Wines and corkage and bars, Oh my! (Signature Beverage Pkg, Beverage Cards & Corkage)

[clogaltocruise]

Your pupils appreciate your sacrifices :-)

[honey-bunny]

how does SBP works do we just show our card to any bartender at any bar ? or staff or MDR ? or is it a charge to you cabin ? would love to have any information on how to use SBP ? like if I want to get some clubs soda or water bottle to go with me to my cabin do I ask at any bar or at my MDR Table ?:confused:

[POA1]

how does SBP works do we just show our card to any bartender at any bar ? or staff or MDR ? or is it a charge to you cabin ? would love to have any information on how to use SBP ? like if I want to get some clubs soda or water bottle to go with me to my cabin do I ask at any bar or at my MDR Table ?:confused:

 

All the places you mentioned except for room service or your in-room mini bar. You can only get one beverage at a time, so you wouldn't be able to get a six pack of club soda for example.

 

Alberta Quilter posted some "workaround" tips a few posts above.

[sue1898]

how does SBP works do we just show our card to any bartender at any bar ? or staff or MDR ? or is it a charge to you cabin ? would love to have any information on how to use SBP ? like if I want to get some clubs soda or water bottle to go with me to my cabin do I ask at any bar or at my MDR Table ?:confused:

 

Yes, just show your SBP card. It's very easy. The only complaint I heard while on board the Oosterdam was that you could not use it to buy the water that they have at the gangway in port but you can easily go to any bar and buy a bottle of water so just think ahead and do that.

[honey-bunny]

That's is wonderfull!!! Good to know thank u so very much for the info! Glad to hear it is very easy to use the SBO card ,sometimes during the day I will try to use it on soda or water bottles great to have then in the cabin :)

Edited August 1, 2014 by honey-bunny

[POA1]

That's is wonderfull!!! Good to know thank u so very much for the info! Glad to hear it is very easy to use the SBO card ,sometimes during the day I will try to use it on soda or water bottles great to have then in the cabin :)

Don't forget to call them "Road Sodas." We are trying to get that term to catch on, even for cans of beer people take back to the room.

[Freon]

Not just "Roadies"?

[POA1]

Not just "Roadies"?

That works, too.

[Freon]

OK, if the large mineral water is $3.25, I could just do water (yeah, not likely to happen) and the card pays for itself. I do like to hydrate.

[honey-bunny]

That works, too.

what a great idea I will ask for "Roadies" ha-ha soda cans for the Road :) so what else can we take to go? soda and beer , ginger ale & mineral water anything else can be taken for the Road ? now all that talk had gotten me very very thirsty I think I will get some Smirnoff vodka on ice with just a splash of cranberry juice :) and a wedge of lemon :) Cheers ! ps thanks POA1 I Love this tread!!!!!!!!!

[LVSue]

Wow! I must admit I couldn't wade through all this info.

 

I had Eplore4 on the Amsterdam in May and loved it! BUT time after time bartenders tried to use bar-pour liquors despite the fact that the specific drink with specific liquors was 6.95. Example: 0010 = Tanqueray 10 gin and Vox vodka.

 

I was refused a Jim Beam manhattan, even though its cost was 6.95.

 

I would advise printing out the specifics of the SBC and bringing it with you.

[2 Sister Sue 2]

After three evenings to read this whole thread all I can say is

thank you - POA1 and all the research assistants. I am going on my first cruise in Jan. 2015 a full transit of the Panama Canal, leaving from FLL. POA1 if you have nothing to do the day before we cruise, the drinks are on me!

 

What other research have you done on the HAL? Are there other threads I need to look up?

 

With much gratitude and laughter

Debbie

[POA1]

After three evenings to read this whole thread all I can say is

thank you - POA1 and all the research assistants. I am going on my first cruise in Jan. 2015 a full transit of the Panama Canal, leaving from FLL. POA1 if you have nothing to do the day before we cruise, the drinks are on me!

 

What other research have you done on the HAL? Are there other threads I need to look up?

 

With much gratitude and laughter

Debbie

 

Thanks. You're too kind. Just give me a shout here:

 

http://www.instituteofcheer.com/contact-us/

[Alberta Quilter]

 

What other research have you done on the HAL? Are there other threads I need to look up?

 

This thread is not a research project of his but it's a very good read. Word of warning, it's not finished yet.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2037576&highlight=club+house

[Shellback801]

Commenting to add my sincere thanks for POA1's selfless dedication to science and to subscribe to this thread for future reference. The manual subscribe function doesn't appear to be working for me.

