Not so PINNACLE after all ...!

[Lady Chew]

Just back Sunday night from our 19 day Dawson/Denali Plus cruise tour, ending with a 7-day cruise on the Statendam, from Seward to Vancouver. We had a great time, with just a few little glitches, and we are so glad we were able to make the trip. We had some amazing experiences!

Our last dinner on the ship, however, was not so amazing. On the last night of the cruise, we went with our Travel Pals to the Pinnacle Grill for dinner. We had a 6:30 reservation and had requested a table by the window (didn't want to miss any whales!). We showed up right on time and got a nice table. We sat down ... and we waited, and we waited, and we waited, and we waited ... and finally someone showed up to fill our water glasses and drop off menus. Then we waited & waited & waited for someone to take our orders. Finally, got our orders in. Wine steward came by, took our order. Took her a long time to get back with our bottle, but she finally arrived & poured.

Almost finished with the first glass, when we got the "chef surprise" little bit-sized appetizer. A mushroom ravioli. With pastry dough. Extremely tough pastry dough - chewy & inedible. Now all the water glasses are empty, too ... we flagged down a passing waiter & asked for refills, and we waited & waited & waited a very long time before the water pitcher was brought to our table.

Waited another long time before the appetizers were served, but at least they were yummy. We had to wait a long time for the empty dishes to be removed. Had to keep waiting for water refills, too.

It took almost another 30 minutes for our entrees to be served. They were all fine except for one - Mr Chew had ordered the NY strip steak but was brought a porterhouse instead, a two-pounder by the looks of it. Rather than wait another 30 minutes, he decided to eat part of it. Ate almost half. We all finished about the same time and sat for another 30 minutes waiting for our dishes to be cleared. Dessert was finally ordered and took - you guessed it - almost 30 minutes to arrive - and one of the orders was incorrect.

Mr Chew had to be somewhere and left without his dessert. As soon as it arrived, the Other Dude in our party jumped up and delivered it to him. When Mr Chew's ice cream was brought to him, the staff who were present were aghast at the reason, and arranged for us to have a full refund of our dinner.

Other Dude had also ordered decaf but is pretty sure he was served regular - he was wired & up all night. No other reason than the coffee!

Of our 3 and 1/2 hours spent in the PG that night, almost two of them were spent waiting & waiting & waiting to be served or for dishes to arrive or for dishes to be removed. There is a difference between a leisurely dinner and just poor, slow service! The food was yummy, but the service was crummy.

We have also eaten in the PG on the Amsterdam with no service or food issues. I wonder if it has to do with having 7-day turnaround cruises? Anyone have a similar story?

[PathfinderEss]

Really sorry to hear about your expierence dinning in the Pinnacle. We have never had to wait that long for service but we sometimes have not had the best dinners on the last night of the cruise. Sometimes I have gotten the feeling that they know we won't be back, so why make to much effort. I'm not sure but just a feeling I have had.

[sail7seas]

Really sorry to read your bad experience in Pinnacle.

It seems it was a staffing/management sort of issue as we've never had such an awful wait to be served on seven day/b-to-b/collector's short cruises. Pinnacle has been the same and we expect it to be whether a long or short cruise.

 

Happy the rest of your cruise seems like it was wonderful.

Welcome back.

[lovetocruise2020]

Just back Sunday night from our 19 day Dawson/Denali Plus cruise tour, ending with a 7-day cruise on the Statendam, from Seward to Vancouver. We had a great time, with just a few little glitches, and we are so glad we were able to make the trip. We had some amazing experiences!

Our last dinner on the ship, however, was not so amazing. On the last night of the cruise, we went with our Travel Pals to the Pinnacle Grill for dinner. We had a 6:30 reservation and had requested a table by the window (didn't want to miss any whales!). We showed up right on time and got a nice table. We sat down ... and we waited, and we waited, and we waited, and we waited ... and finally someone showed up to fill our water glasses and drop off menus. Then we waited & waited & waited for someone to take our orders. Finally, got our orders in. Wine steward came by, took our order. Took her a long time to get back with our bottle, but she finally arrived & poured.

Almost finished with the first glass, when we got the "chef surprise" little bit-sized appetizer. A mushroom ravioli. With pastry dough. Extremely tough pastry dough - chewy & inedible. Now all the water glasses are empty, too ... we flagged down a passing waiter & asked for refills, and we waited & waited & waited a very long time before the water pitcher was brought to our table.

