Cape Town to Singapore

[markham]

Fletcher, did that work for you?

 

Seriously, and what I am saying above, is that the former 5* food service and traditional wine service are now in a muddle whereby we are not satisfied and staff are making mistakes. We passengers are not meant to be monitoring the Sojourn food and wine service and that includes the timing of services and the clearing up. No, pouring Nicky Fooey on top of Dom Perignon is not the end of the world, nor is catastrophe in the works when a waiter is about to top up a house white wine in a glass half full with another vintage.

 

So it’s all about division of labor: people able and willing to do well in their roles and, with training, feedback and supervision getting on with it.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

[Chairsin]

2sailingnomads,

The Corporate Sommelier is named Kelly and he joined Seabourn about nine months ago. He rotates between the ships and Seattle training and checking to see how the overall wine service is working out.

 

I must say we have not encountered the issues Markham or Florisdekorts reported but obviously with this new system there are going to be some service lapses while they transition to the new “all purpose” waiter system. I have had long talks with Senior crew about this and I honestly don’t see it as a cost cutting more but rather a way to smooth out service. They insist it was instigated by a desire to improve service. But it is a big change and I don’t think it is realistic to expect it will happen without growing pains. I know for a fact extensive training is going on to bring the waiters up to speed and some are faster learners than others. And I certainly think they could have done a better job about informing passengers about the change rather than letting the over 50 percent repeat passengers scratch their heads because there are no longer dedicated beverage or food waiters.

 

Another sea day - nice warm sunny weather. Finally! Good day to lounge comfortably in the shade with a good book and catch up on research on upcoming ports of call.Tonight, I don’t want to jinx it, but after being thwarted for various reasons out past three cruises I may FINALLY get to try the much lauded Keller fried chicken in the Colonnade tonight.

 

 

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[stamfordian]

.. I may FINALLY get to try the much lauded Keller fried chicken in the Colonnade tonight...

 

Was distinctly unimpressed by his upscale KFC on last two cruises. Word of warning - as with most TK Grill dishes, we found portion size excessive. Second time we tried, asked for one portion between two and was more manageable.

 

Enjoy.

[Isklaar]

Has this new serving system been introduced on the other ships too, or is it just on Sojourn currently?

[markham]

Isklaar,

 

It is next being introduced on Encore, Ovation will open with it, and later the others. But I don’t know timeframes or if it will be introduced on Odyssey and Quest simultaneously. Nor do I know how it will be judged a success and/or a failure. As long as the results - and this is about passenger feedback - are clear and honest there will be a path towards traction, one way or another. Suffice it to say, I wish it was rolled out elsewhere.

 

On another note, we are joining the TK Ad Hoc fried chicken dinner tonight. The weather is absolutely gorgeous as we head by Madagascar towards Reunion and so I will try to get a table for our group of four outside. We enjoyed the menu very much on the Rio to Cape Town segment.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

[Fletcher]

I think it's a shame you are not calling at Madagascar - most cruises make this a highlight and do several stops.

[Isklaar]

Isklaar,

 

It is next being introduced on Encore, Ovation will open with it, and later the others. But I don’t know timeframes or if it will be introduced on Odyssey and Quest simultaneously. Nor do I know how it will be judged a success and/or a failure. As long as the results - and this is about passenger feedback - are clear and honest there will be a path towards traction, one way or another. Suffice it to say, I wish it was rolled out elsewhere.

 

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

 

 

Thank you markham. Hopefully that means I'll be able to avoid it for some time as I have no intention of setting foot on either Encore or Ovation!

I was one of the 450 guinea pigs on the now infamous Odyssey cruise in 2015 and understand your frustration at wishing it was being rolled out elsewhere.

[frantic36]

I think it's a shame you are not calling at Madagascar - most cruises make this a highlight and do several stops.

 

It was on the itinerary and then WHO had Madagascar on a watch due to a plague with multiple deaths on the island. See November updates hey WHO organisation.. Understandably this made many cruise lines wary of stopping at the cruise line so the itinerary was changed.

 

Julie

[lincslady]

Floris - quelle catastrophe! Hope they didn't pour any of your Dom into another table's glasses.:D

[SLSD]

Those of you on Sojourn---have you had the opportunity to meet Suzanne Jade--the great pianist/singer onboard. She played in the TK Grill Bar during our Encore voyage, but I believe she is on the Sojourn now.

[Kevnzworld]

The service issues in the dining room extend beyond the wine service from our experience. Last night we left without dessert because it took too long to arrive, we were finished with coffee and petit fours. The evening prior we left without having received coffee. I like the servers in our station, so I won’t say anything.....

Calvin has been helpful and responsive to our wine needs, he has found a few off menu Pinot Noirs for us. We brought aboard some Stellenbosch Bordeaux blends that we are interspersing with the ship’swine. So no complaints there.

We will watch our servers carefully as they top off our wine! ( per Floris ).

This is day two of four sea days and we’re ready for the next stop.

The weather is perfect, we prefer the lounge chairs on deck five during sea days...the view off the back of the ship is gorgeous and chill. I have no idea why they have all those tables back there that no one sits at and takes up so much space, but that’s another subject....

