Pinnacle $30 Ahhhhhh!!!!

[Sea King]

nmNita,

A 5th possibility. It seems to be the fashion in America to book several different restaurants for the same time, and then choose just one at the very last minute.

 

Where's this headed to?

 

Really curious about the quote from Bruce

 

what does being American have to do with anything on this thread?:confused:

 

the last HAL cruise I was on had a significant number of Canadiens, British and Dutch

 

even saw some at Pinnacle:eek:

 

sorry, can't accept what's contained in the quote :(

 

everyone is entitled to his/her opinion BUT isn't this stretching a point?

 

I suggest ignorance, bad taste and insulting manners aren't limited by geography

[Krazy Kruizers]

AHHHHH---- but you can take doggy bags from the Pinnacle.

I reported this when we got back from one of our cruises - don't remember which one.

We actually watched a woman take a bag (foil wrapped) of food from the Pinnacle. In the main dining room her table was not too far from ours. The next night she came into the dining room and asked her waiter to reheat her leftovers!!!!!

[kryos]

There will be a long pause before I consider the increase to be worth it. Some of the steaks are quite large. Combines with the other menu items, it is a very large meal. I do myself no good to "eat it because it's there and I paid extra for it." While the PG fiasco on our last Volendam cruise had already induced hesitation, the increase nailed the decision. I'll opt for an excursion and fuel the soul.

I like how you put that! Yeah, feeding the soul ... much better use of the dollars ... especially when you consider that even in the dining room you can enjoy all the food you want. Sure, the steaks are smaller, but you can order three if need be and leave the table just as full as you would at the Pinnacle.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[SF49erfan]

We ate at the PG for the first time on our last cruise. IMHO, while the food was very good and there was a lot of it, The steak that my DH had was HUGE. My lamb chops were delicious, but so were the lamb chops in the dinning room. The only difference was that in the DR they gave you 3 chops and in the PG there were 4. It was good but,I would not be anxious to go back. I like the dinning room better. And we get the company of our tablemates:) .

[crystal808]

I so like the way you think, Paul.

 

Hope we get to meet aboard a 'dam' ship someday.

 

Thank you, Sail...and it would be my pleasure! :)

 

Paul

[Frandick]

Crystal doesn't charge anything extra for their 2 speciality restaurants. All that is asked is that you leave $6 per person for a gratuity.

Cryatal also doesn't charge for ice tea, soda, bottled water, coffee or ice cream throughout the day.

[fb0075]

Good Morning,

 

Since we have started to dwell more on the tip side--

Remember,per HAL, "There is no tip required or expected" in the Pinnacle--also, the wait staff shares in the tip pool just like the DR staff---so your tip is also pooled ---

If you feel better about leaving a tip--sobeit--

If not

FRANK

[BruceMuzz]

Sea King,

 

My comments about no-shows in cruise ship restaurants have everything to do with being American. No slur intended, so please don't take offense; the vast majority (over 90% according to ICCL, CLIA, and many market researchers) of people who take a 7-day Mass Market Cruise are Americans.

Almost everything we do on a cruise ship is tailored to the rather unique tastes, wants, needs, desires, dislikes, and quirks of Americans.

 

The same problem we encounter in my family's restaurants in San Francisco (people making reservations and not honoring them), where the clientele is also almost exclusively American, hardly surprise me when we see them on ships where the clientele is predominantly American.

 

Restaurants in Europe and Asia also encounter this issue, but it is relatively rare. It would appear that it is an essentially American behaviour.

[jhannah]

Where do I get this information and ideas? I have been on over 1200 cruises. That's one thousand, two hundred +.

Wow! Please share how you have amassed this many cruises. That would be 20 cruises per year for 60 years.

[HeatherInFlorida]

Wow! Please share how you have amassed this many cruises. That would be 20 cruises per year for 60 years.

 

Working on the ships, Jim. How else could he form such a low opinion of so many of us?:o

 

NMNita, so very well said.

[GarySuzy]

First I have not dined in the Pinnacle, but will be in Nov. as it was part of a HAL promotion - book by a certain date and get two dinners in PG and 2 bottles of wine. (This promotion is still going on for some cruises)

 

My question is could it possibly be that they realized that they had overbooked the PG with such a promotion and now have to figure away to decrease the number of people dining there?

 

Just a thought.

