Wine Gripe

[KevintheIrishDJ]

I am not as knowledgeable about wines as you; however, we had had the same experience several times. When we fly, I try to find a wine store near the port and order ahead of time. For example, BevMo is on the west coast and offers BOGO all the time. They also have a rating system. I look for 4.5 tp 5 star selections at about $20. On top of BOGO the offer 10% discount per case. Never disappointed.

 

:D

[Astro Flyer]

Frank, I think you got your gold and silver mixed around.

Oops! :o Thanks Brian for posting the correct information so no one gets confused.

[Carolyn R]

On a cruise a few years ago I ordered the Mondavi cabernet in the MDR and was told it was out of stock. A few nights later we were in the Crown Grill and I mentioned to the waiter that I was disappointed that it was out of stock. He said, "let me check". He came back with a bottle telling me they had more. I bought two more bottles and took it back to the cabin for other nights. You might say i am a hoarder! I am also wondering if they commonly run out of the Giordano Barolo. It is priced exactly at the top of the limit for the gold package, $45.

[XBGuy]

That was no rant XBGuy & good to learn about your experiences & ability to adjust without having it ruin your cruise. ;)

 

Like I mentioned in my original post, I was commenting (since there seems to be some consensus that I was not "ranting") on a First-World problem. The worst cruise I've ever taken was wonderful.

:D

On this cruise:

 

 

• A crewman was seriously injured and had to be evacuated off the ship via helicopter.
  
• At our first port stop (Ketchican) we saw some people dragging their luggage off the gangway. Their cruise was ending very early.
  
• At our last port stop (Victoria) as we were walking towards the gangway to reboard, we saw an ambulance pulling away from the ship.
  

I agree that those people can say that their cruise was ruined.

 

Regarding the comments on Princess' pricing of their wines, I have stated multiple times on this board that there are deals to be found on the Princess wine lists, but you have to be prepared to look at the more expensive wines. From my most recent cruise, two of the wines that I mentioned.

• The Princess price for the Donnafugata was $37. The street price for that wine is $13-$15--at least a 2.5 X markup (pretty steep).
  
• The Princess price for the Mondavi Reserve CS was $140. I just did a quick on-line search and the best price I could find for that one was $116--roughly, a 1.2 X markup. Total Wines lists it at $150.
  

Yes, they have an outrageous g-factor for wines such as Rex Goliath and Clos du Bois because they have found that people will pay it. If people did not pay it, they would adjust the pricing.

 

Somebody mentioned SHARE. My wife and I are big fans of SHARE. We are very much looking forward to our November cruise on the Ruby Princess so that we can check out the current menu. I sympathize with the poster who had the diminished inventory problem similar to mine, but I found the pricing on the SHARE wine list to be pretty good. Last October I ordered Ridge Lytton Springs for $48. The street price for that wine is about $32--a 1.5 X markup, which is pretty good. I ordered the Antinori Tignanello for $78. There is no place in the United State--either on-line or brick-and-mortar--where you can buy that wine at that price. Also on the list is an Australian wine, Penfolds Grange, for $480. That is way over my budget, but, again, that is below street price.

[Steelers36]

XBGUY - I didn't want to re-post everything above.

 

The Mondavi was less ($135) when I did a full analysis of the wine list in fall 2015, and it was still better to buy at Total Wine ($120). I posted that spreadsheet on here. I am waiting to get an updated wine list for this fall so I can do it again. I could start by re-checking Total's prices. But price often depends in the vintage(s) they have in stock. My analysis only showed one or two bottles that were cheaper on Princess when you compare the price + 15% ti buying pre-cruise and paying the corkage fee.

 

I think that Tignanello "mistake" has been fixed as I have a price of $115 for it, plus 15%, compared to $100 @ Total.

 

I think as a general rule, I found that higher priced wines offered more "value" than the plonk, but Dom Perignon would save you almost $40 in 2015/2016 if bring it on board.

 

My situation is I am not interested in $100+ wines on the ship and RARELY have those price levels in my wine fridge.

 

Thanks for posting. My wife will be on the CROWN Nov 8 and will collect info for me (or daughter will). I am doing a BVE on ISLAND Dec 6 so will gather more.

 

If anyone can post photos of wine lists here when the fall season gets under way out of Fort Lauderdale, I can work on a revised wine analysis.

[Astro Flyer]

I am also wondering if they commonly run out of the Giordano Barolo. It is priced exactly at the top of the limit for the gold package, $45.

That's one of our favorites & enjoy trying new wines in that price range with the Gold wine package to cost $28. I couldn't find it at Total Wine but discovered that Barolo is as expensive as another favorite wine...Brunello di Montalcino :wine-glass:

[Dudleydog73]

...is as expensive as another favorite wine...Brunello di Montalcino :wine-glass:

 

Which we were sadden to find that Princess has discontinued on our most recent cruises. I think they might have had a Rosso but a full Brunello is still our all time favorite.

