Combining the Sommelier and Server jobs?

[brittany12]

Can anyone shed light on this? We read a review of Sojourn just now that basically says the two jobs have been combined in the Restaurant . Yet no other reviewer of any ship has picked up on this. And the review said  the waiters/waitresses come with two bottles to open and pour one red and one white, and they do the pouring and refilling.  Sommeliers phased out?  When we sailed on Odyssey last summer this major change did not exist on that ship, but we had heard about it happening  on another Seabourn ship from someone else. At first we thought it was fake news and discounted it, but now not so sure. Is this in fact happening?

[Isklaar]

Yes, a version of what the reviewer describes was happening on Ovation three months ago. It didn't work well, in our opinion. 

It took longer to get refills  and on evenings when we hadn't chosen the recommended wine of the day it was difficult to follow a conversation on tables of more than 2 people because we had to constantly stay alert to which wine the server was filling our glasses with.

Bad move, Seabourn.But  I imagine it saves money. 

[markham]

There remain proper sommeliers on Seabourn ships. However, these individuals focus on selling the premium wines and there

are fewer "wine only" servers than in years past. The change took place for us a year ago on Sojourn and has spread to all the ships. Seabourn management's stated-to-me rationale was that passengers did not like to ask for wine from wine servers and everything else from other servers. Passengers presumably wanted one "go to" server for all or most of their dining room experience.

 

I did not like the change and yet I have more or less gotten used to it. Do I think the lack of attention being offered on the wine service due to fewer dedicated staff makes a difference? Yes, I do. Do other passengers miss it? Some, who know what the

included wines are and/or know what they want so they can just get on with ordering it, may not.

 

Most probably Seabourn is cutting costs too.

 

It's up to you to decide what you think about current levels of service in terms of your expectations and past cruises. Then

share those views with the Hotel Manager, Food and Beverage Manager and/or Restaurant Manager, and in the all-important post-cruise questionnaires.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

[Major Pete]

Interesting topic. On our last cruise on the odyssey the wine service was very poor. It quickly became apparent that the servers where doubling up. Glasses where empty, food service was impacted and the team where clearly under pressure. An element of expecting the restaurant team members to be a “jack of all trades”.

 

We never have felt the need to complain before but I did ask to speak to the Hotel Manager who explained the new system. I got the very clear impression that this was cost driven and the only way to get it changed was by more guests drawing attention to it via the post cruise questionnaire. 

[saminina]

If there Is a rated sommelier sailing on a SB ship, I'd like to know their name. 

[tv24]

On the Quest recently for a long cruise we did not have any issues with wine service.  But bear in mind that we were happy with the wine offerings each day and also were happily served wines from previous days that we had liked.  It's not super-luxury, but I'm not sure if that exists anymore.  We never had empty wine glasses and usually drank too much of fairly good wine.

[brittany12]

