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Princess has tried to go paperless as much as possible and thus there were no printed wine, spirits or beverage lists in any of the lounges. Instead, there is a QR code at every table in every bar and lounge that provides a list of beverages for that particular venue. Each dining room, both the main and specialty dining rooms, did provide a printed beverage list on request that the server would remove once you made your selection.
The food, wine, spirits and beverage lists were also available as one of the display options on the TV in every cabin. I imagine these lists were also available via the mobile phone Medallion App, but many features of that App were not working on this cruise such that I was not able to display those lists on my Medallion App.
I did notice that there were significant discrepencies between what wines and spirits were listed on the TV, those listed on the QR codes, those listed on the dining room lists, and what was actually available at each venue. One example was Rodney Strong Cabernet Sauvignon that was listed on the TV display for the main dining rooms, but was not on the Wine Lists of the main dining rooms. I did order a glass of this wine in a main dining room and it was available. Another example of a discrepency was that Chateau Ste. Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon and Knob Creek whiskey were listed as offerings on the QR Code in the Take Five Jazz Lounge, but this venue had neither available.
Despite what red wines any of the bars and lounges listed, almost all of them only had the following available by the glass:
The Crown Grill also had Los Vascos Domaines Barons de Rothschild, Colchagua Valley, Chile, BIN 745, $9, available.
With a few exceptions, the above were the only red wines available by the glass in any of the bars or lounges on the ship. The main restaurant had a few more available by the glass, and the Vines Wine Bar had several more available by the glass.
My wife and I did try almost every wine available by the glass in the Vines Wine Bar, the main dining room, in almost all of the lounges and bars, and in some of the specialty dining rooms. All the wines by the glass had one thing in common: In our rating system of Excellent, Very Good, Good, OK and BAD, none of the wines by the glass earned a rating by us above "Good". Several we just gave an "OK", and a few we even gave a rating of "BAD". Generally, once we've tried a wine, we won't order it again unless we had previously given it a rating of either "Excellent" or "Very Good". With none of the wines on the ship by the glass coming up to that rating, we really didn't desire to order any of them for a second time.
This is why we never purchase a drinks package when we go on a cruise. Instead we usually bring on as many bottles as the cruise allows at the start of the cruise, and then bring on more that we purchase at the port stops, just paying the required corkage fee for each bottle that we bring onboard. This insures that we will have good wine to drink during the cruise. Some cruise lines only allow each passenger to brink one bottle onboard at the start of the cruise and none at port stops regardless of ones willingness to pay a corkage fee. In those cases we will buy wine by the bottle onboard. The ships, especially the wine list in the dining rooms, usually have much better wines by the bottle than what they offer for sale by the glass. With a drinks package, usually only a 15% to 25% discount is offered for buying wines by the bottle. This usually does not make a drinks package worth it for us, especially when an 18% or more service charge is automatically added to the cost of the drinks package.
On this cruise we were offered an extremely generous package deal that included the drinks package, plus the service charge on the drinks package, plus free unlimited internet for each of us, plus pre-paid gratuities for the entire cruise, plus one complimentary meal for each of us in one of the specialty dining rooms. We calculated the total cost for the cruise if we had just paid for the base cruise fare and added in the pre-paid gratuities and internet and it came to way more than the special package deal that included everything. Thus, we went for the package deal that included the drinks package and service charges. This lead us to try every red wine offered by the glass to see if we could find at least one or more that we could really enjoy. Unfortunately, we only found wines that were barely acceptable, but nothing that we would really savor.
These were the wines that we rated as "GOOD" and at least acceptable. We didn't consider any of them as "Very Good" or "Excellent".
The D, S or V at the end of each line above indicates if that particular wine was only available by the glass in the Dining Rooms, the Sabattini Italian Restaurant or the Vines Wine Bar. Often I would have to go to the Vines Wine Bar to order glasses of wine and then bring them to whatever lounge I was going to since most of the bars and lounges had a very tiny selection of red wines by the glass.
Again, I'm very suspicious of the Seghesio Old Vine Zinfandel. This is one of our favorite wines that we usually rate as "Excellent" and have ordered it by the case in the past. Served by the glass on this cruise we could not give it a rating higher than "Good". Something was off about it.
Added Note: We did find one wine served by the glass that we would rate as "Very Good" that was part of the Silverado Wine Blending Experience. That is the 2014 Silverado Estate Grown Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley, California, 17 Per Glass. It is not on the list of wines available in either the Dining Room or the Vines Wine Bar, but it is available in both locations by the bottle or by the glass. All of the Silverado Estate Grown wines from the Silverado Wine Blending Experience were available by the bottle at the Vines Wine Bar and possibly the main Dining Rooms.
The following wines we rated as "Just OK" but did not order them after the first glass since we'd rather drink something we considered "Good" or "Acceptable" over something that was "Just OK".
Again, I'm suspicious of the Rodney Strong Cabernet Sauvignon. We usually rate this wine as "Very Good", but we could not rate the taste of this wine by the glass as any higher than "Just OK". Also, at the Silverado Wine Blending Experience, they opened a new bottle of the Ancient Peaks The Renegade, and it was "Very Good" rather than "Just OK'.
The following red wines by the glass my wife and I rated as "BAD". There was just something wrong with them. They tasted either sour or bitter and definitely seemed to have gone bad.
