Current Princess Plus and Premium Wine Lists

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 hours ago, LuckiePuris said:

Would anyone have the new/current Princess plus wine lists now that cruising is back in full steam from Australia? Thank you!

They haven't changed unfortunately. We were told they are unlikely to change until sometime next year. 

[arxcards]

4 hours ago, LuckiePuris said:

Would anyone have the new/current Princess plus wine lists now that cruising is back in full steam from Australia? Thank you!

If you are on Majestic or Grand, there might be some extra options to drink at Vines. I didn't think to check out if their menu was any different.

[LuckiePuris]

7 hours ago, arxcards said:

Still much the same on Majestic Princess last week. The menus were brand new for Australia, and looked the same as for the one posted earlier in the thread.

 

The wines by the glass options were identical.

 

4 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

They haven't changed unfortunately. We were told they are unlikely to change until sometime next year. 

 

2 hours ago, arxcards said:

If you are on Majestic or Grand, there might be some extra options to drink at Vines. I didn't think to check out if their menu was any different.

Thank you all! We are on Grand so hopefully some different wines there too included.

[jmcn73]

On 6/30/2022 at 3:59 PM, OzKiwiJJ said:

Apologies - new here.

 

Confirming these prices are in AUD, and current as of June 2022? ... I was looking to bring some Dom Perignon onboard - but the prices actually appear (for the champagne, at least) to be very competitive with bottle store prices?

 

Would really appreciate clarification - thank you!

[cruiser3775]

If you look back to post #4 on the first page of this thread, there is a full list of beverages. The prices are in Australian dollars.

That price for Dom Perignon looks competitive with the big discount wine places in Australia. Of course, if you bring it onboard, you have to pay the corkage fee after the first bottle.

Edited November 9, 2022 by cruiser3775

[jmcn73]

3 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

If you look back to post #4 on the first page of this thread, there is a full list of beverages. The prices are in Australian dollars.

That price for Dom Perignon looks competitive with the big discount wine places in Australia. Of course, if you bring it onboard, you have to pay the corkage fee after the first bottle.

Thank you for confirming 🙂 

 

Genuinely surprised at the price; with the plus package, it'll come in significantly cheaper to buy onboard as opposed to bottle shop, albeit - no vintage listed... 

 

Looking at some of the other 'wines' on list (de bortolli, 19 crimes - aka, BWS plonk) - the markups are ridiculous. Also quite disappointing to see such a small selection of pinot noir and Cab Sauvignon. 

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, jmcn73 said:

Thank you for confirming 🙂 

 

Genuinely surprised at the price; with the plus package, it'll come in significantly cheaper to buy onboard as opposed to bottle shop, albeit - no vintage listed... 

 

Looking at some of the other 'wines' on list (de bortolli, 19 crimes - aka, BWS plonk) - the markups are ridiculous. Also quite disappointing to see such a small selection of pinot noir and Cab Sauvignon. 

If you have the plus package, you do get a discount on the per bottle price (can't recall the %). 

[cruiser3775]

14 hours ago, jmcn73 said:

Looking at some of the other 'wines' on list (de bortolli, 19 crimes - aka, BWS plonk) - the markups are ridiculous.

Yes, the wine selection is definitely disappointing. Princess could do a lot better than offering passengers $5.99 plonk for $60 a bottle. Personally, I'll be doing BYO and paying the corkage.

[OzKiwiJJ]

13 hours ago, arxcards said:

If you have the plus package, you do get a discount on the per bottle price (can't recall the %). 

25%. With the discount it worked out about the same for a bottle of Gruner Veltliner as it would if we'd brought our own and paid corkage. The Barolo in Sabatinis is cheaper than at Dan Murphys.

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, cruiser3775 said:

Yes, the wine selection is definitely disappointing. Princess could do a lot better than offering passengers $5.99 plonk for $60 a bottle. Personally, I'll be doing BYO and paying the corkage.

Disappointing is far too mild a term! 🤣🤣🤣

[cruiser3775]

I was being polite!

[cruiser3775]

From a Princess media release in August:

Princess Cruises announced the appointment of Sami Cohen to the position of Vice President of Food and Beverage. Sami is a distinguished food and beverage professional with extensive culinary experience across a wide range of cruise, travel and hospitality brands. Cohen will join Princess on August 29 and will report directly to President John Padgett.

Maybe someone should alert Sami to this thread and give her a chance to improve the wine offerings!  I'm not holding my breath.....

Edited November 12, 2022 by cruiser3775

[NSWP]

I was in Uncle Dans today, saw the De Bortoli Willowglen reds and whites as sold on Princess for something like $55. Yes Dans Price $6 a bottle by the half dozen. So it is plonk, sorry I mean Commercial Quaffer, lol.

