I planned a group event here (in the hotel's meeting room and then on the Sweet Afton boat owned by them). This event was a disaster from start to finish.
When I began planning the event months prior, I secured the Conference room. Days before the event, when I was confirming details, they moved me to the Pennington room and tried to charge me a different price than what was listed online. I successfully argued my way out of the price discrepancy, but still was stuck in the Pennington room. Fine. Whatever.
Also, at some point during the planning, they tried to shuffle my group to a different boat than I originally reserved. I said no.
The catering coordinator at the Afton House assured me that they could do a custom menu. And they did. However, when I asked if they could create a hummus sampler with pita chips for an appetizer, I was told by the catering coordinator that she didn't know hummus came in other flavors besides "hummus flavor". Shouldn't someone who works with food all day know a thing or two about food? I corrected her which forced her to do some research and she came back to me with three hummus options, which were satisfactory.
Fast forward to the evening of the meeting and boat/dinner cruise.
When we arrived for the meeting, the space wasn't set up with pitchers of water, coffee or snacks as I requested. It was nearly impossible to track down the on-site coordinator. Time was ticking by as the guests were due to arrive any second. Finally, I found a different coordinator than the one I originally worked with. Obviously, there were some communication issues going on that I didn't know about. The on-site coordinator brought bottled water, which I specifically told the other coordinator that I did not want (while in the planning stages). I asked him to take it back and bring pitchers of water with nice water goblets. A supporting staff member gave me a roll of the eyes at this point. Classy.
The music piped into the hotel was blaring in the meeting room which I asked them to turn down. I guess it took a rocket scientist to do so, because it took a while.
The decor in the Pennington room was dowdy. Yuck.
Some guests needed to use the restroom. We were directed to the bathrooms in the bar area. I've never seen a smaller bathroom in a public venue in my life, quite frankly. There is an exposed floor-to-ceiling pipe in the way of the sink! It's worse than dive bar quality - albeit a little tidier). Later, upon leaving, we were told by a different staff member that there was a nicer, bigger bathroom somewhere else in the establishment. Thanks a lot for that useful bit of knowledge!
In between the meeting and the boat/dinner cruise, my guests and I went to the bar. i was relieved to find a friendly bartender there.
On to the boat/dinner cruise. This is where the real sh*t went down.
Being one of the hostesses for the event, I didn't go through the food line until everyone else did. When I went through, I realized the staff forgot to put out the salad dressing. My guests were apparently too polite to inform anyone that they were eating dry salad.
There were supposed to be 3 main entrees. A Moroccan Chicken Penne dish, beef skewers on a bed of basmati rice, and a chickpea curry dish. The chickpea curry dish was missing and my vegetarian guests (including myself) were left scratching their heads. I inquired about the missing dish and got the most unfavorable response ever. The staff member halfheartedly looked around and proceeded to shrug and say "sorry!". Naturally, I was FUMING and said "it has to be here!!!! You must find it!". We're on a boat. So it's either on the boat or it's back at the restaurant and the boat won't turn around to get it. The staff member reluctantly went up to the captain on the deck to call the Afton House kitchen to find out where it was. Turns out it was on the boat the whole time...in a warming oven. Duh. He should have looked there first!
Then, a dessert was missing from the dessert trio I ordered. Same story here as with the entree...the staff claimed they couldn't find it for at least 10 minutes)...then, lo and behold, it turned up in the fridge. Eureka! Mind you, the kitchen on this boat is smaller than my own kitchen in my tiny 450 sq foot apartment...so I'm not sure how all this stuff got "lost".
I had requested coffee to be available to guests during dessert, and that wasn't put out either. I had to practically beg them for it and then it ended up being really weak and stale tasting coffee.
Later, days after the event, I vocalized my disgust in a conversation with the event coordinator. I was told that some of the staff had been "let go" since my event. That's too bad. I think maybe they were just lacking good training.
A good note...my guests (and the boat captain!) loved the food. They didn't know it was a menu designed by a chef at a competing cruise line. Heh. read more