Any Winos Sail Viking?

[notjaded]

This is our first Viking cruise. While I don't drink, Ms. Notjaded loves quality red wine. We will not be purchasing a drink package. If one is a lover of quality red wine, would one be disappointed with Viking's complementary selections?

 

Many thanks!

[TayanaLorna]

4 minutes ago, notjaded said:

This is our first Viking cruise. While I don't drink, Ms. Notjaded loves quality red wine. We will not be purchasing a drink package. If one is a lover of quality red wine, would one be disappointed with Viking's complementary selections?

 

Many thanks!

Wino?  I resemble that remark.  For the included during lunch and dinner - one red variety or white - probably not.  However folks can ask for the wine list just like in any restaurant and have many choices to purchase by the glass for about $8.  Or there are more choices on that list to purchase a bottle anywhere from $45 to $100+.  She can bring what she does not finish at one sitting back to the room to drink another day.  You probably want to bring your favorite wine stopper cork in your luggage.  You can also purchase wine on shore and bring on the ship.  No corkage fee and she can drink it in any restaurant or lounge on board.  Staff will happily provide glasses.

[RobEsson]

The great news here is that Viking is almost unique in not charging anything (no corkage, nuffink) for wine you bring on board, so if Mrs. N has some fave raves and your port of embarkation is convenient for same, you can bring some bottles on board. Although Viking's price per bottle is reputedly reasonable (I haven't done a specific check myself), you'd probably save bringing wine on board. Also, they keep the wine for you recorked if Mrs. N doesn't drink in full bottles every day 😃 <little joke>. On our next trip from Santiago/Valparaiso, we've ID'd a good local wine shop and intend to get a few bottles for the trip.

[Mich3554]

41 minutes ago, notjaded said:

This is our first Viking cruise. While I don't drink, Ms. Notjaded loves quality red wine. We will not be purchasing a drink package. If one is a lover of quality red wine, would one be disappointed with Viking's complementary selections?

 

Many thanks!

You have got a few choices.  First, already mentioned, you can buy wine and bring on board.  Depending on where we have cruised, we have done this from vineyards we visited in Italy, New Zealand and Chile.  Second, we try the offered wines.  If we don’t like them, we go to the Explorer’s lounge and sample a bunch of different wines, choose a few to drink and at dinner will either bring a glass of one of these wines from the bar, or request a glass of a particular wine during dinner. 
 

Wines by the glass are pretty reasonably priced.  

[CCWineLover]

Being a self proclaimed "Wino"  -  here's my thoughts after 10+ Viking Ocean cruises:

-pre COVID the included wines at lunch/dinner were so-so but the wines by the glass (either paid individually or got with SSBP) were excellent with a wide variety!

-post COVID the included wines seem to be better but Viking has moved the quite a number of the good wines by the glass for purchase to be only available by the bottle (which means even SSBP has to buy a bottle, granted at a slight discount).  Wines are grouped by country.  For example, to show the limited selection for wines by the glass, for USA Red Wines there is only ONE wine, a Coppola Zin, available by the glass and yet there are 8 USA red wines only by the bottle.

NOTE:  if you are PV or higher, you can also ask the steward to replace the cocktail bottles with wine (ask for your choice by varietal i.e. Zin, Cab, Merlot, etc.).  You'll get the "house" wine.

 

-Our Solution:  we bring our own bottles on board.  Quite easy for us as we never fly in the day of boarding - and so can either pack some in our suitcases or visit a shop before boarding.  Depending on the ports, we also get some on the way. 

-No corkage fee, no nothing!  Steward brings us clean wine glasses to the room every day.

-Note: there are still some decent wines by the glass and we enjoy trying foreign wines we've not heard of before.  Wines by the bottle are quite good and actually the price is reasonable.  We might buy some bottles this trip using up OBC's.

 

Here is the Wine List that we had on Saturn Iceland cruise this past June.

Hope this helps!

 

[deec]

Interestingly on our recent River Cruises with the the SSP we could have a "glass(es)" of most of the wines although many could not be "purchased" by the glass.  There were only a handful of the by the bottle that we could not have. Perhaps because wines are more available for the River Ships.

[RobEsson]

38 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Being a self proclaimed "Wino"  -  here's my thoughts after 10+ Viking Ocean cruises:

-pre COVID the included wines at lunch/dinner were so-so but the wines by the glass (either paid individually or got with SSBP) were excellent with a wide variety!

