primarily, a red wine drinker and Mrs. XBGuy is, primarily, a white wine drinker.  A few years ago, we went to Sabatini's for dinner on embarkation evening.  For whatever reason, we did not bring one of our wines that night.  So, I ordered a Brunello and my wife ordered a Sicilian white.  First, the server came back and told my wife her wine was not in stock.  So, she ordered a Sancerre (French?  In an Itallian restaurant?  The shame.)  The server returned, again, empty-handed.  This time the bad news was for me.  They were out of the Brunello.  So, I ordered a Chianti.  The Chianti made it to our table, but not the Sancerre.  Mrs. XBGuy's third choice was a California Sauvignon Blanc.  Finally.  Success.

 

Two nights later we went to Crown Grill.  I had a bottle of one of my Cabernet Sauvignons with me, and Mrs. XBGuy took up the chanllenge of the wine list.  She saw a Pouilly-Fume and asked for that.  You know what's coming.  No luck.  She saw the same Sicilian white that she couldn't get at Sabatini's the previous night and asked for it.  I rolled my eyes.  The server came back empty-handed, but, get a load of this.  There was one bottle of this wine on the ship, but it was in the Main Dining Room, and, so, it would take him a few minutes to go there and retrieve it.

 

In two nights we failed when we asked for four wines.  Yes, I know this is a First World problem, and to be honest, we were laughing about it at the time.

[nini]

XBGuy-

The menu has a category that states:

"Multifaceted Red Blends"

 

Ancient Peaks is the only red blend available by the glass.

[CineGraphic]

1 hour ago, XBGuy said:

We also bring some of our own wine on cruises.  However, we also like to try new things in the various venues.

 

We love to try new things too, and it's very easy when sailing out of Fort Lauderdale.

I use Total Wine's app to see what they have in stock, and then do my homework online.

Four or five days before sailing, I place my order on the app. When we arrive at the airport, I have our Uber stop by Total Wine for 5 minutes before heading to the port. Our order is paid for and waiting for us, easy-peasy.

[suzyed]

7 hours ago, XBGuy said:

 

It's not clear to me whether you are talking about ordering a glass in one of the lounges or with dinner in a restaurant or dining room.  If it is the latter, give thought to ordering by the bottle.  Princess pours five glasses of wine from a bottle.  If you order a glass of, for instance, The Renegade  blend by Ancient Peaks, the charge is $11.  If you order a bottle of the same wine, the charge is $42.  However, if you divide that by five, it comes out to $8.40 per glass.  (We'll see what the pricing is when cruising resumes.)  As I am sure you are aware, you do not have to finish the bottle at one meal.  The restaurant/dining room staff will save your bottle for subsequent visits.

 

Other than Vines, it is not clear to me that you can order by the bottle in the lounges.  I order bottles in Vines all the time.  The servers/bar tenders are happy to save unfinished bottles for me.

 

I just looked at the Princess wine list.  There are, really, not that wines that are specifically identified as blends on it.  Frank Schoonmaker did a pretty good job of convincing American winemakers to market varietal bottlings.  As a result, many Americans look for Chardonnays or Cabernet Sauvignons or whatever their single-grape variety favorite is.  Many European wines are blends--the most notable exceptions being Burgundy (Chardonnay or Pinot Noir) and Barolo (Nebbiolo).  Spanish wines are very reasonably priced.  Take a look at that Marques de Caceres Gran Reserva.  It is a good wine.  By law Gran Reserva wines are required to have two years of oak aging before they are bottled and three years of bottle aging before they are released.  So, they will, typically, be more mature wine than the U.S. wines on the Princess list.  The LAN Reserva (one year in oak and two years in the bottle) is, also, a good choice.

 

 

 

We also bring some of our own wine on cruises.  However, we also like to try new things in the various venues.  I am, primarily, a red wine drinker and Mrs. XBGuy is, primarily, a white wine drinker.  A few years ago, we went to Sabatini's for dinner on embarkation evening.  For whatever reason, we did not bring one of our wines that night.  So, I ordered a Brunello and my wife ordered a Sicilian white.  First, the server came back and told my wife her wine was not in stock.  So, she ordered a Sancerre (French?  In an Itallian restaurant?  The shame.)  The server returned, again, empty-handed.  This time the bad news was for me.  They were out of the Brunello.  So, I ordered a Chianti.  The Chianti made it to our table, but not the Sancerre.  Mrs. XBGuy's third choice was a California Sauvignon Blanc.  Finally.  Success.

