We Walked Out of Tuscan Grille - Silhouette

[wwcruisers]

I actually think this is a good idea! We've been in Tuscan on 5 different ships and the only one I ever saw it truly busy on was on Constellation. It is quite large on the "S" class....might be interesting to convert part of that to something else!!!

 

Well, I really DO learn something every day, on these boards! :cool:

I had thought that Tuscan was only on the S-Class ships. But, I've never been on Connie. Was it added when she was Soltice-ized?

[Wine-O]

Well, I really DO learn something every day, on these boards! :cool:

I had thought that Tuscan was only on the S-Class ships. But, I've never been on Connie. Was it added when she was Soltice-ized?

 

Yes they did. It's up on Deck 11, mid-ship. On Summit they added Qsine in that same area. Not sure about the other 2 M-Class ships.

[Gracie115]

Well, I really DO learn something every day, on these boards! :cool:

I had thought that Tuscan was only on the S-Class ships. But, I've never been on Connie. Was it added when she was Soltice-ized?

 

Connie is the only M class with Tuscan...all the others have Qsine... yes added when "solstisized" Actually Connie had a "mini" solstization" before any of the other M class which is when Tuscan was added.... then all the rest of the M class had the whole process where the AQ rooms were added up on Deck 11 and Qsine added.....Connie got that part last of all them.. We really enjoyed Tuscan on Connie....glad it has it rather than Qsine...

Edited August 7, 2015 by Gracie115

[MicCanberra]

I am on the Connie next year and look forward to returning to the Tuscan Grill.

[need2cruisesoon]

I am on the Connie next year and look forward to returning to the Tuscan Grill.

 

May I suggest you reserve at 6:00 to eat by 9:00 - if lucky.:D

[roxievegas]

After reading all of the problems, i would hesitate to pay to eat in any of the restaurants. But, if I decided to go I would let them know when I showed up for dinner, that I expect to be served and not left at the table eating bread all night. Once I have established my terms, if they are not meet, I would leave.

[Christine Frances]

I am sorry but if my DH decided to have a tantrum and take a round out of the Maitre'd and the Chef in front of other passengers he could go to the buffet by himself. I would be at the Martini Bar. We have had much worse issues than drawn out service during cruises, hotel stays etc and DH would never, ever raise his voice or cause a scene. I would have been mortified just watching it.

[MizDemeanor]

After reading all of the problems, i would hesitate to pay to eat in any of the restaurants. But, if I decided to go I would let them know when I showed up for dinner, that I expect to be served and not left at the table eating bread all night. Once I have established my terms, if they are not meet, I would leave.

 

Then be sure to order your courses so you can enjoy what's on the menu. After all that's why you went there.

[MicCanberra]

May I suggest you reserve at 6:00 to eat by 9:00 - if lucky.:D

 

LOl, that would be fine if they are comping the meal.:D

[Evangaline]

I also wonder what on earth the party could have had at Ocean View Cafe at 10:30 that was 'wonderful'!! Isn't it just pizza and pasta at that time?

 

Given that they had to wait that long to get dinner, I imagine anything would have tasted wonderful including the paper napkins.

[MicCanberra]

Given that they had to wait that long to get dinner, I imagine anything would have tasted wonderful including the paper napkins.

 

Agree, the pizza would have been heavenly by then.:D

[Project_gal]

Our worst specialty dining experience was in silk harvest. When they seated us they told us that the table across from us was VIP's. They were actually several young ship officers and their dates. They literally had 4 waiters standing behind them, pouring their drinks, entrée after entrée being served. My wife and I had not even been given a menu for over 1/2 hour. Finally they took our order, 45 mins for the appetizer to arrive. I don't know if it was good or not since we never had a chance to order a drink. I stood up, complained to the boss who shrugged his shoulders and we left. I also contacted then CEO Dan Hanrahan, he we quite upset. It's the wrong impression, officers are more important then paying customers.

 

You would think that paying customers would be most important wouldn't you, however Celebrity staff from Miami [and elsewhere] do not think they are. We did a TA followed by 5-night Caribbean on Constellation in 2015. Celebrity were holding a marketing conference on board the Caribbean leg and the Celebrity staff, up to and including the then CEO, all considered their needs most important.

 

They dominated the buffet at lunchtime forming queues which blocked access to areas they were not using, took over specialty restaurants bouncing guests with confirmed reservations, kept guests invited to the Captain's Table on formal night waiting for nearly an hour and generally refused to acknowledge other guests in anyway [not even responding to a "good morning" when sharing an elevator]. The crew were so frightened of upsetting any of the people attending the conference that they took priority over everything else.

