Hi Jim,
I haven’t heard from you. Hope all is well. Mariner is still just barely on schedule based on my obsessive compulsive (but in demand by quite a few other guests) calculations for a more or less on-time arrival in LA, but I’m still interested if you were able to find out anything from Ft. Lauderdale about our actual arrival.
I thought I’d jot down more notes about my analysis of Mariner—and I presume Regent—versus Silversea’s service. We’ll leave more detailed discussion about the ship, food, and accommodations for when we talk. So this is primarily about the style and performance of food and drink service on Regent. In essence, they seem to base their service on hiring or keeping experienced personnel at all levels, but also at all levels they are not supervised by those higher up. The results are quite noticeable and striking. Here are some talking points in no particular order:
1 The shop keeper in the little Deck 7 “Duty Free” shop sits reading a newspaper or staring blankly into the air for many hours at a time. Her relief was fast asleep for some time a couple of days ago. Everyone riding in the three glass atrium elevators enjoyed speculating on how long this extended nap might be. Love those atrium elevators. I tend to say “Beam me up Scotty” to myself each time I ride in them as they penetrate the roof and appear above the pool deck.
2 Housekeepers walk through the public areas all day with transparent bags of trash. Food service personnel likewise haul very noisy food and trash carts, hibachis, and other materials through the pool area continually. They don’t stop for guests but expect pedestrians to clear the way for them. The noise levels are very high from the food service carts, pool attendants stacking lounge chairs, or workers going about their business in all public areas inside and out but are particularly noisy on the pool deck. Doors to the indoor areas slam continuously and can not be easily quieted. No one seems to notice or do anything about it.
3 Despite the large pool deck with bar and daily (most enjoyable) specialty pool grill in addition to the ongoing standard grill, there are no head waiters or other supervision on the pool deck at any time other than during the lunch service. At that time, the head waiters mostly greet guests or stand around talking to each other. The “Dining Room Manager” who is closest to the Maitre d’ on Silversea appears to have only administrative duties as he doesn’t seem to do anything directly involving his head waiters or guests other than smiling a lot and asking if “everything is ok?”. I did see him climbing on a chair in the dining room during dinner to fix some Christmas decorations. Other than that he stands at the dining room podium and directs guests to head waiters who often assign the same guests to multiple tables simultaneously or leave the guests standing around waiting for one of the three or four head waiters to appear since often during the food service times all of them mysteriously vanish. However, the head waiters in charge of the three other dining rooms seem to be working in the main room during breaks from the venues they are responsible for, leaving the specialty restaurants unsupervised. The exception is the Verandah (equivalent to the Terrace Cafe on Silversea) where the head waiter there never is seen elsewhere but usually is standing in the way of one of the buffet lines talking to a colleague or guest loudly about something other than food service matters. She is very friendly but appears to have been hired off the street without any further training.
4 There are two or three bartenders who appear to be almost as good as the least competent on Silversea. All the others are probably teetotalers or appear to hate their jobs. The primary pool bar attendant is a young man who can not make a decent Mai Tai or Singapore Sling and seems to be unable to comply with simple requests without effecting a “deer in the headlights” look. Guests who ask, “Can the background music be turned down?”, receive a pained look and the answer, “I don’t know who does that.” Guests who ask for deck chairs to be set up usually get the response, “Do you want a drink?” Another bartender just rolled his eyes when I asked if the ship usually makes frozen Mai Tais and said, “Oh, you must have discovered (name omitted since I’m publishing this) upstairs. He isn’t good, isn’t he?”
5 One bartender, usually assigned in the one more or less quiet Observation Lounge is always leaning on the bar from the inside—that is, with his rear end towards the door. He doesn’t turn around or stand up when a guest arrives. I asked him if he had any thoughts or knowledge on choosing from the 5 or 6 Bourbon Whiskey’s on their complimentary list. He said, “I don’t know anything about whiskey” and walked away. I asked him what they drink in his home country—he’s from South America—and after he told me, he said “But we don’t have it.” Then he left the bar and disappeared into the back room. There were guests waiting at the bar at the time for drinks. I think he went back to cry or fill out employment applications. In this elegant venue, actually my favorite room on the ship day and night, the drink waiters are either completely gone or trip over themselves. It is not uncommon to sit at a table for 15 to 20 minutes without a waiter coming over to take a drink order unless you wave at them, although guests are greeted upon coming in and sitting down. Same at tea time, same at coffee time, etc. Apparently “relaxed service” means to Regent “do it yourself.” Another pretty competent but young bartender tells personal stories to one or two guests while other guests sit around patiently waiting for service. This bartender also asked me a number of times to order extra cost drinks from him specifically because he is compensated for “selling up”. He was not joking. When I finally did order some 18 year Scotch (at a wonderful landside price of $11), he now chases me down the hall asking if I want more whenever I approach his bar.
