Viking ocean Alcohol policy

[seasidemn]

Considering our 1st Viking ocean cruise go Hawaii 1/25.

Wine included with lunch and dinner only.

No champagne 😭

But it sounds like you are free to bring your own alcohol on board ? With no corkage  fee? We were crystal creatures and now about to try regent seven seas Grandeur. 

Will we LOVE VIKING? 

Thank you. 

[WAVTAM]

Wine /Beer included with lunch/dinner

Bring all your favorite boozes and wine on board. 

No corkage.

 

Have done Regent/Seabourn/Crystal. All great but just way more expensive than Viking.

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, seasidemn said:

Considering our 1st Viking ocean cruise go Hawaii 1/25.

Wine included with lunch and dinner only.

No champagne 😭

But it sounds like you are free to bring your own alcohol on board ? With no corkage  fee? We were crystal creatures and now about to try regent seven seas Grandeur. 

Will we LOVE VIKING? 

Thank you. 

House wine, beer AND sparkling wine (not Prosecco ) free during lunch and dinner hours.  Yes bring as much alcohol of your own onboard. No charge.  We often bring our own wine bottles to dinner!

 

who knows if you’ll like Viking?  Only you can figure that out.  Try it and see!! 

[longterm]

2 hours ago, seasidemn said:

Considering our 1st Viking ocean cruise go Hawaii 1/25.

Wine included with lunch and dinner only.

No champagne 😭

My wife likes Mimosas, and on the river cruise we just finished a week ago, they served mimosas to her whenever she asked for them, without a charge, unless we were in the bar. 

 

Not sure if this is fleet-wide, but I would assume that, since champagne is technically sparkling wine, it would be included as well with lunch and dinner, on ocean as well.

[CCWineLover]

1 minute ago, longterm said:

My wife likes Mimosas, and on the river cruise we just finished a week ago, they served mimosas to her whenever she asked for them, without a charge, unless we were in the bar. 

 

Not sure if this is fleet-wide, but I would assume that, since champagne is technically sparkling wine, it would be included as well with lunch and dinner, on ocean as well.

River might be different- you say they served mimosas ANY time.

 

on Ocean we had them free ONLY at lunch and dinner time.  Per my previous post yes sparkling wine (not champagne) is included.

[CDNPolar]

2 minutes ago, longterm said:

My wife likes Mimosas, and on the river cruise we just finished a week ago, they served mimosas to her whenever she asked for them, without a charge, unless we were in the bar. 

 

Not sure if this is fleet-wide, but I would assume that, since champagne is technically sparkling wine, it would be included as well with lunch and dinner, on ocean as well.

 

On Viking Ocean, I would suspect that you could get the Mimosa with the included sparkling wine at lunch or dinner, but not anytime....

 

Is there an included Sparkling wine however?  I was not aware of that.  We always have SS and get Prosecco before lunch, but I have never seen the wine Stewards serving a sparkling that was included. 

[longterm]

19 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

 

On Viking Ocean, I would suspect that you could get the Mimosa with the included sparkling wine at lunch or dinner, but not anytime....

 

Is there an included Sparkling wine however?  I was not aware of that.  We always have SS and get Prosecco before lunch, but I have never seen the wine Stewards serving a sparkling that was included. 

Yes, exactly; however, my wife often got mimosas other than lunch or dinner without charge as well, which was a nice unexpected perk.

 

Prosecco is essentially another name for sparkling wine, which is what champagne is; it's made in the Veneto region of Italy, while champagne is made in the Champagne region in France. The process for producing it is slightly different, but for lots of drinkers, the taste is very similar. Not being a champagne drinker, I don't care for either.

 

it's like "Kolsch," which is a protected name for beer made in the Cologne region. Nowhere else in Germany can a beer maker use the name Kolsch except for the region around Cologne, but of course anyone can make beer that tastes just like it; in fact, my brother makes beer in Houston using the Kolsch recipe, and it's actually very good.

 

At any rate, waiters seemed more than willing to make and serve mimosas to my wife at dinner, without any additional charge. In the bar, it was hit or miss.

[longterm]

27 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

River might be different- you say they served mimosas ANY time.

That's not exactly what I said; what I said was that they sometimes charged her for them in the bar, sometimes not. In the restaurant, they always made them for her without charging.

 

As to the difference between sparkling wine and champagne, there is none, other than the name.

 

[CDNPolar]

2 minutes ago, longterm said:

Yes, exactly; however, my wife often got mimosas other than lunch or dinner without charge as well, which was a nice unexpected perk.

 

Prosecco is essentially another name for sparkling wine, which is what champagne is; it's made in the Veneto region of Italy, while champagne is made in the Champagne region in France. The process for producing it is slightly different, but for lots of drinkers, the taste is very similar. Not being a champagne drinker, I don't care for either.

 

it's like "Kolsch," which is a protected name for beer made in the Cologne region. Nowhere else in Germany can a beer maker use the name Kolsch except for the region around Cologne, but of course anyone can make beer that tastes just like it; in fact, my brother makes beer in Houston using the Kolsch recipe, and it's actually very good.

 

At any rate, waiters seemed more than willing to make and serve mimosas to my wife at dinner, without any additional charge. In the bar, it was hit or miss.

 

We have found on Viking River, there is more freedom on what they were serving.  Now, even though we did not say anything, it still ticked me off a bit...  We ate with the same table of 6 each night and 2 at our table were not on SS and the waiter often would just pour them what we ordered.  We would order a different wine nightly and sometimes two different ones.  I started to think... what am I paying for....?

[CDNPolar]

2 minutes ago, longterm said:

 

 

As to the difference between sparkling wine and champagne, there is none, other than the name.

