Pinnacle Grill gratuities

[DaveOKC]

14 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

 

The way I view it, it's a dinner restaurant with the same opening time every single evening, regardless of who is onboard the ship that day. Reservations are made and walk ups are accommodated. Exactly like any land restaurant. The often repeated stories about bad service the first day as the crew "get up to speed" make absolutely no sense to me; I agree with you. 

On your next cruise time and rate the service on the first day and then compare it to the other days (in the main dining room of course).  Then please report back here.

 

[LMaxwell]

28 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

On your next cruise time and rate the service on the first day and then compare it to the other days (in the main dining room of course).  Then please report back here.

 

 

My last cruise, less than 2 weeks ago, we had Anytime dining and never had the same table or waitstaff. Service was perfunctory across the board. I don't have high demands or numerous requests and find it pretty steady overall.  

[mcrcruiser]

Many years ago I worked in  mu cousins 5 start Italian dinner  restaurant  . We did Caesar salads from scratch  at the table side  . We did  shrimp scampi  on the dining room floor live  .A lot of personal touches  . How toy earned extra tips was all do to being like able , fast & effective   with the food hot  . We also poured wine  & brought drinks to the tables  . We knew it all . in those days  we were making  more in 5 to 6 hours than I made in a full day ,at my day job   .Yes  i definitely know  sloppy ,decent ,better & best service qualities   & tip accordingly   .If service does not meet what I expect ,I do talk with the Maitre'd 

[fatcat04]

On 11/7/2022 at 4:45 AM, coffee59 said:

I wasn't expecting so many negative comments.  We will be on the Nieuw Statendam, 8:00PM first night.  And honestly, only because it is free.  

I agree that it all depends on the Executive Chef and Maître d'.  Hopefully they both expect excellence from their staff and our experience will be a great start to the cruise.

We were on NS last month and we found the service in all of the specialty dining venues to be wonderful, the Pinnacle was no exception. And yes the beverage pkg was honored in all as well.

[rkacruiser]

On 11/7/2022 at 4:35 PM, RuthC said:

Personally, I think it may have had something to do with who was in charge on that cruise. She was in charge on another cruise on a different ship, and the restaurant ran to perfection there, too. 

 

You and I are both experienced enough HAL cruisers to know that whomever is in charge--be it at the helm, as HD, an Executive Chef, or the PG Manager:  it makes a world of difference as to our cruise experience.  

[rkacruiser]

On 11/7/2022 at 4:35 PM, RuthC said:

Personally, I think it may have had something to do with who was in charge on that cruise. She was in charge on another cruise on a different ship, and the restaurant ran to perfection there, too. 

 

You and I are both experienced enough HAL cruisers to know that whomever is in charge--be it at the helm, as HD, an Executive Chef, or the PG Manager:  it makes a world of difference as to our cruise experience.  

[dogo88]

On 11/7/2022 at 5:45 AM, coffee59 said:

I wasn't expecting so many negative comments.  We will be on the Nieuw Statendam, 8:00PM first night.  And honestly, only because it is free.  

I agree that it all depends on the Executive Chef and Maître d'.  Hopefully they both expect excellence from their staff and our experience will be a great start to the cruise.

I hope your experience with Pinnacle is better than ours was. We just got off the NS on Sat after two weeks onboard. We did the 7 day back to back cruises. We were traveling with another couple and decided to do specialty restaurants exclusively. This was based upon our Jan experiences in the main dining room on the Zuiderdam. Nothing bad but just slow and small meals with limited variety. 

 

So we signed up for Tamarind, Pinnacle, Canaletto and Rudi's. Then rinse and repeat. 

 

Pinnacle was set for the second night. Two of us had the Rib Eye steak. The worse piece of meat we've ever had. Tough and hard to cut and chew. Clearly this wasn't prime steak. We also ordered baked potatoes and each got 1/2 a potato. Again clearly not Pinnacle standards. 

 

So we figured perhaps it was just a bad night for them and went again. Opted for Halibut and Salmon since we figured the steak was just not up to their past standards. Had our appetizers and waited. Waited for over an hour and a half! Mentioned this to the Hotel General Manager as he was passing through the restaurant and we had our main course within a few minutes. Another disaster. Salmon dry and over cooked and the Halibut was cold, watery and had a fishy smell and taste. Decided to just leave at this point. Went to Guest Services and put in a complaint. Never heard anything from them other than the meal was removed from our account. 

 

As far as the other restaurants went they were great. Tamarind is always a treat. Canaletto has had a rocky road over the years but so far on both the Zuiderdam and Neiuw Statendam they have upped their game. Rudi's is very good. Which got us to think that since Rudi's and Pinnacle share the same kitchen, staff verified, perhaps Pinnacle was getting the poor treatment. 

 

Anyway our after cruise comments detailed all of this. 

 

And the HIA package is no problem in any of the restaurants as others have indicated. 

 

Dan

[Cruising-along]

4 hours ago, dogo88 said:

I hope your experience with Pinnacle is better than ours was.

Wow, very sorry to hear this.  We were onboard the same 2 weeks (and the prior 2 weeks, so 28 days) and dined in the Pinnacle for dinner 6 times and once for lunch.  I do agree about the long waits between courses.  But our food was always very good and always got a whole baked potato.  Very strange about the 1/2 baked potatoes!