"Bribing" Maitre d' to get better table/waiter

[buchanan101]

On 6/18/2024 at 4:08 PM, Victoria2 said:

I can't think many Cunard regulars would advocate the bribe system as opposed to a quiet word as Cunard regulars would be aware change of table is usually facilitated by the M d'h after the first day if at all possible.

 

As to giving the staff a few extra $$, I'm all for it, at the end of the cruise.

Yup - it's a bribe if up front, a tip if after the event

[e&mcruise]

On a recent QE cruise we were horrified to be told, on our first arrival, we were at a table for 8 in QG. As we had requested a 2 top in our booking and not wanting to spend time with anyone other than ourselves (for a change being in the hospitality industry ourselves) when Ico, the lovely MD saw our faces drop and then heard our polite request for a 2 top, he immediately amended our seating to a lovely window table. It was our first Cunard Cruise so we have no status, we did not offer money or throw a tantrum. We simply made a request with both a please and then a thank you.

[buchanan101]

40 minutes ago, david63 said:

The point is that the "best tables" is subjective and in any event not everybody can have the "best table" unless they are sitting on one another's laps!

On QA/QV/QE I'd have thought best tables in QG, PG are window tables (though I think @Victoria2 said it was a bit warm in the sun).  QM2? You are on display by the Promenade Deck if sat at the window...

[Victoria2]

2 minutes ago, buchanan101 said:

On QA/QV/QE I'd have thought best tables in QG, PG are window tables (though I think @Victoria2 said it was a bit warm in the sun).  QM2? You are on display by the Promenade Deck if sat at the window...

Believe it or not, there are 'better' window tables on all three ships for some but again, better is subjective. If we go two top, we prefer a table without neighbouring tables a foot away at the side of us.

Some might prefer window but with near neighbours. Choices all  subjective.

 

Do keep us in the loop re your cruise if you have the time/inclination. 🙂

[david63]

6 minutes ago, buchanan101 said:

I'd have thought best tables in QG, PG are window tables

Personally I am not that bothered with having a window table in any MDR of any ship. 90% of the time it is either dark or all you can see is sea. 9% of the time when you are in port there nothing to see - it is only the other 1% where it is an advantage. And I cannot tolerate having the sun blasting through the window and blinding me when I am trying to have a meal.

[buchanan101]

1 minute ago, Victoria2 said:

Believe it or not, there are 'better' window tables on all three ships for some but again, better is subjective. If we go two top, we prefer a table without neighbouring tables a foot away at the side of us.

Some might prefer window but with near neighbours. Choices all  subjective.

 

Do keep us in the loop re your cruise if you have the time/inclination. 🙂

We are in PG - fully expect to be in the dark towards the Grills Lounge. Tables don't look as close together as QM2 QG though where we were 6 inches from the neighbours, but got on fine. Actually liked that arrangement as it was like being on a table for 6 when you wanted to be, and on a table for 2 when you didn't..

[david63]

2 minutes ago, buchanan101 said:

as it was like being on a table for 6

Only if the adjacent tables were dining at the same time as you!

[Pushpit]

51 minutes ago, david63 said:

Personally I am not that bothered with having a window table in any MDR of any ship. 90% of the time it is either dark or all you can see is sea. 9% of the time when you are in port there nothing to see - it is only the other 1% where it is an advantage. And I cannot tolerate having the sun blasting through the window and blinding me when I am trying to have a meal.

In Britannia they normally pull a curtain across for evening meals if the sun is coming straight through and reflected by the sea too - that can indeed be quite unpleasant to the point of being impractical and causing "snow blindness". That's Photokeratitis, for your next Trivia quiz night. I can't recall the curtains being used at breakfast but I guess the same could happen. 

Edited June 20 by Pushpit

[Victoria2]

Ships have sun blinds, as opposed to the curtains, which mean we can see out but the intensity of the sun's glare is lessened.

This is usually an issue at dinner when the sun is going down. I always take my sunglasses with me at lunch time, just in case as bright [day] light affects [photophobia] me more than most and it's unfair of me to want to block out the view.

[Dermotsgirl]

4 hours ago, Winifred 22 said:

So a bribe to get what you want. 

That's exactly what I thought! 

[Dermotsgirl]

4 hours ago, LouChamp said:

Aloha. You may interpret it as a bribe when it is actually a respectful request for a special accommodation.

Maybe it's a cultural thing, but in the UK this sort of thing is viewed as 'paying money to seek advantage'

[exlondoner]

I have actually requested a table change twice, as opposed to,saying wistfully, ‘I suppose there’s not chance of a window?’ . In both cases it was on QM2, and in both cases I asked to be moved from a table we had had before and hated. The first time it was easy because lots of people were getting off in Hamburg, leaving lots of leeway, and we got given a window table. The second time, everyone wanted to move their table, often to be nearer the door, if they were not good walkers, so we got given a table we much preferred. On neither occasion was money proffered, nor did it strike me as a possibility, so I am clearly very naive.

[GeorgianGal100]

3 hours ago, buchanan101 said:

We are in PG - fully expect to be in the dark towards the Grills Lounge. Tables don't look as close together as QM2 QG though where we were 6 inches from the neighbours, but got on fine. Actually liked that arrangement as it was like being on a table for 6 when you wanted to be, and on a table for 2 when you didn't..