-post COVID the included wines seem to be better but Viking has moved the quite a number of the good wines by the glass for purchase to be only available by the bottle (which means even SSBP has to buy a bottle, granted at a slight discount).  Wines are grouped by country.  For example, to show the limited selection for wines by the glass, for USA Red Wines there is only ONE wine, a Coppola Zin, available by the glass and yet there are 8 USA red wines only by the bottle.

NOTE:  if you are PV or higher, you can also ask the steward to replace the cocktail bottles with wine (ask for your choice by varietal i.e. Zin, Cab, Merlot, etc.).  You'll get the "house" wine.

 

-Our Solution:  we bring our own bottles on board.  Quite easy for us as we never fly in the day of boarding - and so can either pack some in our suitcases or visit a shop before boarding.  Depending on the ports, we also get some on the way. 

-No corkage fee, no nothing!  Steward brings us clean wine glasses to the room every day.

-Note: there are still some decent wines by the glass and we enjoy trying foreign wines we've not heard of before.  Wines by the bottle are quite good and actually the price is reasonable.  We might buy some bottles this trip using up OBC's.

 

Here is the Wine List that we had on Saturn Iceland cruise this past June.

Hope this helps!

 

Those bottle prices are really not too bad - I would judge them as tending to be less for nice wine than one generally pays in an onshore restaurant. Having said that, I agree with you @CCWineLover that bringing one's own on board is likely the best route. Do you remember (admittedly far back in 2019) where in Valparaiso you might have sourced your wine for the Chilean Fjords trip? I'm doing that in December and I think I may have found an ok wine shop, but you may well know better!

[MikeyB]

36 minutes ago, RobEsson said:

 Do you remember (admittedly far back in 2019) where in Valparaiso you might have sourced your wine for the Chilean Fjords trip? I'm doing that in December and I think I may have found an ok wine shop, but you may well know better!

Rob- Before that other wino replies....can you tell us the name/address of your wine shop?

Thanks

[RobEsson]

2 minutes ago, MikeyB said:

Rob- Before that other wino replies....can you tell us the name/address of your wine shop?

Thanks

It's called La Vinoteca, and it is both a restaurant and wine store - here's the signature line on an email:

María Antonieta Martinez & Héctor Maldonado

Shop & Restaurant Managers

La Vinoteca Viña del Mar, address: 8 Nte. 664, 2520100 Viña del Mar, Valparaíso

It's a taxi ride from the dock (or interestingly a straight shot on a particular bus ... 😃). Now I don't KNOW if it is the best option, but they have been very personable and have offered to send me some suggestions for really good wines before I leave. I was wondering, however, whether @CCWineLover might know anything better. Which cruise are you taking?

[MikeyB]

2 minutes ago, RobEsson said:

Which cruise are you taking?

Santiago to BA leaving 12/23/23.

[RobEsson]

Moi aussi, avec of course Mrs Rob 😃

[Meander Ingwa]

3 hours ago, RobEsson said:

The great news here is that Viking is almost unique in not charging anything (no corkage, nuffink) for wine you bring on board, so if Mrs. N has some fave raves and your port of embarkation is convenient for same, you can bring some bottles on board. Although Viking's price per bottle is reputedly reasonable (I haven't done a specific check myself), you'd probably save bringing wine on board. Also, they keep the wine for you recorked if Mrs. N doesn't drink in full bottles every day 😃 <little joke>. On our next trip from Santiago/Valparaiso, we've ID'd a good local wine shop and intend to get a few bottles for the trip.

the wine scene in Santiago is strong and it is a great opportunity to find some reds you might not find at home.  My Ecuadorian friend who is a red wine lover said that Santiago, (in his opinion) has a better scene than Mendoza.  You could have some potential great finds

[SJD117]

Speaking of South American winos: Back in 2005, some friends and I got together in Peru’s Sacred Valley (near Cusco) and quickly became hammered with bottles of nice Chilean wine. The locals said the Peruvian wine wasn’t nearly as good, so we took them at their word. Of course, at an altitude close to 10,000 feet, we weren’t thinking too much about the relative merits of Chilean vs. Peruvian wine by the time the evening was over. In fact, it was a wonder we could still think at all!    😁😁😁

[SantaFe1]

This is so funny.  We live at 7200 feet and loved and no trouble drinking lots of Chilean wine on the WC in 2019!!

[Mich3554]

3 hours ago, RobEsson said:

Those bottle prices are really not too bad - I would judge them as tending to be less for nice wine than one generally pays in an onshore restaurant. Having said that, I agree with you @CCWineLover that bringing one's own on board is likely the best route. Do you remember (admittedly far back in 2019) where in Valparaiso you might have sourced your wine for the Chilean Fjords trip? I'm doing that in December and I think I may have found an ok wine shop, but you may well know better!