[Astro Flyer]

Which we were sadden to find that Princess has discontinued on our most recent cruises. I think they might have had a Rosso but a full Brunello is still our all time favorite.

Sad...wonder what I can leave out of our checked bags to bring a couple of bottles from home. ;)

 

When sailing in Italy it's easy to purchase but not so sure about in Spain. Although the Rosso di Montalcino which I've seen described as a younger version of Brunello could be an option.

[XBGuy]

S36--Yes, I am not surprised that there are different TW prices for that wine. The $150 price that I cited was a "hit" when I Googled "Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2013." I'm sure that most of the stores are selling the 2015 vintage, these days.

 

Yes, I do not take the automatic 15% gratuity that Princess charges into account. (BTW, in my OP, I mentioned that I purchased the three-bottle wine package. They did not add 15% to that. May have been a mistake.) However, I live in California. So, depending on what county I buy any wine in, there is also a 7.75-8.75% sales tax that goes into the calculation. However, it's not just a dollars and cents consideration for me. I get tired of the Princess wine list pretty quickly, and, frankly, I just get a kick out of showing off.

 

;)

 

Dudley/A.F. -- The three-bottle wine package that I purchased included a Frescobaldi Brunello di Montalcino. It was, easily, the best bottle in the package. I took it on our second visit to Sabatini's. The waiter told me that the only way to get that wine was in the wine package. The Sabatini's wine list does have a Rosso.

[oskidunker]

I would buy more expensive wines but the food won't reach that level

[pris993]

I am glad I generally bring wine on board. Going on the Royal out of Barcelona in October, will shop for wine in port since I plan to eat at the Crown Grill most of the cruise.

 

I can tell you I have had a little different problem on both Princess and Celebrity ... that the wine list price list is not always up to date. We ordered wine, signed off on the slip, only to have the bar manager in Sabatini's correct the price which was wrong on the list, by $20+ plus tip. When I called them on it, it to 3 days to get it corrected through customer service. I always check my charges before the end of the cruise.

[RDC1]

Maybe I should have entitled this "Wine Whine," but that would have been way too Pastisish.

 

I have commented often on this board that I think the various wine lists on Princess are pretty good. They offer a reasonable selection and the pricing, especially, for the more expensive selections, is pretty good.

 

Over the years, however--and I have been a Princess cruiser for only 6 years--I have seen some deterioration. The mid-price selections (between $40 and $100) are definitely declining in quality, and the higher end wines are becoming more expensive. On the other hand, it is what it is. I know I can bring my own wine onboard, and, normally, I would bring lots. My latest cruise, however, involved an airline flight and I just did not want to deal with checking a case of wine on the airline and, then, carrying it on to the ship.

 

However, pricing and selection are not my gripe. I could not believe how many wines on the list were not available.

 

On embarcation day, I called the DINE line made two reservations for my wife and me: one at Sabatini's for that evening and the second for Crown Grill the next evening.

 

At the appointed hour we arrived at Sabatini's and were seated. We reviewed the menus and strategized our meal. Generally, I am a red wine drinker, and, generally, my wife is a white wine drinker. We often order two bottles with dinner. She gets to drink what she wants, and I get to drink what I want. Unfinished bottles can go back to the cabin with us, or we can have the restaurant store them for a subsequent visit.

 

Sabatini's is, of course, an Italian restaurant. So, in keeping with the spirit, we looked at the Italian wines. My wife ordered a Gavi and I ordered a Barolo. Off the server scurried to retrieve our wines. A few minutes later she's back. There is no more Gavi in the inventory. Well, that is pretty disappointing. My wife reviews the list again and requests Donnafugata Anthilia--a fairly inexpensive Sicilian wine. Off goes the server, and, success. She has the Donnafugata. However, she has bad news on the Barolo. It is also no longer in the inventory. In fact she made a point of stating that there was not a single bottle on the entire ship.

 

Well, now I'm more than disappointed. I looked at the wine list, again, and looked at the reds. I could have gone for the Luce della Vita. That's a good wine, I've had it before, but, doggonit, I really wanted a more "traditional" Italian wine--and the Chianti on the list did not appeal to me. So, I restrategized my meal and told the server, to bring me a white wine glass and I would enjoy the Donnafugata.

