Qm2 Somelliers !

[SSNORWAY]

I have just done a search and amazed to find there has never been a thread about the attitude of the somelliers on QM2! I know quite a few of my friends have had the same problems as us and assumed it was an institutional problem.... I would be interested to hear your opinions?

 

I have a couple of toe curling episodes that have happened to us over the past two years....:)

 

I'm also expecting to be told that I have spelt somelliers wrong but have tried quite a few different spellings without success :o

[guernseyguy]

On my first sailing the Sommelier was rarely seen, and delivery slow.....my red wine once arriving with desert - if the Sommelier was not on his (or her) toes there was no coordination with food delivery - which would appear to be an organizational problem - the waiters seeing their job to get the food on the table asap, irrespective on wine delivery.

 

In complete contrast on my second sailing the Sommelier was excellent, with prompt delivery and frequent topping up of glasses - and hence no problems with coordination with arrival of food. He was one of the crew I would have given a 'You have been a star' card to.....had I been sufficiently organised.

[mufi]

On our double crossing we had a really bad one and on the return a really good one. Sommelier is perhaps a rather misleading word for what are basic "wine waiters" on the ship. They have little knowledge of the wine they serve, and often little idea of how to serve it correctly.

 

David.

[Highly Sociable]

We have had only good experiences. Our evening sommelier was always attentive and if we had pre-ordered our wine it was waiting for us - either chilled or decanted. As we were on the late sitting, this always impressed us as I assume it is chaos sorting everything out during sittings.

 

The sommeliers at lunch provided the evening menus so that we could choose our evening wines accordingly.

 

One funny event occured. We had a table of 4, with an adjoining table of 4 very nice americans. The first evening we had the wine decanted, into a beautiful decanter, served in a support which set it at 45 degrees, I over heard one asking another what that 'thing' was on our table. The reply was that it must have been a carafe of the house wine! Don't the americans decant red-wine!

[Kindlychap]

In complete contrast on my second sailing the Sommelier was excellent, with prompt delivery and frequent topping up of glasses - and hence no problems with coordination with arrival of food. He was one of the crew I would have given a 'You have been a star' card to.....had I been sufficiently organised.

 

I've only done one crossing on QM2. Same crossing as Peter of course. I was blessed with a superb sommelier - she was not only superbly efficient, but also a very nice young lady as well.

 

I did once have a poor one on Queen Elizabeth 2 - although she seems to have been banished back to steerage. Other than that, I've never had anything than excellent service from sommeliers.

 

Matthew

[lexxity]

Never had a problem with the sommeliers. Last time ours was also sufficently on the ball to have our wine chilled at our table.

[carlmm]

When we had problems with wine on the QM2 it was not the fault of the wine waitress (to call her a sommelier would go to far) but of the provision manager. The first couple of choice we made were all not available. The same was true for some drinks at the bar. Sailing from New York where they stock most of the provisions there is no real excuse for this lack.

[supered]

My experience last May on out crossing was excellent. I could see that Sylvia was busy with 15 or so tables to attend to, but she still managed to serve our wine and top it up during the meal. This was despite her also getting other drinks from the bar for people! At times she did seem rushed but I put that down to the enourmity of her workload. Our experience was on the upper level of the Britannia Restaurant on QM2.

 

We had no complaints and nominated her for "you've been a star". The wait staff don't seem to care about that however. They're much more interested in an "excellent" review on the end of cruise questionaires. If they get a high enough rating they get a day off. I was most interested (if not a little taken aback) to hear about this from out waiter. We wanted to nominate him but he explained what was more important. He said time off the ship is very precious when you're always at sea, which I can totally understand.

 

Eddie

[Uncle Pete]

To avoid the delay problem, we pre-ordered the wine the night before after perusing the menu. The wine waitress was suberb.

[Kindlychap]

We had no complaints and nominated her for "you've been a star". The wait staff don't seem to care about that however. They're much more interested in an "excellent" review on the end of cruise questionaires. If they get a high enough rating they get a day off. I was most interested (if not a little taken aback) to hear about this from out waiter. We wanted to nominate him but he explained what was more important. He said time off the ship is very precious when you're always at sea, which I can totally understand.

 

Eddie

 

Is there any reason why you can't do both?

 

Matthew

[supered]

Is there any reason why you can't do both?

 

No reason at all Matthew. I just thought it was interesting.:)

 

Eddie

[TAH]

On my first voyage on the QM2 in QG we had a wonderful experience. We never had to wait for the wine steward as it semmed there were several for the dinning room. I believe we had Michael who was wonderful. On our trip in Oct. 2005 it was very different ( this was one of my complaints in a letter which I wrote to Cunard). There was only one wine steward for the whole QG on this trip and getting any drinks or wine was a trial. Because the food was really off as well we only dined in the Grill the first 2 nights, both nights our bottle arrived half way through our main course. We switched to Todd English several nights where the wine steward was available with attitude until we ordered a very special bottle. The wine was about to be poured from the bottle and I had to point out it needed to be decanted (it was a high price 1982). It was wonderful and then we were presented with the bill. It is $500 more than listed on the wine list. I questioned the price and was informed I was given an old wine list and that the price was the correct amount. I paid the higher amount, however, thought it in bad taste, and once again pointed this out in a letter to Cunard. After reading many positive recent reviews of the QM2 I will be trying her again this winter and will see where we stand. My steward on my voyage on the QE2 in Oct. 2006 was wonderful!!

[Kindlychap]

No reason at all Matthew. I just thought it was interesting.:)

 

Eddie

 

Yes - as on QE2 they seem more concerned by "I'm a star" cards....

