Pushy Sommelier

[Spender Nui]

I agree with many of these posts.

 

Yes, they try to sell you seminars and they upsell. I don't ask for their advice.

 

Isn't it interesting that when you order a glass of wine it is half full at best. When they pour from the bottle you ordered they top it off.

 

Few if any are knowledgeable.

 

This is a question which I've pondered for a long time with no conclusions:

 

Why are the wine stewards, on most lines that still have them, from the Philippines? I've never had a wine from the Philippines and don't know if there are any. I'm not sure how they cornered the cruising wine steward market.

[Desertbelle]

Why are the wine stewards, on most lines that still have them, from the Philippines? I've never had a wine from the Philippines and don't know if there are any. I'm not sure how they cornered the cruising wine steward market.

 

Our sommelier on the Millennium was from Eastern Europe, I think Croatia.

[Canuker]

A sommelier is just a wine seller from the wine cellar.

Some of 'em can indeed be pushy, holier-than-thou and snobbish. It goes with the 'territory'.

Never forget you are the customer. It's your money and your choice.

[Putterdude]

Our sommelier on the last X cruise we made was pretty good but our wine steward was extremely good. She opening admitted she was not a sommelier but she certainly knew her wine. She was a young Romanian girl and was extremely helpful in picking out a wine even to the point that she would on occasion recommend at wine at lower price then what we were thinking of if she thought we would enjoy it more.

[Wineguys]

This is a question which I've pondered for a long time with no conclusions:

 

Why are the wine stewards, on most lines that still have them, from the Philippines? I've never had a wine from the Philippines and don't know if there are any. I'm not sure how they cornered the cruising wine steward market.

 

Dude, you MUST be traveling HAL or Princess! :) :D :eek: Celebrity or RCI are mainly European. On HAL it's all Fillipino, because most of the Indonesians wont drink alcohol. Don't know why on Princess.

[tech-lab]

I had to laugh when I saw your thread regarding sommeliers and wine stewards on X. Last December we were on the Millie. We attended the wine blending on the first sea day and a gentlemen asked what why it said "vintners reserve" on the label and the wine steward told him"they put that on there for show!!!!!!" I had a good laugh and relized then that the wine stewards had no CLue!!

The third night of our cruise we had dinner in the extra restaurant and ordered two bottles of wine for the two of us. When the wine steward brought them to the table he opened mine first, poured a tasting in his glass and took a sip before he poured for me. He then opened my husbands bottle and poured a tasting in the SAME glass that he used for my wine(it still had a bit left in it). At the end of dinner we both had wine left and asked him to cork it because we would be back the next night and he told us we should just take it to our suite and finish it because it would go bad and we could just order more the next night. I told him to cork it!!

In the dining room they were no better. On the nights we had wine left from the previous night they would have it waiting at the table but would not pour it until they had all there other customers serviced first. We got tired of waiting so I asked the table waiter to get the bottle of white out of the ice bucket and he told me they were not allowed to pour the wine, only the wine steward could. I must say that the Sommelier was very professional and pleasant.

[excitedofharpenden]

I've had some really good Sommeliers on my cruises and some that haven't been so good and by good I mean attentive, but not overly so and by not so good I mean a bit invisible and hard to "catch". Generally I have found that by chatting with them on the first night they get the balance right and don't try too hard to hawk stuff. A quiet word with the Assistant Maitre d' during or at the end of the first evening has solved the issue of visibility, especially when the Sommelier realises he'll sell a few bottles to us during the trip;).

 

I am no oenophile, but I know what I like and like what I know and I mention that to the Sommelier too, but may still ask him for a recommendation that he has always seemed to come through on. I've never bothered with the wine blending and from what I have read here and heard on board ship, I don't feel I'm missing anything.

 

One thing I have noticed during the past two or three cruises is how much more pressed for time these Sommeliers are. They work really hard and dash about and I don't think there are enough of them.

