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We loaded up the refrigerator with beverages we brought from home as Princess doesn't appear to sell packs of beverages that can be waiting for you when you arrive in your cabin. Plus, I like to take my vitamins and get some of my daily vegetable quota with low sodium V8, which cruise ships never seem to carry.
Barbara and I just had a light salad but the diversity of salads, toppings, grilled vegetables, etc., was extensive!
Not only does the Princess Medallion open my cabin door automatically when I approach my cabin, but it
is used for purchases throughout the ship as well as having many other features. When getting on and
off the ship, I usually have to tap it on a sensor. But often when purchasing at a bar I don't have to
tap it all to make a purchase. The server knows my name and can charge my room just by me being near.
Sometimes they will ask for my room number just to verify the account.
This ship has an extensive number of wines available by the glass. Many more wines are available by the bottle than the glass, but supposedly there are over 40 different wines available by the glass. We have the Premier Drinks Package which allows us to order any wines that are available by the glass up to $18 per glass with a limit of 15 alcoholic beverages per day. Starting sometime in January 2023, the price limit is going up to $20 per glass, but that is accompanied by a steep increase in the daily cost of the Premier Drinks Package. If you want any drink in any bar or restaurant by the glass that is beyond the limit of your drink package, you just need to pay the difference between the limit and the cost of the drink.
For this cruise you can ignore the wine list provided by every bar and restaurant in the ship. They are totally inaccurate. Every bar and restaurant has a QR Code that you can scan for their drinks list. That QR Code brings up an inaccurate list of what is avaialble. On both the Medallion App and on the TV screen in every cabin you can bring up the wine list of every bar and restaurant in the ship. Those wine lists are also inaccurate. The only way to know what wines are available by either the glass or the bottle is to ask your server in each bar and restaurant.
My wife and I decided to go to GiGi's Pizza & Pasta Restaurant for dinner. No reservations are needed at this restaurant and it was pretty empty the first night of the cruise. We figured it would be great to have some Italian Chianti wine to go with our Italian themed dinner. GiGi's does have a few wines by the glass and by the bottle, but they have no Chianti. A bit odd for an Italian themed restaurant, we thought. Before we went to GiGi's, we did explore the wine lists of various bars and found one that indicated they had Chianti: The Crown Grill Bar. So, we figured we'd get a couple of glasses of Chianti there and bring them to GiGi's.
When we got to the Crown Grill Bar, we looked at the paper drinks menu and no Chianti was listed. There was a QR Code to scan on the table. We scanned it and it did list that this bar had Chianti by the glass. So we went up to the bar and ordered it. The bar tenders were confused as they had no Chianti. They looked at the wine list on my mobile phone that had come up when I scanned the QR Code and acknowledge it was listed. My wife and I just happened to mention in passing that Amarone is our favorite Italian wine and it was too bad that was only available by the bottle. The bar tender perked up and said he had Amaroni available by the glass! Now that was not listed on the printed drinks menu, the QR Code wine list or the Medallion App wine list for this bar! But we were happy anyway and ordered 2 glasses of that to take to GiGi's.
We did notice this same problem in other bars on the ship, but mostly in a positive direction. They seemed to have wines available by the glass that we like, but are not listed on their wine lists. So, when you go to a bar or restaurant, check for what open bottles of wine you see on the shelf, or ask your server. It is the only way to find out what wines are available by the glass.
Another thing I notice and am very pleased about is that several times we were served our wine in a high quality RIEDEL wine glass. Another brand used by the ship is "Chef & Sommelier (France)". While I don't think this is up to the RIEDEL quality, it does have a cut glass edge like RIEDEL which I believe delivers a better taste to the wine than glasses that have a bulbous edge like a water glass. Some of the bars are using wine glasses that don't quite have a cut glass edge, but aren't as bulbous as a water glass.
The piano man sang and played several requests from us and others. While we were there, I don't think he got a single request that he did not know how to play. So far we are very pleased with the quantity, quality and diversity of music on this cruise. There is quite a bit more of the type of music that we like on this cruise than on our prior cruise on Carnival.
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If in this report you see any typos, misspellings, factual errors or other types of errors, please let me know.
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