When to bail?

[Beachin2]

When do you bail on a specialty restaurant when the service just absolutely sucks beyond reason?

 

In Giovanni's tonight on the Serenade with friends - walked out after 1:45 HRS with just appetizers and - nothing. Even made a monolith of the dirty dishes for attention.

 

At what point do you just say no and leave?

[CruisinSunBunny]

After we find a manager and service doesn't change, we leave. At least at brick and mortar restaurants.

[FOXTROT]

We had the same problem at Chops on a cruise. Walked out after sitting :45 minutes after we had finished our appetizer. Went back the next morning for breakfast & the manager asked what had happened? We told him & that night was comped.

[rch3]

When the water reaches your ankles?

[joepeka]

We've had similar experiences in both Chops and Giovanni's and in both cases, we were either not charged for the dinner or received a refund post-cruise. We voiced our concerns to the restaurant manager in both cases - Giovanni's did not charge us as a result but the Chops manager basically shrugged and said "sorry." We escalated via our TA after the cruise and were reimbursed for the Chops dinner. Of all the things we do like about RCI (and there are many), Chops and Giovanni's are not among them.

[Disneycruisers]

I know the OP was on the Serenade. May I ask what were the other ships you were sailing (those of you who had these bad experiences?) DH and I will be on Liberty in three weeks (we hope, if there are no more issues with Galveston.)

[joepeka]

I know the OP was on the Serenade. May I ask what were the other ships you were sailing (those of you who had these bad experiences.) DH and I will be on Liberty in three weeks (we hope, if there are no more issues with Galveston.)

Radiance and Independence. But, I have to add that virtually everything else on those cruises were great.... no significant complaints at all. OK.... maybe the Concierge Lounge on Indy was inadequate but otherwise, no gripes.

[Reader0108598]

Speak up when you are not getting good service or they will never change!

[pharaoh]

I thankfully have not received bad service in any specialty restaurant I have visited, but if I had, I probably would not have waited an hour and 45 minutes before saying something!

 

Probably 30-45 minutes in between courses max before I'm asking a manager what's going on.

 

 

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[msmayor]

If you took the steps to rectify the situation, staying an hour and 45 minutes with only appetizers is 20 minutes longer than I would have waited.

 

Assuming I was seated and had the opportunity to order drinks and appetizers in the first 15 minutes, I would expect food at my table by the 30 minute mark. At 45 minutes, I'd have spoken up and asked why the delay. Let's assume that got food to the table, and by the 1 hour mark you have now finished appetizers.

 

At 1:15 hours and no dinner? A second chat with the maitre 'd. Ten minutes later and no food? I would get up and let the maitre' d know I no longer wanted my dinner, as it was taking entirely too long...and I'd let him/her know that I was on my way to Guest Services to let them know I should not be charged.

 

Some may say waiting that long is even too long...but on vacation I tend to not care about quick meals. Specialty restaurants I like to linger at so a bit more time between courses is not a problem. But surely an entree should be on the table no longer than 45-60 minutes after ordering.

[ravensbad]

Wow, we noticed service got a little bit worse in Chops/Giovanni's as our cruise on the Serenade (as more people were dining there) went on but never to the point we felt it was necessary to walk out.

[Intent2smile]

I know the OP was on the Serenade. May I ask what were the other ships you were sailing (those of you who had these bad experiences?) DH and I will be on Liberty in three weeks (we hope, if there are no more issues with Galveston.)

 

 

 

We have been to Sabor and Chops on Wed LOS. Both were great and we liked them so much we bought the ultimate dining package for our cruise Oct 1

 

 

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[cruisinfanatic]

When do you bail on a specialty restaurant when the service just absolutely sucks beyond reason?

 

In Giovanni's tonight on the Serenade with friends - walked out after 1:45 HRS with just appetizers and - nothing. Even made a monolith of the dirty dishes for attention.

 

At what point do you just say no and leave?

I think you were almost too patient

[Coralc]

I'm not sure why we stayed. It was on Serenade, at Giovanni's as well. It was close to 2 hours after appetizers before we received entrees. The couple next to us that came in later were finished with their meal and we were still waiting. We did complain, several times. There were 3 of us. We only paid for one meal. But we also used our B1G1F.

 

I suppose it if it happens again, we will think about leaving sooner. But we were catching up with a good friend, so it didn't become really annoying until after about an hour.

[maryjaden]

We were almost to the walk out point in Chops on the Harmony 2 weeks ago, After we were seated it was 20 minutes to get our drink and 40 minutes to take our order. Everything else about the cruise was great.

[George C]

We eat most of our meals in specialty and normally have no issues 1st night is the worst because of all the bogo , on recent cruise service in Chops was terrible on 1st night, very happy that I brought in my own wine and corkscrew to open it

[CntPAcruiser]

We had issues this past January on Serenade with dinner in Giovanni's, both with the service and with the food. They were not handled to our satisfaction during the meal, though we did get fed. It was nearly a comedy--our request for rolls and butter was handled by supplying these to a different table, and our complaints later on in the meal about some of the food resulted in the manager talking to that other table again, before finally coming to ours. It was like we were invisible. The next day, we got the email address for the food and beverage manager and sent a detailed description of the issues. The response came just before the end of the cruise, and as usual, the message was "Please try us again--we'll do better," but we wanted to have dinner with our MDR tablemates on the last evening. At least the charges were removed in full for the bad experience, but I'd rather have had a nice dinner than a free bad one.