tipping in specialty restaurants

[cbr663]

I called HAL directly and inquired about tipping in specialist restaurants and was told it was not necessary as it was included in the HSC.  As for pooling tips, past experience working in the hospitality industry has taught me that most establishments that rely on a team based approach to service where multiple people may provide table service typically make use of pooled tips.  Most HAL speciality restaurants do use a team based approach to service.  Keep in mind though - these can be informal or formal arrangements and can change from ship to ship and voyage to voyage.

Edited November 29, 2018 by cbr663

[doublebzz]

4 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

One of the problems with the Pinnacle may be they are now giving away too many free dinners - either as Mariner perks or as travel agent perks. Back to the question - how does the dinner surcharge get spent?  

 

Does each individual ship have a budget based upon how many free dinners have been given out and how many free Mariner dinners will be offered - the more onboard the less money available to higher quality ingredients and/or numbers of kitchen staff and dining stewards?  Or is there a set fleet wide budget regardless of individual ship surcharge revenues?

Agree.  Also and perhaps the increases in surcharges throughout the years has been to make up for the lost revenues on all these "free" dinners.  

[DaveOKC]

17 hours ago, doublebzz said:

Agree.  Also and perhaps the increases in surcharges throughout the years has been to make up for the lost revenues on all these "free" dinners.  

I wish they would stop giving away the free Pinnacle dinners.  IMO, it has lessened the quality and service of the experience, plus it sometimes makes it hard to book.

[rkacruiser]

8 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

I wish they would stop giving away the free Pinnacle dinners.  IMO, it has lessened the quality and service of the experience, plus it sometimes makes it hard to book.

 

I do agree with this comment!

[SWFLAOK]

Are the "free Pinnacle dinners" being discussed on this thread the same one that we will receive for booking a Neptune Suite on our upcoming cruise? If so, based on what we've paid for that suite, I wouldn't consider it being free or given away. Are there other reasons that this dining option is being given away? If the food and service are bad, then we won't bother going. I'm not sure why anyone taking a cruise to the Caribbean would want to eat at a " Pacific Northwest-inspired steakhouse".  I'd rather have a menu based on what's local to where the cruise starts and ends. King Crab Legs are good in the Pacific Northwest, but I've tasted some very bad ones in the Caribbean, and they're not reliably good in Florida.  

[frankc98376]

On 11/28/2018 at 6:02 PM, kazu said:

 

No, not shared with kitchen staff.  

 

It's shared with the servers at the PG.

 

there is nothing on the HAL site.  This is info that those of us that have been there and tipped have been told on board and shared here.  

ie -a tip on one dinner and Clifford said thank you, we'll be sharing this.  A tip at the end of the cruise and the PG manager said thank you, the staff will share this.

 

It makes sense as there is usually more than one waiter taking care of you whether you are there for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

 

Ah, our good friend Clifford.  Last we heard he was in Alaska on Noordam- has anyone heard more current info?

 

We always tip at the end of each meal- usually $20 at dinner and $5 at breakfast. We like to do the "handshake" tip.  We did ask on Oosterdam about pooling and were told that the PG servers do pool their tips. They always take such great care of us we have no hesitation showing our gratitude. 

Edited December 1, 2018 by frankc98376

[freestyling]

26 minutes ago, SWFLAOK said:

Are the "free Pinnacle dinners" being discussed on this thread the same one that we will receive for booking a Neptune Suite on our upcoming cruise? 

I believe the “free” PG dinners discussed are the promotional dinners offered for Explore 4. I was unaware of free dinners offered for a Neptune suite at least directly by HAL..now eating breakfast in the PG I am aware of that. 

[kazu]

37 minutes ago, SWFLAOK said:

Are the "free Pinnacle dinners" being discussed on this thread the same one that we will receive for booking a Neptune Suite on our upcoming cruise? If so, based on what we've paid for that suite, I wouldn't consider it being free or given away. Are there other reasons that this dining option is being given away? If the food and service are bad, then we won't bother going. I'm not sure why anyone taking a cruise to the Caribbean would want to eat at a " Pacific Northwest-inspired steakhouse".  I'd rather have a menu based on what's local to where the cruise starts and ends. King Crab Legs are good in the Pacific Northwest, but I've tasted some very bad ones in the Caribbean, and they're not reliably good in Florida.  

 

Everyone pays for it one way or the other.  Whether they take Explore4 (but some deals in the Caribbean can be a no brainer) or it is offered in another package.

 

Depending on the PG staff you have, the ship you are on, it can be a very nice experience.  You'll have a good indication when you go to breakfast there 😉 

 

8 minutes ago, freestyling said:

I believe the “free” PG dinners discussed are the promotional dinners offered for Explore 4. I was unaware of free dinners offered for a Neptune suite at least directly by HAL..now eating breakfast in the PG I am aware of that. 

 

I"ve never gotten a free PG dinner by booking a suite, but maybe there was some promo for SWFloak's sailing?  Haven't seen that for a suite before but I've been known to miss the odd thing 😉 

[SWFLAOK]

I checked our original cruise reservation that we made late last year. We did have a promo that gave us Explore 4 at no charge when we booked the Neptune suite, so we do have the same "free" PG dinner as everyone else who's signed up for Explore 4.

