Mixology? Yes or no?

[aebeauregard]

Wondering opinions on keeping or dropping our mixology class. It's my and DH first ever cruise, bringing along DD(8) and DS(5). I have us signed up for mixology on day 5 of a 6 night Magic cruise leaving in a couple weeks. It's our only tasting of the cruise.

Sounds like mixology used to be more fun before covid times and was at a much nicer price point than the $40/person now. Husband and I are both drinkers, I like trying different things and he is a little more picky. I'm a little concerned it won't feel worth it if we end up not enjoying some of the drinks. I'm wondering if we should save the $80 and just use it to go get drinks at some of the bars on our own. 6 nights is also a pretty long cruise, maybe we will be excited to have an adult activity to break up the day by day 5. We are doing Palo brunch on day 2.

I guess I'm leaning towards canceling, but I'm looking for some input if I will regret not doing it.

 

[Clarkson U]

I would keep it if you have never done it before. I did it once and enjoyed it. My personal goal is to try all the different drink offerings and try the different classes. Have done mixology, choc and liquor, champagne tastings so far.

 

[bmalonef45]

We were on a 6 night cruise on the Magic last month and did a few of the tastings and enjoyed them all. The beer tasting was our least favorite, but we did learn lots! The staff do a great job and you get to take the recipes with you after the cruise which is nice. It was a great way to get to know the bar staff better on our cruise, but admittedly the ship was only 1/2 full so that also helped.

 

[gscott8075]

They are a complete sell out on my upcoming cruise - we have enjoyed them many times over the years!

 

[princesscinderella]

I would keep it since you have never done it before. Everyone becomes friends usually in the class and it’s fun seeing them other places on the ship. Everyone gets chattier each drink that’s served. We have opted to skip the tastings on our upcoming sailing due to the cost and there’s usually two drinks we don’t like so we are going to just do our own day drinking with friends sailing with us.

 

[lklgoodman]

I would keep it. It's fun.
We've done mixology, the chocolate and liquor, and the mojito one(done on Cast Away Cay on a Fantasy cruise). The mixology was my favorite. They had a good selection of different types of mixed drinks. The bartender told about the drinks and made it interesting/fun. I'm a lightweight drinker and had to take a nap afterwards, lol!!

 

[meliscan]

Wondering opinions on keeping or dropping our mixology class. It's my and DH first ever cruise, bringing along DD(8) and DS(5). I have us signed up for mixology on day 5 of a 6 night Magic cruise leaving in a couple weeks. It's our only tasting of the cruise.

Sounds like mixology used to be more fun before covid times and was at a much nicer price point than the $40/person now. Husband and I are both drinkers, I like trying different things and he is a little more picky. I'm a little concerned it won't feel worth it if we end up not enjoying some of the drinks. I'm wondering if we should save the $80 and just use it to go get drinks at some of the bars on our own. 6 nights is also a pretty long cruise, maybe we will be excited to have an adult activity to break up the day by day 5. We are doing Palo brunch on day 2.

I guess I'm leaning towards canceling, but I'm looking for some input if I will regret not doing it.

I have liked Mixology even with the changes as it was a chance to try new drinks. My husband and I have done it and sometimes there are things I don't love and vice versa so we would pass those drinks to one another. I know the price has increased but for me the drinks have quality ingredients and our last one had 5 drinks so it was about $8 a drink. I have taken home recipes from Mixology to use at home which is always a fun memory when you make the drinks.

 

[alongtimeblooming]

We sailed on the Magic last month and did two tastings. I enjoyed both of them in different ways.

Champagne Tasting on Embarkation Day - Someone on this board mentioned this as a tip and it was a wonderful idea. We did a sit down lunch at Rapunzel's and then the champagne tasting in Keys. We were interrupted by the big announcement about safety procedures, but it was kind of funny to be seated there with champagne while we listened in.

Mixology - We were served 5 STRONG drinks. They were made for us. However, the bartender was funny and very knowledgable about the history of different liquors and the principles of cocktail mixing. She went into detail about the tools and at the end, she topped off the drinks with additional free pours straight from the bottle. I walked out absolutely smashed.

I will echo what Meliscan said and say that we found value out of the Mixology class because we were able to try things that we would not have been brave enough to order off of the menu. I also feel that the quality of the classes relies heavily on the personality of the teacher.

