Premium Wine Package?

[dswatson]

We'll be on the Magic for the Western trip on 8/16/03. I've heard about a Premium Wine Package for dining on the ship. Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

We purchased the Premium package for our 6/21. There are two packages the standard and premium. I don't remember the cost of the standard but the Premium was $265 plus gratuity making it about $300.

There were plenty of wines we would have been satisfied with on the standard but there were several on the premium we wanted to try which are exclusive to Disney.

One is the Iron Horse Fairy Tale Cuvee. Iron Horse is exclusive to Disney and the White House. This was a wonderful Champagne method wine - we purchased a second bottle to take home with us.

Another exclusive was the Fess Parker Chardonnay. In addition, there were some of what we call our "splurge favorites" on the premium package. The Chateau neuf dePape and the Caymus Conundrum.

We were also hoping to try the Frog's Leap as I've read about this and we are not able to get it here at home. Can't have email wine purchased shipped to your home in Michigan and haven't located a distributor in our area willing to order some. However, they didn't have any onboard that particular sailing.

DH was originally concerned when he saw the Mondavi and Kendall Jackson on the list until I pointed out it wasn't the same level you can get at the grocery store!

We were very pleased with the selections. We made the purchase at one of the many stations set up around the ship during embarkation. The first night at dinner the actual bill was presented (don't worry it isn't a double charge). Our asst. server explained that this was so you could change your mind (translation upgrade if you bought the standard).

Then each evening the list is presented for selection as you've looked at the food menu. I know we repeated once or twice. Not a problem drinking a bottle a night for us but should you not finish a bottle they will store it and bring it to the next dinner. If you don't use all 7 then you can select to take home. Any wine you take home counts in your REGULAR (not alcohol) allowance for customs.

Deb

 

[dswatson]

Thanks, Deb. That was very helpful. Just so I understand, you can choose from a premium list each night and repeating is not a problem?

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

Right. There is a pretty extensive list of wines, not all of which show up on the regular menu. There are reds, blushes, whites, sparklings. Each night the asst. server will bring you the list (so you don't have to remember) and you make a selection.

We drank mainly reds, although we had the Fess Parker Chardonnay one night and the Caymus Conundrum. And we had the Iron Horse one night. I know we did at least two bottles of the Chateau neuf but can't remember if we repeated anything else or not. Repeating is definitely not a problem.

Basically you get to choose 7 bottles from the list for the pacakge price you pay. I suppose if you drank all 7 the first night you could! I'm not sure but think you could also select a red and a white on a given night and carry the unused portion to the next evening. We didn't specifically check into that as we tended to be on the same page as to whether we wanted red, white, etc.

Not sure if you have kids traveling with you or not and if so their ages but our teens thought that service was pretty cool. They do have a very nice Martinelli sparkling cider onboard which isn't terribly sweet and which our kids drank with dinner several nights. Dragan, our asst server, was also very patient answering their questions. DS has spent some time working in food service already and has mentioned working as a waiter in a better restaurant while going to college in a few years.

If you're like us the wine thing is just as much about the process, differences, etc as it is about the beverage itself.

Enjoy!
Deb

 

[abitjaded]

Barb has a list of both wine packages. You can buy the same wine every night if you choose. The selection is limited. One cab, one chard, etc. Since my husband mostly drinks cabernet, he was dissapointed in the lack of selection within grape varietals. At least at Palo, you can apply the price and pay for an upgrade, the selection there is much larger. But the package price is right, especially if you choose the higher end wines from the list. You can also carry leftovers from meal to meal. Your servers will hold the bottles over, if you want say, just one glass of white with the appetizer then red with the entree. That way you can have what you like and DH, for instance can have what he likes.

http://www.castawayclub.com:/

Look under food and drink and click on wine package pdf.

 

[JoniJ]

Which wines are exclusive to DCL? If you buy the premium package and you want one of the bottles from the standard, can you get that one? Do you remember what year the Caymus Conundrom was? Just checking as we LOVE the 2000 one and then the 2001 came out and we can't find the 2000 any more, which we like better then the 2001. Thanks for the help!! Joni

 

[travel with kids]

Is the Wine Package available on the Wonder? Also, if you purchase a bottle of wine, with or without the package, can you bring an unfinished bottle back to your stateroom?

 

[christinou]

Does anyone know what the price if the wine package would be for the 3 night cruise.
If I understand well, we could also order 2 bottles of wine the first night, share those, and they would cork them for us for the next night??

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

Not sure if the wine package is on the Wonder or not. You might check the Navigators on Barb & Tony's site www.castawayclub.com

If it is available it will be noted - probably on the embarkation Navigator.

Sorry I don't remember the year of the Caymus 100% but I think it was 2001.

I don't remember seeing anything on the boards about taking open bottles back to your stateroom and we finished our's every night so it wasn't an issue. But you could certainly ask.

Yes, if you decide you want to open both a red and a white for instance on a night and don't finish them they would be corked and brought to the next evening. Obviously a sparkling wouldn't carry over well.

Not sure about getting one of the standard wines but I don't see why you couldn't. Both lists were on the menu they hadn't us each evening. Although if you're thinking there are more to your liking on the standard package than the premium then I'd go with the standard and see about "upgrading" on one or two evenings.

The exclusive items were the Fess Parker Chardonnay and the Iron Horse Fairy Tale Cuvee. Both of these are exclusive to Disney.

Deb

 

[JoniJ]

Deb,
Thanks for the info. My DH looked at the Premium list and wants to go with that one for sure, so I'm sure we will do that one. Is the Fess Parker Chardonnay a real dry wine? I've herd the Iron horse is Excellant, is that true? So many Questions, Sorry!! I'm just so Excited to go on our FIRST cruise and this helps us figure things out!! Joni

 

[starwood]

You're on our cruise! We got the standard package on our last cruise and were very happy with it.


Stop by our cruise thread and see all the other people coming with us.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=383842

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

JoniJ,

The Iron Horse is excellent. We purchased an extra bottle the last night to bring home with us. We're saving it for a special occasion.

The Fess Parker is a drier Chardonnay. Not excessively dry, you simply can't get that dry without the tannin in a red. But definitely NOT a sweet wine. I hate sweet wines which is why we rarely drink whites - and prefer the drier (brut) sparklings. I'd say from that standpoint the Fess Parker and Conundrum were similar, their other tastes differed though.

Deb