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[meo]

Bt. I am still wondered why they used to have Coke out of Bottles instead a Keg system (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keg) they work flawless for Softdrinks also (worked with that in a 2 star Hotel). No offence to the estrel here but i think it would helped it they did.

[djem]

I had multiple drinks at the bar, and well, sure for the price, quality was just average :

- Mojito ( before the con ) -> Just way to hard, lot's of alcool, no taste ...

- Long Island -> Okay level, not the best I had, not the worse

- Spooge special -> Was nice taste wise, but total abuse by the quantity of ice cube they put in there. Personally I think they did well by mixing it in advance, to ensure a stable quality. With less ice in it, would have been a really good option

[Neirin]

My feedback ( and yes, I know it is a 4 star hotel with according prices etc. )

- Cocktails were not tasty, had too much ice and too little booze in them.
- For an environment like this, I'm not to happy to have seen pre-mixed cocktails.

I'd be glad if the hotel and its bar stuff could improve a lot on this situation. :-)

[Jorinda]

Personally I think they did well by mixing it in advance, to ensure a stable quality. 

It does ensure a stable quality. But it also set the visible standards to "Get one of our cocktails made fresh, or one of your cheaper specials from a plastic keg". That premixed stuff in a plastic container might be useful, but it makes the cocktail look cheap and lacks style. But well, that's a First World Problem.

[carter]

Personally I think they did well by mixing it in advance, to ensure a stable quality. 

It does ensure a stable quality. But it also set the visible standards to "Get one of our cocktails made fresh, or one of your cheaper specials from a plastic keg". That premixed stuff in a plastic container might be useful, but it makes the cocktail look cheap and lacks style. But well, that's a First World Problem.

Sadly not always...the Estrel Drive for example - in the evening it was pre mixed...any other time it wasn't - the difference in taste was enormous

[Mooie]

The issue with the large beers is a simple matter of the glasses running out. You can only store so many large glasses at a bar and if people don't bring them back...  ;)

Semi-true.  At many points, there were half litre glasses available, but still they (the Atrium bar) refused to serve them.  To my understanding, the staff simply did what they were told by their manager (who didn't seem to enjoy the con quite as much), as one of them was about to start serving a large, but was told off by said manager.

Was solved by going to the piano bar instead.  Mr Donkey was a really nice chap and knew what we (who went there) wanted.  :-)

I kept to beer at the con (of reasons), so cannot say much about the cocktails.

[SuburbanFox]

Question: Is it normal that a coke (for 3.80€, was it?) is a glass filled to the top with ice, and the gaps sorta filled with coke?  I'm not really well experienced with hotels and soft drinks, but that seemed horrible to me.

Yes, at almost every venue I've drunk at.

Which is why you learn to say "Coke please, no ice" and rehearse it until the last two words roll off your tongue automatically
The vast majority are OK with this. A few charge a little extra, others refuse outright -- to the latter, I change my order to a tap water, which most alcohol-serving bars will usually provide for free ^.^

Simples! 

[Suran]

Tap water is common to be free in the UK but over here it's common to get mineral water and for it to have a (low) price.

[Aragon R. Tigerseye]

While I heard from many that the cocktails were watered down and / or badly made, the two alcoholic drinks for me for this year, a black ice and a pina collada (both from the Atrium bar) were done okay enough to my (inexperienced) tastes even tho I found the pina collada to be a bit too steep at 11 Euros for a "okay enough" cocktail.

The thing that got me grumbly every time without fail was the Atrium bars policy on softdrink sizes, tho:
For the first coke I ordered there on Monday I was asked "normal size coke or 0.5 liters?". Afterwards every other time I asked for a big coke I was told there weren't enough glasses. Even if I could see 20+ of the big beer glasses right in front of me.
I mean okay, I'd get if there's a policy not to sell coke in big glasses because you can make an euro more for beer in the same glass, but why then even offer it at all?

One of the "best" occurrences when that whole thing happened for me was on Tuesday, when I asked for a big coke and was told in those exact (if translated) words "We don't have a big softdrink size" in a not too friendly tone. The guy behind the bar did flip over to an equally unfriendly "we are out of glasses" (which again I could see was not true, especially since I just bought in a 0.5l glass myself, but eh).
I would've complained to the hotel then and there but I was expected elsewhere at the time so I just chalked it up to a onetime incident and went on.

[DarkFoxDK]

One of the "best" occurrences when that whole thing happened for me was on Tuesday, when I asked for a big coke and was told in those exact (if translated) words "We don't have a big softdrink size" in a not too friendly tone. The guy behind the bar did flip over to an equally unfriendly "we are out of glasses" (which again I could see was not true, especially since I just bought in a 0.5l glass myself, but eh).
I would've complained to the hotel then and there but I was expected elsewhere at the time so I just chalked it up to a onetime incident and went on.

