WINE STEWARDS in MDR, going ?

[NSWP]

Just off Arcadia in the Med, 13/4-30/4. Good cruise, good food, good staff, good entertainment. However I was told by our Head Waiter in Meridian Restaurant that wine stewards will no longer be on Arcadia from June, your wine will have to be procured by your table waiter/assistant waiter. I would think all P&O ships would be so affected?

 

Wine service was not great to our table, the wine steward told me he had 20 tables to look after, way too many I think. Yes I often used the wine line to pre order my wine but it was often late at the table.

 

Forwarded for information.

Edited May 11, 2014 by NSWP

[jackieo]

Oh if that's the case my husband will be happy. We have not had great experiences with the wine waiters on P and O. Once you can actually order and it arrives the wine waiter seems to disappear so we are left with empty glasses and trying to see where on earth he actually stashed our bottle. Lol! Hubby got very frustrated. Other lines we have sailed have had the table waiter doing the wine no problems then.

[soobs]

Wouldn't bother me either we have not had brilliant experience with the sommelier's, we like a glass of wine with our meal, we are not rolling in money so our wine taste is not expensive as long as it's not really cheap plonk we are not that bothered. we often feel a little pressurised by the sommelier and one in particular was rude/sulky when we didn't accept his recommendation which I will add was mostly the same bottle he recommended to others - they must have had stock they wanted to clear!!

 

Only a little thing nothing that would make me complain or ruin the cruise in anyway the rest of the service in the MDR we have found to be excellent they work so hard.

[Josy1953]

Princess did this few years ago and we thought that as we were not great drinkers that it would not affect us, wrong, the waiters now have to do the bar service in addition to their normal food service. Bear in mind that the wine etc is not stored in the galley so the waiters have to go wandering around to where it is stored, get in a queue to place their orders, wait for the orders to be filled and then deliver them to the diners. Princess did not replace the wine stewards with additional waiting staff, it was simply a way of reducing costs, the result of the extra work on the waiters and assistant waiters has meant that the dining service has deteriorated to the point where it became the final straw and we no longer cruise with Princess.

[annieuk]

Well we had a fantastic wine waiter on our cruise on Azura in March. He was very knowledgeable and seemed to keep everyone very happy. We never had to look for him to get our glasses topped up - which we have in the past. He was great and once he knew what type of wine we liked he was able to suggest others we might like and he was right.

[richleeds]

Princess did this few years ago and we thought that as we were not great drinkers that it would not affect us, wrong, the waiters now have to do the bar service in addition to their normal food service. Bear in mind that the wine etc is not stored in the galley so the waiters have to go wandering around to where it is stored, get in a queue to place their orders, wait for the orders to be filled and then deliver them to the diners. Princess did not replace the wine stewards with additional waiting staff, it was simply a way of reducing costs, the result of the extra work on the waiters and assistant waiters has meant that the dining service has deteriorated to the point where it became the final straw and we no longer cruise with Princess.

 

We cruised Ruby Princess in March and had no issues. As the 2 regular waiters were looking after our wine, they were able to take the wine order straight away rather than have to wait for the wine waiter to appear. Same for refilling our glasses, it happened every time our waiters cleared something away or brought another course. Didn't miss the wine waiter at all and they are clearly so sales/product driven that they became salesmen rather than great knowledgable sommeliers.

Edited May 11, 2014 by richleeds
Typo

[majortom10]

Yes it is going to happen on all ships the table waiters will take your drinks order before they take the food order. They have done it this way on Princess for a while and it works very well on our recent cruise on Oriana sometimes the wine waiter didnt come to the table asking us for drinks/wine order until half way through main meal so wasnt going to order a bottle of wine then so P&Os loss. On occasions he didnt even come at all to our table so think the new way will improve things.

[Brayman]

And presumably the waiters will get the commission from the wine sale?

[richleeds]

I agree Shilly, sometimes the wine waiter showed up so late it wasnt worth ordering a bottle.

 

At least now you have your own waiter who is accountable for your food AND wine and is usually no more than a few feet away from you and you can always give him/her a polite reminder if your wine hasnt yet arrived or your glass is empty.

 

We cruise Ventura the first 2 weeks of June so maybe this transition will happen when we are onboard, I expect a few teething problems if so.

 

I think you will now find attentive Sommeliers now only on luxury lines like SilverSea who when we cruised with them had excellent wine service - it also helps that the wine is all inclusive!

[Denarius]

I cannot see a problem hers as long as the number of waiters reflects the fact that they are now dealing with wine as well as food. After all, very few restaurants on shore nowadays have separate wine waiters. There is a logic to ordering your wine at the same time as you order your food.