6 The Head Bartender doesn’t visit the bars very often or ever help out the bartenders, even during busy times when he regales the guests with stories of the remodeling plans during dry dock for the ship. He seems not to know much about drinks but loves to discuss shipboard life. I asked the senior bartender, John, if like on Silversea the bartenders have supervisory responsibilities regarding the bar waiters. He said, “We watch them.” Apparently, that’s all they do. I suspect it amusing them to do so.
7 Had dinner in Latitudes again last night. They changed the menu during this cruise from Indian to “Indochine”, essentially Chinese food which I love. The Head Waiter, Rommel, is solicitous but suffers from attention deficient disorder. As I crossed the threshold he greeted me as a long lost buddy. I said, “I’m waiting for my dinner companions, Mr. and Mrs. XXXX.” He said, “Maybe they are in the bar.” I said, “Are they? Did you see them?” He said, “Who?” I said, “My dinner companions.” He said, “Who are they?” This went on for a while as I back out of the room. When my friends showed up Rommel said, “How many in your party?” I said, “This is the couple who made the reservation for me, a reservation for three.” He said, “Are more joining you?” He switched gears without warning and then greeted us like old buddies. After being seated, we waited a while for the waitress to come over. As we were doing so, we noticed some strange sound effects coming from one of the two other occupied tables, kind of like high school boys making funny sounds. When the Filipina waitress finally showed up she described the menu in a very strange phony accent that included long very loud trilled “r’s” and growling noises. We asked her, “Why are you talking like that?” She said, “The guests like it and this is a Chinese restaurant.” Later on the Chief Sommelier came over and proceeded to pour the wrong red wines respectively into each of our glasses, making an undesired custom blend of Cab and Chateaux Neuf. We hollered, “Stop. You are mixing up the red wines.” She said, “The waitress didn’t tell me”. There were three other tables only being occupied still. The Head Waiter was busy chatting with two other head waiters.
8 At 4:10 pm yesterday, I arrived for tea time. There were only coffee pots visible although the tea service was set up on one side of Observation Bar but no tea pots visible. The attendant greeted me, “Hello Sir”, and walked away. I ran up to him and said, “Is there tea today?” He said, “I’ll send someone over to take your tea order.” There were about three tables occupied, one with some folks drinking tea. The waiter came over after about 5 minutes and asked me, “How do you prefer your coffee, caf or decaf.” I said, “I prefer decaf at this time of the day, but I asked for tea.” He said, “The attendant said you want coffee.”
What’s my conclusion? Mariner is a beautiful ship. The suites are fine, extremely quiet for a ship or even an hotel, I love having a verandah even though I haven’t used it all that much, the housekeeping with one stewardess working alone on each service is excellent—I’ve experienced none better on any ship—and the little maintenance or repairs have been very fast and well done, again faster and better than on any other ship. But the restaurant service in all venues is atrocious. There is essentially no supervision of any level to their reports. All service is uncontrolled. Well trained waiters are few and then provide their own version of what they consider (or what was their training in previous jobs on other lines I presume) without any attempt to be consistent. There is virtually no communication between waiters, servers, runners, or bussers. The wine service is mindless. The assistant sommeliers are pretty much ignorant of the wines and appear to describe the wine with words that do not convey any meaning, such as “Not too sweet, actually very dry but not too dry.” The best food is in the main dining room, but service is the most inconsistent there. Silversea-like service at Nilo’s tables but cafeteria service at some of the others. You can enjoy views of all the head waiters chatting with each other from anywhere in the room but not of their actually doing anything. All public lounges and the pool deck, with the exception of the Observation Lounge most of the time, has constant noise and loud music either live from the roving trio (who must have graduated from the Marquis de Sade Conservator of Music since they play there very animated version of Beach Boys or Beetles music with all pieces in the same key and tempo) at very high amplified volume. Even the Observation Lounge has blearing Christmas or the same “semi-classical” music playing very loudly some of the time, but unlike the other areas the attendant knows how and is willing to turn it off. Will I opt for Regent again? Well, with the right itinerary and price, maybe, but the laundry rooms are close to a show stopper. The 3 hours of free satellite phone time and free Internet is nice, but the very distracted food and beverage service seems to indicate disgruntled or somehow overworked employees or worse.
I guess despite the sometimes intrusive service on Silversea, the staff is trying to serve. Here their hearts may be in the right place, but sometimes the supervisors especially appear clueless regarding theirs and their subordinates’ jobs. The General Manager (Hotel Director) is not ever seen in public. It shows.
Thanks for listening. Talk to you when I get home.
Best,
Mike
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