 

Two nights later we went to Crown Grill.  I had a bottle of one of my Cabernet Sauvignons with me, and Mrs. XBGuy took up the chanllenge of the wine list.  She saw a Pouilly-Fume and asked for that.  You know what's coming.  No luck.  She saw the same Sicilian white that she couldn't get at Sabatini's the previous night and asked for it.  I rolled my eyes.  The server came back empty-handed, but, get a load of this.  There was one bottle of this wine on the ship, but it was in the Main Dining Room, and, so, it would take him a few minutes to go there and retrieve it.

 

In two nights we failed when we asked for four wines.  Yes, I know this is a First World problem, and to be honest, we were laughing about it at the time.

That has been our experience on the last several cruises.  The worst was on the Crown a few years back when they were switching from the old wine list to the new wine list.  We had bought a dinner wine package and we had to choose wines $45 or less(I think).  They had nothing to offer in the Cab department in that price range.  So we asked if we could get the Caymus ($92), have them take two punches from our card and add the extra $2.   No way they said.   Fortunately for us, our friendly Hotel General Manager intervened and made an agreement with the Matre 'd to allow us to make the switch and use two punches.  Actually they even comped the first one even after we told them it was not necessary to do so. 
So if we can, we now bring on a few bottles...
The craziest thing that has happened with that plan was when we were on the Coral last year, we got a really nice bottle of Chilean Sparkling wine and brought it onboard.  We got an ice bucket and ice from room service and went out to trivia or something and left the bottle chilling. Came back later and the bucket, the bottle and ice all went missing!!! It was never recovered!  And it was like they didn't believe us!  We had to come up with the name of the young lady who delivered the bucket and the time and date it was delivered....3-4 days later they replaced it with a bottle from the wine list.  Not the same as the one we got from the winery in Chile, but at least we got it.

 

[suzyed]

6 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

 

We love to try new things too, and it's very easy when sailing out of Fort Lauderdale.

I use Total Wine's app to see what they have in stock, and then do my homework online.

Four or five days before sailing, I place my order on the app. When we arrive at the airport, I have our Uber stop by Total Wine for 5 minutes before heading to the port. Our order is paid for and waiting for us, easy-peasy.

We do too!

 

[Cruise Raider]

On 1/5/2021 at 6:50 PM, CineGraphic said:

We always bring our own wine, as you never know what the ship will have or not have.

"We're out of that" is not something I like to hear when vacationing.

 

We do the same when we are sailing out of San Francisco as getting to the port is quick and easy and requires no flight.  But, we either have the beverage package or try to purchase a wine bottle package whenever we fly to get to our embarkation port.  

[CineGraphic]

2 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

we either have the beverage package or try to purchase a wine bottle package whenever we fly to get to our embarkation port. 

 

We have the bev package on all 5 of our future bookings, but we'll still bring some wine of our own on.

This is the only way to completely avoid hearing, "we're out of that", and we're drinking better wines/vintages compared to what's on board.

[Cruise Raider]

6 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

 

We have the bev package on all 5 of our future bookings, but we'll still bring some wine of our own on.

This is the only way to completely avoid hearing, "we're out of that", and we're drinking better wines/vintages compared to what's on board.

 

I must admit that when I have the beverage package, the wine choices are rather weak.  On one of my sailings a while back, I just couldn't even look at a bottle of Clos Du Bois for about 3 years after we returned home.  haha!  

Now, I wish they would sell the wine bottle packages on every sailing, regardless of the length of the cruise and I wish they would sell it to us in our cruise personalizer ahead of time.  It is just money in the bank for them.  I am not sure why all the hoops to buy it.  We found some pretty decent bottles of wine on it on our last few times we've purchased it.  They even allowed us to pay the difference for bottles that were over the limit.  

[CineGraphic]

20 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

Now, I wish they would sell the wine bottle packages on every sailing, regardless of the length of the cruise and I wish they would sell it to us in our cruise personalizer ahead of time.

 

I used to sell wine & liquor wholesale in South Florida, and wrote many wine lists for hotels and restaurants in the Palm Beach area. It's tough to keep good wines in stock. It's much easier and more profitable for Princess to collect the $15 corkage fee for opening my own bottle than it is to keep changing the wine list to reflect vintage and availability changes.

Edited January 7, 2021 by CineGraphic

[Cruise Raider]

5 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

 

I used to sell wine & liquor wholesale in South Florida, and wrote many wine lists for hotels and restaurants in the Palm Beach area. It's tough to keep good wines in stock. It's much easier and more profitable for Princess to collect the $15 corkage fee for opening my own bottle than it is to keep changing the wine list to reflect vintage and availability changes.

 

You make a good point.  On our last cruise out of San Francisco, though, we had some wonderful choices.  Good thing others didn't want to spring for the additional costs as we always found something that was really awesome.  But, we've been on sailings before when, like you said, they were out of everything we wished to try.  