[OlsSalt]

1 hour ago, SWFLAOK said:

Are the "free Pinnacle dinners" being discussed on this thread the same one that we will receive for booking a Neptune Suite on our upcoming cruise? If so, based on what we've paid for that suite, I wouldn't consider it being free or given away. Are there other reasons that this dining option is being given away? If the food and service are bad, then we won't bother going. I'm not sure why anyone taking a cruise to the Caribbean would want to eat at a " Pacific Northwest-inspired steakhouse".  I'd rather have a menu based on what's local to where the cruise starts and ends. King Crab Legs are good in the Pacific Northwest, but I've tasted some very bad ones in the Caribbean, and they're not reliably good in Florida.  

 

You will not find a locality-inspired menu on any HAL ships, even the new high-enrichment "InDepth" cruise offerings on the Maasdam. I suspect this part of your upcoming HAL experience will be disappointing.

 

You will find nice dining with a good degree of variety;  but not fine dining or personalized dining that matches your Neptune Suite surcharge nor your cruise destinations. However, we love the additional Neptune suite space, the Neptune Lounge and the specialty events that come along with the Neptune experience.  I hope you enjoy your time onboard. 

 

How did you come to choose this particular cruise line? 

Edited December 1, 2018 by OlsSalt

[a.madruga]

IMO one will find those 10% who will find something to complain about anything...you must try and form your own opinion

[OlsSalt]

Let HAL tell you  about the Pinnacle experience: https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/dining/pinnacle-grill.html

[SWFLAOK]

19 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

How did you come to choose this particular cruise line?

Our Cruise Travel Agent suggested it. We were looking for a holiday cruise,  and she suggested this one as being a great price on the type of ship we prefer (smaller and older). Little did we know that our first trip on the Prinsendam will most likely be our last. I hope we don't love it too much.

[catl331]

19 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

You will not find a locality-inspired menu on any HAL ships,

That's not strictly true. I recall many MDR selections over the years that were slanted toward the itinerary. About one or two per cruise, I'd say. More in Europe than the Caribbean.

[kura]

 

1 hour ago, catl331 said:

That's not strictly true. I recall many MDR selections over the years that were slanted toward the itinerary. About one or two per cruise, I'd say. More in Europe than the Caribbean.

 

Also the following are themed main dining roommenus from our recent Prinsendam Cruise

 

[kazu]

32 minutes ago, kura said:

 

 

Also the following are themed main dining roommenus from our recent Prinsendam Cruise

 

 

Prinsendam does this a lot.  It's one of the reasons I like this ship. 🙂 

 

We had several themed dinners based on our location last cruise and I hope and expect the same next year. 😉 

[kazu]

1 hour ago, catl331 said:

That's not strictly true. I recall many MDR selections over the years that were slanted toward the itinerary. About one or two per cruise, I'd say. More in Europe than the Caribbean.

 

That's been our experience too, Carole. 

[rkacruiser]

2002, Volendam's Maiden Asia Pacific cruise:  Filet of Kangaroo appeared on our dinner menu when we were in Australian waters.  There were a few other local dishes that appeared as well.

[OlsSalt]

Indeed there are themed dinners, but rarely if ever locally sourced ingredients. My comment was not very clear about what I meant.  

 

Even on the Maasdam Indepth which promised local menu highlights, nothing stood out except for the fabulous fresh shrimp we were able to pick up in Ecuador - big export item for them. The Polynesian guest chef had to work with HAL-authorized ingredients which was an unfortunate experience for him, since many of us had been sampling things ashore and knew what flavors he too had wanted to create but had to work within the HAL ingredient guidelines. 

 

Speaking of which, HAL is still working on the chile relleno - three shall we say amusing attempts on prior cruises,  but still okay for a green pepper with some cheese inside it.  It showed up twice on our last Maasdam cruise and DH took the next chance after my prior failure, and it looked like ti finally was getting closer to being a worthy new menu addition.  

 

But if you are from Southern California, this is s dish variable as it can be even in SouthWest/Mexican offerings, you know what you want to find. And a chicken-fried  battered green bell pepper filled with a little cheese, while technically correct - it as a filled pepper -- just did not make the grade. 

 

So it will be interesting to see on my upcoming Mexican Riviera if they do have a themed menus, what will be iteration #6 of this Southwest/Mexican classic. They  have moved beyond the large green bell pepper from a few years ago, and now do use a more slender  and tastier poblano. But the last one was more tempura than the classic egg white batter .......so it is getting there. And DH finally got a good melted cheese  filling. 

Edited December 2, 2018 by OlsSalt

[kazu]

On our Westerdam cruise to the South Pacific, the chef picked up fresh tuna among other things.  I think our Lido buffets were one of the last but nearly each one featured something fresh picked up on the islands.

 

On our Prinsendam cruise, they definitely picked up fresh food in the ports in Ireland and elsewhere and it was delish.

 

I realize that the Lido buffets are gone by the wayside now, and while picking up fresh produce may not always be done it has been and can be done.

