Premium cruise line?

Well, AZAMARA having the reputation it does, you might expect....what? They hire from agencies all over the world..the Pines, Peru, etc etc...noticed a more than a few Eastern Europeans. Mostly good folks trying to restore their income streams, such as they are. So midway thru this last one, we sit down to dinner in the MDR, the male waiter disappears after one shows us to our table. Got a different one (tiny lil girl) who actually gave a rats behind and said she would tell somebody...she "kind of disappeared...so I march up front (a bit of a walk) to the "rostrum" where two seemingly in charge women were on their phones, directing traffic...gave em my table #, and told em waiter disappeared...word too big...one repeated my table number to another "table shower" to take me to it...thought I was lost...nope, other one no better..some garbled stuff...walked back, and there was that little girl with my wife, having a grand old time....she and HER crew served our meal....Maitre D' come over about 20 min later, apparently our new waiter (who knew her bizness) DID tell him...apologized profusely...slightly better English seems our original waiter was called to "medical" for some unknown reason...picked up and left (they all communicate in some language or other on cells now) Maitre D' claimed even HE didn't have a clue what happened....nor did the waiters direct supv. ...hmmmm..he made it up to us, no harm, no foul...but......yeh you can leap to any conclusion you like, we already did...........

Why do think that since cruising has resumed, in many instances with untrained non-english speakers at many levels, we can have an endless thread of weird stuff...some serious, some not...at least we're at sea,,,not at home grousing about it....

Yep .. welcome to the brave new world where even here .. even here ... coffee shops and restaurants are limiting their hours and availability because they cannot get enough staff .. let alone competent staff.

There is a current labour shortage, especially in the service industries and I am sure that this will spill over to the cruise industry as well. Given the low wages paid by the cruise industries and the current labour shortages I would expect to see more issues on ships unless they increase wages to meet demand.

Sad but true. Even our dentist is now 1.5 times as costly as a year ago. We could have gone on a cruise with our most recent visits.

I'm still trying to imagine the ham.

Wish you could have posted a picture of it.

I wanted to see that layer of fat with my own eyes.

You think that's bad? Try to hire a plumber! And that's no joke!

I only thought of taking a picture after it was all over. Too late then. It all happened so fast and quite unexpectedly. It really was one inch thick and I thought how good that meat must be with that great fat layer that soaked into the meat. I just didn't expect to be served that trimming as a main course.

This reminds me of another incident on a Princess cruise in the MDR of all places.

In order to try something different, I decided to order a 'pork belly' dish. When I received it,

I could not find a trace of meat. Instead, it was all globs of pig fat. Inedible, and from the MDR.

Instead of trying to serve it to their loyal customers, why don't they do something constructive and render all that fat and use it for bio diesel in the ships engines?

Paulzy, If you wanted to see that layer of fat with your own eyes, you could..........

well maybe I better stop now before I say too much. Use your imagination.

I would expect this from a MDR on carnival, not one of the Premium lines...

I know, we have recently.

Opus:

I wouldn't expect this on ANY cruise line whether it's budget or luxury.

On second thought: Didn't I see where North Korea had a cruise ship? From what I hear,

that menu item would be absolutely gourmet.

Aunt Pinkie:

Have you heard the joke about the customer complaining that the plumbers bill was more than a doctor's bill? The plumber replied that he was an M.D. and that's why he changed careers

to get into plumbing instead.