When we took this trip, we took a wine tasting tour as we went to our ship in Valparaiso from Santiago.  We wound up bringing almost a case of wine on board with us.  I think we had 2 bottles left we took home.  

[SJD117]

2 hours ago, SantaFe1 said:

This is so funny.  We live at 7200 feet and loved and no trouble drinking lots of Chilean wine on the WC in 2019!!

The week after the Sacred Valley, our little group decamped to Cusco itself, at 11,000 feet (whew), where we feasted on roast cuy (guinea pig) and drank still more bottles of wine. Those details are all I remember from that inebriated evening. 

[notjaded]

7 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

Being a self proclaimed "Wino"  -  here's my thoughts after 10+ Viking Ocean cruises:

-pre COVID the included wines at lunch/dinner were so-so but the wines by the glass (either paid individually or got with SSBP) were excellent with a wide variety!

-post COVID the included wines seem to be better but Viking has moved the quite a number of the good wines by the glass for purchase to be only available by the bottle (which means even SSBP has to buy a bottle, granted at a slight discount).  Wines are grouped by country.  For example, to show the limited selection for wines by the glass, for USA Red Wines there is only ONE wine, a Coppola Zin, available by the glass and yet there are 8 USA red wines only by the bottle.

NOTE:  if you are PV or higher, you can also ask the steward to replace the cocktail bottles with wine (ask for your choice by varietal i.e. Zin, Cab, Merlot, etc.).  You'll get the "house" wine.

 

-Our Solution:  we bring our own bottles on board.  Quite easy for us as we never fly in the day of boarding - and so can either pack some in our suitcases or visit a shop before boarding.  Depending on the ports, we also get some on the way. 

-No corkage fee, no nothing!  Steward brings us clean wine glasses to the room every day.

-Note: there are still some decent wines by the glass and we enjoy trying foreign wines we've not heard of before.  Wines by the bottle are quite good and actually the price is reasonable.  We might buy some bottles this trip using up OBC's.

 

Here is the Wine List that we had on Saturn Iceland cruise this past June.

Hope this helps!

 

MANY THABKS FOR YOUR SUGGESTIONS AND POSTING OF THE WINE MENU!

[Goosebear Mum]

Do Americans have a less derogatory meaning of wino? In the UK it’s used to describe those who are habitually drunk on the cheapest stuff, and are usually homeless people.  Certainly not something I’d ever wish to describe someone on a cruise as…. 
 

 

[RobEsson]

6 hours ago, Goosebear Mum said:

Do Americans have a less derogatory meaning of wino? In the UK it’s used to describe those who are habitually drunk on the cheapest stuff, and are usually homeless people.  Certainly not something I’d ever wish to describe someone on a cruise as…. 
 

 

No, the meaning is pretty much the same here in the US, which is why you have to read the OP's headline with a pinch of salt - he's using hyperbole to be amusing. 

[SantaFe1]

8 hours ago, SJD117 said:

The week after the Sacred Valley, our little group decamped to Cusco itself, at 11,000 feet (whew), where we feasted on roast cuy (guinea pig) and drank still more bottles of wine. Those details are all I remember from that inebriated evening. 

I can well imagine.  It would take a lot of wine to get me to eat Guinea pig!

[rljan]

7 hours ago, Goosebear Mum said:

Do Americans have a less derogatory meaning of wino? In the UK it’s used to describe those who are habitually drunk on the cheapest stuff, and are usually homeless people.  Certainly not something I’d ever wish to describe someone on a cruise as…. 
 

 

Yes.  I prefer to be called a cork dork. 😂

[duquephart]

2 hours ago, SantaFe1 said:

I can well imagine.  It would take a lot of wine to get me to eat Guinea pig!

 

I've heard it's quite tasty and would try it. You don't want to be on your death bed thinking "Gee, I wish I had tried that when I had the chance."

[janetcbl]

3 hours ago, SantaFe1 said:

I can well imagine.  It would take a lot of wine to get me to eat Guinea pig!

It is really quite tasty…just don’t think about the cute little things running around a home’s floor you saw just a few hours previously.

[duquephart]

A guy I once knew went out to a nice place on Easter and, without thinking, ordered Hasenpfeffer. 

 

[deec]

4 hours ago, SantaFe1 said:

I can well imagine.  It would take a lot of wine to get me to eat Guinea pig!

Agree...no amount was enough when we were in the Sacred Valley ( one of the best post excursions it included Machu Picchu not with Viking )!  The South America cruise on Viking was great!