 

I read much of this thread aloud to DW this morning. It was very well received if giggles and the odd snort are any indication. :D

[allisonfamily]

Thanks for the compliment. We appreciate it. It was hard, hard work, but helping others is what we do.

 

Well, we're ba-ack! We had a wonderful trip on the Volendam through the Alaska Inside Passage, returned to Vancouver intact (albeit not dry), and had an absolutely wonderful time--assisted in no small part by the fact that we were *armed* with knowledge about what to expect. Thank you CruiseCritic and thank you POA1.

 

The Signature Beverage Package that was included with our Explore4 promotion was wonderful. We never worried about trying to keep our beverage purchases down and almost everything we drank was within the $7 limit.

 

 

• The biggest SBP surprise: *All* wine-with-dinner was *over* $7. Clearly, they're trying to get extra money from people who have SBP cards. Very disappointing. Simple solution: we had mixed drinks with our dinners. The only "wine" that was under $7 was a pre-dinner Prosecco, and an after-dinner Limoncello. Perfect. We were cruising Alaska but we were dining Italy!
  
• Glenfiddich is over $7. By a lot. :-)
  
• Interesting occurrence when carrying wine onboard: There were four of us in two rooms. We went to a liquor store in Vancouver the night before and bought 4 bottles of wine (and two big bottles of soda). We put all of it in a box from the liquor store and checked the box as luggage (complete with luggage tags that we duct-taped to the outside). Well, because it was four bottles of wine in one box, they kept the box downstairs on Deck A and did *not* deliver it to our room. After the lifeboat drill, all four of us went down to Deck A and told our story. (By the way, they are *not* comfortable with passengers roaming Deck A unescorted. :-) ... Anyway, it only took a minute or two to realize that yes there were four of us "carrying" four bottles of wine, and no corkage fee would be needed. But it did require a special visit (and yes, I *did* check at the front desk later in the week to make sure the corkage fee hadn't slipped in accidentally). All worked well.
  
• A surprise: We didn't finish all four bottles! We thought we would be drinking in the suite, but we didn't do that so much. And after *all* my questions and planning, we didn't buy a bottle of liquor either! We found that with all we were doing, we *did* spend a lot of time on the suite balcony, but we did *not* spend much time out there drinking.
  
• I still think that HAL is missing the, ah, boat, by not making it easy to buy stunningly-expensive bottles of liquor along with cans of soda or mixer that are covered by SBP--to carry to your stateroom or suite. We would have bought one on the very first day.
  
• As predicted, most liquor with mixers was under $7. The barkeep always knew whether the brand we asked about would bump us over the limit or not.
  
• We had a couple of times when the bartender or waiter told us that the price of something was higher than we thought it would be. We never argued. We just ordered something else.
  
• The drink of the day was always under $7. One of our more adventurous souls participated in the drink of the day every day.
  
• In fact, our Adventurous Soul figured out that this was the *perfect* way to try out all sorts of drinks and cocktails that he had never tried before. Back home, spending $7 (each) for a bunch of different cocktails is an expensive way to get an education. Especially if you don't like them. But with SBP ... perfect!
  
• Wow moment: They didn't know what a mint julep was! We started to tell them, but the blank stare we got in return told us that a Discussion (no matter how cogent or articulate it might be) does not fit into a Point Of Sale terminal. ... Yup, we'll have a mojito please :-)
  
• HUGE win on getting soda and bottled water at The Explorers' Lounge instead of on the gangplank. Soda went back to the room.
  
• First thing we did as we got into the room was to find out *which* bottle of water in the room was complimentary and which was for sale. Then we immediately took possession of what was complimentary and established the house rule--don't touch the mini-bar and don't touch the bottle with the sign on it. (And then set our cellphones to airplane mode :-)
  
• The Neptune Lounge concierge was knowledgeable and informative, but they don't dispense drinks, sodas or water there.
  
• Plus a hint: If you *do* carry your cellphone in your shirt pocket (especially on port of call days), *don't* put the room card and SBP card in that same pocket. My cards were de-magnetized *twice*. Easy to fix at the front desk, but it sure was annoying.
  

All in all, SBP was a huge win. And I know it's off topic, but wow ... that balcony in the Neptune Suite was amazing. Wide enough for the entire family. We spent most of our ship-board time out there. Whale-watching, glacier-watching, sailboat-watching, Alaska-watching, or just falling asleep in the lounge chair ... pretending to watch the water.

