The Server Overshared

[annmarz]

Just got back from first VV cruise, on Scarlet Lady.  Had a great time overall but wanted to relate a very interesting experience regarding dining.  I dutifully tried to make dinner reservations as soon as I could on the app and succeeded in getting only 2 - Pink Agave (Outstanding meal!) and Test Kitchen (very fun).

 

Based on advice from fellow sailors, whilst onboard I went to Sailor Services to request a reservation for Extra Virgin for the following night. They took down my request and said I would receive a notification if we got in.

 

No notification came, so we "walked in."  When I was asked by the hostess if we had a reservation I said we had requested one from Sailor Services the day before but had received no message.  She checked and said there was no record of our request in the system and that there should have been.  Ok, so we waited and after 20 minutes or so were seated at a large communal table and were very satisfied.  Then we waited and waited and waited for the food.  The gentleman seated across from us ( a Rock Star with a black bracelet no less)  politely inquired from the server when his food would arrive as he had other plans for the evening.  She freaked out a little and went into a long apology and explanation. She said the restaurant was very busy and all the other guests had made reservations. Our table was for walk-ins and we would be served last.   We shouldn't expect the same service level.  (!!)  I was stunned.  

 

In retrospect this explained why when we "walked in" to Razzle Dazzle for brunch we were virtually ignored, waited 50 minutes for food that was served cold and basically inedible.

 

With very few exceptions, we were impressed with the politeness and friendliness of the crew and fellow passengers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[_tacocat_]

Eek, that is definitely troubling to hear!  If you are a butt-in-seat diner, there should be no hierarchy!  The servers have zones (that, let’s be honest, aren’t expansive) in each restaurant.

 

I’ve heard grumblings of service levels going down over the past few months, so I’m just hoping that was a hiccup, the server having a bad day and taking it out of guests (also not acceptable!) or beginning/end of contract timing (we sailed towards the end of a lot of crew’s contracts last year, and the service was awful at times across the ship, presumably due to end-of-contract-itis)

[cantgetin]

On the 15 night TA now...we've eaten with reservations and with walk ins.  We've had great service and quite awful service, but no relationship to whether we had a reservation or not.  THe worst was The Wake with.a reservation.  We waited 45 minutes after being seated till someone got around to taking our orders.  Meanwhile, the table across from us, presumably mega rockstars, had 4 employees hovering around their table, taking photos for them, etc.  It took 2 1/2 hours for dinner.  We canceled our future Wake reservations as the food was good, but there are better steaks elsewhere on board....and we don't want to spend that amount of time on dinner.  We did a walk in at Pink Agave, were seated immediately, and had excellent service including a chocolate cheesecake special for desert.

[Travel-and-See]

While this should really be unacceptable I'm not surprised.  On my last visit to Extra Virgin the couple in front of me was told that the restaurant was completely booked but they could sit at the bar (which they did).  I had a reservation and there were plenty of empty tables just in my section. 

 

I've also mentioned before how I waited in line for Brunch at Razzle Dazzle, the group of employees in front of me in line were seated, but I was told that they didn't have any room for walk-ups, even though the restaurant had a crazy number of empty tables. 

[neverendingcruising]

Empty tables doesn't mean they have enough staff to seat them, bring at full capacity doesn't always translate into a butt in every seat. 

 

I definitely think they should have asked the crew to wait and let passengers sit first. 

[cantgetin]

We've noticed a fair number of crew dining in restaurants on our current cruise, but not during prime hours.  We generally see them beginning a meal as we are leaving. We've been told that their situation is "space available" with hours restricted based on number of sailors on board.  We're seeing crew in The Galley about 2pm and 7pm, in the sit down restaurants about 9....and we've never been denied a walk in on this cruise.  1800 on board.

[Dylan0474mac]

Dinner service has fallen off hard