 

Phil

[CathyCruises]

I had forgotten about this experience from our November Century cruise until reading this thread. Our dining room wine steward was fine, did try a little upselling but then that is expected.

 

But when we went to Murano's, I ordered a wine and the steward sniffed at it--he said, "may I recommend this "other wine". Being sure I was about to be scammed and upsold, I asked the price of his recommendation--as I recall he said $35. We said okay, and the wine was okay.

 

Then when the bill came, the price was $65! I wasn't sure if DH and I had just misunderstood him, so I didn't complain--but now I think I WAS scammed! tsk, tsk.

 

Cathy

[Canuker]

You'd think that with their extensive (and pricey) wine list that Celebrity would produce decent folk to recommend/serve the stuff. Especially given their "premium" cruise rating that they are trying to push.

From posts above it sounds like it's 'just another job' for a lot of crew.

How people who don't drink can recommend/taste wine beats me.

[camella]

WOW - I'm astonished at all the bad sommeliers! We cruise a lot because it's right in our backyard, but we had one cruise where we had a sommelier who went OUT OF HIS WAY to make sure we were happy. Yes once in a while, he would recommend a more expensive wine, but I was never disappointed and it was never more than $10 more per bottle. IN fact, he would always bring us Riedel glasses no matter what wine we ordered, and usually they reserve those glasses for the more expensive wines. He also would make "mistakes" and serve our wine to another table (at least that's what he said) and then bring us a full bottle to replace the one that didn't have our amount left. Needless to say we tipped him accordingly! We are leaving on another Celebrity cruise in a couple of weeks. Hope we don't have this problem. We've been on the Connie three times and this will be our fourth. I'm just glad they still allow you to bring your own once in a while and pay the corkage and they have a decent list. RCCL really needs to learn from their sister company. Their list sux!

[jasm8449]

I did not drink any wine on our recent Constellation cruise. So my husband ordered a glass or two for himself on the nights when he didn't have a cocktail to start. The service provided by the dining room sommelier was excellent, as it was in the specialty restaurant as well.

 

We met our sommelier in the buffet one day, it wasn't busy and she had extra time to talk to us. We found out from her that the sommeliers are given "points" or bonuses based on how successful they are in getting guests to participate in the Reidel glass and wine tasting sessions. It can be extra difficult to maintain your quota with all the repeat cruisers. Once you've done one of those sessions, you usually aren't interested in repeating them.

[Blazerboy]

Sorry for the OP. We've never had this kind of problem. Quite the opposite, as the sommeliers seem to be fewer and fewer each cruise. But I do see them running, trying to do their job! :rolleyes: Does seem to depend if it's a 'wine' crowd or not...some cruises, we feel like we're the only ones drinking wine, others, especially European cruises, it feel like the sommeliers would need track shoes to keep up!:D

 

As far as upselling, we are very clear about what we want, both in terms of wine and service on the first night. We simply say nicely that we'll usually be having X # of bottles, usually three or four for a table of eight, and a dessert wine each night, and that we'd like to order the wines right after we order our meals. We do sometimes use the trick of preordering, and we also do usually send the wine we bring on board with us down to the dining room in advance with our room steward. The one service problem we had on a TA was when the sommelier was nowhere to be found when we wanted wines, or wanted them poured. We didn't scream, waive extra tips, or stew about it; we spoke to the Maitre d' after dinner that first night, and not only was the problem fixed, but we had the attention of the head sommelier during rest of the trip as well. Everyone was happy, and the sommelier did redeem himself so that we left a him a bigger tip.

 

It's perfectly polite to say "Oh, thank you for offering, but we're not interested in the wine seminars or the wine tastings. We really don't want to waste your time talking about them, as we know how busy you are." We do the same thing with the bottled water (either we don't want any for the whole cruise, or "yes, and have two bottles every night at dinner, please")

 

As for the upcharges for wine that they recommend, it's equally polite and proper to ask how much a wine costs, and then refuse it by saying "Oh, no, we were hoping for a more modestly priced wine...something around...X$" (Cathy, in your case, you were stuck...that's too bad.:o Hope the wine was good, at least! )

 

It's also perfectly appropriate to say, if you're in the middle of a conversation, and eating your meal: "Excuse me, but would you mind coming back later? We're still enjoying our meal, and it wonderful. Thank you." and then resuming your conversation.