Edited November 14, 2022 by NSWP

[OzKiwiJJ]

11 minutes ago, NSWP said:

I was in Uncle Dans today, saw the De Bortoli Willowglen reds and whites as sold on Princess for something like $55. Yes Dans Price $6 a bottle by the half dozen. So it is plonk, sorry I mean Commercial Quaffer, lol.

They're $12 a glass onboard! 

 

I wonder if the powers that be at Princess actually realise how cheap those wines are? Or did their supplier con them?

[NSWP]

5 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

They're $12 a glass onboard! 

 

I wonder if the powers that be at Princess actually realise how cheap those wines are? Or did their supplier con them?

I doubt the wine merchant or De Bortoli  conned Princess, more like the greedy bean counters at Carnival wanted the huge mark up. The Willowglen is $16 a bottle or $5 a glass at Catalina golfie, when they have it in stock.

 

The Willowglen is actually Sacred Hill range, bottom of DeBortoli Riverina wines. 

Edited November 14, 2022 by NSWP

[martin jenkins]

just got of p&o encounter, lock and key pinot noir $43 bottle, princess $69. moet $99 princess $119, veuve cliqot $106 princess $136. no dom perignon though although $285 - 25% makes it a sharp price, think dan murphys is $335. 

[Suzy6666]

On 6/30/2022 at 3:59 PM, OzKiwiJJ said:

Those are our local wines very overpriced

[OzKiwiJJ]

51 minutes ago, Suzy6666 said:

Those are our local wines very overpriced

Very, very, very over-priced! And that's the old wine list.  These ones have the new prices:

 

 

I have no objection to a reasonable mark-up on wines. After all they have to get the wine delivered, load it onboard, store it, ensure the various bars have supplies, chill the white wines, provide glasses, and serve it. Not much different to land-based restaurants and bars. However the Princess mark-ups are obscenely high. The Willowglen Semillion/Sauvignon is occasionally found in bottle form at just under $6 a bottle. It's normally sold in casks for around $20-22 for four litres. At five 150ml glasses to a bottle that makes it a $1.20 a glass retail price, and Princess would get it at much less than retail price. Princess are charging $14 for a glass. That's 11.6 times the retail price so roughly 1160% markup. Normal restaurant markups are around 300% , high end restaurants may be up to 500% - 600%.

 

🤬🤬🤬

[OzKiwiJJ]

Oddly enough the markup isn't so high on one of the more expensive wines. The Henschke Henry's Seven GSM on the Premier wine list only has around 400% markup on the retail price.

 

 

[arxcards]

40 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Very, very, very over-priced! And that's the old wine list.  These ones have the new prices:

 

 

I have no objection to a reasonable mark-up on wines. After all they have to get the wine delivered, load it onboard, store it, ensure the various bars have supplies, chill the white wines, provide glasses, and serve it. Not much different to land-based restaurants and bars. However the Princess mark-ups are obscenely high. The Willowglen Semillion/Sauvignon is occasionally found in bottle form at just under $6 a bottle. It's normally sold in casks for around $20-22 for four litres. At five 150ml glasses to a bottle that makes it a $1.20 a glass retail price, and Princess would get it at much less than retail price. Princess are charging $14 for a glass. That's 11.6 times the retail price so roughly 1160% markup. Normal restaurant markups are around 300% , high end restaurants may be up to 500% - 600%.

 

🤬🤬🤬

The $30 corkage is relatively good value then. $6 per bottle + corkage is $36 or around $7 per glass. 🤣

 

Without taxes on a bottle of spirits, they are nominally paying around $10 per litre for the generic varieties, so a Jack and coke has quite a mark-up as well. Yes, it sucks, but we still drink.

 

I see it that we are paying $65 per day for our drinks, so that is potentially less than $5 per drink, whether it be JD, cheap plonk, beer, coffee or bottled water. There are a couple of the cheaper wines that we find to be drinkable, and price becomes less relevant on a package. I prefer this much more than taking a bottle of wine each and our dozen cans of soft drink. It could be worse - the drink packages could be over $100 per day like some of their main competitors.

[OzKiwiJJ]

13 hours ago, arxcards said:

The $30 corkage is relatively good value then. $6 per bottle + corkage is $36 or around $7 per glass. 🤣

 

Without taxes on a bottle of spirits, they are nominally paying around $10 per litre for the generic varieties, so a Jack and coke has quite a mark-up as well. Yes, it sucks, but we still drink.

 

I see it that we are paying $65 per day for our drinks, so that is potentially less than $5 per drink, whether it be JD, cheap plonk, beer, coffee or bottled water. There are a couple of the cheaper wines that we find to be drinkable, and price becomes less relevant on a package. I prefer this much more than taking a bottle of wine each and our dozen cans of soft drink. It could be worse - the drink packages could be over $100 per day like some of their main competitors.