 

Oh well, dish 'em out. They all deserve it!

 

Matthew

[highcbob]

One funny event occured. We had a table of 4, with an adjoining table of 4 very nice americans. The first evening we had the wine decanted, into a beautiful decanter, served in a support which set it at 45 degrees, I over heard one asking another what that 'thing' was on our table. The reply was that it must have been a carafe of the house wine! Don't the americans decant red-wine!

 

 

Yes, Americans do indeed "decant" wine, sometimes. The folks across at the other table must have not been wine 'educated' ( Neanderthals?:) ).

[godfreyb]

If you read the wine column in the Wall Street Journal which is very good and down to earth, they advise that decanting wine is just an affection which ruins the wine by putting too much oxygen in it. However, the one case where they do recommend it is whith older wines were there may be sediment. Here they advise to decant it gently.

 

No need to bad mouth anyone about it.

[SSNORWAY]

seems like everyone's quite happy so I will keep my tales to myself! :)

[mufi]

seems like everyone's quite happy so I will keep my tales to myself! :)

 

If you read the responses you will see that everyone is not happy. Just a comment.

 

David.

[msk68]

On my first voyage on the QM2 in QG we had a wonderful experience. We never had to wait for the wine steward as it semmed there were several for the dinning room. I believe we had Michael who was wonderful. On our trip in Oct. 2005 it was very different ( this was one of my complaints in a letter which I wrote to Cunard). There was only one wine steward for the whole QG on this trip and getting any drinks or wine was a trial. Because the food was really off as well we only dined in the Grill the first 2 nights, both nights our bottle arrived half way through our main course. We switched to Todd English several nights where the wine steward was available with attitude until we ordered a very special bottle. The wine was about to be poured from the bottle and I had to point out it needed to be decanted (it was a high price 1982). It was wonderful and then we were presented with the bill. It is $500 more than listed on the wine list. I questioned the price and was informed I was given an old wine list and that the price was the correct amount. I paid the higher amount, however, thought it in bad taste, and once again pointed this out in a letter to Cunard. After reading many positive recent reviews of the QM2 I will be trying her again this winter and will see where we stand. My steward on my voyage on the QE2 in Oct. 2006 was wonderful!!

 

Which crossing were you on in Oct 05? We had a very good experience with our wine steward in the QG. On our recent crossing, we had 'Captain' Morgan and absolutely LOVED him - outstanding sommelier!

[TAH]

Which crossing were you on in Oct 05? We had a very good experience with our wine steward in the QG. On our recent crossing, we had 'Captain' Morgan and absolutely LOVED him - outstanding sommelier!

 

We were on the Oct. 26th 2005 Westbound. The wine steward in the Grill was very nice, there was just now way one steward could have handled the entire full Grill. The steward in T.English is another story. On the morning we arrived in NY we returned to the Grill for breakfast and many of the tables around ours (I believe 4 if memory serves) asked where we had been for the voyage. We shared our views with them concerning the level of cuisine and etc. and they all agreed it was really off. It turned out they were all Plat. WC members, or frequent QG passengers and couldn't remember ever having the problems we had during this particular voyage. Once again I know any ship can have an off period though, and am looking forward to trying her again this Winter. From reading many recent posts it seems the problems have been addressed.

[Uncle Pete]

First of all the vast majority are wine stewards not someliers as I know them. Our wine steward in Britannia was good, wines were never late (but you must order the night before, the wine steward will give you a copy of the menu...)

 

We will decant certain red wines but not all of them...

 

We were not disappointed.:)

 

In the Todd English, again a wine steward, we went with his selection and were very pleased and the price reasonable.:)

[SeaFlint]

I have just done a search and amazed to find there has never been a thread about the attitude of the somelliers on QM2! I know quite a few of my friends have had the same problems as us and assumed it was an institutional problem.... I would be interested to hear your opinions?

 

I have a couple of toe curling episodes that have happened to us over the past two years....:)

 

I'm also expecting to be told that I have spelt somelliers wrong but have tried quite a few different spellings without success :o

 

We've had seven different ones and have only had even the slightest problem with one of them. Five of them were excellent. One was having a rough time when we had him but had recovered the next time we saw him.

 

But our experience has been very positive.

[msk68]

We were on the Oct. 26th 2005 Westbound. The wine steward in the Grill was very nice, there was just now way one steward could have handled the entire full Grill. The steward in T.English is another story. On the morning we arrived in NY we returned to the Grill for breakfast and many of the tables around ours (I believe 4 if memory serves) asked where we had been for the voyage. We shared our views with them concerning the level of cuisine and etc. and they all agreed it was really off. It turned out they were all Plat. WC members, or frequent QG passengers and couldn't remember ever having the problems we had during this particular voyage. Once again I know any ship can have an off period though, and am looking forward to trying her again this Winter. From reading many recent posts it seems the problems have been addressed.

 

Ahhhh, I see. If I remember correctly, the ship was going for a refit of some sort not long after that. It seemed to me that a lot of the crew were really tired and seemed ready for a break. But I'm sorry that you ended up on the short end of the stick.

[TAH]

Ahhhh, I see. If I remember correctly, the ship was going for a refit of some sort not long after that. It seemed to me that a lot of the crew were really tired and seemed ready for a break. But I'm sorry that you ended up on the short end of the stick.

 

Thank you for the information, now what happened onboard that trip makes a bit more sense. It was a shame we had to find out the hard way, however, now I know to watch out for a voyage around a scheduled service time and request from Cunard if the ship is scheduled for maintenance around my voyages.