Cruise the Vineyard Package intel

[FlaMariner]

Pre-cruise, the 5 wine package seems reasonable.  5 bottles are around $30 a bottle + gratutity ($148.68 for the 5 bottle package).

 

I've got a few questions:

 

1). Is the wine decent?  (we are not picky wine people)

2). Will the price be lower/higher/the same if we buy onboard?

3). Does the MDR waiter benefit (either $$$ or brownie points) if I wait and buy from him at dinner?

4). Is this the best "value" if our goal is to enjoy wine with dinner?

 

(I just did the math on Cheers and (pre-cruise) it would cost $3,537 for Her Majesty and I for our upcoming cruise...which is more than my cruise fare..that would be a big NO)

[BlerkOne]

Price is the same  Decent is subjective, but we often purchase the premium package. We consider Kathy Lee's wines to be garbage.

 

Depending on your port of embarkation, there might be local tax added to the package, so you might consider holding off on purchase until the first full day of the cruise. ..

 

Each adult can carry on one bottle of wine at embarkation. The steakhouse has a first night special where you can buy a bottle at 50% off 

[pinto18]

We have gotten the wine package ..basically they give you 5 vouchers to redeem in the MDR or at any bar ( which is usually what we do and pour a couple of glasses to bring to dinner) I dont think the waiter benefits from where you buy it. We get the cheapest package and wines are ..ok if you are not picky . And ya dont forget to bring your 1 bottle each

[DallasGuy75219]

9 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Depending on your port of embarkation, there might be local tax added to the package, so you might consider holding off on purchase until the first full day of the cruise.

You only pay taxes on any bottles you order and physically receive in local waters, not all the bottles in the package.  Just like if you buy Cheers in the embarkation port after boarding... you only pay taxes on the drinks you order in local waters, not the cost of the entire Cheers package.

[FlaMariner]

13 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Decent is subjective, but we often purchase the premium package.

 

Thank you @BlerkOne

 

I take it the one they sell online (5 bottles @$149) is the basic package?  Roughly, how much more for premium?

[FlaMariner]

13 hours ago, pinto18 said:

We get the cheapest package and wines are ..ok if you are not picky . And ya dont forget to bring your 1 bottle each

 

Thank you @pinto18

 

I did not know about the one bottle each....w/no corkage.  Will do that...And yes, the cheapest package will probably suffice.

[FlaMariner]

13 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Each adult can carry on one bottle of wine at embarkation. The steakhouse has a first night special where you can buy a bottle at 50% off 

 

Thank you @BlerkOne

 

I went online for the steakhouse and it's actually a free bottle of wine for first evening and 50% off for 2nd evening.....So far, first night is booked up until 8pm but 2nd night is wide open!

[FlaMariner]

4 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

You only pay taxes on any bottles you order and physically receive in local waters, not all the bottles in the package. 

 

Thank you, @DallasGuy75219

 

Interesting.....Need to go look up Singapore liquor tax.....That's first night. 

[DallasGuy75219]

46 minutes ago, FlaMariner said:

I did not know about the one bottle each....w/no corkage.  Will do that...And yes, the cheapest package will probably suffice.

There is still corkage if you consume the bottle you carried on in the MDR.  Or if least if the waiter decides to charge you corkage.

[pinto18]

1 hour ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

There is still corkage if you consume the bottle you carried on in the MDR.  Or if least if the waiter decides to charge you corkage.

Yes, I think so depending on waiter. We usually pour a couple of...very full...glasses in our room and take to dinner.

[BlerkOne]

7 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

You only pay taxes on any bottles you order and physically receive in local waters, not all the bottles in the package.  Just like if you buy Cheers in the embarkation port after boarding... you only pay taxes on the drinks you order in local waters, not the cost of the entire Cheers package.

That has not always been our experience. Cheers is not exactly the same.

[jimbo5544]

We are not wine experts, but enjoy good wine.  We used to do this package a lot but not so much anymore.  W always would get the premium and 4 cruises on a row, two different wines we wanted, they did not have.  It was disappointing (certainly not a deal breaker, but when it continued to happen it shied us away).  

[BossyKat]

I will say that we had the hardest time finding a bar that had the lower priced wine.  The 1st night we went to 4 separate bars before we got a bottle. 

 

This was on the Celebration.

 

What saved us was going to the steakhouse bar - I figured they would have the largest selection.  We got all 5 bottles from there.

 

I would not purchase again.  We always carry on 2.

 

 

[Cloud9Family]

On 9/22/2024 at 5:37 AM, jimbo5544 said:

We are not wine experts, but enjoy good wine.  We used to do this package a lot but not so much anymore.  W always would get the premium and 4 cruises on a row, two different wines we wanted, they did not have.  It was disappointing (certainly not a deal breaker, but when it continued to happen it shied us away).  

I was recently researching the wine selections on the package as I haven’t cruised since early 2020 and the choices don’t seem to be as good as they used to be. We will definitely be bringing two bottles with us. 

[jimbo5544]

3 hours ago, Cloud9Family said:

I was recently researching the wine selections on the package as I haven’t cruised since early 2020 and the choices don’t seem to be as good as they used to be. We will definitely be bringing two bottles with us. 

Cannot go wrong with that

 

[coondog99]

'Cruise the Vineyards' Wine Packages | Carnival Cruise Line