[Chairsin]

First off the fried chicken is served in the Colonnade- not the Grill (they serve a good whole roasted chicken there every night). It is one of the TK Ad Hoc inspired dinners. In spite of comments constantly posted here looking at these family service style comfort food dinners with great disdain the room was packed - and not just with Americans. I thought as usual with these dinners the salad was amazing - beautiful fresh ingredients (including very flavorful peeled tomatoes), beautifully arranged and with a lovely herb dressing passed on the side. And then there was the chicken. As the three of us all favor dark meat we jokingly asked for a five legged chicken. What we received was a lovely pyramid of chicken legs topped by a couple of wings. I thought the chicken was very flavorful, tender and not the least bit greasy. They brine it for twelve hours before coating it in a mixture of flour and spices and cook it for twelve minutes in a pressure cooker. It is very different from Southern fried chicken but good in a different way. And as with other fried food perfect with champagne. In any event while we do not usually eat large quantities of food we finished the platter.

 

We rarely go to shows as generally we are just happy to spend a few hours dining and drinking with friends, perhaps topped off with a quick night cap in the Obs Bar. And frankly by and large we find the same guest artists on boards cruise after cruise performing stale or uninteresting routines. Last night however, I am so glad we went to the show as there was a terrific singer with a big voice who put on a very good show.

 

 

Today another sea day. Nice clear warm weather with seas not too choppy and just a few whitecaps. Perfect weather for relaxing in the sun (or in our case shade) on deck after talking in my third art class. For the past three days I joined a handful of ladies for instruction on making jewelry with various provided beads and whatnots. Today’s class was extra fun because we actually made beads ourselves out of all things Seabourn brochures. Who knew we could all recycle our brochures into something so decorative?

 

Later we and 14 other guests have signed up for a wine tasting hosted by the Corporate Sommelier. He will be including a wine that we will taste blind. And a few hours later he is joining myself and a few friends for a South African wine tasting of wines we all purchased at wineries we visited in Cape Town. Probably a good thing tomorrow is another sea day.

 

And yes, Suzanne is performing in the Obs Bar and she is very good.

 

As to Madagascar, Frantic correctly pointed out, we were supposed to go there but due to an unusual strain of the bubonic plague (this time pneumonic and thus transmitted easily person to person) it was removed from the itinerary months ago. We are told we should see it off the port side this afternoon. So perhaps between wine sips I’ll have a view of the land of the lemurs and have to be satisfied with that.

 

 

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[ab21au]

Those of you on Sojourn---have you had the opportunity to meet Suzanne Jade--the great pianist/singer onboard. She played in the TK Grill Bar during our Encore voyage, but I believe she is on the Sojourn now.

 

I hope she the moves to the Ovation, she is excellent and spent lots of time enjoying her music on the Encore, TK bar.

Edited February 22, 2018 by ab21au

[Roxburgh]

Nearly a riot at trivia today. Sophie decided to have a bonus question on what airports were represented by three letter airport codes. Unfortunately, she mixed up codes for a group of area airports (eg CHI for Chicago) with specific codes (eg ORD for O’Hare). And this to a large group of very well traveled Seabournites. :eek:

 

There was uproar. :D

 

I have to say, however, that she handled it brilliantly, abandoning the bonus question altogether while reminding us that it was just a game. Roll on tomorrow’s session.

[FiannaAradia]

No, pouring Nicky Fooey on top of Dom Perignon is not the end of the world, nor is catastrophe in the works when a waiter is about to top up a house white wine in a glass half full with another vintage.

 

I wouldn't call it a catastrophe, but it's a _very_ awkward situation, to which there really isn't a great solution. If you paid for Dom, depending on how "topped up" the glass needed to be, you have paid (let's keep the numbers simple) $100, and then had part of that purchase wrecked and wasted. If it was 2 half-full glasses, that's 1/5th of the bottle or $20. Because it's a purchased bottle, I wouldn't want to ask them to open another bottle and replace the glass they wasted because that means the rest of that new bottle is going to waste, too. In a case where the BTG option for sparkling is limited, there isn't an equivalent you can offer without opening a new bottle of what was spoiled.

 

It's something that happens. I got "treated" to a blend of Mersault and some buttery California thing because the waiter mistakenly grabbed another table's bottle of white wine out of the chilling bucket at a very nice restaurant. That place handled it well by bringing us a complimentary glass of our choice from their by the glass list after we'd finished our bottle.

 

For me it's never the mistake, but how well it's handled that determines how I feel about service. People err. Pushing more work on people makes them err more. Drinks service is something that should be left to a team that's responsible for it, rather than giving food servers who already have several tables yet another task.

[wripro]

They should simply have removed the charge for the Dom from your bill. End of story!

[Mr Luxury]

Correct Henry

 

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[RustyRollock]

I have to say, however, that she handled it brilliantly, abandoning the bonus question altogether while reminding us that it was just a game. Roll on tomorrow’s session.

 

Come on, we all know that cruise ship Trivia is a blood sport despite the "it's only a game" mantra we are asked to recite before each bout LOL

If the CD/Quizmaster can wrangle that crowd he/she can conquer the world.