 

 

Hope this helps, and once again ... THANKS!

[North&South]

The biggest SBP surprise: *All* wine-with-dinner was *over* $7. Clearly, they're trying to get extra money from people who have SBP cards. Very disappointing.

 

Hi, the above seems to make a mockery of the whole thing as why would the dinner wine be over USD7 when the time to enjoy a glass of wine or 2 is with your loved ones over a sumptuous meal. We were considering this package but fear that will not be for us now as wine is our chosen tipple. Is all wine during the day over USD7 too or just when served in the dining rooms?:rolleyes:

 

Thank you

N&S

[YBA]

I'm fairly sure that I spotted some Macallan 18 and 30 in the Ocean Bar. There was also a bottle of Auchentoshan and a Bowmore in the Crow's Nest. They're not on the regular lists, so it's sort of a treasure hunt. If you play your cards right, you might be able to score a very nice bottle of Scotch at a bargain price. I'm a Bourbon drinker and on occasion I've has some pretty rare, expensive whiskey rung up as "Jim Beam" because the unusual stuff wasn't in the POS system.

 

 

 

Any past experiences you could share on this treasure hunt?

 

By the way, thanks for all the info in this thread. A lot of good info!

 

Cheers

[GeriatricNurse]

Don't forget to call them "Road Sodas." We are trying to get that term to catch on, even for cans of beer people take back to the room.

 

First time that I've heard of this term! I've heard them referred to as "walkers"! ;)

[POA1]

The biggest SBP surprise: *All* wine-with-dinner was *over* $7. Clearly, they're trying to get extra money from people who have SBP cards. Very disappointing.

 

Hi, the above seems to make a mockery of the whole thing as why would the dinner wine be over USD7 when the time to enjoy a glass of wine or 2 is with your loved ones over a sumptuous meal. We were considering this package but fear that will not be for us now as wine is our chosen tipple. Is all wine during the day over USD7 too or just when served in the dining rooms?:rolleyes:

 

Thank you

N&S

The house wines were $5.95 as recently as mid July. There was a Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Merlot, & Cabernet Sauvignon that are covered by the SBP. There was also a Prosecco.

 

There is a list of wines by the glass on the MDR list that are not house wines and those were over $7. But unless they raised the price of house wine a lot or they stopped offering it in the dining room, you should have some wine choices.

[POA1]

I was thinking about the posters who mentioned that there aren't any SBP-eligible wines by the glass on the wine list in the MDR. So, I dug out my pictures of lists to check - because I know my DSIL got house Pinot Grigio in the MDR on occasion and DW and I had wine with our lunch in the Pinnacle.

 

Sure enough, there aren't any $5.95 house wines LISTED on the wine list. They're available, but the wine list doesn't make that very clear. If you tell your waiter that you'd like a glass of the house Cabernet, one will show up and you can use your SBP card for it. You won't know that from looking at the list, however.

 

Why aren't the house wines listed on the MDR wine list? I don't know. I have an old list from 2009 and they weren't on that list either - but they were definitely available. So I don't think it's a concerted effort to screw with the SBP card carrying public. It's probably just an oversight.

 

Here's a snapshot of the Wines by the Glass from the MDR in March on the Noordam. As you will notice, it would appear that there isn't anything for the wine drinker who is on the SBP. However, we were able to get glasses of house wine on the card - despite the fact that they're not listed (other than as carafes.)

 

[POA1]

First time that I've heard of this term! I've heard them referred to as "walkers"! ;)

 

I'm a little partial to "road sodas" myself... Here's a question for you: If a person has a Rollator and they have the optional cup holder attachment, would you call it a Walker-Walker? Roller-Walker? Walker-Squared? Drinky-Walker? Sip & Zip?

 

Edited August 17, 2014 by POA1

[POA1]

Well, we're ba-ack! We had a wonderful trip on the Volendam through the Alaska Inside Passage, returned to Vancouver intact (albeit not dry), and had an absolutely wonderful time--assisted in no small part by the fact that we were *armed* with knowledge about what to expect. Thank you CruiseCritic and thank you POA1.

 

The Signature Beverage Package that was included with our Explore4 promotion was wonderful. We never worried about trying to keep our beverage purchases down and almost everything we drank was within the $7 limit.

