What Would You Do? Eclipse Tuscan Grille Edition

[Guindalf]

Got back from the Infinity yesterday and on the last night, we had the following experience. I'm curious as to what you'd expect and/or do in the same situation.

We had a meal package with one meal left, so we ate in the Tuscan Grille. It was $109 for three meals. The other two were second night in Tuscan, which was not without its issues. So much so that we asked for a different table before we were seated as we were not happy with the waitress! Anyway...

I ordered a Filet Mignon and fries for my main course. When a steak arrives, the waiter usually sticks around to make sure it's cooked right. It wasn't. As soon as I touched it, I could tell it was raw (it felt like jelly) and sure enough, it was so raw you could hear it mooing! No problem, it happens, although a monkey could tell it was raw simply by touch.

The waiter took it away and returned a few minutes later with the same piece of steak. You could tell they had broiled or grilled it a little more and, you guessed it, it was still totally raw!

After another wait, a third attempt was made and a new steak was delivered and this time, it was a close resemblance of a rare steak. However, the fries were the same as the ones that came with the original piece of cow and were cold and stale!

The waiter went to get some fresh fries and while he was gone, the Maitre'D came by and I told him to tell the waiter not to bother. I was not going to sit there waiting while my steak got cold. We also refused dessert and coffee as all we wanted to do at this time was leave!

So, after a big disappointment, the Maitre 'D apologized and said he would like to give us a credit to our ship-board account for the trouble, which I (obviously) accepted. We sat waiting for about 10 minutes before realizing that he wasn't coming back to tell us anything more, so I asked him as we left, how much credit as it was non-refundable and I'd have to spend it before leaving the ship. He told me it was $20, which, he explained, was approximately half of the cost of my meal!

I replied that $20 was not acceptable because it completely ruined our evening. We could have eaten for free in the main restaurant and we were paying for an experience, which we didn't get (well, technically we did, just not the one expected!!). He wouldn't budge, so I made sure I went to Customer Services, which was not far from the restaurant, to make sure they knew how disappointed we were. After the CSR talking to the Maitre'D and the Hotel Manager, they agreed to comp the full cost of my meal ($36), which I still felt was not enough, but I took it as we were now tired and fed up with dealing with the whole situation.

Anyway, I calculated that, with the $30 I had remaining of my OBC, plus the $36 credit, I needed to spend about $66 to use up the credit. This was not difficult to do so a couple bottles of Tequila was coming home with me that came to about $70, so the total out of pocket for me should have been around $4.00. Fast forward to Saturday and my Amex app beeps to tell me that the bill was settled at a cost of $20.xx! When I get the full bill in a PDF, I see that the $20 was credited, but not the extra $16 I was promised!

I realize we're only talking about small amounts of money when compared to the rest of the costs associated with a cruise vacation and it's certain not a 'I'm never sailing X again' post, but I think there's a principal here.

What do you think?

[Jim_Iain]

Sorry to hear of your disappointing dinner.   Like you I would expect a full refund of my up charge for Tuscan. 

 

I had a similar experience at Tuscan and the Restaurant Manager graciously invited us back for another evening and assured us things would be perfect.   I have to say the next visit was perfection.

 

I'm sure this was not an option for you as it was the last evening but I believe you best bet now would be to contact One Touch and explain your displeasure.

[Gordoncruickshank]

This seems to be on how Tuscan performs. One night it will be superb, the next time it is dreadful. We have got to the stage that we don’t want to go anymore after too many of the dreadful experiences. It has been the same on both the Eclipse and the Silhouette for years, probably since we first cruised on Celebrity in 2012.

 

The last time we were there our meal was spoiled by a waiter who was dealing with us  who was chasing tips at a large table close to ours and we were ignored. We spoke to the manager as we left who offered us to come back the next night for free. We declined  because we feel that we would get a big effort and a decent night but the next time would be back to dreadful again.

[Carried_Away]

I agree with Jim. I would call Celebrity customer service. My friend did this after our first cruise a couple of years ago to give some feedback/complaints, and the agent she talked to gave us each OBC for our next cruise.