 

We had spend 15-nights eating in one or other of the specialty restaurants with impeccable service to then spend 5-nights feeling like we were in the way. Oh, yes, by the way we were in one of the PH - not that it should have made any difference. We had just had 15 wonderful days and were chilled-out enough to be able to be relaxed about the poor service but we felt really sorry for guests who had boarded for the 5-night cruise and had the right not to have their well earned vacation spoilt.

[sblair]

You would think that paying customers would be most important wouldn't you, however Celebrity staff from Miami [and elsewhere] do not think they are. We did a TA followed by 5-night Caribbean on Constellation in 2015. Celebrity were holding a marketing conference on board the Caribbean leg and the Celebrity staff, up to and including the then CEO, all considered their needs most important.

 

They dominated the buffet at lunchtime forming queues which blocked access to areas they were not using, took over specialty restaurants bouncing guests with confirmed reservations, kept guests invited to the Captain's Table on formal night waiting for nearly an hour and generally refused to acknowledge other guests in anyway [not even responding to a "good morning" when sharing an elevator]. The crew were so frightened of upsetting any of the people attending the conference that they took priority over everything else.

 

We had spend 15-nights eating in one or other of the specialty restaurants with impeccable service to then spend 5-nights feeling like we were in the way. Oh, yes, by the way we were in one of the PH - not that it should have made any difference. We had just had 15 wonderful days and were chilled-out enough to be able to be relaxed about the poor service but we felt really sorry for guests who had boarded for the 5-night cruise and had the right not to have their well earned vacation spoilt.

 

If I would have paid for the PH I most certainly would have been having a face to face with the hotel director and Captain about it ASAP. Most likely if the group was that visible I would have made a point to confront the CEO while he is with his group about it too. But that is just me. :)

[Pavovsky]

Reading this thread it is quite amusing to see the difference between the complainers and the live and let live. I would love to be the latter with lower blood pressure etc. but I do fall into the former category to the extent that I have a margin of tolerance and above that I will say what I think - to the extent that I have left hotels late at night for giving us the crappy room. But those who can let things go benefit from the fact that others are willing to complain. A good hospitality professional prefers to hear the honest feedback rather than someone who will accept crap service and then afterwards tell everyone they meet that they would not recommend.

 

 

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Edited August 7, 2015 by Pavovsky

[UniPac]

Unless you are from Europe...a 2 hour wait to be served is insane.....

 

I am from Europe and I don't understand why you say that it is somewhat normal here to wait 2 hours.

 

I would never wait 2 hours to be served (and never had to wait that long).

 

Waiting for the menu for 15min is max. what I would do without complaining, normally it is <5mins.

[sblair]

Reading this thread it is quite amusing to see the difference between the complainers and the live and let live. I would love to be the latter with lower blood pressure etc. but I do fall into the former category to the extent that I have a margin of tolerance and above that I will say what I think - to the extent that I have left hotels late at night for giving us the crappy room. But those who can let things go benefit from the fact that others are willing to complain. A good hospitality professional prefers to hear the honest feedback rather than someone who will accept crap service and then afterwards tell everyone they meet that they would not recommend.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Like the OP, I don't do it just to get something free out of it like many people do. I would likely turn down most anything offered to make that point clear. I'm an Engineer, so I'm more about fixing the root cause of what is broken and that often means making it clear they have a problem that needs to be fixed. If it is that bad then I go to the top of the food chain, because that is normally where the problems START, and not with the people at the bottom. It takes a fair amount to push my buttons that much these days but once they are pushed, you're going to be getting face time with me and we're going to have a lengthy discussion about what needs fixing.

 

It may not always benefit me personally, but hopefully it will benefit those who come behind me, and if the business takes the discussion seriously then it will likely benefit them in the long run quite a bit more.

[Gracie115]

I am on the Connie next year and look forward to returning to the Tuscan Grill.

 

We REALLY enjoyed Tuscan on Connie, two different visits, two different cruises. Service was, by far, the best at any of the Tuscan's we've tried and they were very enjoyable evenings.....so unless something has changed, drastically, on Connie I'm sure you will have a great meal.

 

 

May I suggest you reserve at 6:00 to eat by 9:00 - if lucky.:D

 

While I sympathize with what happened to you, generalizing that the same will happen on a different ship is just that....generalizing...and usually NOT accurate. Our two visits to Tuscan on Connie were very pleasant, with good food AND service...