So, here are our conclusions about what we learned about wines by the glass on this cruise, and maybe any cruise. Most passengers order fancy cocktaills, bar drinks, beers, champagne and white wine. Not that many order red wine by the glass. Every bar, lounge and restaurant on the ship has their own bottles of wine that they offer by the glass. I suspect these open bottles of wine sit for many days before going empty and needing to be replaced by a fresh bottle. Even though they cork the bottle after each pour, new air does get in after each wine pour. An open bottle of wine is not meant to sit and be served for days. I strongly suspect this is why almost every wine we tried by the glass was not very good.
After we had tried almost every red wine available by the glass on the ship, we started buying wines by the bottle. We even ordered some bottles of the same wine that we rated as not being very good by the glass. It turns out that wine by the bottle was much much better than wine by the glass, even for the wines that we had tried by the glass. During the rest of the cruise we had several "Very Good" and "Excellent" bottles of wine.
If I've ever seen a need for a Coravin, it is on a cruise ship for serving wine by the glass. A Coravin is a mechanism that allows you to pour a glass of wine without removing the cork. It inserts a fine needle through the cork and uses pressure from a CO2 cartridge to force the wine out through the needle. This allows you to keep the bottle sealed and the wine fresh inside even after pouring a glass. The CO2 forced into the bottle will not oxidize or degrade the wine as letting fresh oxygen into the bottle after each pour would.
On future cruises, I don't think we'll ever be ordering wine by the glass again unless we have some way of being assured it is from a freshly opened bottle. This does re-inforce our calculation that buying a Drinks Package on a cruise is not worth it for us unless it is thrown in as a free benefit along with all service charges and gratuities on the Drinks Package. The Drinks Package only gives you 15% to 25% off the cost of bottles of wines, and sometimes a discount on wine events, and this is not enough of a discount to make it worth the cost if we had to pay for the Drinks Package.
Some cruises offer a "Wine Package" where you get a discount on purchasing a specific set of wines that you can drink at dinner, in the bars and lounges, or maybe bring to your cabin. The wines in the "Wine Package" are often pretty restricted and I've never seen a package that had a set of wines that I'd be willing to be restricted to.
Click on each photo below for a larger image.
Click on each photo above for a larger image.
We had already booked two wine events for this cruise that were published. We did not find out about this particular wine event until I was sitting in the Vines Wine Bar and saw a table set up with 8 places. I asked my server what that was all about. They said it was a wine tasting event that cost $37.50 per person. I don't know how people found out about this wine event as I did not see it published anywhere. I asked for Barbara and I to be signed up for it, but two of these events were already sold out. The server put our names on a waiting list in case they decided to do it a third time. We got called around noon today to let us know they were going to have that third time today at 5 PM. We had to move our dinner reservation as we had aleady booked to have dinner at that time.
This is the same Silverado Wine Experience that we had attended on at least one prior Princess cruise. They opened four bottles of pure, non-blended wines all Silverado Estate Grown from Napa Valley, California, including: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec. All were from Mt. George Vineyard, Coombsville, except the Cabernet Sauvignon. The wines ranged in alcohol volume between 14.2% and 14.8% and I believe all were 2014 vintage. The presenter described the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot as heavier wines and the Cabernet Franc and Merlot as lighter wines.
The experience was to blend them to create a blend that we preferred. The presenter first had us create a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, and 25% Cabernet Franc, which was excellent. We were provided with a beaker to measure and do the blends. After that, we were on our own to make other blends. We were also provided with a tray of various cheeses, crackers, figs, grapes, etc., and a small cup of honey. The presenter had us try some blue cheese and honey on the wheat bread along with the first blend and it was delicious.
After we completed the blending experience, he served us each a glass of the 2017 Ancient Peaks Renegade, which was a red blend from Paso Pobles, California.
All of these wines were very good, including the 2017 Ancient Peaks Renegade from Paso Robles, California. A fresh bottle of it was opened in front of us. Actually, all the wines from Silverado were fresh bottles that were just opened. I did ask the person leading this event if the wine bottles had been stored properly during the two years that cruising had been suspended. He assured me they had been kept in the wine cellars of the ship and kept at the proper temperature.
Today I have further evidence that wine by the bottle is much better than the same wine by the glass. We purchased from Vines Wine Bar a bottle of 2014 Seghesio Old Vine Zinfandel from Sonoma County, California, 14.8% ABV. The cost of the bottle was $57 less our 25% Drinks Package discount which came to $35.25. They charge $15 by the glass for this wine. Since the Drinks Package only covers the first $12 for each glass of wine, we would have had to pay $3 extra for each glass. A bottle contains 4-1/2 glasses of wine, so by the glass, we would have had to pay an extra $13. Thus, we are really only paying an extra $22.50 to buy it by the bottle ($35.25 - $13 = $22.50). It was well worth the extra cost as this wine tasted much better by the bottle than by the glass!
When purchasing this wine by the glass, we only gave it a "Good" rating. We knew there was something wrong. We like this wine so much that we used to have two cases of it at our home before we drank it all, and we rated it between "Very Good" and "Excellent". I really think the reason that we could only give it a "Good" rating when buying it by the glass on the ship is because these bottles of wine may remain open for days before they are finished. I have no idea how often passengers order glasses of each type of wine available by the glass. Thus, a bottle might remain open for days before it is empty and they open a fresh bottle. The flavor of wine tends to go south pretty fast once it has been opened and definitely doesn't taste the same once it has been sitting around open for a day or two or more, even if a cork is put back in.
If in this report you see any typos, misspellings, factual errors or other types of errors, please let me know.
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