Speciality Dining question

[Scirocco Breeze]

I've never bothered with speciality dining before but our next cruise is for our anniversary so we have booked 1 evening speciality dining. This is probably a really stupid question but my brain insists I ask....does our drink package still count at that meal, or will drinks cost extra too? 

[david63]

2 minutes ago, Scirocco Breeze said:

does our drink package still count at that meal

Yes - unless Princess move the goalposts!

[Scirocco Breeze]

I'll watch with baited breath 😂 Thank you 👍

[lx200gps]

No worries at all. Your drink package is honored all over the ship, and very definitely in all the specialty restaurants. That being said, be sure to check your onboard account on a regular basis, as occasionally the staff make mistakes and a drink may get charged to your account in error. When that happens a trip down to Guest Services sorts it out right away.  I check our account via the TV every day. Have a great trip.

[skynight]

I will mention:

Alcoholic beverages up to $15 for the plus fare, $20 for the premier fare, are included. Many of the good wines are higher priced than $15. In that case you will be charged the difference plus 18%. 

Bottles of wine are not included in the 15 drink limit. If you order a bottle of wine you will charged the menu price less a 25% discount. 

[Scirocco Breeze]

1 minute ago, skynight said:

I will mention:

Alcoholic beverages up to $15 for the plus fare, $20 for the premier fare, are included. Many of the good wines are higher priced than $15. In that case you will be charged the difference plus 18%. 

Bottles of wine are not included in the 15 drink limit. If you order a bottle of wine you will charged the menu price less a 25% discount. 

Thank you. We have Plus (the poor man's 2022 version!) so I will keep an eye on what we order. We are not big wine drinkers, I bring shame on my family by not having developed the palate. My grandad is turning in his grave.

[Boiler Cruiser]

2 hours ago, Scirocco Breeze said:

I've never bothered with speciality dining before but our next cruise is for our anniversary so we have booked 1 evening speciality dining. This is probably a really stupid question but my brain insists I ask....does our drink package still count at that meal, or will drinks cost extra too? 

If you are on the Princess Plus or Princess Premier package, the drinks at Sabatini's or Crown Grill will be covered.  It's the same as in any dining room on board.

[memoak]

2 hours ago, Scirocco Breeze said:

Thank you. We have Plus (the poor man's 2022 version!) so I will keep an eye on what we order. We are not big wine drinkers, I bring shame on my family by not having developed the palate. My grandad is turning in his grave.

Even with the 2022 version you will still get drinks up to $15. That has been true on every cruise I have taken this year

[david63]

3 hours ago, Boiler Cruiser said:

If you are on the Princess Plus or Princess Premier package, the drinks at Sabatini's or Crown Grill will be covered.  It's the same as in any dining room on board.

Unless you want something on the drinks list that they offer you in those venues

[memoak]

5 minutes ago, david63 said:

Unless you want something on the drinks list that they offer you in those venues

You still get up to $15 on the plus package and pay the difference on a higher amount. Also can get 25% off any bottles of wine in any venue

[Boiler Cruiser]

On 8/19/2023 at 3:18 PM, david63 said:

Unless you want something on the drinks list that they offer you in those venues

If you have Princess Premier or Princess Plus, you can order any drink (cocktail or wine, e.g.) at Sabatini's or the Crown Grill and it will be covered to the extent of what plan you have.  As far as drinks are concerned, specialty restaurants don't have different rules for charging.

[david63]

5 hours ago, Boiler Cruiser said:

If you have Princess Premier or Princess Plus, you can order any drink (cocktail or wine, e.g.) at Sabatini's or the Crown Grill and it will be covered to the extent of what plan you have.  As far as drinks are concerned, specialty restaurants don't have different rules for charging.

But speciality restaurants also have their own wine list where the wine is by the bottle therefore not fully covered by the packages.

[memoak]

3 minutes ago, david63 said:

But speciality restaurants also have their own wine list where the wine is by the bottle therefore not fully covered by the packages.

If you have a plus or premier package you can get 25% off of bottles in any restaurant 

[Steelers36]

8 minutes ago, david63 said:

But specialty restaurants also have their own wine list where the wine is by the bottle therefore not fully covered by the packages.

Those are selections from the full Princess wine menu.

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

54 minutes ago, david63 said:

But speciality restaurants also have their own wine list where the wine is by the bottle therefore not fully covered by the packages.

You don't have to order wine by the bottle in the speciality restaurants though. You can still order wine by the glass and that will be covered by your package (up to the package limit, then you pay the difference over in the normal way).

[david63]

10 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Those are selections from the full Princess wine menu.

There are some, or at least there was earlier this year, that were not on the full wine list in The Catch.

 

10 hours ago, memoak said:

If you have a plus or premier package you can get 25% off of bottles in any restaurant 

That is what I said "not fully covered by the package"

 

 

[Steelers36]

5 hours ago, david63 said:

There are some, or at least there was earlier this year, that were not on the full wine list in The Catch.

 

 

 

Interesting.  New restaurant.  Could be a new way that they want to keep some new labels just for there?  

 

There must be some changes to wine list by now, even if not reprinted as I keep reading about them being out of stock of various ones on various ships.

 

Someday we might see a full current list posted in the forum.

