Head Waiter

[pablo222]

(I have yet to encouter a female HW.)

 

I have been told there is one in the fleet, but like you I have never see it.

 

There was a female 'head waiter' on Diamond, at (maybe) Sabatinis.

She had the head waiter dinner jacket, was at the door, etc.

 

But, she was a supervisor, not a head waiter.

[FritzG]

The only experience that we have ever had with our head waiter (2 cruises) is the night before last he comes over and sees if everything has gone well. (Looking to cement his tip I presume?):eek:

 

We used to have pretty much the same opinion until our 27 day Royal cruise last month. Leonard was so friendly and caring that he really added to the dinner experience every night. He made us feel very welcome, and he was very hands on with the service making sure that we were satisfied with all aspects of our dinner.

[chamima]

Someone at that table may have a food allergy. If they do he brings the next nights menu to them so they can preorder their meal and make sure it can be made without anything that may make them sick.

 

I am a vegetarian and my husband is a vegan (with some other restrictions).

Because of that we usually end up talking to our Headwaiter every night.

We've had only FANTASTIC Headwaiters on all of our 27 Princess cruises (and we have NEVER tipped in advance!).

We dine alone and enjoy talking to them and I think they sense who is interested in talking and who would prefer to be left alone.

 

It's the wonderful crew on Princess that keeps us coming back.

(There are 3 Headwaiters on the Royal that we REALLY hope will be on board our February cruise!)

Sorry that the OP had a different experience.

Edited October 15, 2015 by chamima

[Alessandrina]

I have been told there is one in the fleet, but like you I have never see it.

 

We've had a female Headwaiter in our section on our World Cruise segments. She was the best headwaiter! Friendly, smiling, a special person.

 

Cheers.

[Putterdude]

Have no clue what the Maitre-d looks like other than from a picture and we are now on Day 10 of a 15 day cruise. BTW, we have traditional dining and our waiter and assistant waiter have been fantastic. Working very hard and knew all of our names (there are 6 of us) by the second night.

 

On our Royal cruise last month the maître-d, Giorgio Pisano, came by our table 4 if not 5 times the head waiter 0. Obviously it varies from ship to ship depending the maître-d and the head waiter and their work load; there certainly have been time when we have seen neither.

[Thrak]

We just finished a 17 day cruise. No visit from the head waiter or maitre d. Our serving staff was superb.

[XBGuy]

To the various people who have posted that they have met or are aware of female headwaiters, thank you very much. I am not terribly surprised that there are so few. However, in all honesty, I think women understand hospitality better than most men. (OK, I'm a sexist.) I know that the number of women HWs will increase, and I look forward to encountering them on future cruises.:)

[cruiserjanet]

We have had now 11 dinners in the dining room and the head waiter has come by twice. He only goes to this one table in our section (we think the lady has a special dietary need) but completely ignores the other 6 tables, a few of which he has to walk by. How hard is it take a few seconds to stop by? I know we didn't tick him off because we've hardly seen him.

[Putterdude]

To the various people who have posted that they have met or are aware of female headwaiters, thank you very much. I am not terribly surprised that there are so few. However, in all honesty, I think women understand hospitality better than most men. (OK, I'm a sexist.) I know that the number of women HWs will increase, and I look forward to encountering them on future cruises.:)

 

I can't speak for Princess but Celebrity has at least one female head waiter. She managed a whole dining room on the Silhouette when we did a b/b a few years ago.

[FritzG]

On our Royal cruise last month the maître-d, Giorgio Pisano, came by our table 4 if not 5 times the head waiter 0. Obviously it varies from ship to ship depending the maître-d and the head waiter and their work load; there certainly have been time when we have seen neither.

 

This just shows how experiences differ on the same cruise. We were on the same cruise, and the maitre d' only passed by 2 or 3 times, but he never stopped to talk to us. On the other hand, our headwaiter Leonard stopped at our table every single night and spoke personally to each of us.