 

[gotomu212]

I’ll be the lone voice and say that we don’t like the tastings anymore. For us, we’ve found them a little too assembly line, a little too “let’s see how fast we can get drunk and then be shuffled off”, we haven’t been overly impressed with the teachers, we’ve never felt like the classes made friends or even allowed much talking, and we haven’t liked that it’s a set block of time and then we usually need a nap afterwards.

Instead, we’ve found it more fun to spend the money on doing our own drinking tour. We’ve talked to bartenders, asked them for recommendations, had two, and then go back to the same one for another drink the next day. They’ve always walked us through how to make the drinks while weve chatted and we’ve had time to actually enjoy the drinks without feeling rushed. We’ve also had time for fun conversations as a few of the same people had the same idea we did.

 

[tessa671]

When the class was $20, definitely. For $40, no. Now if they gave you the recipes then yes.

 

[Douglas Dubh]

When we did the Fantasy in February, we did two - the mixology and one called “Morning power up” or something like that. I thought the mixology was worth it but not the morning one.

 

[IceSkatingPrincess]

For us, it was less fun not making the drinks, but we still enjoyed it and would do it again. It is a lot about who you sit with though. We have had some really fun groups and some not so fun groups (we are a party of 2).

 

[MomOTwins]

I will say, I scoffed at the new tasting prices when they first came out and said I would just order my own drinks for cheaper on our cruise on the wish last fall. Then went on the cruise and discovered that mixed drink prices had gone up and I was regularly paying $20-40 per cocktail a la carte at the bars. Plus, I discovered a lot of the bars were closed when I wanted to grab a drink because they were doing tasting events in them. So now I have Mixology booked again for my next cruise.

 

[CamColt]

I will say, I scoffed at the new tasting prices when they first came out and said I would just order my own drinks for cheaper on our cruise on the wish last fall. Then went on the cruise and discovered that mixed drink prices had gone up and I was regularly paying $20-40 per cocktail a la carte at the bars. Plus, I discovered a lot of the bars were closed when I wanted to grab a drink because they were doing tasting events in them. So now I have Mixology booked again for my next cruise.

What kinds of drinks were that price? (hoping its not my favorite go to drink

 

[IceSkatingPrincess]

I will say, I scoffed at the new tasting prices when they first came out and said I would just order my own drinks for cheaper on our cruise on the wish last fall. Then went on the cruise and discovered that mixed drink prices had gone up and I was regularly paying $20-40 per cocktail a la carte at the bars. Plus, I discovered a lot of the bars were closed when I wanted to grab a drink because they were doing tasting events in them. So now I have Mixology booked again for my next cruise.

What kinds of drinks were that price? (hoping its not my favorite go to drink

I'm curious about this too. Unless you are talking nicer scotch, champagne, etc.
What mixed drink is costing you $40 onboard?

 

[MomOTwins]

What kinds of drinks were that price? (hoping its not my favorite go to drink

Our go to drinks are old fashioneds. We didn’t go crazy on fancy bourbon, usually just Bulleit or Makers.

 

[MomOTwins]

Our go to drinks are old fashioneds. We didn’t go crazy on fancy bourbon, usually just Bulleit or Makers.

Replying to myself I should clarify that the price included the 18% autogratuity. It was like $33 before tip.

 

[pelequeen]

1st time DCLr here — I was able to snag a martini tasting. I think I’ve read that it includes vodka and gin martinis plus a chocolate martini. Any idea what the other drink flavor(s) might be?

Also I see that there are rotating happy hours at the various bars. Is it a set drink for the HH price? What’s the going rate for a HH vs non HH cocktail?

 

[TBLaube]

1st time DCLr here — I was able to snag a martini tasting. I think I’ve read that it includes vodka and gin martinis plus a chocolate martini. Any idea what the other drink flavor(s) might be?

Also I see that there are rotating happy hours at the various bars. Is it a set drink for the HH price? What’s the going rate for a HH vs non HH cocktail?

I just did my first martini tasting and enjoyed it. We had a lemon/citrusy one, a french martini, a chocolate one, and a vodka martini (and then we could make it a dirty one if we wanted to taste the difference). I think I am missing one more, but I can't remember. The drinks were good!

Happy hour on my recent cruises was a 30% discount on certain drinks. Servers and bartenders were great at communicating what was offered if there was a question.

 

[AgentMama]

We enjoyed it at the lower price point and pre-COVID. We probably won't do them anymore. We're pretty adventurous drinkers outside of the classes so aren't getting the same benefit anymore. And we're probably showing our age, but we don't really like feeling like we need a nap after the class because we're too buzzed. We prefer getting drinks at various spots on our own timeline.