[jhannah]

Working on the ships, Jim. How else could he form such a low opinion of so many of us?:o

That would take a 23-year career of one-week cruises. Still doesn't compute to me. Maybe I'm just slow.

[sail7seas]

Crystal doesn't charge anything extra for their 2 speciality restaurants. All that is asked is that you leave $6 per person for a gratuity.

Cryatal also doesn't charge for ice tea, soda, bottled water, coffee or ice cream throughout the day.

 

Crystal isn't giving anything that HAL is not. Pay up front or pay as you go, but we are paying for it whichever cruise line we are traveling with.

 

The price of a Crystal cruise includes such things as soda and specialty restaurants but you certainly pay a higher fare.

 

By the Way......... iced tea, coffee and ice cream throughout the day are no extra charge on HAL. ;) And their ice cream is Wonderful. A selection of flavors and they change the choices daily.

[HeatherInFlorida]

[quote name=BruceMuzz

]..........................

There is however a 4th possibility that most everyone here has never considered. The special Galleys that service the Pinnacle Grill on HAL ships were unfortunately not designed to handle a restaurant the size of the Pinnacle Grill. That is, more people can be accommodated at the tables than can be fed in a timely manner. So one will very rarely see a Pinnacle Grill fully occupied, although they are operating at full capacity. Disappointed diners who cannot get in find it bizarre that there are empty tables when they were told that the restaurant is fully booked. They naturally assume that the Restaurant Manager is insane or stupid, rather than thinking that there might be other more rational circumstances that prevent them from dining there.

 

I had hoped I would leave my comments to my last post, but this just begs a response. I cannot even conceive such a possibility if we are to believe that HAL has any sense whatsoever (which I believe they do). Why on earth would they make a DR large enough to seat more people than its kitchen can feed? And if they did, why not leave out the extra tables. There is no worse look in a restaurant than several empty tables.

 

A 5th possibility. It seems to be the fashion in America to book several different restaurants for the same time, and then choose just one at the very last minute. Unfortunately, many people who do that are not considerate enough to inform the restaurants they have decided not to go to that they are not coming. The restaurant holds their table, even though others are waiting and hoping to get in. By the time the restaurant manager realizes that the inconsiderate diners are not coming, it is too late to give the unused table to someone else, because that same table is promised to later diners who will be arriving soon. There is no longer ample time to serve an earlier seating, so the table remains unused and hopeful diners are disappointed. The disappointed diners walk away thinking that the restaurant manager is either crazy or a complete idiot because he turns them away when he has empty tables - rather than assuming that perhaps a more positive reason prevents them from dining there

 

Perhaps you have not kept up with recent advancements in the restaurant industry in the U.S. While this was the case at one time, the restaurants woke up one day and smelled the coffee. They now always get your phone number at the very least and your credit card to lock in the reservation. If you don't show, you pay the piper.

 

Even worse, fewer and fewer restaurants even take reservations for this very reason and so we have to walk around with flashing, pulsating beepers.

[Hojo's redbeard]

The same problem we encounter in my family's restaurants in San Francisco

 

Bruce, I was wondering how you could afford to go on 1200+ cruises. Sounds like you would be in a perfect position to reflect on the food cost aspect of the PG versus the dining room.

 

Sounds like some people are mistaking quantity and quality. Cost of steak is kind of like the cost of champagne. A lower grade, more common steak compared to a USDA Prime is kind of like comparing Moet with Cristal. The extra quality costs not just a little more, but, several times as much for the same amount.

 

Someone else earlier mentioned operating margins. Absolutely, every decision made by the cruise lines involves the bottom line and keeping Wall Street happy! The decision to start adding charges to the formerly all-inclusiveness of cruising is a marketing decision. People wouldn't be as inclined to cruise in ever increasing record numbers if the prices were adjusted to keep them all inclusive. Look at the cost comparison between HAL and an All-inclusive cruise, BIG difference.

[Hojo's redbeard]

What a thread! Type in a response and have ten pop up while you're typing!

[newmexicoNita]

AHHHHH---- but you can take doggy bags from the Pinnacle.

I reported this when we got back from one of our cruises - don't remember which one.

We actually watched a woman take a bag (foil wrapped) of food from the Pinnacle. In the main dining room her table was not too far from ours. The next night she came into the dining room and asked her waiter to reheat her leftovers!!!!!

