Disney Dream Champagne Tasting

For those of you who have recently read my Disney Dream Trip Report and thus just read about this champagne tasting, I apologize for the recycled content.  I am doing this because I thought that separating the champagne tasting segment into its own post would make it easier for people to find if they are specifically looking for information on this experience.  If it had stayed buried in the trip report, I fear some people may never find it.

For those of you who have not yet read about this experience, I highly recommend it!  Ours was scheduled for 11:15 am on the day that the ship was docked in Nassau.  There was also one offered on the first night of the cruise at 9:15 pm, but since we had late dining, that one wouldn’t work for us.  At about 11:10, we headed down to Pink for the tasting. When we arrived, our sommelier Dajana (I can’t remember where she was from – Serbia? Bosnia?) greeted us at the door. For those of you who have never been to Pink on the Dream, it is spectacular! It is one of my favorite places on any Disney ship:

 These glass lights behind the bar are supposed to look like bubbles:

We chose a table and Dajana told us that we would wait a few more minutes to see if anyone else would arrive. While we waited we chatted with Dajana about all sorts of things. She told us that she was one of 4 sommeliers on the ship, and that there was one assigned to each main dining room to help any guests or servers who needed it, as well as a “head” sommelier who oversaw the team. She also mentioned something that I was very disappointed to hear. She said that during the dry dock coming up in October, “a lot” of changes would be coming to Pink. She said it would be totally different. I was getting ready to ask her if this meant that Pink would no longer exist, or if it was just getting a makeover….you know, all the details that inquiring minds want to know, when a couple walked in the door. It turns out that they didn’t have tickets (thus had not paid the $35 per person fee) and so unfortunately, Dajana had to tell them that in order to participate, they needed to go down to Guest Services and get tickets. They left and never came back, so we ended up having a private champagne tasting! It was wonderful to have such a personal experience.  After they left, we got down to business. Dajana told us that she had chosen the 4 champagnes we would be tasting. She poured the first 3 for us, and unfortunately I can’t remember the names. They were all fairly different from one another, so it was a good variety.

She took us through, one by one, and gave us all sorts of information about how each one was made, where it was made, which types of grapes it was made from, etc. I won’t go into a lot of the things we learned, but I will share with you one interesting detail about champagne in general. She told us that you can quickly tell how good (i.e. expensive) a champagne is by looking at 2 things – the size of the bubbles and how long they last. The smaller the bubbles and the longer that they last, the better the champagne. Good to know! Sometime during this part, another group of people tried to crash our private tasting. I heard some commotion from behind me and turned around to see a man prying the automatic sliding doors open (that Dajana had locked) with his fingers. I guess he really wanted some champagne and there would be no one (and no doors) stopping him! Four people came in and Dajana apologized for the interruption and graciously asked if they had tickets (no) and explained that they would need to go buy some. They asked how much it cost and when Dajana told them, they said no thanks and left. So, back to the tasting……

After we finished the first 3, Dajana told us that she had saved the best one for last – the Moet & Chandon Ice Imperial:

This was far and away our favorite. It is relatively new and the only champagne that is meant to be served on ice. I can see how some champagne purists might frown on this but we loved it! She explained how you can jazz it up by adding berries, mint, lemon or orange peel, or even cucumber. This one was our favorite by far.  At the tasting we had it plain, and later on during the cruise we tried it with mint leaves.  It is so light, crisp and refreshing.  Apparently it is pretty hard to find on land but it is available on all 4 Disney ships.

I can’t remember if it was before or after the Moet Ice, but Dajana offered us our choice of dessert – chocolate, mango or raspberry.  We couldn’t decide so she ended up giving us one of each.  They were small panna cotta desserts in little shot glasses.  They were delicious and the perfect touch after the champagne.

If you ever have the chance to do this tasting, I recommend going.  I have heard that sometimes it turns out to be champagne cocktails instead, so if this matters to you, I would check with the sommelier right when you arrive as to which one it will be.

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