Wine drinker...plus package warning.

[mrell345]

20 minutes ago, HMSDingy said:

No disrespect but since you're from Quebec you should know that restaurants there charge a ridiculous markup on their wines. It's common practice everywhere. That's why we often go to BYOB restaurants.

Which is why I like living right on the border between Quebec and Ontario.  Though we have a lot of restaurants that have BYOB.

Edited June 17 by mrell345

[suzyed]

On 4/30/2024 at 6:24 AM, cjpj said:

I agree that the Plus wines leave something to be desired.  I don't drink enough wine to make the premium 20/day difference worthwhile. I just pay the difference between the $15 and the glass of wine I want.

That's what we do too!

 

[suzyed]

On 4/30/2024 at 11:55 AM, STEVENJAN said:

We are going to be on the 51 day around South America and was thinking of more than 10 bottles. Seems like a lot to carry-on but worth it. 

We once took on 12 bottles.  Put a luggage tag on the case and gave a nice tip "to take care of our box".  Of course this was maybe 10 years ago.

 

[Canuker]

On 5/1/2024 at 9:35 PM, polmcs said:

If ordering wine from the Plus menu in the MDR, it’s more likely to come from a box than a bottle. You can see the boxes lined up in the alcohol cage if you take the galley tour at the conclusion of the cooking demonstration show.

What's your point, polmcs?

[polmcs]

10 hours ago, Canuker said:

What's your point, polmcs?

The point was the note I had quoted was in reference to 4, or 6 glasses from a bottle. I was simply pointing out that from observation, the Plus wines in the MDR are more likely to come from a box than a bottle. It was a subtle dig at the quality of the Plus wines in the MDR. Don’t get me wrong, some wineries will box a decent (but not great) wine, but more often that not, the general quality of boxed wines (especially those on the Plus MDR) leaves an awful lot to be desired. 

[memoak]

7 hours ago, polmcs said:

The point was the note I had quoted was in reference to 4, or 6 glasses from a bottle. I was simply pointing out that from observation, the Plus wines in the MDR are more likely to come from a box than a bottle. It was a subtle dig at the quality of the Plus wines in the MDR. Don’t get me wrong, some wineries will box a decent (but not great) wine, but more often that not, the general quality of boxed wines (especially those on the Plus MDR) leaves an awful lot to be desired. 

 It the case in the bars and casino bottles only. Why are making assumptions regarding the MDR ?  Do you go back to the galley often ?

[polmcs]

41 minutes ago, memoak said:

 It the case in the bars and casino bottles only. Why are making assumptions regarding the MDR ?  Do you go back to the galley often ?

A visit to the gallery is part of the cooking demonstration that is usually performed on most cruises. At the end of the performance, everyone in the theater (well those that can walk and want to attend) take a trek to one of the ships galley and take a looksee at the place and take pictures and smile and wave at the staff as they prepare the MDR lunches. The first area you pass is the drinks cage and yes, you can see a large row of “box O’ wines”. 
 

I’ve done the galley tour 3 times since the COVID restart as I’ve had a different traveling companion on each of those cruises and they were interested in the cooking demonstration/galley tour. 

[voljeep]

12 minutes ago, polmcs said:

A visit to the gallery is part of the cooking demonstration that is usually performed on most cruises. At the end of the performance, everyone in the theater (well those that can walk and want to attend) take a trek to one of the ships galley and take a looksee at the place and take pictures and smile and wave at the staff as they prepare the MDR lunches. The first area you pass is the drinks cage and yes, you can see a large row of “box O’ wines”. 
 

I’ve done the galley tour 3 times since the COVID restart as I’ve had a different traveling companion on each of those cruises and they were interested in the cooking demonstration/galley tour. 

Perfect!  and I've drank box wine out of a red solo cup on more than a few occasions

[polmcs]

1 minute ago, voljeep said:

Perfect!  and I've drank box wine out of a red solo cup on more than a few occasions

I don’t think the Riedel stems are going to make a blind bit of difference to the Plus wines in the MDR! 😝

[suzyed]

7 hours ago, polmcs said:

I don’t think the Riedel stems are going to make a blind bit of difference to the Plus wines in the MDR! 😝

Life is too short to drink Plus package wines.  There are plenty of good ones on the regular wine menu.  Sure maybe you have to pay a few dollars extra, but worth it to me.

 

[memoak]

24 minutes ago, suzyed said:

Life is too short to drink Plus package wines.  There are plenty of good ones on the regular wine menu.  Sure maybe you have to pay a few dollars extra, but worth it to me.

 

We just buy bottles at dinner with the 25% discount for dinners. Some Prosecco late morning and maybe plus wines in the casino. Vines still has an excellent Zin within the i

plus package 

[polmcs]

10 hours ago, suzyed said:

Life is too short to drink Plus package wines.  There are plenty of good ones on the regular wine menu.  Sure maybe you have to pay a few dollars extra, but worth it to me.

