Dinner Wine Package

[kid@heart]

We didn't do this on our last cruise (10/00), but were considering it for our cruise this year. Can anyone tell me about the wine pairings? How much did it cost? Was it worth the cost? In advance, THANKS for the input!

 

[Kidswife]

Still looking for some input!

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

If I'm understanding what you are asking about....

It's not a pairing, it's a package. A pairing usually involves having multiple glasses of wine during the meal, each glass selected for the course you are having. The package simply provides for a specific number of bottles, and you typically select one each evening (though I suppose you could turn the package into a pairing, since supposedly they will save any unfinished bottles for the next evening).

I cannot remember the exact price, but it seems like it was around $150 for the cheaper of the 2 packages for the 7 day cruise.

I thought it was worth the cost if you want to try some different wines that you might not otherwise try. Certainly it is cheaper than just buying the same wines directly off the wine menu each evening.

Unless of course you are talking about the wine tasting class they have, in which case I'm not sure what that costs.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

A "wine pairing", or more properly a "food and wine pairing," in when a restaurant chooses a specific wine that's particularly well suited to go with a menu item. In some cases, restaurants pair a different wine with each course of a multi-course dinner.

Looking at the menus at http://www.dcltribute.com/menus/ , I don't see that the menus list pairings.

 

[kid@heart]

Does anyone else have any thoughts. THANKS!

 

[ssclbc]

We purchased the classic wine package on our 2/2/2 cruise. The classic package is $145, the premium is $265. You pick from a set list of red wines, white wines and sparkling wines for each package, and you get 7 bottles. You can have the same wine each time or seven different wines. It turns out to be about a 25% savings over purchasing 7 bottles separately. I found the selection to be just fine in the classic package. When we got to dinner, we looked at that evening's menu and picked our wine based on what we were going to eat. I think it helped streamline the beverage service a bit. The package is good in all dining rooms, including Palo. They sell it outside of Topsiders on embarkation day and in the dining rooms. There is a previous post on this board which lists the wines avalable ( it was posted around Jan 30).

 

[kid@heart]

Can we select the wine package at dinner on our 1st night? We tip our servers based on the Disney guidelines+. Do we need to tip them more if we select this package? As always, THANKS!

 

[shmoogrrrl]

We did this on our Cruise in September and thought it was great. The Asst. Waiter was WONDERFUL at picking wines for us based on what we ordered. We took her advice every night and were always completely satisfied!

Good luck!

Kathy

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

Yes, you can purchase the package at your first dinner if you want. Also, if you go with the cheaper package, you can "upgrade" individual bottles to the more expensive package (I don't remember what the upgrade costs were, 20% rings a bell though).

As I recall, the gratuity is already included in the package price, so there's no need to tip extra (unless you want to).

 

[DisneyKids]

The gratuity is not included in the original price. The price of $145 or $150 is correct but keep in mind that the gratuity is added to that and billed to your stateroom. I think ours was $160+ including tip. We found it to be a great deal as we enjoy having a bottle of wine with dinner. It's certainly cheaper than if you ordered that many bottles off the package and with the cost of a single glass or other cocktails, I think it works out pretty well. Have fun!

 

[happydays]

And don't worry about missing this. Disney provides several opportunities to purchase this package on embarkation day. On our recent cruise, there was a display set up in the Atrium - where you will be asked by a cast member if you want to purchase it, another in the Promenade Lounge and our servers asked us about it straight off at our first dinner.

 

[Jandreas]

If they save your "left-over" wine for the following night(s), is it possible to have 2 bottles during dinner? I only drink white and my husband enjoys red.

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

I'm sure that's possible. The serving staff is very accomodating.

 

[DisneyKids]

It's definitely possible to have 2 bottles and carry them to the next night. We saw this happen several times with friends.

 

[Paintballbusters]

The last time we cruised my DH & DS purchased a bottle of wine and our servers served them over the nights of the cruise on that particular wine bottle. They ended up purchasing 2 over the 3 night cruise and absolutely loved it. I believe it was $65 per bottle. I can't remember exactly which wine it was but our server recommended it. They also purchased a bottle each and brought home.