A guide to wine life on the sea
So you are going on a cruise! You put the payment in, vacation days are booked, and you have been looking forward to this trip forever.
Have you figured out your cruise details yet? Any internet packages, excursions through the cruise line, any dinner requests or reservations, and probably one of the more popular details have you organized your drink package?
Most cruises I find extremely affordable, where they want to charge you is for your beverages. And I am not just talking about alcohol, they want to charge you extra for each soda you drink as well. Basic coffee, tea, water, and lemonade are included but how can one person drink only those beverages for two weeks. Not me! So here comes the drink specials! Every cruise line operates a little bit differently being as I have traveled on different lines before. However I am going to be talking about Princess Cruise Line in particular and what we experienced, their drink package, and of course what were the wines like, are they worth the investment? Were they wines any good, how was wine list, would wino feel appreciated on a cruise ship? All your cruise line wine questions will be answered here!
Remember I am talking specifically about my experience on the Princess Cruise line. Before going on your cruise make sure to check your cruise alcohol and wine policy as they are all very different.
Alcohol and Beverage Packages
First you need to decide what beverage package you are getting, if any at all. Most people will opt for one of the packages, they just make sense especially if you have a lot of sea days like we did. Without going into to much detail, here is what we went with and why. Well spoiler alert, I’m pregnant while writing this post and was three months pregnant while on the cruise. It was obvious I was not getting the all inclusive beverage package which included alcohol lol but I wasn’t about to drink only water and tea for 15 days straight on cruise to Hawaii, sorry nutritionist I just need a little more fruitiness and variety in my life. I opted for the basic soda package (I probably drink soda 3 times a year lol) but this package included all the mocktails, juices, and I do drink quite a bit of soda water as well. So that was right for me. But don’t worry I still did a full evaluation of the wines on the cruise- there is such a thing as spitting wine tastes , or taking one sip while passing the rest on to the husband. For the hubby we had much different options. Do we get the full beverage package that was $70 per day- so basically you get unlimited beverages including alcohol (alcohol was actually limited to 15 drinks per day, yikes) for each day of the cruise. For 15 days that comes to just over $1,000, which is a can be a bit pricey but if you plan on drinking on a cruise ship it can be a decent option. It honestly depends on how much you drink. If you are a light drinker, like know you can’t handle more than 3 a day or so this is definitely not for you. However if alcohol goes along with your vacation like Mai Tais go with Hawaii then you would strongly consider opting for the beverage package. To sum up, we went with the beverage package and ended up about even. However! And I will suggest strongly However, it was almost a goal each day we were on the cruise ship to make sure Rob got the most out of his drink package, meaning that he intentionally drank more then would be normal vacation drink because of trying to get the most of his money. Last thing about the drink package is be prepared to drink if you want your money’s worth!
Best thing about the all you can drink package- the discount on wine bottles!!! This I found to be quite substantial as we ordered a bottle of wine with dinner each night. There were four of us traveling together so a bottle of wine was no problem and I got to taste each one!
The Wine Selection
The cruise ship did have quite an extensive wine list. I didn’t count but I am estimating that the traditional dining room wine list had at least 500 bottles to choose from so a very good variety. Side note here- if you did by the all inclusive drink package that your glasses on wine are included (not bottles) , for the glass it is there house wines, which we all tried and they were alright. Definitely not bad but not super interesting either, but if you felt having a glass of wine during a pre or post dinner show we found them to be quite acceptable.
Bringing Wine Onboard
You don’t even have to drink their wine cause you are allowed to bring your own on board for consumption! Princess Cruises allows you to bring 1 bottle of wine (750 mL bottle) per person. Any bottles after that are subject to what I believe was a $15 corkage. If you are serious about your wine and would like to have some really nice go with your amazing meals I would highly recommend this route. We didn’t take this idea very seriously with me being pregnant but next time I will make more of an effort to do this because even with a 20% discount on wine bottles the best deal would still be to bring your own. For a 15 day cruise that is probably a lot of wine but if you already have a traveling suitcase made to transport wine than wine not! Haha pun!
What we did do was bring two bottles of sparkling wine with us. Those were great to just keep in the room and drink at our discretion. One we had during the afternoon while we were at sea and we were enjoying our balcony, peace, and solitude. The other bottle we shared with my parents one evening on the balcony. So lots of nice little occasions for any bottle. If you go on a Princess Cruise bring at least one bottle with you!!! You will never regret that decision. If you are particular about glassware- well a cruise might be a little disappointing lol but what can you expect they need to be able to dishwash 99% of the glassware haha. Why I mention this is that there were no champagne glasses readily available. Yes you could go ask for some at the nearest bar- but that seemed like an unnecessary trip, and I am also sure that room service would be happy to deliver whatever glassware you needed however room service unless scheduled in advance can take longer than you may expect- finding the glasses yourself would be faster but then your still in the same place as before-. In the end we used the water glasses provided in the rooms, hey they worked just fine!