[SLSD]

ab12au, I agree with you about Suzanne Jade. We are sailing on the Ovation in June--but that is about the time she will be on vacation again. I will miss her!!!

[Sunprince]

Fletcher, did that work for you?

 

Seriously, and what I am saying above, is that the former 5* food service and traditional wine service are now in a muddle whereby we are not satisfied and staff are making mistakes. We passengers are not meant to be monitoring the Sojourn food and wine service and that includes the timing of services and the clearing up. No, pouring Nicky Fooey on top of Dom Perignon is not the end of the world, nor is catastrophe in the works when a waiter is about to top up a house white wine in a glass half full with another vintage.

 

So it’s all about division of labor: people able and willing to do well in their roles and, with training, feedback and supervision getting on with it.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

 

 

 

Markham, thanks for posting your experience on the new wine service. As expected, it sounds like a bad idea. As I have previously posted, it is much better to have dedicated wine and separate food service. It allows for a much smoother dining experience. Hope it gets better. Please update us as your cruise continues.

 

 

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[Thecat123]

Has Sophie put on a show yet?

She is really good and a lot of fun

Have a look around in the shop and see if you can buy her CD

[markham]

As Kevnzworld said above the service issues in the MDR continue and it is a shame. My sense is that the waiters are overstretched with this new wine “service” that is but a patch of what we passengers are used to having and now the waiters have to try and deliver. And they probably know that they cannot do so. It’s their capabilities within the dinner shift versus my expectations. And remember, I am very sympathetic to them!

 

How is that? Let’s remember that they are expected to offer 2 bottles of “the day” that presumably their predinner menu briefing covers. But they will have no in depth knowledge of alternatives nor what supplies back up the complimentary wine list you may or may not have in your pocket.

 

So how in the world can the waiter do better than what we have seen in action so far since Cape Town?

 

I remember clearly 2 years ago that the person who handled wine service in our section of the MDR would visit our table with 4 bottles of white in a basket that she knew enough about to describe and pour and keep cold. That was THE supply of popular interest. I suppose she could have done the same with the reds but for us we could simply request one of a couple of our usual choices. Nothing - and no one - like that is in play now, probably since that additional responsibility would interfere too harshly with our waiter’s food service delivery, now that he has wine service, too. Simple as that.

 

So what to do? If you want to streamline wine service, why not list the complimentary bottles with their characteristics and availability online so we could, in turn, select them online while seated at our table. That’s hardly the image a 5* restaurant wants to portray, is it. But it does achieve many of my requirements while reducing stress on the waiter staff. It can be called “Press and Pour”, nice and catchy, and accuracy is improved. Don’t they do this on Royal Caribbean’s mega ships for lots of stuff?

 

We have 3.5 weeks on this cruise to go and see what happens. Fortunately, and as an aside, the wine service remains the same as it always was in the TK Grill (superb), Colonnade (relaxed and informal but effective) and Patio (ditto, and extremely popular on this magnificent and calm Indian Ocean itinerary).

 

On a personal note, I want to commend wholeheartedly the following officers and staff for their fabulous service, resourcefulness and understanding: Antonio, F&B Mgr, Marko, MD Patio, and Luke MD TK Grill.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

[Fletcher]

That’s hardly the image a 5* restaurant wants to portray, is it.

 

I'm sorry but I really do get rather exasperated and not a little amused by all this debate about food and wine and service standards. My view is that Seabourn (and Regent and Silversea) do not and cannot offer the same sort of standard that one might find in a top-end restaurant ashore in a city like New York or London or Paris or even Cape Town. Seaboard's restaurants are are using mostly chilled or frozen foods that arrive on board in enormous containers. This is not Michelin level food, or even proper restaurant food. It's mass catering to a fairly high standard and the house wines are well-matched to the rather bland and heavily portion-controlled food. Yes there are service lapses but that's understandable in an operation like this and when the seas are heaving we should just have sympathy for everyone who works in conditions like that.

 

Personally I think the buffets are always the best bet on a ship. When they pretend to be a restaurant things go slightly pear-shaped.

[RustyRollock]

^^^^ Agree 100%

The cruise companies have made a rod for their own backs by spruiking the "5* fine dining experience" which has created frankly unrealistic expectations from some foodies who seem to put eating at the top of their priorities. That's fine, but try to remember the limitations posed by producing a huge selection and quantity of food in such a restricted environment.

 

That's not to say that training shouldn't be thorough and avoidable lapses are indeed annoying but a bit of perspective never goes amiss.

[markham]

Fletcher,

 

No need to be exasperated. I am not challenging Seabourn to outdo any top-end restaurant in NY, Paris or even Cape Town. Of course they and competitors have limitations with regards to logistics and what they do.

 

I simply want Seabourn to compete against itself and to succeed relative to my own, personal recent past experience of just last segment and on Quest last month. Which is about wine service and the opportunity for guests to converse with even a junior wine waiter about the complimentary wines, while they food waiter carries on with his duties. This rationalization of service, or whatever one wants to call it, is a step backwards.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!