[Project_gal]

If I would have paid for the PH I most certainly would have been having a face to face with the hotel director and Captain about it ASAP. Most likely if the group was that visible I would have made a point to confront the CEO while he is with his group about it too. But that is just me. :)

 

To be honest, the Captain, Hotel Director and other senior officers were particularly inaccessible on that cruise. They were often involved in the conference sessions.

 

The one fortunate aspect was that it was the conference at which the new suite class benefits were decided and we were getting inside information from our butler who was also looking after the CEO although it was annoying to hearing about what guests in higher-end suites "wanted" [all be it, unofficially] rather than being asked.

 

Had not the way Celebrity interacted with us immediately following that cruise [as a result of the conference] we probably would have stopped cruising.

[StLucia]

We had a bad experience in Murano on Eclipse. We were served a burnt main course, returned it and left. The next day we got a call from the maitre'd asking us to return for a complementary meal to make up for what they agreed was food that should not have been served. At first we thought no but later thought why not. We were treated so well on our next visit it ended up being one of the best meals we have ever had. Apart from beautiful food we had the best wines and champagne paired perfectly with each course. So if they offer to make up for a bad experience go for it.

[rnrcruzin]

I have been reading this thread with some interest. The title caught my eye because my wife and I have eaten in the Tuscan Grill and it was a very good experience. So much so that I’m fairly certain we will try it again the next time we are on an S class ship. But the key words here, in my humble opinion, are “very good experience.” Here’s where I’m coming from – I’ve been on both sides of the counter.

For a short time between my retirement from the military to my current position as an engineer I took a position as a restaurant manager. I particularly remember one instance where a customer stood in front of me and said, “This is the worse restaurant I’ve ever had the displeasure to visit.” And on that day, at that time, he was absolutely correct. I was the point man for everything that happened in the kitchen and everything in the dining room and the customer experience. From that point on it was my focus to try to make it better every day. Now let’s move on the other side of the counter.

Here on Cruise Critic we get some pretty good information. Some of it is direct and some indirect. The indirect information comes from reading between the lines. I would hazard to guess that a majority of the postings on CC when posting about a particular cruise line are complaints. When we drop several thousands of dollars, euros, or whatever, we should expect more from our hosts other than “Have a good day.” This is a special time for us. This is a bookmark we put in our life where we can look back and say, “Wasn’t that vacation (and you can fill in the box).”

For me it comes down to customer service. I will remember how I’m treated a much much longer than I will remember the quality of the meal. That’s not to say I should discount the meal itself. If I’m going to drop a hundred dollars plus on a meal in a specialty restaurant then the service and the food had better be special and if it isn’t then I expect the restaurant to make it better. I would have no problem giving them a second chance. If they fail the second time then I’d have no problem coming here to the boards and telling my story.

Many folks here know the story of the aborted Millennium cruise a few years ago. The cruise was cut short at the first port, Ketchikan, due to mechanical failure. I know for some the experience was traumatic. But it is how Celebrity treated me and my wife is what has us now taking our third Celebrity cruise.

Customer Service. The maître d’hôtel runs the dining area and the Chef runs the kitchen. Their point man is the head waiter. They all share the responsibility to make it right.

And finally to paraphrase PT Barnum:

You can please all of the people some of the time,

You can please some of the people all of the time,

But you can’t please all of the people all of the time (But that shouldn’t keep you from trying).

 

The opinions above are solely those of a 12 year old hacker who has broken into my account, and not those of my wife.

Edited August 7, 2015 by rnrcruzin

[wwcruisers]

To be honest, the Captain, Hotel Director and other senior officers were particularly inaccessible on that cruise. They were often involved in the conference sessions.

 

The one fortunate aspect was that it was the conference at which the new suite class benefits were decided and we were getting inside information from our butler who was also looking after the CEO although it was annoying to hearing about what guests in higher-end suites "wanted" [all be it, unofficially] rather than being asked.

 

Had not the way Celebrity interacted with us immediately following that cruise [as a result of the conference] we probably would have stopped cruising.