You sound like someone who will always make the best of a situation and I'm sure your attitude makes you a lovely person for the other table guests to be near. I wish you the very best for your trip. 

[Victoria2]

22 minutes ago, GeorgianGal100 said:

You sound like someone who will always make the best of a situation and I'm sure your attitude makes you a lovely person for the other table guests to be near. I wish you the very best for your trip. 

We were on a table for eight adjacent to the galley on our very first Cunard cruise.

 

We knew no better other than the table was most definitely at the back and out of the way. Being grateful for the whole experience, it didn't begin to dawn on us we were 'at the worst table'.

 

Our table mates were such good fun and we enjoyed every second of their company but then, our glass is always more than half full.

 

Experience showed us other tables and as we climbed the ladder of being regulars, being appreciated by the staff and also our cabin grade, we were seated 'elsewhere'.

 

Most folk not in top tier cabins start somewhere, in QG for us, and hopefully, like us, appreciate being on such an amazing ship, in a fabulous restaurant and have a wonderful time.

 

 

buchanan101 will have a great time I'm sure. 🙂

 

 

 

Edited June 20 by Victoria2
typo

[GeorgianGal100]

Absolutely Victoria2 and there's always that small possibility of seeing that celebrity guest speaker you've always wanted to meet arriving at the table next to the one you've just asked to be moved from!

[Victoria2]

13 minutes ago, GeorgianGal100 said:

Absolutely Victoria2 and there's always that small possibility of seeing that celebrity guest speaker you've always wanted to meet arriving at the table next to the one you've just asked to be moved from!

Or better still, in our experience, come to share your table!  🙂
 

[swjumbo]

On 6/19/2024 at 9:01 AM, Mareblu said:

And considered rather tacky in the process.

In your view but not mine.

 

[buchanan101]

23 hours ago, GeorgianGal100 said:

You sound like someone who will always make the best of a situation and I'm sure your attitude makes you a lovely person for the other table guests to be near. I wish you the very best for your trip. 

Not sure I'm that nice...!

 

But i don't think it right to pay to get tables reassigned (because if I got a better table, someone else gets a worse one). I fully expect the best tables to be given to the highest cabin grades/ most frequent "fliers", or just the latter in PG (given that there is virtually no cabin differentiation unlike QG)

 

Off to Southampton tomorrow for a night at the Hilton at the cricket ground. No cricket on, but I thought it'd be interesting with a balcony overlooking the ground. Dinner at Ennios with the inlaws coming over on RedJet from the IoW..

 

Thank you for your best wishes!

[buchanan101]

On 6/20/2024 at 4:15 PM, exlondoner said:

I have actually requested a table change twice, as opposed to,saying wistfully, ‘I suppose there’s not chance of a window?’ . In both cases it was on QM2, and in both cases I asked to be moved from a table we had had before and hated. The first time it was easy because lots of people were getting off in Hamburg, leaving lots of leeway, and we got given a window table. The second time, everyone wanted to move their table, often to be nearer the door, if they were not good walkers, so we got given a table we much preferred. On neither occasion was money proffered, nor did it strike me as a possibility, so I am clearly very naive.

No, you are polite!

[exlondoner]

8 minutes ago, buchanan101 said:

No, you are polite!

I’ve been thinking about this a bit more. Senior Maître d’hs are, I imagine, pretty well paid, unlike more junior members of staff, so don’t need the money in the same way, so there is no need to think about that. What I was a classroom teacher, I was probably considerably worse paid. If a father had come up to me at the beginning of the school year, brandished a fistful of fivers, and said, ‘Make sure my girl gets an A,’ I should have been shocked and appalled - and deeply insulted. I wonder where the difference lies.

[Winifred 22]

3 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

I’ve been thinking about this a bit more. Senior Maître d’hs are, I imagine, pretty well paid, unlike more junior members of staff, so don’t need the money in the same way, so there is no need to think about that. What I was a classroom teacher, I was probably considerably worse paid. If a father had come up to me at the beginning of the school year, brandished a fistful of fivers, and said, ‘Make sure my girl gets an A,’ I should have been shocked and appalled - and deeply insulted. I wonder where the difference lies.

I couldn’t agree more. It’s a distasteful practice however you try and colour it. 

[david63]

29 minutes ago, Winifred 22 said:

I couldn’t agree more. It’s a distasteful practice however you try and colour it. 

It is but for some, especially Americans, it is part of their culture so they see nothing wrong with it.

 

But one thing I ask is to keep it the other side of the pond please.

[exlondoner]

17 minutes ago, david63 said:

It is but for some, especially Americans, it is part of their culture so they see nothing wrong with it.

 

But one thing I ask is to keep it the other side of the pond please.

Is it the practice to pre-reward schoolteachers too?

[2Oldpeopleinlove]

You do know we’re not all alike in the boorishness you ascribe to us, yes? I find this sort of commentary unnerving and surprising, considering how happy we have consistently been with the friendliness of virtually all passengers we have met on board. Makes me wonder what they were really thinking of us.

[buchanan101]

1 hour ago, Winifred 22 said:

I couldn’t agree more. It’s a distasteful practice however you try and colour it. 

It’s actually selfish. Your gain is someone else’s loss. 
 

Best tables should be highest cabin grades/most loyal customers. And most likely are.