Am I the only one? Is food a deal breaker?

[cruisebie]

The person was in a spa suite but the Haven restaurant also has the takeout policy in effect as well ~or~ they could also been referring to the spa mini-suite which is also in forward for the Getaway - I looked at the deck 14 plans, all of the spa rooms are not in the Haven area at all, proving that poster might be telling the truth regarding how they saw it. I know exactly what they meant regarding seeing those buffet plates - the buffet for the Breakaway-class ships are all the way in the aft taking up the almost 1/3 of the ship with the elevator area in the smack dab in the middle of place (its easy to pass by that area without noticing it - the door area leading in/out is smaller than the sundeck doors in Forward of the same deck; well, on Breakaway anyway....). Look if you see Eggs Benedict with hash browns, cookies, brownies, Indian food, Seafood dishes, Chicken Salad, rice of any type, whole apple, and pretzel rolls varieties on people's plates walking around the ship- thats a safe bet that all came from the buffet since that only place to get majority of that stuff especially the pretzel rolls.

 

 

What does the Haven Restaurant have to do with anything? The poster never mentioned it in the post you quoted. The person is in a Haven Spa suite and mentions having a butler in her thread which is currently on the first page of this board, so she is definitely in a suite--not a mini. Her experience of having a dessert delivered to her cabin is due to having Haven status. Other first hand experiences reported a different outcome on this matter. As far as the buffet, the rule is in place, but the staff is likely not enforcing it. After all, they don't enforce the chair hog policy. My observation is the staff do not like to enforce these rules that put them at odds with guests.

 

I also want to say I appreciate the information that the poster, SuiteTraveler, has been posting. My intent here is not to call her out, just to point out that it is not valid to use her experience to judge the new rules NCL has put in place for cruisers in non-suite cabins.

[SuiteTraveler]

What does the Haven Restaurant have to do with anything? The poster never mentioned it in the post you quoted. The person is in a Haven Spa suite and mentions having a butler in her thread which is currently on the first page of this board, so she is definitely in a suite--not a mini. Her experience of having a dessert delivered to her cabin is due to having Haven status. Other first hand experiences reported a different outcome on this matter. As far as the buffet, the rule is in place, but the staff is likely not enforcing it. After all, they don't enforce the chair hog policy. My observation is the staff do not like to enforce these rules that put them at odds with guests.

 

I also want to say I appreciate the information that the poster, SuiteTraveler, has been posting. My intent here is not to call her out, just to point out that it is not valid to use her experience to judge the new rules NCL has put in place for cruisers in non-suite cabins.

 

Jeanie, you are wrong. The dessert sent to our cabin was not from The Haven Restaurant and the waitress had no idea I was a Haven guest either. Although we are Haven guests, we use The Haven restaurant primarily for breakfast and a couple of lunches. We rarely eat dinner there - maybe once per cruise at most.

 

I asked my questions at the various dining venues on the ship of waitstaff employees who had no idea I was a Haven guest.

 

I went to several different restaurants every day and night (never in the Haven Restaurant) and asked the waitstaff these questions about what they would do if I was with a child who was having a meltdown or was sick and needed to leave. NONE of these people knew I was in The Haven at that point. For one thing, they didn't even know my name or room number at the time I asked them. To them, I was just some anonymous guest who walked into the dining venue, struck up a brief conversation and politely and neutrally asked them a question. So it was NEVER a staff member in the Haven or outside of the Haven telling a Haven guest this information. I asked my questions in a relaxed and courteous manner and attempted to appear as neutral as possible while listening to the answer so as not to impact the way the staff imparted information to me. Additionally, I was in a suite on 14, so unless the staff has studied exactly which 18 cabin numbers out of 180 cabins on 14 are in The Haven, they wouldn't know I wasn't in a normal cabin even IF they knew my cabin number. My Spa Suite was next door to a Spa Balcony, so unless cabin numbers were memorized by the dining staff, most probably would be completely unaware that I was in The Haven at all even if they did see my cabin number. Also, it was multiple staff members in multiple dining venues throughout the Getaway answering these questions. I asked at Taste, Savor, Cagney's, Le Bistro, O'Sheehans, Shanghai's, Ocean Blue, Moderno, and the sushi bar. I forgot to ask at the Raw Bar, but then, who would even want take food to go from there?

 

The dessert was delivered from a specialty restaurant - not The Haven. Our waitress at the time had no idea whatsoever that we were in a Spa Suite. She told us that the dessert could be delivered by room service for free and arranged to have that done BEFORE she became aware of our stateroom number. She showed no recognition that we were in The Haven until I told her. She did offer to call the butler to deliver our food but I asked her not to because it was 9:30pm so she passed the food to room service. I don't think even room service was aware we were in a spa suite either as they just quickly delivered the dessert to us and didn't look at our suite number and call the butler to make the delivery.