 

OK. The next night we go to Crown Grill. That afternoon I had purchased one of those three-bottle wine packages that Princess sells just outside the buffet. So, I brought the Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon from that package to have with my beef--whatever I ordered. When we sat down and looked at the menu we noticed that they had some special offerings for the Alaska itinerary--including an appetizer of oysters on the half-shell. Say no more, we are definitely ordering that. My wife decided that she was going to order the Mussel Pot for her entree. She asked what I thought would be a good white wine. I told her that I think Sauvignon Blanc is great with shellfish, and, if possible, one from Loire Valley.

 

Great, they have Sancerre. So, she ordered a bottle of the Sancerre. Off goes the server. Here he comes back--empty-handed. Sadly, they are out of Sancerre. Well, that's OK, because they also have a Pouilly-Fume on the list. Pouilly-Fume is right across the river from Sancerre, and, in fact, it is, probably, a better match for the oysters. So, off goes the server, and here he comes back--again, empty handed. They're out of Pouilly-Fume.

 

This is starting to get comical, but get a load of what happens next.

 

While we were waiting for the server's return from the Pouilly-Fume search we were strategizing what to do if he came back empty-handed. My wife noticed that they had the Gavi on the Crown Grill list--the same one that they did not have at Sabatini's the previous evening. I thought it was ridiculous, but when he came back empty-handed the second time, she asked for the Gavi.

 

During this wait we were chuckling at each other, but, whadda-you-know, he came back with a bottle of Gavi. The waiter made a point of stating that this was the very last bottle of Gavi on the entire ship.

 

In two nights, though, we were told that they did not have any more of four wines that we selected off their wine lists.

 

Fast forward a few days. We are back to Crown Grill for our third visit. I'm ready to splurge tonight. My wife orders a California Chardonnay. (Not surprisingly, there are no more oysters.) She is having the mussel pot, again. I order the Robert Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. When he hears that order, the server gives me a heads up, "I'll have to see if we have any of that."

 

Off he goes. Here he comes back. "There is one bottle of that wine on the ship. It's in the Botticelli Dining Room. So, I'll go over there and get it."

 

Off he goes, again, and here he comes back. Success, he has the last bottle of the Robert Mondavi Reserve CS. When he shows me the label, I am thrilled to see the vintage year--2013. Excellent.

 

Well, that was, easily, the best wine I had on that cruise.

 

Later though, I was thinking. In our first visit to Sabatini's the server told us that they were out of the Gavi, and they were out of the Barolo. Recall, she also mentioned that there was not a single bottle of the Barolo anywhere on the ship. She did not add that when she reported that about the Gavi. Was she too lazy to walk from Sabatini's on the after side of Deck 7 to Crown Grill on the forward side of Deck 7 to snag the bottle that they had? The Crown Grill server was happy to walk from the Crown Grill on the forward side of Deck 7 to the Botticelli Dining Room way back at the after side of Deck 6 to pick up that Mondavi CS for me. I'm glad he did. Yes, he did get a good tip.

 

This is just a rant. I know that this definitely falls into the category of "First-World problems." Also, since we will be driving to the port on our next cruise in November, I know that I will be dragging in a case of my own wine.

 

another possibility is a venue keeping a couple of bottles off inventory, so when she checked it may not have shown, but the venue that had it knew where it was when your ordered it there.

[Steelers36]

And as another poster above said, the food rarely rises to high end expensive wines. I try for good value and variety from the ship's offerings. I don't like to check bags so I cannot bring from home. We normally cruise with carry-on only (past have been all Caribbean, 7-12 days). For our South America trip, I will see if any room in luggage for a bottle or two from home. But Total Wine is my friend for pre-cruise shopping.

[RocketMan275]

And as another poster above said, the food rarely rises to high end expensive wines. I try for good value and variety from the ship's offerings. I don't like to check bags so I cannot bring from home. We normally cruise with carry-on only (past have been all Caribbean, 7-12 days). For our South America trip, I will see if any room in luggage for a bottle or two from home. But Total Wine is my friend for pre-cruise shopping.

We're flying in the day before our next cruise. Will be visiting Total Wine prior.

Thanks to this thread, I will pick up at least one bottle of the Renieri Brunello. Now, I need to decide on three more reds and a couple of whites (chardonnays only- sauvignon blanc doesn't work for us.)

[greenie082756]

We've had a similar experience on one of our TA cruises. I feel your pain. :(

 

I would just love to meet the person that thought it was a good idea to offer the Rex Goliath Moscato for $28.00. It can be purchased at any grocery store in California for $3.99 a bottle. It's hard to decide which is more offensive, the taste or the price.;p

 

Well my husband and I drink that Moscato wine. Its okay. Its more for my husbands sake as he is not a drinker and he finds that wine to be tolerable. I myself would rather have a more traditional wine. I never thought of ordering 2 different wines (one for each of us) but perhaps we will.