[lx200gps]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

Interesting.  New restaurant.  Could be a new way that they want to keep some new labels just for there?  

 

There must be some changes to wine list by now, even if not reprinted as I keep reading about them being out of stock of various ones on various ships.

 

Someday we might see a full current list posted in the forum.

We've sailed Princess 4 times post-pandemic, and while the wine situation was very bad in the early days of the restart, with lots of OOS, we have noticed it getting progressively better with each successive trip. Although we're not wine snobs by any measure, we prefer to stretch the limits of our Plus or Premier package and order the most $$$ wines by the glass. On our last trip, in Feb on the Sky, there was not a single "sorry, we don't have that one any more" to be heard though I'm sure they occasionally run out of a few items. On a related note, I noticed how the wine lists in the MDRs were always far more expansive than in the SDRs. In the CG, Sabatini's or La Mer, the wine list was little more than a page or two, while the list in the MDR was many pages long and included the very $$$ bottles as well.  And on Celebrity this past June, we were treated to the ever-present sommeliers in all the dining venues. Sure never had to wait for a re-fill unlike P.

[Steelers36]

17 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

In the CG, Sabatini's or La Mer, the wine list was little more than a page or two, while the list in the MDR was many pages long and included the very $$$ bottles as well.

IDK how many people realize you can order any wine in a SDR - anything from the full wine list from the MDR.

[kiwimum]

15 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

We've sailed Princess 4 times post-pandemic, and while the wine situation was very bad in the early days of the restart, with lots of OOS, we have noticed it getting progressively better with each successive trip. Although we're not wine snobs by any measure, we prefer to stretch the limits of our Plus or Premier package and order the most $$$ wines by the glass. On our last trip, in Feb on the Sky, there was not a single "sorry, we don't have that one any more" to be heard though I'm sure they occasionally run out of a few items. On a related note, I noticed how the wine lists in the MDRs were always far more expansive than in the SDRs. In the CG, Sabatini's or La Mer, the wine list was little more than a page or two, while the list in the MDR was many pages long and included the very $$$ bottles as well.  And on Celebrity this past June, we were treated to the ever-present sommeliers in all the dining venues. Sure never had to wait for a re-fill unlike P.

Crown Grill on the Sky has a Sommelier.   Very helpful as he should be, but very limited selection.   Most bars onboard have extremely limited wines, including vines.   Ordered a Shiraz the other night and they substituted, without informing us, for the cheapo wine.   When they did not have the wine we ordered they made a decision to substitute, but charged for the wine we requested.

[Steelers36]

44 minutes ago, kiwimum said:

Crown Grill on the Sky has a Sommelier.   Very helpful as he should be, but very limited selection.   Most bars onboard have extremely limited wines, including vines.   Ordered a Shiraz the other night and they substituted, without informing us, for the cheapo wine.   When they did not have the wine we ordered they made a decision to substitute, but charged for the wine we requested.

Not cool at all.  And this is the first I am hearing of a Sommelier on Princess, so I do question if that was really his job title.  I would not have accepted what they did and would have asked for a different wine if they couldn't give me what I wanted.  No way I would have paid for inferior wine.  A guest should be able to order any wine from the full list in a SD and not just the couple of examples they print in the SD menu.

[Scirocco Breeze]

Not wine, but they ran out of Amaretto very early on in the cruise on Enchanted in July, Sad times for me, it's my after dinner liquour of choice. I tried a Grand Marnier (I think) instead and no, absolutely not for me. I'm going to need a decent back up plan if that happens again. 

[kiwimum]

6 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Not cool at all.  And this is the first I am hearing of a Sommelier on Princess, so I do question if that was really his job title.  I would not have accepted what they did and would have asked for a different wine if they couldn't give me what I wanted.  No way I would have paid for inferior wine.  A guest should be able to order any wine from the full list in a SD and not just the couple of examples they print in the SD menu.

He introduced himself as the Sommelier.   One sip of the substitute wine we new it was not what we ordered.  We definitely ordered a different varietal.   This is not the only issue with vines.   Last night we ordered a red and it was served in a blazing hot stemmed glass out of the dishwasher.  Needless to say we refused and they iced a glass, knew it was wrong.   Having issues with keeping Riedel glasses in stock as guests are taking them to other venues.

[lx200gps]

3 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

IDK how many people realize you can order any wine in a SDR - anything from the full wine list from the MDR.

That was my thinking as well, but I assume that the wines offered in each dining venue are physically located in the venue. If I was in Sabatini's and ordered something from the vast MDR menu, wouldn't it have to be trucked in from a distant location in one of the MDRs? The wait for wine service in the restaurants is slow enough without a waiter having to walk 2000 yards to get us our glasses from a completely different location.

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, kiwimum said:

He introduced himself as the Sommelier.   One sip of the substitute wine we new it was not what we ordered.  We definitely ordered a different varietal.   This is not the only issue with vines.   Last night we ordered a red and it was served in a blazing hot stemmed glass out of the dishwasher.  Needless to say we refused and they iced a glass, knew it was wrong.   Having issues with keeping Riedel glasses in stock as guests are taking them to other venues.

They used to guard the Riedels with their lives.   LOL.