[Fouremco]

Two options come to mind should an email to One Touch not result in reimbursement and you still want to escalate the issue . First, send an email to the office of the CEO with the same details as you have provided here. The only time that I had a financial issue with Celebrity that couldn't be resolved to my satisfaction at lower levels, an email to the office of then CEO Michael Bayley fixed it very quickly. The second option would be to dispute the charge with Amex.

 

The question of is it worth going to these lengths over a small sum of money only you can answer. In your shoes, I'd certainly write to the CEO, if for no other reason than to point out the initial problem with the meal, the difficulty experienced in attempting resolution and the final failure to meet the commitment made to you. Depending on the response and my degree of satisfaction, or lack thereof, I might also consider the dispute with Amex.

[m8zenblue]

I agree, how far do you want to press this situation, I know what I would do, it's a matter of principal.

We had a situation also at Tuscan recently.

My wife ordered the Branzino and it was way over cooked, the waiter apologized and went straight to the maitre d and he came over also and apologized, it was our anniversary dinner and they comped the meal and invited us back for another meal and we accepted.

So I guess it all matters what type of staff is working, some good and some bad.

[phoenix_dream]

We eat in Tuscan once or twice on most of our cruises (15 in the past 2 years).  Only once have we had an issue and the maître d' not only comped our meal, but also invited us to the luncheon they have on sea days for no charge (obviously this was earlier in the cruise than the OP).  I am sorry to hear about this bad experience, but I really think it is not the norm based on our experience.

 

If it were me, yes I would continue to pursue it, on principal alone.  I can tell you that on another issue where I contacted One Touch, I asked for and received $100 OBC on the upcoming cruise I had booked.  If you have another cruise booked, consider asking (they were nice, but didn't offer me anything - I spoke up and asked them what they could do to make it right).  My view of reporting issues when talking to staff like that at One Touch is to first give people the opportunity to do the right thing.  In my experience, 90% of the time they will.  For the other 10%, I continue to push until I am satisfied or until I have exhausted all options.

Edited December 22, 2019 by phoenix_dream

[Luvcrusn]

The few times I've had problems that needed to addressed after the cruise I've found OneTouch to be helpful and responsive. Only once did I escalate matters up to writing to the CEO and the person that responded from her office was helpful, understanding and able to solve the matter at hand. I found (through life in general) that you get more bees with honey, so it pays to be sweet when handling issues and results tend to follow. It seems like OP has taken a good approach so far and keeping things in perspective. Good luck.

 

PS We no longer dine in Tuscan due to similar issues. We find it to be similar to a slightly above mid scale land based chain restaurant that is neither true Italian, nor a true steakhouse and not worth the up charge (even a discounted one).

[jelayne]

I would have accepted the initial $20 offer and let it go .

[whitshel]

3 hours ago, jelayne said:

I would have accepted the initial $20 offer and let it go .

Same definitely not worth the aggravation at the end of a cruise.   

[goofysmom99]

4 hours ago, jelayne said:

I would have accepted the initial $20 offer and let it go .

Ditto.  I quit dining in Tuscan after 4 or 5 successive failures.  Not willing to give them a 5th "second chance."

[Redtravel]

skip the specialty restaurants and stop complaining

[Suzi66]

On our very first trip on the Solstice in early 2016 we had also purchased the 3 meal package.  Our first night was Tuscan Grille which was pleasant but our second was for my 50th birthday and we had chosen to go to Murano's (which they had also been told on booking it was my birthday).  We don't drink wine and were never offered another drink for the whole night once we told them that.  I can't remember what we got as a meal but it was really not enjoyable at all and we could not wait to get out of there. (We have since been to speciality restaurants when it has been other peoples birthday's and seen & heard the waitstaff singing which also makes the fact that my 50th was ignored by Murano's staff a memory that has a bitter aftertaste as that cruise was to celebrate me reaching that milestone after having 2 strokes and brain surgery)
Our waiter in the MDR the next night asked us how we had enjoyed Murano's and we told him that we hadn't.  He pressed us for more details and then got the MDR maitre'd to come and talk to us.  The next morning the complete value of both of our meals was back in our accounts.
Honestly for that whole trip Silk Harvest was our favourite restaurant.  We now really like Sushi on 5, we have been to Tuscan Grille a couple of times since and we will never, ever return to Murano's no matter how good people tell us it is.  No second chance for them.  We are going to try Le Petit Chef in a few weeks.