 

So was my little study valid for the average guest on Getaway? Yes. Was it the strongest possible study? No. I didn't have any confederates to enlist in the study so it is only the information I got in multiple dining venues from about 25 waitstaff members. It was a pretty good sample size considering that I am only one person but not ideal at all. Still the fact that I got the same answers to my questions consistently shows that the dining staff on Getaway is very well versed in what to do to assist passengers with the new rules in effect and that there is a great deal of thought behind the new system and also flexibility as to how to accommodate the various situation that can arise during dining service. No, you can't take your food with you from a dining room but on the other hand, they are actually providing a much higher level of service to passengers who have an issue or emergency arise while dining and must leave the dining room by sending the food to your cabin via room service. How nice for the harried parents of a misbehaving child or parents of a child who falls asleep at the table that they don't have to wait for their food to be packed up and drag their food along with them to their cabin while trying to manage their child. Instead the parents can leave the dining room straight away knowing their food will be properly wrapped and delivered promptly with all that is needed to enjoy the meal via room service! How nice for the spouse or partner and the ill person to not have to wait for their food to be packed up to take with them so that they can immediately escort their ailing spouse or partner back to the cabin and know that their own food will arrive shortly via room service, properly wrapped and with everything needed to continue to enjoy the meal. To me, this is a higher standard of service.

 

It also occurred to me that the no to-go policy actually protects the kitchens in the various small restaurants from being overwhelmed by to go orders and by doing so protects guests from longer wait times. Without to go orders, they are only cooking for the number of people that the dining venue is designed to accommodate.

 

Think about this: What if O'Sheehans was full and 50 other people placed a to go order for 2 people during lunch service or dinner service. That's 100 additional orders delaying all the orders for the diners in O'Sheehans in a four hour service period. In a full restaurant with a 4 hours dining window, you would want to be able to turn the tables at least twice. But for the sake of argument, let's say the particular O'Sheehans seated 100 people. So the kitchen and staff would be designed to cook 200 meals per night between 6pm and 10pm. Now add in an additional 50 to go orders for 2 people - that's 100 additional entrees (50 additional entrees in the first 2 hours and 50 in the second 2 hours from to-go orders plus starters and desserts for these to go orders as well) and suddenly the kitchen is overwhelmed by orders and gets backed up. The guests in the O'Sheehan's dining room are waiting for their food which is being delayed by all the to go orders. That's not fair to the people in the O'Sheehan's dining room. Now their food is coming out with a 15 to 30 minute wait time due to the to go orders that are being cooked and packed up in the kitchen. The other issue is in provisioning. For example at O'Sheehans, they serve prime rib some nights which is very popular. I'm just making up some numbers in the following scenario to provide an example: If O'Sheehan's expects to turn 200 guests in our 100 seat O'Sheehan's, and 80% of those orders would likely be prime rib, then, provisioning would buy enough prime rib to cover those 160 guests plus a bit more - maybe 180 portions to be cooked for each 4 hour dinner service featuring prime rib. I think most people know that prime rib is something that must be cooked ahead of time as it takes at least 3 hours to cook, plus 20 minutes or so to season and prepare for the oven. It's not something you can just pop in the microwave and get a satisfactory result. If there were an additional 50 to go orders for 100 people, and 80 of those to go orders were also for prime rib, then O'Sheehans will run out of prime rib for those dining in-house early in the service to the second turn of tables (which for the sake of this argument we'll say happens at 8pm). So O'Sheehans would run out of prime rib around 8:30 pm due to the to go orders for prime rib. That's not fair to those who came into O'Sheehans to dine on prime rib that night. So the to go orders are problematic for the various restaurants for three very good reasons: slowing the kitchen, provisioning the right amount of food and slowing the dining service in the restaurant due to the kitchen having to prepare the to go orders along with the regular dining service orders.

 

Finally, all day long, I would see people in the forward elevators and forward stairs with food or beverage they had clearly gotten from the buffet such as yogurt, fruit, ice cream cones, coffee and cartons of milk. They were far from the buffet and clearly taking the food back to their cabins. I also saw people with pastries from the the Cafe in the Atrium and Carlo's Bake Shop in various areas of the ship. So, I don't think that anyone is being prevented from taking these snacks to their cabin. Also, I was allowed to take wine and sparkling water back to my cabin from multiple dining venues.

 

I also noticed a distinct improvement in the overall service levels provided by the staff in all beverage and dining areas of the ship and what felt like a higher morale among food service crew members who showed an unprecedented eagerness to serve. Waitstaff in bars were quick to offer patrons beverages, often we had barely sat down and the waiter or waitress was there to take our order and I noticed this everywhere - waitstaff were eager to serve and seemed to genuinely care that guests were being served in a timely manner. Staff members who could not have known I was in The Haven seemed as eager to assist or serve me as those who did know I was in The Haven. The improved morale was such that it prompted me to tip above and beyond the pre-paid tips in many, many instances even with the 18% service charge - I would often up my tip to be 20%. This improvement in morale and service is good for everyone who cruises on NCL.