[MrMan]

We have had now 11 dinners in the dining room and the head waiter has come by twice. He only goes to this one table in our section (we think the lady has a special dietary need) but completely ignores the other 6 tables, a few of which he has to walk by. How hard is it take a few seconds to stop by? I know we didn't tick him off because we've hardly seen him.

 

But why do you need him? To me they add little value and Interupt the flow of the conversation. I just don't need the validation I guess. I can't tell you if they showed up on my last princess two months ago. Just not a big deal for me at least.

[cruiserjanet]

I don't know if it's the validation but that if he is stopping by one table every night (who did have a special request), why can't he stop by the other tables?

[shredie]

I don't know if it's the validation but that if he is stopping by one table every night (who did have a special request), why can't he stop by the other tables?

 

Some do. Some don't. I have never had my dining experience ruined because the head waiter didn't talk to me.

[cruiserjanet]

Ours was definitely not ruined. It just seemed odd to us so I was just gathering information to see what we should count on or not. Now I know for future cruises not to count on seeing anyone except our two waiters.

[Shogun]

Hi All

 

On the Emerald, our head waiter visited our table almost every night,

 

he asked the same two questions is service Ok is the food ok,

 

some nights he would help in clearing the tables,

 

all the head waiters helped with topping up water on the table,

 

the chef also stopped by one night.

 

 

yours Shogun

[Putterdude]

Only because some mentioned tipping the head waiter, how many people actually tip the head waiter?? I wonder??:confused:

[AZbeachboy]

We had the head waiter almost as our waiter on one cruise. The wait staff was so bad that he came every night to help out. We did have one vegan at the table and he helped us as well, but the regular staff service was so bad. He stayed on them constantly. So, I know we got more service from him than the other tables.

[pusywillow]

Only because some mentioned tipping the head waiter, how many people actually tip the head waiter?? I wonder??:confused:

 

I did once. He stopped by the table often. If you really need that attention, try tipping.

[XBGuy]

Only because some mentioned tipping the head waiter, how many people actually tip the head waiter?? I wonder??:confused:

 

I will tip the HW more often than not. However, it has always been when we are leaving on our last visit to a room. HWs in rooms where I am disatisfied with some aspect of the service do not get tipped. I get the theory that if you tip him up front, he might gush over you more in subsequent visits, and there is nothing wrong with that, but I like to see how he and his staff treat me before I tip.

Edited October 18, 2015 by XBGuy

[jrzebird]

I know a head waiter named Claudio and he is terrific. He always says..Eh? I asked if he was Canadian..even though I know he's from Italy. I'd love to see him and his wife, Oksana, again.

 

Different Claudio. The one I meant is from Romania. His wife once worked on the ships but hasn't in a lot of years.

[geocruiser]

We had a wonderful Head Waiter on our last two cruises on Regal. His mane was Boris. A really hard working man and a great person.

[IECalCruiser]

For the last several years I have had dietary requirements and the head waiter now stops by every night. We do tip the head waiter at the end of every cruise now. Prior to that we almost never had a visit from the head waiter on almost 15 cruises.

[Colo Cruiser]

When ever we have an extra attentive HW we always tip.

[Montrealais]

Exactly. I have nothing to do with HW's nor do I want contact with them. They provide little value to me.

 

The head waiters have reached the highest level that they will ever be at!

 

Unless they win at a lottery!

 

They are there to put some pressure on the waiters and sometimes deal with special requests or complaints.

[GUT2407]

Does it matter?

 

To be honest I'm never sure who holds what title...

 

I'll give you an idea what I mean

 

Last year we had a bloke meet us at the door no idea his title but his name was Jose (there seem to be a lot of Jose's on ships)

 

He might show us to our table or get the girl that squirts our hands or Joey to show us.

 

Then Ronaldo was our waiter and Zoltan his assistant, we called them Rinaldo and Zoltan. Then there was a bloke in a white jacket (Jose usually wore a white jacket too, white jackets must be important) who was actually a Food and Bererage Manager, his name was Denis, guess what we called him?

 

Now if we needed to talk to any of them we asked.

 

But then I don't like being fawned over.