This matches my experience with that bar pretty well. A lot of the staff (Especially the manager) seemed sour and were quite often rude.

[Axle]

Just my 2¢ from previous cocktail bar work.

I'm assuming the bars were given a spec sheet for the EF bespoke drinks? (Hopefully more than one) Otherwise it's very understandable for a bar team that's probably less than used to mixing cocktails, to struggle with ones that aren't even on their usual menu.

Further, I assume that at some point at least the bar managers were met with for a quick mix & taste session on the drinks? Again otherwise they have no point of reference to work with, making it hard to quality control through briefing their staff or handling quality complaints.

If no to both/either of the above, I'd STRONGLY suggest something like this be done next year to give the bar staff a fighting chance and the attendees a fair shot at getting the drink they ordered.

[Fafnir Kristensen]

mmm, the guys at the bar of the Maritime had no problems doing it right from the start, as unfriendly as they may have been (imo I didnt really had a bad feeling about them, just maybe not as friendly as the people from the Ringberg, but thats all subjective)
in the case of the Estrel, imo that show a not so good level of professionalism and the problem lies on the bar manager shoulder because the waiters/waiteress are only doing what he tells them

[Korrok]

Just chipping in that this was also an issue for me and again, did affect the hotel's takings from us. The special cocktails never felt like they had any alcohol in them whatsoever and had too much ice on several occasions. The Pina Colada was the only full price cocktail I bought and it was a big disappointment: certainly plenty of alcohol but poor taste, poorly mixed (very different taste from top to bottom), poor presentation, lots of ice - just not what you would expect from a 4 star hotel bar at all. I did not bring these things up at the con because I had scarce time to socialise with people I almost never get to see and did not want to head off to the bar to kick up a fuss, and felt it would be ok to mention in the feedback..hope that's okay.

[Blue Raptor]

About the same experience at the bar near the fursuit lounge (Atrium bar I guess).

I saw the unfancy discount version of a Mojito at a friend and wondered if that's not supposed to have mint leafs and brown sugar, was not overwhelmed by the event cocktails (at least the non-alcohol parts) coming premixed form big plastic canisters, and my one and only Pina Colada was not from a canister and shaken alright, yet poured over ice cubes in a table glass (with a slice of pineapple so you know what it's supposed to be) and despite trying not to drink it too fast the glass remained like a third full of ice cubes.
I'm sure you CAN do your cocktails that way, but I won't pay 11 Euros for that.

The bar crew also seemed unable to realize who is waiting to place an order for forever already and serve those first (or just ask who was next) and instead mostly focused on whomever their gaze met first, and the two times I explicitly asked for a glass that is clean on the outside because I did not want it to soak into my suit and tipped some too (before they made it) (the answers were "I'm sure we can do that" and "of course") the glass they handed me was spilled with drink on the outside.

No, I did not try to run after them when I found out and go irate raptor on them. Neither do I know if any of that was laziness of the keeper in question or lack of skill or bar policy or hotel policy, nor did I feel like putting up stress. But I did and do think this should be addressed afterwards, so they can improve whatever the reasons are for next year.
As that was far from the minor glitches and slow service due to high load which cannot be prevented.

[Felfur]

To make it short adding my 2 drinks after this already lengthy and repeating thread:

Was two times at the atrium bar, on Tuesday around 10 (?), Sunday about same time.
Status: Not to overcrowded, but definitely busy.
Had Virgin Mojito (whatever they call it) both times (Ginger Ale instead of alcohol), so no comment on the content of that.

Got Lime quarters, mint, brown sugar, all squashed, all fine
As Mojito consists of a whole lot of ice, a "to much" that was not a concern either.
Was served fast, personale seemed in a hurry, drink was mixed quite hasty.
One single perfunctionary turn with the rod was a not really enough to squash the lime or mint.

Mojito is supposed to be done with crushed ice but they used a single block the size of the glass (No time to make crush ice? Or not enough traffic so that it would melt away before being used? Don't know). As the ice is supposed to melt over time and to be used with the excess sugar (and the over again pressed lime and mint), there was not much of a trade-off for the money spent, some sips with the straw and it was gone, which normally is not a problem, due to the ice melting and being drunk also. Well, I gave up stirring and trying to melt the block after about half an hour. There was also no stirr&squish-thingie, just the straw, which made it also not very effective.

9 Euro for a not even alcoholic drink (a small one) is quite a sum I think, especially as its the same price as the adult Mojito goes, I'd expected some price off.
Let's see how do fare next year.