Recent Veendam Pinnacle Grill experiences?

I saw every officer on the Veendam helping Immigration process us to get us off the ship. Getting past immigration was the fastest part of the process. Physically getting off the ship was a whole different matter that had nothing to do with Immigration. In any event were in our car at 915am and we dragged our feet.

Right but the Veendam isn't sailing on the west coast.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

ally posted by sammygoose roses313-

My only guesses after having experienced are.........that ship is the end of the line for staff and they know it..........or Viking has poached all the good staff and this is a training ship--god help HAL....but even then I just don't know. So many things were good about that cruise- the itinerary, the ship was in good shape, the cabin attendants great...but holy cow any staff that had to deal with the guests in public areas nope no way....they huddled together and talked amongst themselves...and not an officer to be seen....except to expedite our immigration departure in San Diego....lots of officers there.

I had no sense of any of this on my recent Veendam cruise. We thought the crew good, cheerful friendly and happy to help in whatever say. I had wondefu l cabin stewards and very much liked our dining team in MDR. I won't go into the awful Pinnalce stories again.

DB & SIL are onboard Veendam right now (Bar Harbor) so I called him and asked how their Pinnacle Grill experience was the other night. He said the food was awful He said the service was ok but the meat was tough. He told me last night (gala night) had great food ( surf and turf ) and wishes he had stuck with the main dining room the night they went to the pinnacle. After 4 HAL cruises and trips to the Pinnacle he's ready to go back to Celebrity.

Is this just bad food and service in the Pinnacle Grill just on this ship? We just got off the Amsterdam from Alaska and had wonderful breakfast and 3 wonderful dinners. Service was great and we were very pleased. Sorry to hear such a problem elsewhere.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Right but the Veendam isn't sailing on the west coast.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Yes you are correct. I erred in saying San Diego when I meant Boston. San Diego was our Feb trip, clearly to much of a good thing. :p

ally posted by sammygoose roses313-

My only guesses after having experienced are.........that ship is the end of the line for staff and they know it..........or Viking has poached all the good staff and this is a training ship--god help HAL....but even then I just don't know. So many things were good about that cruise- the itinerary, the ship was in good shape, the cabin attendants great...but holy cow any staff that had to deal with the guests in public areas nope no way....they huddled together and talked amongst themselves...and not an officer to be seen....except to expedite our immigration departure in San Diego....lots of officers there.

I had no sense of any of this on my recent Veendam cruise. We thought the crew good, cheerful friendly and happy to help in whatever say. I had wondefu l cabin stewards and very much liked our dining team in MDR. I won't go into the awful Pinnalce stories again.

 

 

I am glad to hear that Sail7Seas. There was lots to like about our Bermuda cruise on the Veendam but there was this funky vibe that I hadn't felt on our other cruises. No matter, if whatever it was is gone great. Hopefully the Pinnacle will sort itself out too.

Smooth Sailing.

Yes, it was the second week of July from Boston to Bermuda and back. My wife and I were more than happy with the MDR, Lido and Dive Inn, but our new friends really loved the Pinnacle Grill.

 

 

My friend and I thogght the MDR was good. We had a good dining team taking care of u s.

Sent from my F3113 using Forums mobile app

Any recent updates about the PG manager and food? Other comments about the food on the Veendam. Booked a Canadian cruise in an aft cabin for the summer.

I was on Veendam Jan 10-17. I ate there 2 times as a 5 star perk.

The service was very slow. The second time(last night of the cruise)I sat at least 10 minutes between courses, with my used dishes in front of me.

I don’t remember the mans name who was PG manager.

The food was ok , just not outstanding,

FYI , the table aside me ordered King Crab legs. They came out cold, they were sent back and came back out with some of them smelling fishy. He did not eat them, and I cancelled my order and changed to the filet.

I was on Veendam last June and the PG was lovely ,with a great manager name Sabrina.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I was on Veendam Jan 10-17. I ate there 2 times as a 5 star perk.

The service was very slow. The second time(last night of the cruise)I sat at least 10 minutes between courses, with my used dishes in front of me.

I don’t remember the mans name who was PG manager.

The food was ok , just not outstanding,

FYI , the table aside me ordered King Crab legs. They came out cold, they were sent back and came back out with some of them smelling fishy. He did not eat them, and I cancelled my order and changed to the filet.

I was on Veendam last June and the PG was lovely ,with a great manager name Sabrina.

