Wine has long been a part of cruise vacations. This is the case most obviously because wine is an alcoholic beverage, and people like to drink a lot of alcohol on cruises, but wine, conceived as an art and experience, can also serve as a focal point of a cruise, not a mere means to inebriation. Costco’s 2015 Buyer’s Choice cruises illustrate the central role that wine can play on a cruise, as two of the four options available focus exclusively on wine. Below we provide some information about these Costco wine cruises, which you must book through Costco Travel in order to get the “exclusive extras” that we detail.
The two Costco wine cruises are the Jordan Wine Cruise and the Wente Wine Cruise. Both are part of the 2015 Buyer’s Choice Food, Wine and Spirits Cruise Series. Last year, the Buyer’s Choice Series focused only on wine, with Costco offering five wine cruises that sailed to the Caribbean, Iceland & Norwegian Fjords, the Panama Canal, and the Mediterranean, as well as along the California coast. Clearly, the Buyer’s Choice cruises have diversified a bit this year, since food is the focus of one cruise (which takes place in the Mediterranean) and spirits the focus of another (which sails to the Caribbean from Fort Lauderdale). But we are concerned with the wine cruises at present, so we will turn our attention there.
The Jordon Wine Cruise is 10-night sailing on the Celebrity Equinox. It begins in Barcelona on May 11th and ends in Rome on May 21st. The cruise stops at a number of French and Italian ports along the way, including Cannes during the Cannes Film Festival. The ship arrives in Cannes at 8:00 AM on 13th and leaves the following afternoon at 4:00 PM, giving you plenty of time to explore the city during its signature annual event. Costco will only offer this cruise to 120 members, so if you are interested in taking it, time is of the essence. When you book through Costco, you receive a shipboard credit of $310 per stateroom, and you can attend a number of wine tasting events, like the welcome-aboard reception, a private four-course lunch with wine pairings, and two private tasting events that can be customized, among other things. These are the “exclusive extras” mentioned above.
The Wente Wine Cruise takes place on the Celebrity Reflection and lasts 11-nights. Unlike the Jordon cruise, it is round-trip sailing that begins (on May 18th) and ends (on May 29th) in Rome. The cruise covers several ports across Italy, Greece, and Turkey. In the middle of the trip is an overnight stay in Istanbul, giving you a chance to explore the ancient city (at one point or another the capital of the Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman empires) in depth. The Wente cruise is many ways structured like the Jordon cruise and features similar events. It is also only available to 120 Costco members. Because it is one-night longer, you get a larger shipboard credit of $355 per stateroom, but the wine-centered events take the same form as the Jordan cruise (and so there is a welcome-aboard reception, a four-course lunch, and so on). Apart from the cities visited, the main different between the cruises is the wine you will be tasting – one cruise features wine from Jordan Vineyard & Winery and the other from the Wente Vineyards.
To book either cruise, it is best to visit the 2015 Buyer’s Choice Food, Wine and Spirits Cruise Series page and select either the Jordan cruise or the Wente cruise. Unless you happen to be a fanatical fan of one of these wineries, you’ll likely pick the cruise on the basis of the destinations it visits and how it fits in with a larger vacation. Again, the Jordan cruise is one-way and the Wente cruise is round-trip, and this clearly influences other travel arrangements, particularly flights to and from Europe (or if you live on the continent, flights within Europe). So, if you are interested in taking one of these cruises, it best to evaluate several factors at once so you get the cruise that works best for you.