 

Just like the food preferences, to each his own. :)

[XBGuy]

CHPURSER, thank you, very much, for your excellent and, obviously, well-informed comments. You made some excellent points, several, of which, I'd never considered, before.

 

I might quibble, slightly, about your comment regarding vintage dates. Yes, to a wine geek, the vintage date is important. I have refused wines in restaurants when the vintage date on a presented wine was not the same as the wine list. In my original post I commented that when the Mondavi CS was presented to me, I was thrilled to see that it was from the very highly regarded (for Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons) 2013 vintage.

 

In the case of Princess (and, I would assume that of all mass market cruise lines), the vintage date is never displayed on any wine list. A patron orders a wine and does not see the vintage until the bottle is presented.

 

So, if the Mondavi had been from the 2014 vintage or the 2012 vintage I would have happily approved it.

 

It is obvious why vintage dates are not displayed on the wine lists. It allows Princess to mitigate the very circumstance you mentioned. I mentioned that the Mondavi that I enjoyed was the last bottle on the Grand Princess. Presumably, that supply will be replenished and, when it is, I can almost guarantee that they will not receive the 2013 vintage. It will be 2014 or, perhaps, 2015. This is no problem for Princess. They enter the new bottle(s) into the ship's inventory, and they do not have to update and reprint their wine lists. When somebody orders a Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, I am confident that the purchaser will approve the bottle that is presented regardless of the vintage.

 

Here is another personal story. I mentioned that on our cruise last October, we dined at SHARE (several times, in fact). In the restaurant's foyer there is a display of multiple bottles of the wines that they offer. I previously mentioned the Ridge Lytton Springs bottling. In fact, they had one or two bottles of the 2014 Lytton Springs on display. I am a big fan or the LS bottling, and year after year I will buy and drink multiple bottles. The 2014 bottling is one of my least favorite. Regardless, in one of our visits, I ordered the Ridge Lytton Springs to enjoy with my dinner. When the waiter presented the bottle to me, I was absolutely thrilled to see that it was the 2013 vintage--in my opinion a much superior wine. Again, the wine list does not show the vintage date, by seeing the display in the foyer, I had assumed that I would be getting the 2014 vintage. So, I was very pleasantly surprised that I was offered what I believed to be a superior wine.

 

Of course, I suppose we have to consider the flip side of that scenario. What if I'd seen the 2013 in the display and was offered the 2014? In that case I would have asked if there was any more of the 2013 in their storage area. If they did not have any, I would have accepted the 2014. I definitely would not have accepted one of the bottles that were on display. The ship's wine storage may not be the best--as you indicated--but I am confident that it is better than the bottles that are in display cases.

 

Again, though, I thank you for your very interesting contribution. I learned some good tidbits.

[Steelers36]

Don't laugh me overboard, but they have no refrigeration units? Other than some in the MDR area's of Regal/Royal? I think I saw some there... but not sure. Also at VINES.

[elliair]

We've had a similar experience on one of our TA cruises. I feel your pain. :(

 

I would just love to meet the person that thought it was a good idea to offer the Rex Goliath Moscato for $28.00. It can be purchased at any grocery store in California for $3.99 a bottle. It's hard to decide which is more offensive, the taste or the price.;p

 

I agree, I've seen that same wine on the menu and DH and I always laugh knowing how it tastes and the price of it at the store. We like the Noblio Sauvignon Blanc, it's $40 on the ship and $9.99 at Trader Joes. We usually buy the wine package, but we also bring wine on board.

[laughing husky]

Like the old days where you could wheel a case of wine on board...no problem.....and I still had a good cocktail tab, but I like my own style of wines...

Edited September 30, 2017 by laughing husky
spelling

[Lucky TGO]

We've had a similar experience on one of our TA cruises. I feel your pain. :(

 

I would just love to meet the person that thought it was a good idea to offer the Rex Goliath Moscato for $28.00. It can be purchased at any grocery store in California for $3.99 a bottle. It's hard to decide which is more offensive, the taste or the price.;p

 

Wow that’s a great deal $28.00 for a bottle of wine that cost $3.99. Only if your selling it :D:D.

Tony

[suzyed]

Well my husband and I drink that Moscato wine. Its okay. Its more for my husbands sake as he is not a drinker and he finds that wine to be tolerable. I myself would rather have a more traditional wine. I never thought of ordering 2 different wines (one for each of us) but perhaps we will.

 

Just like the food preferences, to each his own. :)

We have done just that many times. One white, one red....whatever you don't drink, they will save for the next night.

[suzyed]

"The ship's wine storage may not be the best--as you indicated--but I am confident that it is better than the bottles that are in display cases"

My first inclination would be if I could have one of the bottles on desplay! LOL! Different strokes for different folks. ;)