 

The earlier in a cruise you establish your expectations, the easier it is for the staff to serve you properly. Most people never do this, and then are surprised when the staff doesn't 'get it.' We've even been known to say on the first night: "Oh, we hope you won't mind, but we'll probably be one of the last tables out of here every night...we really like to enjoy a long leisurely meal!" Conversely, it's helpful to let them know if you really want to get out quickly because of some other activity, like a show.

 

Can't do much about past bad experiences, but hope some of this helps in the future.

 

Andrew

[tom_uk]

I think if I'd had the experience that the OP and others have had I'd be pretty upset. I have to say that I haven't experienced anything as bad as that. We did go to a 'Tuscan Wine' tasting on Galaxy last June, and that was enjoyable - although it was clear that some of the sommeliers knew more than others....

 

As regards our dinner sommelier on that cruise, he was excellent. We were at a table with an Italian/Canadian gentleman who worked as a Maitre'd in a good restaurant in Quebec, and who was also a skilled poker player - he'd won back the cost of the cruise for himself and his partner by the third night! Thereafter he was in a position to order from the top end of the wine list, and the sommelier responded appropriately. Of course we were ordering from a much more modestly-priced selection, but the sommelier accepted this without any comment, and on numerous occasions on the cruise made very positive and low-cost recommendations; including suggesting that we ignore the 'wine of the night' and replace it with something cheaper! Which we thoroughly enjoyed.

 

By the end of the cruise we were happy simply to tell him what food we had ordered, and ask him for a wine recommendation. We were never disappointed. Typically, we were drinking around the $30 to $40 a bottle range. And we never heard of this 'Reidel' stuff.

[Cote d'or]

Dude, you MUST be traveling HAL or Princess! :) :D :eek: Celebrity or RCI are mainly European.

 

Mmmm.... not so sure about that. On our past 7 cruises with X, only two of them were European (both from Romania), the others were Filipino (3), South-African (1) and one from the Caribbean (can't remember which island).

[AUNTDEBBA]

On my last Connie cruise I also noticed the recommendations/pushing of the more expensive wines and the annoying pushing of the Reidel tasting. On previouse cruises I enjoyed discussing which wines went with my evening meals and the Sommeliers recommendations were all over the board on price which made me feel like they were pairing the wine with the food and not thinking about their tip. My last trip on the Connie the Sommelier always recommended the most expensive wines

 

I know you can order wine prior to dinner but unless you want to run down to see the menu its a little difficult. I always write in the comments section they should post the days menues on the TV that way you could actually order wine in advance or decide to alternative dine if you are not thrilled with that nights menu

[crazybus]

I have never had a problem on any of my cruises so far. We'll see what happens in October. I don't really care for wine and I don't like drinking when I'm eating. We usually make it very clear on the first night that we're not interested and after that he just stops at the table basically just to say hello. I hope we don't have a pushy sommelier on our next cruise or I may have to push right back.:eek:

 

Now, if we had someone pushing martini's that would be another story!

[mpk]

I'm fearing this is becoming an industry wide phenomenon. :( :( :(

 

On an Alaskan cruise a few years ago, I had a substitute maitre'd that really pushed wine hard during one of the formal nights. We went back and forth three times until I finally told him that I'm dry. That still did not deter him from trying a fourth time. Gimme a break, I certainly am not going to change my dry decision by a pushy maitre'd I never met before and will never see again.

 

I was going to complain at the main desk downstairs, but had reconsidered by the time dinner was over. Maybe I'm too nice. Perhaps if I mentioned the incident to the permanent maitre'd, that would have done something... ??