 

I never asked any of The Haven Restaurant waitstaff my questions about what would happen if I got sick and my husband needed to take me back to the cabin or what would happen if we needed to leave The Haven Restaurant due to our child. But, based on the consistent answers I got in all the other dining venues, I would expect that The Haven Restaurant would have a similar answer using the butler assigned to our suite instead of room service. But again, I excluded The Haven from my little study because I thought it would not be of interest to those cruising in non-Haven cabins.

Edited May 10, 2015 by SuiteTraveler

[cruisebie]

Jeanie, you are wrong. The dessert sent to our cabin was not from The Haven Restaurant and the waitress had no idea I was a Haven guest either. Although we are Haven guests, we use The Haven restaurant primarily for breakfast and a couple of lunches. We rarely eat dinner there - maybe once per cruise at most.

.

 

 

I did realize that your dessert was sent from a specialty restaurant. I was actually responding to Maywell's comment that the food had been sent from the Haven Restaurant. That is why I asked what the Haven Restaurant had to do with the matter, as you had never said this.

 

I do appreciate the time you took from your vacation to ask these questions. It sounds like the staff on the Getaway, at least, are getting some instruction in how to handle various situations. That is encouraging since I will be on the Getaway again this December. I did see at least two first hand reports from the Breakaway where the posters reported not being able to have food from Cagney's and La Cucina sent back to their cabins. I believe there was another one from the Epic also. Hopefully, the rest of the fleet will soon begin following the Getaway's example.

 

As I said before, I am not surprised at all that people were bringing buffet food back to their cabins. The staff usually looks the other way in these situations that put them at odds with guests. I feel that they receive such good training on how to provide a wonderful on board experience, that this type of thing makes them very uncomfortable.

[SuiteTraveler]

I did realize that your dessert was sent from a specialty restaurant. I was actually responding to Maywell's comment that the food had been sent from the Haven Restaurant. That is why I asked what the Haven Restaurant had to do with the matter, as you had never said this.

 

I do appreciate the time you took from your vacation to ask these questions. It sounds like the staff on the Getaway, at least, are getting some instruction in how to handle various situations. That is encouraging since I will be on the Getaway again this December. I did see at least two first hand reports from the Breakaway where the posters reported not being able to have food from Cagney's and La Cucina sent back to their cabins. I believe there was another one from the Epic also. Hopefully, the rest of the fleet will soon begin following the Getaway's example.

 

As I said before, I am not surprised at all that people were bringing buffet food back to their cabins. The staff usually looks the other way in these situations that put them at odds with guests. I feel that they receive such good training on how to provide a wonderful on board experience, that this type of thing makes them very uncomfortable.

 

Jeanie,

Oh, OK, I understand. I think you will love Getaway. I've been on lots of ships and this is my favorite to date. I had the same reaction to Oasis of the Seas in her maiden year. On disembarking my husband and I looked at each other and said, "Let's do that again!" I did the survey in response to some other posters who were asking me what the rules were on the Getaway as I was posting live from the ship. I set out to find out what the facts were in regards to special circumstances (kid, illness, b-day cake after too much food).

 

I think the difference may be that some people ask to bring back leftovers vs. an actual unexpected situation that prevents them from having their meal, or in our case, flat out too much food after 3 courses each, plus wine, plus some food from the Raw Bar prior to dinner AND a birthday cake from Carlo's Bakery served as a surprise by Ocean Blue that would have gone 100% uneaten since it had been brought to our table if it was not sent to our cabin. (If the waitress had warned me about the cake, I would have told her to bring it and not ask for a dessert order so we could have eaten it at the table. But she didn't tell me they were going to do this so it was a complete surprise.) They sent the 100% uneaten but technically "served" cake (since she put it on our table) to our cabin. My husband (the chocolate lover in our family) put it in the refrigerator and easily polished it off in the next 24 hours. BTW, he said that was the BEST tasting of the 3 cakes he received onboard - including the Chocolate Mousse cake I sent him from Carlo's bakery via the internet prior to our cruise. :( Oh...well...

 

The other issue I can think of is that now NCL has some food items that cannot be safely preserved in the refrigerator such as the sushi and raw fish from the Raw Bar.

 

But this brings up the other possibility that other cruisers, who don't know better, might be storing plates and plates of food in their refrigerator, which spoil over time and create a mess for the cabin attendant and possibly damage the refrigerator in the cabin.