[Thrak]

We always used to order Spellbound Petite Sirah in Vines by the glass. A year (or two?) ago they stopped having that available. However, it was still available by the bottle in MDR. Even though we had the beverage package as a perk we bought bottle (at 25% off) to have with dinner. On our last cruise we went to the "regular" (free for Elite) wine tasting and that same wine was chosen by the vast majority of the room as the favorite of the wines tasted. I think it's weird that a wine chosen by popular acclaim is no longer offered in Vines.

 

It seems a big "dangerous" to order it by the glass in MDR as one has no idea when that bottle was actually opened. Of course that's also true in Vines but I think it's far less likely they would served corked wine in Vines and, since we got it ever evening they would have to be opening new bottles for us.

[jennybenny]

8 hours ago, Thrak said:

We always used to order Spellbound Petite Sirah in Vines by the glass. A year (or two?) ago they stopped having that available. However, it was still available by the bottle in MDR. Even though we had the beverage package as a perk we bought bottle (at 25% off) to have with dinner. On our last cruise we went to the "regular" (free for Elite) wine tasting and that same wine was chosen by the vast majority of the room as the favorite of the wines tasted. I think it's weird that a wine chosen by popular acclaim is no longer offered in Vines.

 

It seems a big "dangerous" to order it by the glass in MDR as one has no idea when that bottle was actually opened. Of course that's also true in Vines but I think it's far less likely they would served corked wine in Vines and, since we got it ever evening they would have to be opening new bottles for us.

Oh no! No more Spellbound by the glass in Vines!! That had been our go to! I buy it by the case at Total wine when I want a “cruise” fix! 
 

I must admit, the last few cruises we’ve not been to Vines and brought our own wine. So I had not realized it was removed from wines by the glass. 

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, jennybenny said:

Oh no! No more Spellbound by the glass in Vines!! That had been our go to! I buy it by the case at Total wine when I want a “cruise” fix! 
 

I must admit, the last few cruises we’ve not been to Vines and brought our own wine. So I had not realized it was removed from wines by the glass. 

 

The closest Total Wines to my house is more than 80 miles away. The last time I was there they only had 6 bottles of Spellbound Petite Sirah. I bought all of them. The section that will ship wine doesn't ever seem to have any when I check. I've never been able to find it here in my home town. I could probably get someone to order it but don't really want to go that route.

[nini]

23 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

It seems a big "dangerous" to order it by the glass in MDR as one has no idea when that bottle was actually opened. Of course that's also true in Vines but I think it's far less likely they would served corked wine in Vines and, since we got it ever evening they would have to be opening new bottles for us.

 

Ugh! For some silly reason, I have never thought about how long the bottle

has been open.

 

[Thrak]

11 minutes ago, nini said:

 

Ugh! For some silly reason, I have never thought about how long the bottle

has been open.

 

 

I will repeat your "Ugh!" as I notice my egregious typographic errors in the quoted content. I have "big" instead of "bit", "served" rather than "serve", "ever" instead of "every", and an initial comma for a parenthetical expression but no closing comma. (Definitely no better than a grade of "C". More likely a "C-".) D'Oh!

 

It seems a big "dangerous" to order it by the glass in MDR as one has no idea when that bottle was actually opened. Of course that's also true in Vines but I think it's far less likely they would served corked wine in Vines and, since we got it ever evening they would have to be opening new bottles for us.

[jennybenny]

17 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

The closest Total Wines to my house is more than 80 miles away. The last time I was there they only had 6 bottles of Spellbound Petite Sirah. I bought all of them. The section that will ship wine doesn't ever seem to have any when I check. I've never been able to find it here in my home town. I could probably get someone to order it but don't really want to go that route.

That is far away! We are lucky enough to have one close by. I don't take Spellbound on cruises, but I do buy it at home and it reminds me of Princess and my good friends Mary and Richard, which I met on a cruise. 🙂 I usually will take some Caymus, some Fontanella Beckstoffer GIII bottles, sparkling, and whatever DH wants 🙂 We also get the beverage package, but since they've decreased the bottle discount, we don't buy bottles anymore. It's whatever is by the glass and it's always disappointing to hear "we are out of that".  

 

 

[jennybenny]

3 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

I will repeat your "Ugh!" as I notice my egregious typographic errors in the quoted content. I have "big" instead of "bit", "served" rather than "serve", "ever" instead of "every", and an initial comma for a parenthetical expression but no closing comma. (Definitely no better than a grade of "C". More likely a "C-".) D'Oh!

 

It seems a big "dangerous" to order it by the glass in MDR as one has no idea when that bottle was actually opened. Of course that's also true in Vines but I think it's far less likely they would served corked wine in Vines and, since we got it ever evening they would have to be opening new bottles for us.

Don't worry, we all knew what you meant 🙂