[keesar]

I agree with other posters.  I would have taken the $20 and move on.  Let it go  as it is not worth the aggravation.  Peanuts compared to the cost of the cruise.

 

On the second attempt of serving the beef, I would have ordered another item.  

[chemmo]

Let it go....

[Guindalf]

Wow, surprised to see so many unprincipled people here! It's not the money that matters, it's the fact that I was promised something I didn't get and what I DID get was out of line with even some of the posters here!

Edited December 23, 2019 by Guindalf

[davekathy]

9 minutes ago, Guindalf said:

Wow, surprised to see so many unprincipled people here! It's not the money that matters, it's the fact that I was promised something I didn't get and what I DID get was out of line with even some of the posters here!

At least you now have your PCS to vent in detail your dissatisfaction concerning your unsatisfactory Tuscan experience.

[Moby Jones]

15 hours ago, goofysmom99 said:

Ditto.  I quit dining in Tuscan after 4 or 5 successive failures.  Not willing to give them a 5th "second chance."

 

I gave up after three on Eclipse, Silhouette and Summit. Once with a party of eight they got the steak cooking point wrong on four orders! When told we had our cover charges refunded for the whole party. 

It's a shame because it has a great location on S class ships but the food and service has always been poor in my experience. It's also a shame that the Murano menu restaurants on the M class ships were all replaced with Tuscan. 

OP, only you can decide but rest assured you have my sympathies. 

[TeeRick]

Was this Eclipse (title of your post) or Infinity?

[chicagopaul]

While the $16 is not worth your aggravation, I do agree with the principal of the matter and also think that we need to hold any party responsible for their mistakes otherwise we can't complain when they make the same mistake again. In this case, I think it was just a clerical error and not intentional. Refunds of OBC or anything of the sort must be handled by the accounting department on the ship. What seems like happened here is Tuscan initially put in the $20 credit first and guest services then put in the other, some how one got over looked or when they made the refund for the $20 it closed out the issue. Not sure how their back end systems work but I assume this to be the case.

 

If I were you I would simply send an e-mail with the details. You don't want to wait on hold on the phone for $16 and I would hope, that while taking longer, the e-mail route will get it cleared up.

 

As far as the bad experience in Tuscan that cruise, the fact that they only offered you a credit for half the cost after the experience you had shows that the leadership in Tuscan on the Infinity needs an evaluation. While the leadership cannot control what happens in the kitchen each time, ANYTIME food is sent back, a manager should know about it instantly. Your fries should have been made again, etc. Tuscan on our recent cruises has been outstanding, much better than previous years but each time I noticed the manager was on top of his game, helping out his staff, and extremely involved in the operation. That's why it was better.

[ldubs]

31 minutes ago, Guindalf said:

Wow, surprised to see so many unprincipled people here! It's not the money that matters, it's the fact that I was promised something I didn't get and what I DID get was out of line with even some of the posters here!

 

Haha.  If you only wanted folks who agreed with you shouldn't have asked "what do you think?".  

[Guindalf]

15 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

Was this Eclipse (title of your post) or Infinity?

 

Infinity. Sorry. I was on the Eclipse in August and had great food in Tuscan, Murano and even LPC!

[Guindalf]

11 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

Haha.  If you only wanted folks who agreed with you shouldn't have asked "what do you think?".  

 

I'm well aware of how forums work, so not surprised at some of the responses. Everyone has an equal opportunity to be wrong! 😉

[keesar]

1 hour ago, Guindalf said:

Wow, surprised to see so many unprincipled people here! It's not the money that matters, it's the fact that I was promised something I didn't get and what I DID get was out of line with even some of the posters here!

 

Let it go and move on.  View it as a learning experience.  

 

You asked "What would you do?"  Let it be.

[chemmo]

One of the best bits of advice I have ever been given is ‘choose you fights’...I don’t know if this is a U.K. sentiment but basically it simply means that if you feel that what has happened to you (or others) should be reflected on...

 

If, following reflection, the principle has a higher weight than the ‘offence’ then fight the battle, if not, let it go...Certainly in your cruise review indicate poor service and follow up but only you, on reflection, can decide if it is worth/appropriate to battle on...We have had an occasional ‘bad service’ but never last night where neither the restaurant, M’D or guest services really has the opportunity to ‘put things right’...