Some of the replies to my inquiry missed the point: I was not complaining about the  quality of the regular 'Included"wines  being served in the Restaurant,  where I have been generally happy if not thrilled on over a dozen Seabourn cruises, nor was I touting the vast wine knowledge of the "Sommeliers."  I was commenting and seeking information on an unhappy rumor I had heard and now apparently being validated by a few of the responders that yes, in fact, Seabourn has, in some form or fashion, and on a few of the ships in the fleet, trending to more, combined the normal jobs that the sommeliers used to do with the food server position. For me, the sommelier was never there to push the premium wines, at vastly inflated prices, that Seabourn  promotes and would love to sell to aid its bottom line but rather to offer some knowledge and serve, and refill glasses, on the variety of  "included" wines available that day, in a congenial,  non frantic way.  As in most fine restaurants on land, although these fine restaurants certainly have much more knowledgable people performing this separate job. I enjoyed talking to the very pleasant sommeliers on each cruise each day and found they had more knowledge of the wines they were serving than many would have thought in aiding me in making our selections. It contributed to the overall enjoyment of the cruise and a better and more leisurely dining experience. We're talking about Seabourn changing a century of tradition for the fine dining restaurants on all the best ocean liners and cruise ships in the world. If that job has now been combined on this cruise line with the  food server job, for cost cutting/body count reasons, that is not a good sign of luxury cruise line fine service, compelling people to want to sail Seabourn again. It is in fact a turn off, and one possible reason why one sees and hears so many comments about poor Restaurant service. I say keep the jobs separate - the waiters were already too busy doing their regular, very stressful job, and performing it in the best manner possible.. And the sommeliers were busy running around their assigned geographic stations bringing out and opening up bottles and filling up people's glasses. Is the Silversea, Crystal, and Regent luxury cruise line competition doing the same economizing? Certainly not Cunard in its very high end, Queens Grill equivalent to the Seabourn fine dining experience in the Restaurant, or even the somewhat lesser rated but higher food quality of Oceania in all of its regular and speciality dining venues on board its fleet, where there are both plenty of food servers and sommeliers. I hope Seabourn wakes up to to this, but from the vast silence out there, I am not so sure many repeat or new passengers discern the difference, or really care about what level of DR service they will be receiving or what a luxury cruise line should provide for the luxury prices they are paying. The post cruise survey for me has never yielded many pro-passenger results.

[saminina]

Must be a slow day in Florida.

 

Silversea ditched real soms long before SB.   High end Queens Grill?  You're kidding me.  They're serving sevruga caviar.

Edited March 22, 2019 by saminina

[lincslady]

My take on this subject is that, yes, the food waiters are now expected to serve the wines as well - not a good move, as it is a heavy load.   However, I would describe the 'sommeliers' of yore essentially as wine waiters, with a fairly good knowledge of what is available in the included list, but there was always a more knowledgeable sommelier, who was there principally to discuss and take orders for premium extra charge wines.

[brittany12]

On 3/22/2019 at 12:01 PM, saminina said:

Must be a slow day in Florida.

 

Silversea ditched real soms long before SB.   High end Queens Grill?  You're kidding me.  They're serving sevruga caviar.

stay on point about this luxury line cutting back on service and combining jobs. rather than becoming the caviar expert.. The Seabourn caviar used to be great when it was the Black River product years ago, Not so much any more. Yes Queen's Grill food very fine.

[bradtarga34]

I thought this was a good move, to me having separate people serving wine delayed the whole process. Food comes, ask who is delivering the food to bring a top up or whatever wine you want and it comes. Otherwise it was like, I will send a wine waiter over, then they will eventually turn up. Bearing in mind, both wine waiters and food waiters are the same we didn’t have any problems, and a sommelier was always to hand for recommendations, it’s not as though they have lost crew to do this.

[brittany12]

For us and the people we dined with, the separation of the wine serving job and the waiting job in the ]Restaurant was the perfect arrangement. We never in over a dozen Seabourn cruises, there or in the Colonnade,  had any problem getting wine servers to come over, take our selection order, from the several red and white varieties, or champagne, they had available that day,  bring the bottles and pour or refill empty glasses. The waiters at each station are busy enough doing their normal waiting job taking orders, running back and forth to the kitchen,  bringing dishes to table,  making diners happy, and clearing dirty dishes and silverware. The job for them is harder and more difficult when combined. The overall drinking and dining  experience in the Restaurant was far better for us.The trend to pushing and selling the high mark up premium wines on certain cruise lines has been going on for the past few years and we personally find it very distressing,  particularly on luxury cruise lines that tout themselves as providing good ( if not great, but very drinkable) complimentary wines, for the high costs we pay, all over the ship and all day long. In the Keller Grill,  at least in the past, some unaware diners did not even know the complimentary wines were available as an alternative to the premium list that was being pushed very aggressively,  to the exclusion of any mention or printed reference on the menus to the normal complement of included wines. Hopefully this has changed.