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Head Waiters / Specialty Restaurants

RCCL Fan

By RCCL Fan,
in Royal Caribbean International

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RCCL Fan Great Review Rare

RCCL Fan

Posted
Posted

Has anyone had a head waiter show up at Chops, Wonderland, Etc,  seek you out, greet your party by name and check on your service?

 

We've been doing dining pkgs where we weren't in the dining room much, and was surprised to see the head waiter come find us and make sure we were good.

 

routine? or a really good head waiter?

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taglovestocruise

taglovestocruise

Posted
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8 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

No "head" waiters in specialty restaurants?  

 

Shouldn't the MDR head waiter be focusing on diners in the MDR?  Or is specialty restaurants part of their responsibility?

Very little the head waiter has to do between early and late traditional times.  Each dining room has its own Head Waiter. 

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RCCL Fan Great Review Rare

RCCL Fan

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1 hour ago, Another_Critic said:

No "head" waiters in specialty restaurants?  

 

Shouldn't the MDR head waiter be focusing on diners in the MDR?  Or is specialty restaurants part of their responsibility?

 

He had nothing to do with the restaurant, he walked in,  walked directly from door to us , talked/checked in and left.   He wasn't working the specialty, just came to check in on us and see if we needed anything.

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sowhat

sowhat

Posted
Posted

We had the  maître d and section head waiter from the MTD,l ook for us  on Wonder in the Windjammer because  of the table for 2 situation  in the my time dinning room
They located us and  offered us to dine at the Italian in Central Park

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ONECRUISER

ONECRUISER

Posted
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1 hour ago, Sea Dog said:

We've had the restaurant manager check on us but never a head waiter.

True, though I got to be good friends with a Head Waiter. He was on my Sailings on same Ship 3 yrs running, a dozen Cruises. He'd bring me down, or send someone to get me Steaks from Chops to my Table in MD. 

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BND

BND

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We had a headwaiter show up at Sabor but that was because we had a terrible meal and told the manager who was working.  The food was blah, but my beans and I'm not kidding were ice cold.  Literally like they had come right out of the refrigerator and not been heated at all.  The rest of the food was barely lukewarm and wasn't great.  So, the headwaiter showed up and wanted to buy us another meal at Sabor to make up for it.  We turned that down flat and he offered us another restaurant.  My DH wanted to try Izumi, but the HW said it was a tier up so we said, no we didn't need anything.  The next morning we got a call from him and he said we could go to Izumi.  Honestly, we were fine with not getting anything but knew we'd never go to Sabor again.  That was our second time (once on Oasis) and neither impressed us at all.  We did Izumi and that was okay, but our local Japanese steakhouse is 1000x better.  Anyway, point is, the HW showed up quickly to "fix" things.  I think some of the specialties are suffering and they are trying to keep customers.  Best meal we ever had on a ship was in 150 CP.  

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c-leg5

c-leg5

Posted
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6 hours ago, RCCL Fan said:

Has anyone had a head waiter show up at Chops, Wonderland, Etc,  seek you out, greet your party by name and check on your service?

 

We've been doing dining pkgs where we weren't in the dining room much, and was surprised to see the head waiter come find us and make sure we were good.

 

routine? or a really good head waiter?

Did you go in the MDR at all and have complaints?

 

Seems weird - nor their jurisdiction. They usually liaise  “behind the scenes”.

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c-leg5

c-leg5

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2 hours ago, BND said:

We had a headwaiter show up at Sabor but that was because we had a terrible meal and told the manager who was working.  The food was blah, but my beans and I'm not kidding were ice cold.  Literally like they had come right out of the refrigerator and not been heated at all.  The rest of the food was barely lukewarm and wasn't great.  So, the headwaiter showed up and wanted to buy us another meal at Sabor to make up for it.  We turned that down flat and he offered us another restaurant.  My DH wanted to try Izumi, but the HW said it was a tier up so we said, no we didn't need anything.  The next morning we got a call from him and he said we could go to Izumi.  Honestly, we were fine with not getting anything but knew we'd never go to Sabor again.  That was our second time (once on Oasis) and neither impressed us at all.  We did Izumi and that was okay, but our local Japanese steakhouse is 1000x better.  Anyway, point is, the HW showed up quickly to "fix" things.  I think some of the specialties are suffering and they are trying to keep customers.  Best meal we ever had on a ship was in 150 CP.  


 

Your head waiter from the MDR.  Sounds like another example of short staff.

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BND

BND

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2 minutes ago, c-leg5 said:


 

Your head waiter from the MDR.  Sounds like another example of short staff.

I didn't say that.  This was in Dec when capacity was about 50% and they were bending over backwards trying to not lose any customers..  He was the HW in charge of some of the Specialty Restaurants.  The point was he wouldn't let it go even though we were prepared to.