Waited another long time before the appetizers were served, but at least they were yummy. We had to wait a long time for the empty dishes to be removed. Had to keep waiting for water refills, too.

It took almost another 30 minutes for our entrees to be served. They were all fine except for one - Mr Chew had ordered the NY strip steak but was brought a porterhouse instead, a two-pounder by the looks of it. Rather than wait another 30 minutes, he decided to eat part of it. Ate almost half. We all finished about the same time and sat for another 30 minutes waiting for our dishes to be cleared. Dessert was finally ordered and took - you guessed it - almost 30 minutes to arrive - and one of the orders was incorrect.

Mr Chew had to be somewhere and left without his dessert. As soon as it arrived, the Other Dude in our party jumped up and delivered it to him. When Mr Chew's ice cream was brought to him, the staff who were present were aghast at the reason, and arranged for us to have a full refund of our dinner.

Other Dude had also ordered decaf but is pretty sure he was served regular - he was wired & up all night. No other reason than the coffee!

Of our 3 and 1/2 hours spent in the PG that night, almost two of them were spent waiting & waiting & waiting to be served or for dishes to arrive or for dishes to be removed. There is a difference between a leisurely dinner and just poor, slow service! The food was yummy, but the service was crummy.

We have also eaten in the PG on the Amsterdam with no service or food issues. I wonder if it has to do with having 7-day turnaround cruises? Anyone have a similar story?

 

Sounds like our PG experiences, we prefer Tamarind. :(

Our worst experiences have been breakfast at the PG.

Sorry about your dinner Lady Chew!

[erewhon]

So sorry to read of your experience in the Pinnacle Grill.

 

Were there many other diners?

[startwin]

We had an experience similar to that on our last cruise, in the Pinnacle Grill. In fact, our server - after introducing himself - seemed to leave to go on a break. After almost 30 minutes we caught the eye of a female server who took over and then we saw the original one strolling in about 20 minutes later with a can of soda. Then the service was slow between courses. Fortunately we went back again on another night and had a better experience.

[world~citizen]

This has never happened to us in the PG - other things but not this. Obviously it does happen. All I can say is I hope it is a rare occurrence.

 

What a shame.

[Hlitner]

WOW! We love to dine and not be rushed...but 3+ hours is a bit much even for us. We have never been overly impressed with any of the Pinnacle's (the menu is old and tired) but still enjoy it once on most cruises.

 

Hank

[LVSue]

That is my main gripe with the Pinnacle. Several times I have had to request dessert delivered to the room because I just couldn't sit there any longer.

[JamesEM]

DW and I have eaten in the Pinnacle Grill four times, two great, one average, and one that was so bad we left and I wound up visiting with the Hotel Manager to get a refund and a nice bottle of wine.

[Krazy Kruizers]

That is terrible. I hope you wrote up your experience on your comment card.

We don't like to be rushed either -- but 3 1/2 hours is way too long.

We have dined many times in the Pinnacle in all ships and never experienced service that bad.

[KirkNC]

That is unacceptable. We have not had a slow dinner in Pinnacle in a long long time but even when we did it was not that slow. Our norm is around 1.5 to 2 hours.

[sapper1]

I would be stiff and sore after sitting for so long---- like a long airline flight.

Something must have been terribly out of whack that evening for you to have been subjected to such treatment, or should I say lack of treatment?

 

I hope it is not a harbinger of things to come in the Pinnacle as staffing levels are pared back on the ships.

[mamaofami]

I'm sorry to read about your experience in the Pinnacle. We've never had to wait like that. I hope it never happens to you again.

[rafinmd]

I would have hoped that dinner the last night would have been faster than usual rather than slower. People have packing and a lot of other stuff they NEED to do on that final night. Sorry it didn't work that way for you.

 

Roy

[G&G]

We have experienced all the above. The wait time between serving the food is SLOW !

 

The best service we have ever had at the Pinnacle is when the Pinnacle Restaurant Manager helped the staff take orders, serve the food and remove the plates. I spoke with the PRM and told him I appreciated his involvement with his staff. His comment to me was "We work as Team".

 

I wrote a letter to HAL about this incident, that the PRM was excellent and that other PRM's should follow his lead.

