question about headwaiter

[dannyt818]

Last year on our cruise my DW and I thought our head waiter wasn't that great. Sometimes we saw him visiting all the tables around us but not ours. He introduced himself to us the first night and we never saw much more of him again (at our table). Thinking a lot lately about our cruise in two days I have been wondering if our headwaiter from last year was doing a good job or not because I realize I don't really know what is expected of him/her.

 

So my question is what is expected of the head waiter? After all we are expected to tip him/her. What should be considered great service, average service, or bad service from the head waiter?

 

Thanks.

[negc]

If you got excellent service from your waiter and assistant waiter, then the head waiter was probably doing his or her job very well. A good one does more than just circulate in his or her section of the dining room gladhanding the passengers. Some are more personable than others but if they are attending to their primary function which is to see that everything in that section of the room runs smoothly, they probably deserve the seventy five cents per person, per day that is recommended.:)

[Host Kewlguy]

Last year on our cruise my DW and I thought our head waiter wasn't that great. Sometimes we saw him visiting all the tables around us but not ours. He introduced himself to us the first night and we never saw much more of him again (at our table). Thinking a lot lately about our cruise in two days I have been wondering if our headwaiter from last year was doing a good job or not because I realize I don't really know what is expected of him/her.

 

So my question is what is expected of the head waiter? After all we are expected to tip him/her. What should be considered great service, average service, or bad service from the head waiter?

 

Thanks.

 

The head waiter/assistant maitre d' is the immediate supervisor of your waiter and assistant waiter in the dining room. If you have any problems or special requests they should be directed to your head waiter. There are multiple head waiters who supervise different sections of the dining room. They all answer to one maitre 'd who is the top boss in the dining room. On some ships the maitre 'd never actually enters the dining room. He supervises the entire operation behind the scenes.

[J33P]

As the earlier post indicated, if you received good service from the server and assistant your head waiter was doing his job. Our first cruise, the service was good even though we didn't really interact with our maitre d' or head waiter. Our last cruise we made a point of interacting and chatting with him and he made a point of coming over and chatting with us, joking around and kept the servers on their toes, but it was a really pleasant experience. I actually tried something re: tips that I read on Cruise Critic, namely preparing envelopes in advance, with their tips and a note indicating that we really appreciated their dedication and service and that this should be considered a down payment for services rendered. I did this tactfully on the first or second night and without making a show of it, this included our cabin attendant. Needless to say, the service was outstanding and we had a tremendous experience and interaction with our servers and head waiter. The rational being that regardless of the level of service, they work really hard and earn even the minimum tip level. I even did that with the bartender, magic $5 bill or something like that and my cocktail would arrive moments after we sat down.

[FreewayFortune]

Our server and assistant have always been excellent. We have had many good conversations with them. On our first cruise our head waiter always greeted us and came to ask us how the food was and to tell us the menu for the next night. On our other cruises we didn't see the head waiters too much. But they were always around to at least say high when we were entering or exiting the dining room.

[rednancy1]

We just returned from a 3 day cruise to the Bahamas on the Sovereign OTS. Our headwaiter, whose name I forget (lots of wine with dinner) was the best headwaiter I've ever experienced. And, yes, we left him an extra tip over and beyond the normal amount.

 

He was at our table every night at least twice. He went to the pastry chef to get unsalted butter for my DH. He mad sure our grandchildren were pleased with their meals.

 

Excellent!!!

 

:eek:

[rednancy1]

We just returned from a 3 day cruise to the Bahamas on the Sovereign OTS. Our headwaiter, whose name I forget, (lots of wine with dinner) was the best headwaiter I've ever experienced. And, yes, we left him an extra tip over and beyond the normal amount.

 

He was at our table every night at least twice. He went to the pastry chef to get unsalted butter for my DH. He made sure our grandchildren were pleased with their meals. And he cut to perfection at least 500 tiger shrimps on that cruise.

 

Excellent!!!

 

:eek:

 

Edited for poor spelling.