 

Of course, the other question is how cold do the room refrigerators actually keep things? There are coolers and true refrigerators. If these are just coolers, then, they are OK for drinks and cake (which technically can be stored for up to 3 days at room temperature) but not OK for a lot of other foods. See the temperature guidelines here:

http://www.cooper-atkins.com/Customer-Content/WWW/CMS/files/documentation/Sales/Critical_Temp_Chart_2012.pdf

 

http://www.wilton.com/decorating/icing/icing-chart.cfm

 

But for many other foods...room temperature or storage above 41F is flat out dangerous. So the issue regarding storage temperature also may be behind the reason for not wanting guests to take leftovers to their cabins.

 

The other question that comes to mind is when the heck would you eat leftovers on a cruise? The cruise line is so busy giving you ALL the freshly prepared food you can handle morning, noon and night, I can't think of ANY time to eat leftovers.

[Pappion]

Not a deal breaker for us. We got room service maybe 2x per cruise the past couple years. While the $15/cruise won't kill us, We can walk our fat butts up a few flights if we really need something that bad (or down a few flights if its late night and O'Sheehans is the only thing open).

 

If we had to go back to the old ways of assigned seating/dining times, that is when we would say it's a deal breaker.

[jrsegrl]

Definitely not a deal breaker for us either. About 50 cruises for us and never ordered room service once or brought food back to the room. Food is always available somewhere. Personally prefer to have food and food debris in dining venues.

[Jay Sam]

I couldn't care less about the room service charges. I got room service once for a pot of coffee in the morning. It took almost 30 minutes for it to arrive. I just throw something on and go up on deck. I spend very little time in the cabin.

[Judee]

Yes JimK! exactly how we feel

[minniemouse100]

I criused recently and there was a charge for room service which to me just takes away from the tip most people would give to the delivery person, I'm older so been cruising for several years still remember when room service was free all the time on carnival.We always gave the person delivering sandwhich late at night a large tip..not as much with new charges.the only winner with these new charges is the stock holders.once again they are taking money from their employees to fill their own pockets.its just hard to give that large tip on top of the 7:95 service charge. Love cruising but I will just get my own latenight snacks after leaving casino..for all those that remember room service food and delivery use to be a totally free service offered..I understand the buisness side too. control cost to make money .I feel like staff made a lot of money on tips and the cruiseline just wanted to get a peice of the pie..

[DMH15]

What do you consider a "big tip"?

[minniemouse100]

Donna I said large tip not "big tip".Even though this is not the point of my post ,.I am the person that tips daily to my butler but I also tip the waiters and bar staff daily ..and anyone else that gives me good service. The person that We tend to tip the most is the person who is always there cleaning our room and making sure we have everything we need.we tip these people on top of the already daily tip charged per person.We do this because we can..And we have family members who have waited on the public to help with schooling. Also we believe that good service should be rewarded.some people post here that they are already getting enough from us so why tip again, and I think it is a personal decision on what you want to do. its my money to give and others can do what they please .I don't judge. I just was.saying the way this is going I feel like it will be taking money from the staff. So corporate can improve their bottom line...

[mkdreams]

Without a doubt a big deal breaker for us.

[wallybone]

Smoking band was a cruise industry wide change, this food change is only NCL. I know a few people smoking was a deal breaker. If some line in the US still allow smoking on balconies you bet their would be people using that line. Not a lot but some but this move by NCL exec is totally about more money and is a deal breaker for a lot of people. Those people will be jumping to a different cruise line for sure. And stoping me and other from cruising with NCL for the first time.

[Cruise4Real]

The other question that comes to mind is when the heck would you eat leftovers on a cruise? The cruise line is so busy giving you ALL the freshly prepared food you can handle morning, noon and night, I can't think of ANY time to eat leftovers.

 

And yet, your husband managed to polish off that LEFTOVER cake in under 24 hours. :rolleyes:

[NLH Arizona]

Smoking band was a cruise industry wide change, this food change is only NCL. I know a few people smoking was a deal breaker. If some line in the US still allow smoking on balconies you bet their would be people using that line. Not a lot but some but this move by NCL exec is totally about more money and is a deal breaker for a lot of people. Those people will be jumping to a different cruise line for sure. And stoping me and other from cruising with NCL for the first time.

There are still smoking on balconies on some cruise lines. I'm thinking the same amount of passengers that left for the balcony smoking ban will be about the same as passengers that leave because of this...not many. Edited May 13, 2015 by NLH Arizona

[knight2096]

The NCL rep I talked to actually told us that they had a lot of cancelations because of the new policies. There are a lot of angry NCL cruisers and the word seems to be spreading fast.

Edited May 13, 2015 by knight2096

[sparks1093]

There are still smoking on balconies on some cruise lines. I'm thinking the same amount of passengers that left for the balcony smoking ban will be about the same as passengers that leave because of this...not many.

 

I am not willing to cancel a cruise over these changes but would consider them when booking my next cruise. Unfortunately I fear that NCL's pricing model will be more of a deterrent to me booking than the onboard policies.