razmaspaz

I really don’t want to get too happy. After wasting an entirely good post talking about how life is great, I need to switch gears back to the pissed off complaining side of me.

Ask almost anyone what comes to mind when they think cruise, and they will likely tell you “the food”. Cruises are known for their elaborate buffets, fancy dinners, and 24 hour pizza service. My cruise was no different. Before the cruise I remarked that it felt like I had been eating nonstop since Thanksgiving. It turns out that up until I got on the ship, I was just in warm-up mode. I think I had at least a five course meal every night, and even got up to six courses for one gluttonous meal.

Despite the wonderful food, and attentive service, I still found room to complain. Its no secret that I love wine. Fortunately or unfortunately, an appreciation of something often comes with a snobbery about it. I am as you will figure out, a self proclaimed wine snob. I try to keep it hidden deep down inside, but sometimes it creeps out, ugly head and all.

I was disappointed in the way the wine was served on the cruise. The restaurant has a head chef, a maitre’d, two waiters for each table, and a bar waitress. To me that says that at the very least these people should know how to pour a glass of wine. Carnival has taken a wonderful step in their wine service. They bring a single serving carafe to your table along with an empty glass. When I saw the carafe coming to my table I was very excited at the prospect of proper wine service. You see, restaurants have a tendency to over fill a glass of wine. Its the customers fault really. If we are paying six dollars for a glass of wine, it should be full dammit. So the restaurant, in an attempt to make us feel better, fills our glass to the brim. This leaves a full glass with no room to swirl, sniff, or examine the wine brought to the table. Enter the carafe. The patron gets a full glass, and can pour the wine into their glass as full or as empty as they want. Problem solved.

So snap back to my story. Here comes this carafe, along with a glass. The glass lands on my table, the waitress reaches out, carafe in hand, and pours the whole kit and caboodle into my glass. Full to the brim. WTF? Where’s the point in that? I chalk it up to lost in translation. Somebody at Carnival knew enough to use the carafe, but in training or some communication snafu, this got missed. I can honestly say it ruined my meal the first night. Not that it made my food worse or anything, I just sat there thinking the rest of the meal: Huh?

I left a long note in my comment card, which I’m sure will be tossed out the portal of my cabin, but on the off chance it gets read, maybe someone will fix it. Here’s to hoping.