winemakers dinner on royal

[boca7]

Our first experience was this pas Nov. & the maître D was Davide, it was an outstanding dinner that he hosted throughout the entire time & cooked many items in front of us. Last week on the Royal we were anxious to do it again & had Roberto, what a waste of time & money. To begin with after he escorted us in was to offer the first drip, & I mean drip of wine, I asked about the champagne we had last time, no more or the after dinner drink, gone also. Also gone was Roberto to another table & didn`t come back till desert. We had one scallop on a cucumber, then a small amt of crab on lettuce & overcooked pork loin. Then a small spot of wine. What a waste of $40 & you can believe I didn`t tip him. The next day we went to the Crown & for only $25 had wonderful service with a large veal chop. It just aggravates me that they make something great & immediately ruin it.

[Astro Flyer]

Our first experience was this pas Nov. & the maître D was Davide, it was an outstanding dinner that he hosted throughout the entire time & cooked many items in front of us. Last week on the Royal we were anxious to do it again & had Roberto, what a waste of time & money. To begin with after he escorted us in was to offer the first drip, & I mean drip of wine, I asked about the champagne we had last time, no more or the after dinner drink, gone also. Also gone was Roberto to another table & didn`t come back till desert. We had one scallop on a cucumber, then a small amt of crab on lettuce & overcooked pork loin. Then a small spot of wine. What a waste of $40 & you can believe I didn`t tip him. The next day we went to the Crown & for only $25 had wonderful service with a large veal chop. It just aggravates me that they make something great & immediately ruin it.

I also greatly enjoyed the Winemakers dinner with Davide on the Royal in October & sorry to hear that your recent experience was so bad. :(

 

I hoped it would be implemented fleetwide like the Crab Shack on my recent cruises on the Sapphire & Golden. Hopefully you informed Princess about the big drop in the experience & they will return to it's original great experience.

[boca7]

I also greatly enjoyed the Winemakers dinner with Davide on the Royal in October & sorry to hear that your recent experience was so bad. :(

 

I hoped it would be implemented fleetwide like the Crab Shack on my recent cruises on the Sapphire & Golden. Hopefully you informed Princess about the big drop in the experience & they will return to it's original great experience.

I complained to Roberto & he just said they dropped aspects of the dinner, & also complained several times to the head maître D & his comment was "you already told me". Customer care attitude has sure changed, even on the phone.

[GweninTX]

I would have asked for the charge to be removed! I sure hope this changes by the end of the month for our group on the Royal who plans to do the winemakers dinner. If we have an experience as yours, I will refuse to pay!

Edited April 10, 2014 by GweninTX

[ssawjo]

Our first experience was this pas Nov. & the maître D was Davide, it was an outstanding dinner that he hosted throughout the entire time & cooked many items in front of us. Last week on the Royal we were anxious to do it again & had Roberto, what a waste of time & money. To begin with after he escorted us in was to offer the first drip, & I mean drip of wine, I asked about the champagne we had last time, no more or the after dinner drink, gone also. Also gone was Roberto to another table & didn`t come back till desert. We had one scallop on a cucumber, then a small amt of crab on lettuce & overcooked pork loin. Then a small spot of wine. What a waste of $40 & you can believe I didn`t tip him. The next day we went to the Crown & for only $25 had wonderful service with a large veal chop. It just aggravates me that they make something great & immediately ruin it.

 

Wow, what a disappointment! We did this dinner in November and it was wonderful. Never an empty wine glass. The wine flowed like water! In fact, I told people some folks who were going the following evening to not drink much beforehand. And the meal was very good. I believe it was Davide who told us that some people were making a reservation and not showing up. They were thinking of charging them something like $20 for being a no show. Don't know if that is happening. Personally, I think it is a great idea and reasonably priced but now not so sure.

[Astro Flyer]

I complained to Roberto & he just said they dropped aspects of the dinner, & also complained several times to the head maître D & his comment was "you already told me". Customer care attitude has sure changed, even on the phone.

 

I would have asked for the charge to be removed! I sure hope this changes by the end of the month for our group on the Royal who plans to do the winemakers dinner. If we have an experience as yours, I will refuse to pay!

 

Wow, what a disappointment! We did this dinner in November and it was wonderful. Never an empty wine glass. The wine flowed like water! In fact, I told people some folks who were going the following evening to not drink much beforehand. And the meal was very good. I believe it was Davide who told us that some people were making a reservation and not showing up. They were thinking of charging them something like $20 for being a no show. Don't know if that is happening. Personally, I think it is a great idea and reasonably priced but now not so sure.

With such a limited number of people who can attend the winemakers dinner I think they should charge a fee for being a no-show...I wonder how they handle no-shows with the Chefs Table?

 

That's a poor excuse for the drastic reduction in the winemakers dinner! Obviously taste is very subjective however on a recent long cruise on the Golden Princess the food was very bland including the pizza. :(

[JimmyVWine]

Sounds like they need to reconfigure the entire event, including a name change. Has there ever actually been a "winemaker" at any of these dinners? I'm not talking about an importer or a distributor or a regional sales person. I am talking about an actual winemaker whose imprint is on the wines. I've always found the whole name and marketing of these to be dubiuos.

[boca7]

Sounds like they need to reconfigure the entire event, including a name change. Has there ever actually been a "winemaker" at any of these dinners? I'm not talking about an importer or a distributor or a regional sales person. I am talking about an actual winemaker whose imprint is on the wines. I've always found the whole name and marketing of these to be dubiuos.

Davide was quite a expert of wine as his family is in the business in Italy, he enjoyed staying with us & explaining the different wines. That is why we went back to our dismay.