[kyriecat]

Lady Chew,

 

Your PG experience sounds very similar to mine when I sailed on Maasdam, 14-day Caribbean itinerary. The service was just horrible! It took forever (like you said 30-45 minutes between courses) and we practically had to beg to get water refilled. I like to have a break between courses but not that long! Our meal took over 3 hours. I had additional problems because I don't eat red meat (hubby does). It was the third night of the cruise, but they were out of the first two things that I tried to order (first choice was lobster but don't remember second). There were only 3 or 4 menu choices that weren't red meat. I ended up getting halibut, which is not a fish I like to eat because the only other choice on the menu was even less appealing. I should have stuck with pasta and vegetables because the fish was bland and not fully cooked. My husband enjoyed his filet mignon, but overall we felt like we had wasted our money on dinner.

 

I swore off PG and didn't bother to make a dinner reservation for our next cruise. However, the lunch menu looked good so we decided to give it try on Zuiderdam. Fabulous experience that time. The food was wonderful. The service was perfect - courses came out in a timely manner (not too slow, not too rushed) and glasses were refilled as they became low. After the good lunch, we wanted to try PG for dinner, but when we went to make reservations, the only times available were before 6 or after 9. We ended up not having dinner at PG - maybe next cruise.

[George C]

I expect to spend 2 or 2 1/2 hours when eating in Pinnacle, but service in Pinnacle and MDR is inconstant . I never want to spend over 2 hours in MDR but have no choice sometimes

[geoherb]

DH has a habit of getting up an helping himself to water pitchers when waiters don't come by to refill his glass. That usually gets the point across.

[cruz chic]

DH has a habit of getting up an helping himself to water pitchers when waiters don't come by to refill his glass. That usually gets the point across.

I've been tempted to do that myself but haven't:D. Maybe I will next time.

 

For the longest time every meal I ate in the Pinnacle was good with great service with the exception of the Ryndam a few years back. In February I went to the Pinnacle on the Noordam. It's pretty much what was described by the OP. HAL really needs to get it's ship together because this is "supposed" to be a premium experience.

[blueboro]

I am not sure your dining time of 3.5 hours is anything that has just recently begun to happen. When we were on the NA in 2011 it took 4 hours. We were a party of 8 but 4 hours is ridiculous.

[innlady1]

So sorry to hear of your bad experience, Lady Chew. 3 1/2 hours...that is outrageous!

[Lady Chew]

thanks for the comments ... I can see this is apparently a larger problem than just us. Probably a staffing problem. It's supposed to be premium food & service ... the food was pretty tasty & presented very well, but you can't have premium service without enough servers to make it so, and it doesn't matter how good the food is if you're really frustrated with the service!!

All four of us gave them a negative write-up on our comment cards that night. And as I mentioned, the staff who were with Mr Chew when his ice cream was delivered arranged for us to be reimbursed immediately, so no complaints there!

I don't think it was an issue with overcrowding, there were several other tables already started when we got there for our 6:30 reservation, and several came in afterwards, but there were always some empty tables. The servers just seemed to keep disappearing.

When we were on the Amsterdam last fall, we did sometimes refill our own wine glasses but never the water glasses. Since the wine is right there, it's a lot easier! Our wine steward did tell us once or twice that we were not "allowed" to pour our own wine ... that went over extremely well with Mr Chew (not!) and almost cost him his tip at the end of the cruise!

[lovetocruise2020]

Amsterdam[/i] last fall' date=' we did sometimes refill our own wine glasses but never the water glasses. Since the wine is right there, it's a lot easier! Our wine steward did tell us once or twice that we were not "allowed" to pour our own wine ... that went over extremely well with Mr Chew (not!) and almost cost him his tip at the end of the cruise![/color'][/size][/font]

 

Im not ok with paying a corkage fee in the PG and pouring my own wine.

Empty glasses, wrong orders and snooty service is why we do not eat in the PG and a huge reason why we stopped paying for neptune suites.

Closing PG for breakfast 15 minutes earlier then the time we were told? Just plain rude. We will give them ONE try on the NA, because we've only gone there on the Eurodam. Im not expecting much but everyone gets one chance with me.

[boulders]

Im not ok with paying a corkage fee in the PG and pouring my own wine.

Empty glasses, wrong orders and snooty service is why we do not eat in the PG and a huge reason why we stopped paying for neptune suites.

Closing PG for breakfast 15 minutes earlier then the time we were told? Just plain rude. We will give them ONE try on the NA, because we've only gone there on the Eurodam. Im not expecting much but everyone gets one chance with me.

 

Don't expect much. Our Le Cirque dinner on the NA was pretty bad. The food was worse than the service.