 

 

• The biggest SBP surprise: *All* wine-with-dinner was *over* $7. Clearly, they're trying to get extra money from people who have SBP cards. Very disappointing. Simple solution: we had mixed drinks with our dinners. The only "wine" that was under $7 was a pre-dinner Prosecco, and an after-dinner Limoncello. Perfect. We were cruising Alaska but we were dining Italy!
  
• Glenfiddich is over $7. By a lot. :-)
  
• Interesting occurrence when carrying wine onboard: There were four of us in two rooms. We went to a liquor store in Vancouver the night before and bought 4 bottles of wine (and two big bottles of soda). We put all of it in a box from the liquor store and checked the box as luggage (complete with luggage tags that we duct-taped to the outside). Well, because it was four bottles of wine in one box, they kept the box downstairs on Deck A and did *not* deliver it to our room. After the lifeboat drill, all four of us went down to Deck A and told our story. (By the way, they are *not* comfortable with passengers roaming Deck A unescorted. :-) ... Anyway, it only took a minute or two to realize that yes there were four of us "carrying" four bottles of wine, and no corkage fee would be needed. But it did require a special visit (and yes, I *did* check at the front desk later in the week to make sure the corkage fee hadn't slipped in accidentally). All worked well.
  
• A surprise: We didn't finish all four bottles! We thought we would be drinking in the suite, but we didn't do that so much. And after *all* my questions and planning, we didn't buy a bottle of liquor either! We found that with all we were doing, we *did* spend a lot of time on the suite balcony, but we did *not* spend much time out there drinking.
  
• I still think that HAL is missing the, ah, boat, by not making it easy to buy stunningly-expensive bottles of liquor along with cans of soda or mixer that are covered by SBP--to carry to your stateroom or suite. We would have bought one on the very first day.
  
• As predicted, most liquor with mixers was under $7. The barkeep always knew whether the brand we asked about would bump us over the limit or not.
  
• We had a couple of times when the bartender or waiter told us that the price of something was higher than we thought it would be. We never argued. We just ordered something else.
  
• The drink of the day was always under $7. One of our more adventurous souls participated in the drink of the day every day.
  
• In fact, our Adventurous Soul figured out that this was the *perfect* way to try out all sorts of drinks and cocktails that he had never tried before. Back home, spending $7 (each) for a bunch of different cocktails is an expensive way to get an education. Especially if you don't like them. But with SBP ... perfect!
  
• Wow moment: They didn't know what a mint julep was! We started to tell them, but the blank stare we got in return told us that a Discussion (no matter how cogent or articulate it might be) does not fit into a Point Of Sale terminal. ... Yup, we'll have a mojito please :-)
  
• HUGE win on getting soda and bottled water at The Explorers' Lounge instead of on the gangplank. Soda went back to the room.
  
• First thing we did as we got into the room was to find out *which* bottle of water in the room was complimentary and which was for sale. Then we immediately took possession of what was complimentary and established the house rule--don't touch the mini-bar and don't touch the bottle with the sign on it. (And then set our cellphones to airplane mode :-)
  
• The Neptune Lounge concierge was knowledgeable and informative, but they don't dispense drinks, sodas or water there.
  
• Plus a hint: If you *do* carry your cellphone in your shirt pocket (especially on port of call days), *don't* put the room card and SBP card in that same pocket. My cards were de-magnetized *twice*. Easy to fix at the front desk, but it sure was annoying.
  

All in all, SBP was a huge win. And I know it's off topic, but wow ... that balcony in the Neptune Suite was amazing. Wide enough for the entire family. We spent most of our ship-board time out there. Whale-watching, glacier-watching, sailboat-watching, Alaska-watching, or just falling asleep in the lounge chair ... pretending to watch the water.

 

 

Hope this helps, and once again ... THANKS!

 

Thanks for the updated field report! Great tips - and glad you enjoyed your trip.

 

For future reference, you can get kind of close to a julep if you ask for mojito made with bourbon instead of rum. It's not perfect, but if you're on the high seas and it's Derby Day, it's better than nothing.

[Karen H]

Don't forget to call them "Road Sodas." We are trying to get that term to catch on, even for cans of beer people take back to the room.

 

Of course in Canada they are known as ROAD POPS!:D

[dharmapath]

I won a bottle of wine at one of the wine tastings on the Amsterdam. When I brought the bottle to dinner I half jokingly asked the wine steward if he was going to charge a corkage fee for my prize wine. He did not charge me. ;)