 

 

 

 

 

found this to be the worst Pinnacle ever and I've had many, many meals in various Pinnacle restaurants s on almost all y the ship. Thje man who was manager in July 2017 was absolutely terrible

 

We did not get cruise Logs at the end of our cruise so I dt o not know his name. No only was heterrible, he didn't seem to care. When he saw my full plate returned with my steak uneaten, he shrugged and walked away. BAD

 

Food was not good.

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Hi again... sorry, I should have reported back after our return Dec 8th. We enjoyed our Pinnacle dinner for DH's birthday celebration. The manager was Petre (odd spelling but I think that was how he spelled it). He was disembarking the same day we were, Dec 8th, to be on vacation at home for a month, then I think we was coming back... so maybe he's back onboard now. He took very good care of us and everything seemed ot be as it should. I was surprised to learn that this was his first HAL contract.

The food was very good to excellent: DH had the filet, I had the lamb and both were excellent as expected. The sides there are not much to our liking but I didn't need a side with all the other food. I had the crab cake started which is quite filling but delicious; DH had the lobster bisque which he said was good but not as good as in the past. The Caesar salad was not prepared tableside, but wasn't last time either so we weren't surprised. Dessert: DH had the volcano cake and loves it, I had the berries and they were ok, the sauce was too much for me.

The service was nice, attentive but not intrusive. They did bring us a birthday cake and along with dessert and the petit fours was too much to enjoy there so they wrapped it for us to take to our room. Oh and the coffee is the very best!

Overall, I'm glad we did it for a special occasion. The receipt to be signed at the table showed our Mariner discount already applied, so no problems there. We made the reservation onboard the first or second day. We did receive a reminder the day before but I had already checked just to make sure.

We didn't do any special dinner for our 25th anniversary because we were sick most of the whole second half of our 7 week cruise, so we did more in-room dining and "laid low" trying to recover from what we had, and trying not to pick up any more illness form all the coughing everywhere you went on the ship

We're not big on the upcharge dining venues, we like the MDR and prefer to eat most of our dinners there at a table for 2. But PG is a very nice change of pace and we enjoyed it. m--

Sail7Seas - what was the name of the Pinnacle Manager when you had the terrible experience?

Sorry, I commented in my a bove post that bec ause we did not receive an end of c ruise log, I do not know his name. I cetrainly hope he is working elsewhere. He said this was his firs t working on a cruise ship so it had to be his first time as a Pinnacle Manager. I have had no fewer than 100+ [Pinnacle dinners an d goodness knows how many breakfasts .... this was a Bad Pinnacle. We never went back to have the free dinner I am entitled to as 5 star. To me, It wasn't worth free......

Maureen,

Happy to hear you had suc h a nice Birthday dinner for your DH and very sorrry to hear you both were ill on your cruise. Hope you are feeling better now.

Welco me Back,

I am sorry to be late replying and I know the manager has changed, however we were on the Veendam last June, Montreal to Boston to Bermuda. We had a dinner in the Pinnacle, where we didn't see the 'bar' waiter prior to our entree, and never saw him again after he delivered the bottle of wine, this was after telling the manager we wanted a cocktail before dinner. Okay, so much for a dinner in the Pinnacle, so we also did a lunch, it wasn't any better, this was the worst service in the Pinnacle we have ever had, and we have been sailing since 1998.

Recent Veendam PG - Holiday cruise 17/18 - (Cuba) with HAL President onboard

PG Dinner was pretty mediocre, not worth the surcharge. Glad it was free for me, and my two guests were discounted apparently under my 5 star discount. No one could figure out why the fuss over the PG as a special dining option. Many menu duplicates in the MDR now.

We have had very mixed PG experiences - some have been excellent, one was just plain awful years ago, high points were when they became far more fussy in service but more adventuresome in menu options. Experiences of late are very mixed now that they have dropped back to a more pedestrian steak house format.

Wish they could find a happier medium -setting is always nice and the idea of special dining experience is always welcome so we persist.

Maureen,

Happy to hear you had suc h a nice Birthday dinner for your DH and very sorrry to hear you both were ill on your cruise. Hope you are feeling better now.

 

Welco me Back,

Thank you Sail! It's ever so good to be home!! Frankly DH is almost to 100% and I seem to be fully recovered, thankfully. Christmas and celebrating our anniversary were a bit slow and anti-climatic, but the best part is that we're here together! Means more every day, every year, as I know you understand.

Now, if you folks in the east could please share same of your snow with us in the parched west, we'd very much appreciate it! ;) We're still hoping for some to come our way to abate the fire season which will be here much too soon otherwise. But as you have had the brunt of the storms, please take extra good care these wintry days and keep well and warm. m--