There are three wines I can drink on the Plus wine list - the rose, the pinot noir, and the merlot. There is no way I'm an doing a 110 night cruise with just those wines to choose from. I put up with them last year but struggled to enjoy them on the cruise we did in March.

 

I want decent white wines, more variety in reds and a reasonable sparkling. OK, we got the Plus package for $40pp per day for that cruise so that at least covers all our non-wine drinks but we booked that cruise in good faith expecting a decent selection of wines by the glass as per the 2019 wine list. To get reasonable wines we will have to buy wines by the bottle and/or bring some of our own wines onboard and pay the outrageous $30 per bottle corkage. That is going to add another $5000+ to the cost of that cruise. NOT HAPPY!!! 🤬

 

Our budget is very tight for that cruise. If anything else goes up in price we might reach the last straw!

Edited July 19, 2023 by OzKiwiJJ

[arxcards]

6 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

There are three wines I can drink on the Plus wine list - the rose, the pinot noir, and the merlot. There is no way I'm an doing a 110 night cruise with just those wines to choose from. I put up with them last year but struggled to enjoy them on the cruise we did in March.

 

I want decent white wines, more variety in reds and a reasonable sparkling. OK, we got the Plus package for $40pp per day for that cruise so that at least covers all our non-wine drinks but we booked that cruise in good faith expecting a decent selection of wines by the glass as per the 2019 wine list. To get reasonable wines we will have to buy wines by the bottle and/or bring some of our own wines onboard and pay the outrageous $30 per bottle corkage. That is going to add another $5000+ to the cost of that cruise. NOT HAPPY!!! 🤬

 

Our budget is very tight for that cruise. If anything else goes up in price we might reach the last straw!

I think they will be relaxed around charging corkage on your world cruise. They are generally much more relaxed about bringing back local wines in port on the longer cruises. I hope that is the case for you next year, and for us to a limited degree in 2025.

 

Good pick on the limited acceptable plus wines. We are two from three for those (merlot & rose), which I don't really care about the price mark-up if they are drinkable. Sure they could have a nice $80 bottle that has added cherry notes, but that necessarily make it better value for money. A cheaper all-rounder that is easy on the palate is usually our best value. We don't drink many whites when we travel.

[NSWP]

OMG, I had to crawl out of my death bed to reply to this thread, $79 for a bottle of De Bortoli Willowglen. $6 plonk. $15 at the Golfie.
 

I am speechless.  No way Jose.

[Tripmode33]

For those disappointed with Princess wine offerings, I feel your pain!

As NSWP states, De Bortoli Willowglen is the same wine as the De Bortoli Sacred Hill retail range. $4.45 bottle at Dan's today and $5 at First Choice. Rediculous!  Good salesmanship by De Bortoli I'd say.

But what surprises me most is why, on both Carnival Luminosa and P&O Encounter recently I can purchase Masterpeace Merlot and Katnook Cabernet Sav for $39 and $42 respectively when Princess charges me $77 and $98 for EXACTLY the same wine!

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, Tripmode33 said:

For those disappointed with Princess wine offerings, I feel your pain!

As NSWP states, De Bortoli Willowglen is the same wine as the De Bortoli Sacred Hill retail range. $4.45 bottle at Dan's today and $5 at First Choice. Rediculous!  Good salesmanship by De Bortoli I'd say.

But what surprises me most is why, on both Carnival Luminosa and P&O Encounter recently I can purchase Masterpeace Merlot and Katnook Cabernet Sav for $39 and $42 respectively when Princess charges me $77 and $98 for EXACTLY the same wine!

There is one big difference - Princess offers very, very well priced fare add-ons, the Plus and Premier fares. So those people who have those deals don't care what the bottle prices are, as they get their wine by the glass but if they do decide to get a bottle of a wine they get it at a 25% discount. Unfortunately most of the wines by the glass under the Plus package are rubbish. If they had decent wines, and honoured their claim to offer 25 wines by the glass (currently there are 9 on offer) then it would truly be a great deal. 

 

I just can't figure out what Princess is up to. They seem to be trying to change to much in ways that don't make sense. I realize Princess has to make a profit but they have to balance that with what is realistic in the markets they are operating in. They have chosen to operate in Australia in a different manner to the rest of the world which is great for us but they can't just think everything through in USD then convert it to AUD as that leads to overpricing in some areas e g. the new corkage fees. 

 

And then there are the new items they added to the Plus fare. Did anyone think what effect rough seas would have on a ship load of people who had each consumed two of those revolting "special dessert" ice cream concoctions a day?