Haven't been on Regent since they changed the policy. Any surprises?

Jim
Funchal-Barcelona, May 8th

Only happy ones, Jim! We just got off Navigator on Thursday, and the drinks flowed freely.

Does anyone know if open bar policy also means "open caviar" policy? Thanks.

No. Caviar comes at a price.

Too bad! Thanks.

A nice thing about open bar is you don't have to finish one before you get a refill, particularly with wine; they come by with the bottle and top you up. It has also had the wonderful effect of having all the lounges filled before dinner and it's quite a social event.

On the SA cruise they have loaded up on wines from the countries we've visited and it's amazing how good it is from some of the obscure wine producing countries like Peru & Uruguay.

Caviar free always at SSS cocktail parties and sometimes at breakfast, otherwise $$$.

Cheeeeeers,
Jim

I know this has probably already been answered some place on LCT, but do you still get 2 bottles of spirits in your cabin?

Yes - our stewardess was more than happy to bring what we asked for. They won't bring more than one bottle of the same stuff, but I'm sure if you run out they would bring another.

Actually if you ask for two they might bring two - that was just an assumption on my part.

4 of us were on Segment #1 Mariner Amazon Cruise
01/09/07 to 01/20/07 and found the new open bar to be very positive. In the past we would gang up in someones cabin for cocktail then may have one in a lounge before going to dinner. Now we would meet at one of the lounges and almost always met someone else and had a great time. Seems others thought the same way.
The other positive surprise was that they still gave us our in cabin bar set up as before. That was real nice.
Abuse? We never saw any. If anything it probably helped.

We still had the in-cabin setup, too.

Frankly I think the bar setup is kind of wasteful, given the free-flowing drinks. I know they pour the contents of those bottles down the drain afterwards, so I wonder if they might start stocking smaller bottles for the rooms. We like having a drink in our room, but we rarely drink more than 1/3 of a bottle, and sometimes just barely open them. That seems a shame. I guess for us, room service would do the trick better.

Jim....I hope they'll have some of that South American wine left when we board on the 30th!

Let me know if you have any special recommendations.

I love your AOL Journal - always a nice surprise when I find an entry waiting to enjoy with my morning coffee. I'll be sad when your cruise comes to an end.

Wendy, in that case, you could utilize room service and give your unopened bottles to your stewardess for the crew bar. They absolutely love that!

"in-suite bar setup in butler suites". . .

that's the official language from the website (perhaps because they DON'T want to be wasteful), but it is nice to know that on request, one in a standard cabin may order and receive a bottle in the room as before. I feel the fares have increased more than enough to cover both the new all-inclusive aspect of the cruises, as well as the duty-free liquor if a passenger requests it en suite.

The stewardess will show you an extensive list of liquors to choose from and anytime you want more you just ask her. You can get wine & champagne from any bar. On multiple segments they no longer automatically stock your room so you don't end up with unopened bottles. It's fun to mingle in the lounges.

Margo, The Chilean Morande chardonnay and Montes merlot, Argentine & Peruvian malbecs and Uruguayan tnaant wines are excellent. there is also a New Zealand Sky Valley pinot noir that we may not deplete before we finish on Friday.
Jim

Thanks Jim...please leave a few bottles for us to enjoy! I'll miss your posts when you go home!

And again thanks for sharing the voyage - your on shore meals always sounded very good - you obviously did your research!

Editing to add...the special Steak Tartar in Compass Rose sounds fabulous - we'll have to try that when we cruise in April!