Wine menus

[Norcal Cruiser]

I've seen copies of meal menus on this board.I'm curious to see whether anyone has copies of the wine menu to see whether it's worth carrying it on and spending the $25.00 corkage fee.And that is only assuming the somellier gets his normal tip from that.I'm not trying to nickel and dime anyone.We've always purchased bottles in the dining room and saved any leftover for the next meal.Please no angry posts about how cheap I'm being.I really am just curious about the amounts.:)

[WarmH2OSailing]

Great question!

 

I don't have the latest wine list (last Celebrity cruise was October) but during our two weeks in the Med we looked carefully at the pricing. I found the mark-up to be somewhat inconsistent and frustrating. The mark-up was fairly substantial when looking at the lower to medium priced wines. At the higher end the mark-up was less on a percentage basis.

 

That means that if you wished to have a premium wine and pay corkage, your net savings would actually go down. Someone in Celebrity, whether they planned on it or not, is driving the value conscious customer to buying the higher priced wines...smart from their point of view. But I love the challenge in finding the "value priced" wines during a cruise...with the caveat that if it gets too ridiculous, I'm sneaking the good stuff aboard!!!! In any case, have a great cruise.

 

Wayne

[CaliforniaDreamin]

I've seen copies of meal menus on this board.I'm curious to see whether anyone has copies of the wine menu to see whether it's worth carrying it on and spending the $25.00 corkage fee.And that is only assuming the somellier gets his normal tip from that.I'm not trying to nickel and dime anyone.We've always purchased bottles in the dining room and saved any leftover for the next meal.Please no angry posts about how cheap I'm being.I really am just curious about the amounts.:)

 

Arubalisa's Galaxy wine lists are here . December 2006 cruise I believe. She has a great website with volumes of shipboard data.

[Norcal Cruiser]

Wow!Thank you so much for the info.I'll do the math tomorrow.Thank you so much for that link....Kathy

[ghstudio]

I am constantly amazed at how much effort people will go to in order to save a very few dollars. Is it really worth carrying back a bottle of liquor from somewhere in the caribbean to save $7 over the local price? You spent thousands on this trip....you save $7.

 

Ditto with wines. The food on celebrity ships does not exactly lend itself to a very fine wine....yes it's good cruise food, but not food that deserves a $50 bottle. Mostly, the food deserves a reasonable table wine. Buy a bottle at home for $15, take it to the boat...add the $25 corkage fee and you have exactly what they sell on board for $40. Sure, the markup is huge...but he corkage is equally rediculous. Do you really want to schlep around a few bottles of wine to save maybe $5 a bottle on your thousands of dollars cruise?

[dutchess43]

Every night with dinner we order a bottle of wine. Every day on borad there are drinks order, so my bar bills are up there. We bring wine on board to have in our balcony either after we set sail from a port or our days at sea. We have shared wine with our friends & also some someliers. For us Yes it is worth carrying wine on board. I have paid 40.00 for a bottle of wine that I can buy at our wine store for 13.00. Yes it is a hugh mark up but you know that when ordering. My understanding is the someliers only make their tips from the wine ordered. Let us keep in mind that X thank goodness is one of the few cruise lines that still have someliers.

[Wineguys]

Actually, the markup on many of the wines in not more than you will find in most trendy restaurants in New York, San Francisco, DC, LA or Boston. In addition, we found some great stuff for just $30ish a bottle (the old standby La Crema) or if we felt like splurging we had some Far Niente Chard or Cab Sav. We developed a great rapport with both our sommelier and the Head Sommelier and deferred to them when it came to some selections on the French wines (all of which were so-so, except for a great Sancerre). I thought the prices were fine. On an 11 day cruise, the 2 nights when we brought our own bottles to dinner, they never charged us corkage, but asked if he could try the wine, which I insisted he did and I explained the wine to him. We ended the trip on the last night up on the 10 AFT bar with a copule of bottles of Chateau D'Yquem, one of which turned out corked, but luckily they had two more left. Our sommelier came and poured and presented the wine way past closing time. A total class act. Dutchess, I like your attitude!