 

Yours is quite a cautionary tale -- even though I already avoid any sailing marketed as a "President's Cruise". I had heard from others that, the minute Michael Bayley set foot a a ship, he and his group were the only guests that mattered. And, there was no opportunity for the majority of cruisers to meet or interact with those people. :mad:

 

Although I never experienced it first-hand, I've been told by folks on this board that sailing with former CEO Dan Hanrahan was a completely different experience. He reportedly was a delightful gentlemen, who went out of his way to make sure that his presence onboard was not dispruptive to any of the other passengers. :cool:

 

I have no idea what it would be like to have Ms. Lutoff Perlo onboard, but, at this point -- I'd just as soon not find out! :rolleyes:

Edited August 7, 2015 by wwcruisers

[Chunky2219]

That might be how you were taught but as a customer it isn't how I see it at all. I have seldom ever walked out of a restaurant (but it has happened). Once that level has been reached the very last thing that I want is for anyone (not even the matre'd) to chase me down. At that point I just want to be left alone. If you want to apologize for something, do it while I'm still sitting there. If I've gotten up to leave then I'm A: mad, and B: embarrassed and don't want to talk to anyone. Yes, I have had a Matre'd on a cruise ship chase me down and no it didn't' make the situation any better. We all know that things happen on cruises, however I hate the attitude of the cruise lines that anything can be fixed with a bottle of wine and an I'm sorry.

I'm sure there are plenty of wait staff who would be happy to see the back of you and not try to sort things out. I doubt many of them work on the higher class cruise lines. At least .... not for long.

 

I personally don't like to be messed about, don't like to have my time wasted and most of all, don't want to go hungry. I also recognise that I'm not perfect and people are prone to as many boo-boos and shafus and I am. Therefore, if things go wrong, I expect someone to recognise it, genuinely feel the need to do something about it and tell me so. If they're a little too apologetic I try to calm them down and if all I'm getting is the standard "have a nice day" approach that seems trained into too many people, I can spot it a mile off.

 

Maybe you're the type who'd rather have the chef flogged then hung from the mizzen mast, maybe not. I do wonder why I've never had a maitre d' need to chase me down, but I have enjoyed having one cook food beside my table.

 

 

.

[ISABELLA]

If I would have paid for the PH I most certainly would have been having a face to face with the hotel director and Captain about it ASAP. Most likely if the group was that visible I would have made a point to confront the CEO while he is with his group about it too. But that is just me. :)

 

That is exactly what I would do.

[CptSticky]

I'm sure there are plenty of wait staff who would be happy to see the back of you and not try to sort things out. I doubt many of them work on the higher class cruise lines. At least .... not for long.

 

I personally don't like to be messed about, don't like to have my time wasted and most of all, don't want to go hungry. I also recognise that I'm not perfect and people are prone to as many boo-boos and shafus and I am. Therefore, if things go wrong, I expect someone to recognise it, genuinely feel the need to do something about it and tell me so. If they're a little too apologetic I try to calm them down and if all I'm getting is the standard "have a nice day" approach that seems trained into too many people, I can spot it a mile off.

 

Maybe you're the type who'd rather have the chef flogged then hung from the mizzen mast, maybe not. I do wonder why I've never had a maitre d' need to chase me down, but I have enjoyed having one cook food beside my table.

 

 

.

Actually, no, I'm not that type. I've been thinking since my post and I can't recall ever sending a steak back because it wasn't done properly. I'm much more of the go along get along and the main reason that I give the DW for never sending one back is I would be embarrassed. Why was I chased down, well it's sort of the same thing. After way too long of a wait, instead of causing a scene and speaking up, I just vote with my feet. Apparently it got noticed, but by the time I'm already at the elevators (if I didn't want to talk about it in the MDR) I surely don't want to talk about it then. And, no, I'm certainly not willing to go back and start over.

As for an apology from an employee of any company, it doesn't mean anything to me for several reasons. One, I used to be in a position that required apologizing to customers. Two, the person apologizing almost never had anything to do with the problem so what does the apology really mean and what exactly does it fix or remedy? Every employee on a cruise line is taught to always say I'm sorry (except maybe the front desk who I swear is taught to say it's not our fault:eek::p).

[The BarCarres]

With a bit of sleuthing I know I was on the same cruise as the OP (longest tender post ;) oh and your signature LOL). I am not sure when during the cruise that he and his party were dining in the Tuscan Grill but if it was any time after the first few days of the cruise I don't blame them for walking out. From the minute we got on the Silhouette in Amsterdam it was just one big long wait for so many things. It takes a lot to try my patience but this was an unusually difficult cruise with bad management on many levels. The regular staff and crew were phenomenal but there really seemed to be a management problem and I can honestly see it trickling down to the restaurants and other parts of the ship.

 

We were not alone I talked to a few other cruisers that had done 15 - 20 cruises and they had never seen anything like the disorganization on this cruise. :mad:

Edited August 7, 2015 by The BarCarres
being more specific