Too funny, did she then order a meal or just eat her left overs: I certainly hope she had a way to keep the food fresh for 24 hours. I thought my step mom did some strange things when it came to left overs, this takes the cake. thanks for sharing,

 

NMNita

[Schplinky]

This is a huge thread so I apologise if i am repeating anything.

 

Celebrity's specialty is a three course for $30 but the table can agree on a 5 course if everyone does it. It's the same price; the portions are smaller.

 

We made a reservation for Pinnacle for January about a month ago and were required to pre-pay. We paid $20 each and would consider it poor customer service if they made us pay more once we boarded.

[BruceMuzz]

Heather,

 

I appreciate your input, but it does demonstrate how naive the cruising and dining public can be.

 

It does seem bizarre and quite unvelievable that HAL would build a ship with a restaurant that is too large for the galley that services it. Would you agree that it is equally bizarre to build a cruise ship with no public toilets or public telephones? It happened. When the Zuiderdam was delivered to HAL, they quickly discovered that they had forgotten a few things..........

 

When the first 4 Renaissance Cruise ships were delivered in the early 90's, they quickly discovered that if you pulled the chairs out from the dining tables to allow the Guests to sit down, nobody - including the waiters - could pass between any of the dining room tables.

 

Did you ever notice that the location of the ceiling lights in ship's dining rooms do not match up with the table locations? Two different companies are responsible for these projects. They install them at different times and never speak to each other. Nearly every cruise ship in the world has this problem.

 

On HAL Vista Ships, the crew elevators are so small that only 2 crewmembers can fit into one. Not a single trolley, table, handtruck, room service table, or service equipment of any kind willl fit into these elevators. So the staff is forced to comandeer the passenger elevators and inconvenience the passengers instead. Do you think they planned that? On 4 consecutive ships???

Ship happens.

 

And while I appreciate your views on charging credit cards for missed reservations, it is one of those great ideas that rarely works. In fact it usually works against the restaurant. Not only does the charging upset inconsiderate diners who do not show (They will never patronize your establishment again and urge all their friends to do the same), they then dispute the charge with their credit card companies. Then the Restaurant either loses the dispute and refunds the money, or they have to hire a lawyer to handle it in court. Would you pay a lawyer several hunderd dollars to recover a $25 charge for a no-show reservation? How about 200 times a week? In quite a few states, this no-show charge is even illegal. Yes, the restaurants did wake up and smell the coffee, but not in the way you think.

It gets even worse on a ship. A few cruise lines tried charging a no-show penalty to inconsiderate cruisers in their restaurants. Not only did many cruisers dispute the no-show charge, they disputed their charges for the entire cruise!! It took the cruise lines many months and many lawyer fees to get it straightened out. One particular Cruise Line Vice President lost his job for coming up with such an idiotic and costly idea.

[Sea King]

Thanks Bruce: never realized not showing up at a restaurant was most an American trait:)

 

then again, I haven't been on 12 cruises

 

tend to agree with Heather and Jim; the math doesn't compute

 

even assuming Bruce has cruised for 40 years, that would mean 30 cruises a year:confused: sorry, don't think very man HAL employees on a full contract complete 30 cruises a year:rolleyes:

 

in any event, yell, scream, kick your heels, boycott, jump up and down, cash in your tickets, move to Crystal, skip jackpot snowball Bingo, the fact is what's done is done:eek:

 

HAL isn't about to change what it apparently has already approved

 

right Bruce;)

[Sea King]

I should edit

 

meant to say I haven't been on 1,200 cruises :o

 

sorry:)

[esther e]

I should edit

 

meant to say I haven't been on 1,200 cruises :o

 

sorry:)

 

 

Well, if I were you, I'd start booking....FAST.....:D :D Maybe 120, with an extra 0 accidentally added?

 

Esther

[cruisin240]

This is sooo funny. I really have to smirk at the Mr. Know-it-all...HE is the type of person that I would opt to go to the Pinnacle and spend the extra money instead of dining with him.

[BruceMuzz]

Sea King,

 

You need to think outside the box a bit more and re-work your numbers.

I work 40 weeks a year for a cruise line company that offers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 day cruises.

[BruceMuzz]

cruisin240,

You shouldn't suggest things like that. If people follow your advice, the Pinnacle will get too crowded again and they will raise the cover charge even higher to get it back under control.