I recently took my first cruise vacation, which had some interesting experiences when it came to wine.

The wine list was an adequate mix of Old World and New World wine regions, with no particular strengths. However, we were a little surprised that there were no vintages listed with any of the wines. For some of the wines, we didn’t really care, but for others, we asked our server to confirm the vintage before placing our wine order. We surmised that this omission might be due to a need for flexibility in the ship’s inventory, but while it was annoying to have to ask, the information was correctly provided and there did not appear to be any deception going on.

Another surprise, but quite pleasant, was the fact that the ship used quality crystal stemware (Schott Zwiesel) for its wine service.

The mark-up appeared to be reasonable (we estimated it to be about double the retail price), especially considering that you are a captive audience; you can’t go elsewhere to buy wine. In fact, you can’t bring wine on-board. Your luggage is screened upon boarding and any alcoholic beverages will be seized until the cruise ends. I think that you might be able to pay a $25.00/bottle corkage fee to release your wine, but the policy does explicitly state that no alcoholic beverages may be brought onboard. 

On the second night of the cruise, we ordered two bottles of wine with dinner — one white and one red. At the end of dinner, neither bottle had been finished, but we were able to have the restaurant store our wine for us, with the ability to retrieve it at lunch or dinner, in any of the ship’s restaurants. This was a nice feature since there weren’t any half-bottles on the wine list.

We generally ordered wines in the $30-$50 range, but our one big splurge was a bottle of semi-mature Bordeaux, 1996 — our anniversary year– which we enjoyed on our night in the French cuisine specialty restaurant. It was probably not the wisest idea, but we got caught up in the sentimental moment. After our sixth bottle purchase, the seventh bottle, priced at or below the average price paid for the initial six wines, was free.

We had requested to see the ship’s wine cellar, but upon making an appointment to meet the beverage manager, were informed that the cruise line’s policy did not permit guests to visit the back-of-the-house areas. Consequently, we were unable to get information on turnover rates or on how the wine is stored with respect to countering the ship’s vibrations. However, I did find an interesting wine rack accessory product on the web — bottle retention straps — which the manufacturer touts as useful on cruise ships and in earthquake-prone areas.