We found a unique loop in the bottle per person allowed in your state room without extra fee applied each time we boarded the ship. You are allowed to bring back bottles of wine from your stops in port. You could go into port, buy wine from the store for example, and then just bring it back on board to enjoy at your leisure. We didn’t realize this until we brought back wine from Volcano Winery in Hawaii. We purchased three bottles. I assumed the cruise line would store them all for us until day we pack up. However they informed us that we would be allowed to keep two of them with us – ie one per person- and they would store the third which would be returned to us the night before departure. So yay more wine?! It was a really nice convenience to say the least. We did not drink these as we were saving these for gifts. Then it goes to question if the same would be allowed for the following port? I do not see why not. When we got back to the ship from wine tasting in Ensenada we were bringing back five bottles of wine and I think since it was the day before us returning to L.A. allowed us to keep all bottles of wine with us. More of a convenience for all parties I am sure. Regardless of the fact that the Princess allows you some of your own bottles of wine in your room is a huge plus for me and think all should take advantage of this.
Wine Programs and Events
I am not sure if it is because it is my first cruise as a wine professional but it seemed to me that Princess has really stepped up their overall wine program. They offered an exclusive wine bar which we hung out a few times at. They had wine not on the traditional menu, served by somm professionals, offered unique tasting flights, wine blending classes, professional glassware, and had tapas and sushi everyday at 3 PM. It was awesome and a real cute place to hangout and sip and little something nice. Being as it was a bit more lavish then your regular bar all the not all the wines were included in the all inclusive drink package, which we were okay with. The higher end wine and wine flight for example cost a bit extra, glasses costling only $3-8 extra. The tapas and sushi were included so that was extra yummy awesomeness. We also attended and participated in the wine blending course, cause wine not? I know it’s something I do professionally but I do love my job so why not try it out. This was a definite extra cost at $30-40 per person. However with this class you got a huge cheese board all to yourself, plus 100 mL of four different types of wine to try blending at. Total you get to drink at least 400 mL of wine with is over a half bottle. Rob got lucky cause he got to drink 90% of all my blends and wines too. He was feeling pretty good at the end of the session.
We had fun at the wine blending but not anything inspiring or truly eye opening. All the wines were from a single producer in Napa. We had four wines to play with; Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc. Recognize any similarities about these varieties? They are the major grapes grown and blended in Bordeaux France. We got to make a California style Bordeaux blend. Fun! In my opinion the wines should all be blended anyways cause on their own the varietals were not interesting or captivating at all and that is why there is such joy in wine blending. And joy we did. Between the two of us, Rob and I created hands down the most interesting collaborations at the table but as with all things taste and opinion related always in the eye of beholder. I still think we made the best blends haha. Felt at least like we had a consensus. Our favorites were two part Malbec, two parts Merlot, and one part Cabernet Sauvigon and the other blend favorite was two part Malbec, two part Merlot, and two parts Cabernet Franc, interesting huh? The cruise line sold all the bottles individually so we took a look. Yikes!! They were at least $50-60 each!! For those??? We knew we were not getting any of those bottles. That is one of biggest concerns about wines from Napa, they can afford to put huge dollar signs on their bottles and for me the value in the quality of wine is just not there. Of course it is not the case with all but definitely a good number. What out for wine from Napa in that price range. You could be hugely disappointed. I would say if you’ve never tried wine blending before I would splurge and do it on your cruise, it was a really fun way to spend an hour or two.
The wine fun doesn’t stop there! They also offered what they called their Maitre D’Hotel Wine Club wine tasting. A tasting that showcased six of the cruise ships wines of interest and was paired with weird little snacks- that’s the best I can describe it, most of the food provided for this tasting consisted of a paste of some kind on top of a small piece of white bread. The food pairing was not at all interesting or would say good, this would be the one thing I think could easily be improved upon. But always for me the most important thing for these are the wines. Overall the wine was good and pleasant, nothing overwhelming spectacular though. For the flight we started with a French Champagne, which oddly enough turned out to be the same exact kind we brought on board haha. The tasting was followed by a Torrontes from Argentina, a white wine and in my opinion the best and most interesting wine we tried for this. It was followed by a white blend out of California which it exactly was, Merlot from Ferrari Carano in Sonoma Valley, I actually love this producer btw, and Pinot Noir from California not at all developed, and last was finished with a big bold Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley. Still a pretty fun way to spend the afternoon even if I ended up pouring most of my wine into my husband’s glass lol. I think these wine tasting events are pretty fun, they were done in large groups- say 50-100 people but usually sit with 2-8 other people at time so get a chance to discuss the wine too. If you are into wine these wine tastings are a great way to explore the wine menu a bit more in a shorter amount of time. This particular wine tasting cost $25 per person however they offer a similar tasting for $15 per person and it just skips the “food pairing”. Next time around I would opt for this tasting WITHOUT the food cause to me the food was just not worth it but hey they might change.
If you already love wine or are just starting to get to know wine, cruising is a great way to explore wine on many different levels. Now you know what to expect to find cruisin with wine. I hope this inspires you to get out there, book a vacation, cruise or otherwise. There is always something to explore, sip, and savor, and as always make sure to do it with those you love. Happy travels and wine a little bit!