food and wine cruises

We are considering a food and wine cruise out of Brisbane in June. We have cruised several times before but was wondering what these cruises offered that was different. Do the daily entertainments etc relate to wine tasting, coffee, foods appreciation, etc, and do they have special cookery and or meals. We are thinking of taking some first time cruisers with us as a sampler and would like to let them know what they are likely to get on four days of just cruising.

Hi there, we did a food and wine cruise on Pacific Dawn out of Bris last June. It is basically a mini cruise, I mean everything is exactly the same as a normal length cruise plus they do have optional wine tasting etc (at a charge) there is still the normal shows in the theatre, activities, formal night..

There was not a themed night (like island night or country & western)

We cruised for the night/day then anchored for while at Harvey Bay (I think it was lol) then cruised slowly back, the weather was fantastic, so it would be good for a first time cruiser as the chances of getting sea sick should be minimal. If you can get it for a good price it would be great as many of these are quite expensive, we were lucky and waited a while and got it at a good price and even got upgraded :) Fiona

We did a Food and Wine cruise on the Pac Pearl out of Auckland last year and TBH, if you are going for the cruise alone, then you get better value on a normal cruise as you'll probably find like we did, we were anchored off the coast somewhere and generally speaking the cost of one of these "special event cruises" as P&O call them is higher pp / day than a "normal" cruise.

On the Pac Pearl they had "experts" from NZ - a Chef/TV presenter/author etc, and several Viticulturists/Wine Makers.

These were the events on Friday

9am - coffee appreciation

10am - Culinary demo with the guest Chef/TV presenter/author

11am - Wine tasting (with one of the experts from a wine label) - $10 pp

11.15am - learn how to mix your own cocktails -$20 pp

11.30am - Cocktail and Martini demo and tasting - $10 pp

12.45pm - learn how to mix your own cocktails -$20 pp

1.00pm - Cocktail and Martini demo and tasting - $10 pp

2.00pm - Wine tasting (with one of the experts from a wine label) - $10 pp

3.00pm - Exclusive Caviar and Bubbles Experience - $40pp

3.30pm Whisky tasting - $14 pp

6.00pm - Up close with the Winemakers - $15 pp

I did hear some loud voices at the Reception around noon-ish on the day of boarding from one man who was very annoyed to say the least that all the events he wanted to get into were completely booked out ... I'm not sure what time he boarded the ship but clearly it was later than those who booked before him. I don't know if you can pre-book for any of the events prior to boarding but I don't think so. In our cabins there was a very nicely printed booklet with the special events hence I'm able to retype them for you.

Saturday was pretty similar but in the Waterfront on Saturday night there was a Degustation Menu prepared under the watchful gaze of the guest chef and P&O's head chef.

The menu was very nice, although to be expected when cooking for hundreds at the same time, some were a bit hit and miss in terms of being hot or getting a taste of all the ingredients.

This is what was offered.

• Crispy skin pork belly with Asian flavours
  
• Warm prawn and scallop salad
  
• Rich ham hock broth
  
• baked red snapper fillet
  
• seared beef eye fillet
  
• dark chocolate mousse and vanilla ice cream
  
• creamy blue cheese or brie with caramelized apples an calvados liqueur
  

Tassie cruiser

you might have been on one of the cruises that we were on 24th April to 15th May.

Tassie cruiser

 

you might have been on one of the cruises that we were on 24th April to 15th May.

No, unfortunately, we weren't :(