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ONECRUISER

ONECRUISER

Posted
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5 hours ago, Tulsacoker said:

Or creepy

Thanks, made me remember this: I always walk the Ship all Decks top to bottom couple times on Port Days while all are ashore. Always friendly would say hello to the few Room Attendants still working after Lunch as I stroll by. About 7yrs ago was on B4B so was known by many the Crew a few weeks in. Had a Attendant Call my room couple times, left a message if I wanted to meet him ashore on off day. Next day he knocked on my Cabin Door, this all even though he worked on opposite end of Ship and 3 Decks down... Reported it and I never saw him again

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c-leg5

c-leg5

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, BND said:

I didn't say that.  This was in Dec when capacity was about 50% and they were bending over backwards trying to not lose any customers..  He was the HW in charge of some of the Specialty Restaurants.  The point was he wouldn't let it go even though we were prepared to.


OK - misunderstood your terminology.
 

Never been a big fan of specialty restaurants but out of necessity we tried Chops a few times since cruising resumed because  administration of MTD was so abysmal. 
 

Never considered specialty restaurants to have head waiter in the context I am accustomed  to  and would consider the title to be manager for each restaurant with presumably an over all manager of “specialty dining”.
 

I assumed @RCCL Fan was referring to the head waiter from MDR in OP.
 

As I said we had a problem with MTD and did voice our dissatisfaction to the head of WJ  dining during his regular check-up. There was some obvious “behind the scenes” liason went on that  filtered back to the head waiter of our section in the MDR but I wouldn’t expect the manager from one area to seek me out in another restaurant, especially at the moment when dining seems to have enough problems to be working on in their own individual areas of jurisdiction. 
 

However, I do agree with your assessment of management being unwilling to let it go. There is almost an uncomfortable, over-indulgence of trying to placate the customer in the dining rooms presently beyond what is reasonable or necessary rather than actually acknowledging and working to solve the problem.

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ReneeFLL "Live from...." Rare

ReneeFLL

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3 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

Thanks, made me remember this: I always walk the Ship all Decks top to bottom couple times on Port Days while all are ashore. Always friendly would say hello to the few Room Attendants still working after Lunch as I stroll by. About 7yrs ago was on B4B so was known by many the Crew a few weeks in. Had a Attendant Call my room couple times, left a message if I wanted to meet him ashore on off day. Next day he knocked on my Cabin Door, this all even though he worked on opposite end of Ship and 3 Decks down... Reported it and I never saw him again

That’s just creepy.

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4everAfamily

4everAfamily

Posted
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On 8/25/2022 at 2:17 PM, RCCL Fan said:

Has anyone had a head waiter show up at Chops, Wonderland, Etc,  seek you out, greet your party by name and check on your service?

 

We've been doing dining pkgs where we weren't in the dining room much, and was surprised to see the head waiter come find us and make sure we were good.

 

routine? or a really good head waiter?

This happened to me last week on Symphony. My DS and I were eating dinner at Chops when the MDR Head Waiter, Warren, came to ask if we thought we’d be going to the dining room for dinner at any point that week. We said it was unlikely. The reason he wanted to know was there was a list of people who wanted early dining and asked if we’d give it up to accommodate them. We had no problem doing so. Warren was very appreciative.
We’ve had the MDR Head Waiter check-up on us before, but more often it's a phone call. 
 

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ScubaCat3

ScubaCat3

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I always get the specialty restaurant package and never dine in the main dining room so I was surprised to be confronted by the main dining room head waiter just as I was about to enjoy my main course at Hooked (Symphony). He verified who I was and then proceeded  to yell at me about how I was going to leave a bad survey for his dining staff.

 

He somehow thought the reason I was not dining in the main dining room was that I had a bad lunch experience there so I was going to unfairly trash his crew. I repeatedly tried to tell him that I had not had any experience in his restaurant because I bought the specialty dining package. I had no plans to trash his crew. He simply refused to believe me and kept telling me how unfair I was being. Then he gave me his card and said I had to come back for diner one night and be sure to let him know I was there so he could make sure it was done properly. By now my seafood was cold.

 

It would have been okay (but still a little odd) for him to ask why I was not dining in his restaurant but to yell at me for an extended period of time about some imagined future offense was just bizarre. I can only assume it had happened recently and caused him a great deal of trouble so he was projecting that on me. I probably should have reported it but he clearly didn't need any more aggravation. 

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ScubaCat3

ScubaCat3

Posted
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12 minutes ago, Tulsacoker said:

ScubaCat3 why would you put up with that? Your at dinner and  and this head mdr waiter start to yell at you? I would have taken his head off, had my meal reimbursed and his butt fired


If it should ever happen again it will end much differently. 

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