[Bells65]

We too have had issues with wine waiters and waiting with empty glasses for them to reappear. I don't have a problem with ordering drinks at the same time as ordering food. Maybe they could employ some of the wine waiters to help the "ordinary" waiters and help ease the workload.

 

Bells

[Presto2]

Groan - not P&O as well. Seems like Celebrity have gone this way and reviews are saying that it is taking an age to get a drink as the waiters have this additional responsibility now.

 

Must admit, my first reaction was that I wasn't at all happy -------- on reflection I think it would make life so much easier if they just gave you a wine cooler with your wine and you could pour it yourself when needed. We ended up doing this on Celebrity once as no one came back to pour for us. We found our wine and got on with ourselves !

Edited May 11, 2014 by Presto2

[yesididit]

Hello everybody, please tell me I've read all this wrong? Do they take the bottle away? Why? Please don't say health and safety, if you do I will cancel jolly on Ventura week after next ! Been on a couple of cruises before and have to say I got a real hang up with the waiters filling my glass, I just hate a glass filled up to the brim.... just me I know, but the waiter turned it into a game, he would sneak up from behind and laugh while he topped the glass up, I used to get seriously annoyed by this. I used to have to place my hand on top of the glass to stop them doing it.

At least the bottle was left on the table, where do they take them??

[richleeds]

Not away as such, just back to their station or to a cooler, but it's out of arms reach if you want to self pour. Not H&S related.

[yesididit]

Thanks for your quick reply Rich, why do they take it away, assuming it's red , no cooler needed, is it a rule, no bottles on table? I remember on my last cruise it used to be almost pudding time before the wine arrived, I'm no alcholic but it made me slightly anxious for a drink !

[Brayman]

Not away as such, just back to their station or to a cooler, but it's out of arms reach if you want to self pour. Not H&S related.

 

Only the white wine, reds are left on the table so you can help yourself, although generally the wine waiter will pour that as well if required.

[tartanexile81]

We've always had good wine waiters, some exceptionally good, on P&O and we got to know them well as we ordered most nights. We've also found our wine to be waiting on the table any time we've ordered by phone during the day.

 

I cannot believe P&O can ask the waiting staff to do any more than they do at present. These hard-working, conscientious people seem to be rushed off their feet the whole time and although they are still very helpful they hardly have time to stop and chat like they used to. No doubt adding to the waiters' duties with the wine is the real reason behind dropping the silver service.

Edited May 11, 2014 by tartanexile81

[yesididit]

Order by phone? A day without learning is a day wasted - my mum used to say. Didn't know you could do this, great idea :)

[Sanjam cruisers]

On receiving my wine order from the waiter and after he has poured our first glass I tell him/her just to leave it and I will look after it myself on all occasions our waiters have been more than happy to do so.On our first few cruises where we did 1st sitting our wine was always at the table waiting for us as we ordered the next nights wine prior to leaving as both of us are predominantly drink red.

[richleeds]

Order by phone? A day without learning is a day wasted - my mum used to say. Didn't know you could do this, great idea :)

 

 

Good idea but until we sit down for dinner we are not always sure what we want to eat/drink.

[tom_uk]

Good idea but until we sit down for dinner we are not always sure what we want to eat/drink.

 

On sea days we go down to one of the restaurants and see what's on the menu for dinner. We won't make a final decision but we may well be able to decide that our choice will be between just a couple of alternatives, and that has often allowed us to order wine in advance.

[Elviex]

Looking forward to seeing how this works tomorrow when we join Azura for two weeks in the Med....yippee!! I also hate it when my glass is refilled after just a few sips, I prefer to be in charge of when I get a top up....we have the added challenge of getting our pre-ordered wine package delivered.. going to be a fun cruise! As they say, bring it on!

 

 

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[dgs1956]

We have never had a problem getting our wine package delivered nor have we had any problem with waiters filling our glasses too quickly. Just tell them. They're not stupid or awkward. They just want to give you a friendly efficient service.

[NSWP]

Some great replies to my original post, thanks. Personally, being generally a Princess cruiser, I find that one's table waiters on the Princess ships handle the drinks orders quite well. But as I said our wine waiter on Arcadia the other week, really struggled handling 20 tables, not his fault I know.

 

All the best to you all and happy sipping.

[groovechick]

We had already noticed on our Azura cruise last August that our wine waiter seemed to have far more tables to cover than the wine waiter on our cruise the year before that on Aurora. That might have something to do with Azura being a bigger ship, but we didn't find the service to be particularly good. It often took a very long time before he got to us and his attitude was generally quite dismissive because we don't order a lot of, or very expensive wines. It looks like pre-ordering by phone will be the way to go.