 

 

Ok, you might get me into fighting mode now with this comment.  Sparkling wine, Cava, Prosecco, and Champagne are all VERY DIFFERENT.

 

My Husband is a 3rd level Master of Wine, and each one is quite different in every aspect that a wine can be.

 

You will have Champagne producers in Champagne region of France very upset with this comment.

 

My above comments are all in good fun, with some seriousness to them.

[CCWineLover]

33 minutes ago, longterm said:

As to the difference between sparkling wine and champagne, there is none, other than the name.

 

Sorry - beg to differ but don't want to get into arguments.  Yes it is semantics, but my friends from France drummed this into me and get prickly at Americans who say they are the same.

Champagne is the name reference to sparkling wine from the Champagne regions of France.  All other sparkling wines cannot use the word Champagne.  Viking serves non "Champagne" sparking wine for it's included wines.

[SJD117]

My takeaway: Never get between a Viking passenger and his or her bubbly, no matter what you call it.  😄😄😄

 

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by SJD117

[longterm]

10 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Sorry - beg to differ but don't want to get into arguments.  Yes it is semantics, but my friends from France drummed this into me and get prickly at Americans who say they are the same.

Champagne is the name reference to sparkling wine from the Champagne regions of France.  All other sparkling wines cannot use the word Champagne.  Viking serves non "Champagne" sparking wine for it's included wines.

Put orange juice in it and it tastes the same.

 

For those of us who don't care for either Prosecco, champagne, or sparkling wine, they all taste the same anyway.

[Mich3554]

Getting back to the original question…on one of our cruises, we took a wine tasting tour on the way to the ship.  By the time we got to the port, a case of wine was added to our luggage to be hauled to our cabin.  
 

The only restaurant or bar we did NOT haul a bottle to was Chef’s Table.  No corkage fees.

Edited October 26, 2023 by Mich3554

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, longterm said:

Put orange juice in it and it tastes the same.

 

For those of us who don't care for either Prosecco, champagne, or sparkling wine, they all taste the same anyway.

Ha!  Yes indeed, to me they all taste very similar with orange juice - especially if you don't like the taste 🙂

 

[Jim Avery]

3 hours ago, SJD117 said:

My takeaway: Never get between a Viking passenger and his or her bubbly, no matter what you call it.  😄😄😄

 

 

Drink em if you got em......🍺

[TayanaLorna]

4 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

Sorry - beg to differ but don't want to get into arguments.  Yes it is semantics, but my friends from France drummed this into me and get prickly at Americans who say they are the same.

Champagne is the name reference to sparkling wine from the Champagne regions of France.  All other sparkling wines cannot use the word Champagne.  Viking serves non "Champagne" sparking wine for it's included wines.

Champagne is also on the drinks menu and it is from France and much higher in price per glass then sparkling wine or Proseco.  The champagne by the glass was also higher priced then the limit per drink on the old SSBP.  I think now there is a champagne by the glass at $18 which is the limit per drink of the new SSBP.  Right Kent?

[CCWineLover]

51 minutes ago, TayanaLorna said:

Champagne is also on the drinks menu and it is from France and much higher in price per glass then sparkling wine or Proseco.  The champagne by the glass was also higher priced then the limit per drink on the old SSBP.  I think now there is a champagne by the glass at $18 which is the limit per drink of the new SSBP.  Right Kent?

Absolutely! 
the house sparkling worked just fine!  
remind me Lorna, it was the real deal French Champagne that Viking leaves 1 bottle of in the refrigerator for the PV’s when you board (we haven’t been further up the chain), right?

Edited October 26, 2023 by CCWineLover

[Hobson1754]

46 minutes ago, TayanaLorna said:

Champagne is also on the drinks menu and it is from France and much higher in price per glass then sparkling wine or Proseco.  The champagne by the glass was also higher priced then the limit per drink on the old SSBP.  I think now there is a champagne by the glass at $18 which is the limit per drink of the new SSBP.  Right Kent?

I had a few glasses of champagne with our SSP last month and it was very nice - granted, it wasn’t vintage but good nonetheless - I prefer champagne to either cava or Prosecco.

[Mike07]

8 hours ago, WAVTAM said:

Wine /Beer included with lunch/dinner

Bring all your favorite boozes and wine on board. 

 

 

 

To be clear.... when you say boozes, it included liquor, right? I don't care for most wine and beer.

[duquephart]

Booze is basically slang for hard liquor. Kind of like "suds" for beer.

[Mike07]

Just now, duquephart said:

Booze is basically slang for hard liquor. Kind of like "suds" for beer.

 

 

Hahaha... always though booze=beer.

 

The more you know...

[Mich3554]

2 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

Absolutely! 
the house sparkling worked just fine!  
remind me Lorna, it was the real deal French Champagne that Viking leaves 1 bottle of in the refrigerator for the PV’s when you board (we haven’t been further up the chain), right?

We had a bottle in our PV.  In fact, I think I have a pic of the bottle somewhere intending on looking it up.  I do remember noting it was champagne, not sparkling wine, Prosecco or cava.

[TayanaLorna]

4 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

Absolutely! 
the house sparkling worked just fine!  
remind me Lorna, it was the real deal French Champagne that Viking leaves 1 bottle of in the refrigerator for the PV’s when you board (we haven’t been further up the chain), right?

Yes it is definitely champagne in the PV. Each time we had a PV it was a different kind but never the Verve Cliquot.

[Escaper]

I have my doubts that even a Master Sommellier would be able to distinguish sparkling wine varietals when mixed with 3 parts of OJ.  Same goes for Rum and Coke, etc., where it does not pay to order a premium spirits when it is to be mixed with a strong mixer.

YMMV.