 

The crab we had on our P'dam cruise this spring had big raves and that includes people from crab country.  It was incredible 😉   

[jabcruiser]

On 11/28/2018 at 9:04 PM, Krazy Kruizers said:

 

There was a time when the cruise director had a talk in the show lounge explaining who all the tips went and the amounts that went to your cabins stewards and dining room stewards -- they got the largest amounts of the Hotel Service Charge.  Then he explained how the rest of the tip money was divided among the "behind the scenes staff" which I explained in post #7.

We seldom eat in MDR any more.  Just takes toooo long.  So we do Lido, order Gala dinners through room service, and generally do specialty restaurants one or two evenings.  But not Pinnacle!  Just not that good IMHO.  But we do lunch there.  Oops. Probably shouldn't broadcast this, but we find lunch in Pinnacle very good. I hate to hear the MDR staff receive most of my HSC since we almost never eat there.  HAL knows which guests eat at specialty restaurants so the portion of the HSC normally going to MDR servers that evening could easily be credited instead to specialty restaurant servers I would think. I guess since that probably won't happen, will increase cash tip to servers at specialty restaurants on our next cruise.  Yay, leaving in one week.  Excited to try Konigsdam and the additional specialty dining venues.

Jane

[kazu]

2 minutes ago, jabcruiser said:

We seldom eat in MDR any more.  Just takes toooo long.  So we do Lido, order Gala dinners through room service, and generally do specialty restaurants one or two evenings.  But not Pinnacle!  Just not that good IMHO.  But we do lunch there.  Oops. Probably shouldn't broadcast this, but we find lunch in Pinnacle very good. I hate to hear the MDR staff receive most of my HSC since we almost never eat there.  HAL knows which guests eat at specialty restaurants so the portion of the HSC normally going to MDR servers that evening could easily be credited instead to specialty restaurant servers I would think. I guess since that probably won't happen, will increase cash tip to servers at specialty restaurants on our next cruise.  Yay, leaving in one week.  Excited to try Konigsdam and the additional specialty dining venues.

Jane

 

Have you noticed when you do anytime dining in the MDR that they ask for your cabin number?  We don't eat in the Lido much at night, but the one time we did, they asked.

 

I have a sneaky suspicion that they have a way to allocate more to certain areas based on where you dine, but I'm not sure about that.

 

I do know the specialty dining has your room number for the reservation.

 

I just go with the flow.  Keep the HSC in place and tip extra where it is appropriate.  Good service speaks to me and I am happy to reward it 😉 

[doublebzz]

15 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

Have you noticed when you do anytime dining in the MDR that they ask for your cabin number?  We don't eat in the Lido much at night, but the one time we did, they asked.

 

I have a sneaky suspicion that they have a way to allocate more to certain areas based on where you dine, but I'm not sure about that.

 

😉 

I was told that the reason they ask for cabin number is to enable HAL to correlate comments on your critique with dining servers involved.  Who knows?

[Bonbon65]

On 11/28/2018 at 5:50 PM, Stratheden said:

We have been to the Pinnacle Grill twice.  On the first occasion our medium rare steak was overdone at one end and blue at the other end.  By the time someone came back to see if we were enjoying our meal I had finished my main course and DH had eaten the middle of his steak and it was 9.30pm.

We stupidly decided to give them another try on our next cruise.  The air of indifference and rudeness of the waiters had not improved so I doubt we will ever try them again.  

If we ever do try them again, we can't complain as we know what to expect, but I guess we can always hope.

So no, we have not tipped them extra as we haven't enjoyed the experience. 

That is a shame!  I was last on the Maasdam from Montreal to Ft. Lauderdale (last year).  Went to the Pinnacle twice for lunch and once for dinner and it was spectacular.

[SWFLAOK]

On 4/22/2019 at 5:58 PM, Bonbon65 said:

That is a shame!  I was last on the Maasdam from Montreal to Ft. Lauderdale (last year).  Went to the Pinnacle twice for lunch and once for dinner and it was spectacular.

We had the same experience on Prinsendam  in the Pinnacle Grill as Strathedam described. Food was not prepared to our request, and the wait staff, when they decided to appear in the dining room, was disinterested. After our first dinner there, we were very worried about our New Year's Eve dinner, which was quite pricey. Seating was delayed for 15 minutes, with a line backing up. And then they seated everyone at once. Service of any sort was slow, including wine. They had decided to do a course by course, where everyone in the dining room would be served a course, and the plates would be cleared  before the next course would be served. I enjoyed my soup course. My husband enjoyed his appetizer. After 3 hours we got up and walked out while waiting for our main course to be cleared. Neither of us had eaten more than a bite, but no one cared. No one cared that we walked out.  New Year's Eve was ruined since other places to celebrate were already packed. We complained to our concierge the next morning since we were in a Neptune Suite. They returned what we had paid (which we ended up donating to the crew fund), and offered us another dinner there without charge, but we would not eat tdinner here again. Our Neptune Suite gave us breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill in the morning, and the service and food were always good. We gave them plenty of feedback on dinner service, and hopefully they share it at the corporate level and do something about it.