 

Preaching to the choir. Luckily, last cruise I had a whole bunch of OBC, so upon embarking, I immediately upgraded from Plus to Premium. That said, I still splashed out a little extra OBC on a few glasses over the $20 limit.

[geoherb]

On 6/16/2024 at 7:24 PM, memoak said:

Agree but I find the Pinot Grigio is ok for lunch and late night casino drinking 

 

I settled on the Pinot Grigio earlier this month on the Island Princess. It was the least objectionable of the Plus wines. I find it strange that Princess had a sommelier on our cruise and still served such bad wines listed just by their varieties under the Plus package.

[suzyed]

3 hours ago, polmcs said:

Preaching to the choir. Luckily, last cruise I had a whole bunch of OBC, so upon embarking, I immediately upgraded from Plus to Premium. That said, I still splashed out a little extra OBC on a few glasses over the $20 limit.

Great!!  

[voljeep]

Clay Creek Cab - BOGO - $17.99 - Is that a PLUS or Premier package wine?  4 pours ...

[Mark_K]

On 4/30/2024 at 11:12 AM, Cruise Raider said:

Princess expects 5 glasses of wine from each 750 ml bottle.  But, with the premier package we currently have, they do seem to be generous with their pours.  I would say they are at least 6 oz.  
 

I thought the exact opposite.  We started ordering doubles just to get a decent glass full.  It could be that it’s just the difference between a 15 drink package and the unlimited package we’re used to.

[Jaymuxman]

We were on the Sun in March/April and had the Premier Package. We were able to purchase the Caymus Reserve Cab for an additional $9 a glass and it was worth EVERY penny of the $29 a glass. I know many will not agree with me and that is your opinion just like I think $29 a glass for this premium wine is a good choice.

[voljeep]

4 minutes ago, Jaymuxman said:

We were on the Sun in March/April and had the Premier Package. We were able to purchase the Caymus Reserve Cab for an additional $9 a glass and it was worth EVERY penny of the $29 a glass. I know many will not agree with me and that is your opinion just like I think $29 a glass for this premium wine is a good choice.

what bar/place did you purchase that on SUN P?   Not having a Vines is a major downer for us

[Jaymuxman]

34 minutes ago, voljeep said:

what bar/place did you purchase that on SUN P?   Not having a Vines is a major downer for us

We were in a Mini Suite Reserve category. It was available in the Reserve Restaurant. However, we also ate in Crown Grill and Sabitini's and they got it for us also. I agree not having a Vines was a major disappointment for us.

[BamaVol]

3 hours ago, Mark_K said:

I thought the exact opposite.  We started ordering doubles just to get a decent glass full.  It could be that it’s just the difference between a 15 drink package and the unlimited package we’re used to.

We had bartenders asking us if we wanted doubles.  I assumed it to be a labor saving proposal as they had to deal with us half as often.

[BamaVol]

We were in the MDR our final night and I had $150 in nonrefundable OBC left so ordered a bottle of wine for 3 of us. It was listed at $103 and with plus discount and gratuity came to around $91. Easily the best wine I’ve had so far this year. But I’ve never been disappointed by a St Emilion Grand Cru. 

Edited June 26 by BamaVol

[Canuker]

44 minutes ago, BamaVol said:

We had bartenders asking us if we wanted doubles.  I assumed it to be a labor saving proposal as they had to deal with us half as often.

Doubles, on a drinks package? What am I missing? Why not just hand out full bottles?

[lhsail]

8 minutes ago, Canuker said:

Doubles, on a drinks package? What am I missing? Why not just hand out full bottles?

As long as you’ve not reached your daily max, which we never do, I’ve seen this frequently on our recent Princess cruises. Is this because the servers realize the pours are small or is it because it reduces the number of pours they need to make? Please understand, I’m not knocking the crew. They work really hard and have observed many bartenders post Covid having a hard time keeping up as staffing levels have been down. 

[memoak]

27 minutes ago, Canuker said:

Doubles, on a drinks package? What am I missing? Why not just hand out full bottles?

It will be 2 drinks against your 15 allowed

[dreaminofcruisin]

1 hour ago, lhsail said:

As long as you’ve not reached your daily max, which we never do, I’ve seen this frequently on our recent Princess cruises. Is this because the servers realize the pours are small or is it because it reduces the number of pours they need to make? Please understand, I’m not knocking the crew. They work really hard and have observed many bartenders post Covid having a hard time keeping up as staffing levels have been down. 

 

It also reduces the number of glasses used. On the Enchanted last fall, very odd, but they kept running out of wine glasses in multiple bars. They were serving wine in tumblers......