The Unidentified Waiter

According to this unidentified waiter which from reading other reports the PJ were very interested in and apparently crucial, the T9 got unlimited free wine with their dinner as part of their holiday package. Personally I have never heard of anyone getting unlimited free wine with their dinner as part of their holiday package. Anyone else? If you know of one do tell, as I'll take a package holiday with them if I get unlimited bottles of wine to drink every night!!!!

When piecing events together, there seems to be a lot of their kids crying..so not only in apartments but in the Millennium restaurant too it seems. No wonder in the very first statement they put in about the Maddie crying question. According to this, they switched to the tapas bar on the 30th (another element pointing towards the 30th). Wonder if it was the hierarchy of Mark Warner/Ocean Club that made sure they got the big table at 8.30pm every night from the 30th with unlimited free wine with their dinner as part of their holiday package....mmmmm wonder why this could be. Maybe so they could be seen at the tapas each evening by the staff & holidaymakers alike to enforce their checking fairy story perhaps


Kate and Gerry 'left Madeleine alone for three hours for four nights in a row'

Kate and Gerry McCann's strict holiday routine and fondness for the same restaurant made their three children easy prey for a potential abductor, a key eyewitness has revealed.
The couple and their friends all left their children in their apartments at exactly the same time for the last four nights of their holiday, according to the new witness.

Their children were left alone for up to three hours a night while the nine-strong group enjoyed their meals - typically washed down with eight to ten bottles of wine a night.
The waiter, who has asked not to be identified, said the nightly routine was "set in stone", making it easy for a potential abductor to "choose the right moment to take the child".

He said the group made a "special arrangement" to book the same table at 8pm every night so they could sit outside, 50 metres from where their children lay sleeping.
He told how the arrangement was widely known about by workers at the restaurant, who thought it was strange that other holiday-makers had to queue for reservations at the popular tapas bar.
But he said he only realised after Madeleine's disappearance that the routine could have made all eight of the group's children vulnerable to a potential abductor.
He then added "The apartments are all quite close to the pool, but there are trees in between so you can't see them from the restaurant.

"Even though they were checking their children every 20 minutes or so there was still a lot of time they were left alone when someone could have gone in and taken them.
"When you think back now, because the routine was so set in stone every night, if somebody had been watching the group they would definitely have been able to work out what was going on and choose the right moment to take the child."

His eyewitness account of the group's behaviour is the first time anyone from inside the tapas bar has spoken publicly about the events of May 3. He has been interviewed by police for a total of four hours during two interviews about that night, and other evenings when the so-called 'Tapas Nine' dined at the restaurant. And his wife has also been quizzed about the first two nights of the group's holiday, when she worked at the Ocean Club's other restaurant, the Millennium.

He said: "Right from the start it was obvious the police were taking the situation very seriously and believed Madeleine had been abducted. I told them what I knew and said I wondered why they hadn't paid a babysitter. "Once I realised what had happened it struck me that the arrangement had been pretty strange. "They were obviously wealthy people, why didn't they just put all the children to bed in one apartment and pay the 15 euros per hour for a shared babysitter?"

The McCanns have admitted they left their children alone for the last few nights of their holiday in Praia da Luz, but have not spoken in detail about their arrangements. The couple said they did not want to use a babysitter because they did not want to disrupt their children's normal routines, or to leave them with a stranger. And they have spoken of their bitter regret that they chose to leave Madeleine and their two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie alone.

The staff member, told of the dramatic moments after Mrs McCann found that Madeleine was missing. He said the McCanns dined with their friends, David and Fiona Payne, Mrs Payne's mother Dianne Webster, Matthew and Rachael Oldfield and Russell O'Brien and his partner Jane Tanner as usual, and drank their normal eight to ten bottles of wine.
He also said: "The night of May 3 had been just a normal night. Then it all became madness. "We were beginning to wind down at the restaurant and I had been clearing some tables. I went into the kitchen for a few minutes and when I came out I saw that the McCanns' table was totally empty except for the older woman. I think she was a mother of one of the friends. She looked scared. "Then I heard all the shouting and screaming coming from the apartments, and my colleague told me a child had gone missing. "After that it was chaos. People were running around the resort shouting for Madeleine, and we all started to help looking for her. I've never seen anything like it."

He said the only time he remembered Mrs McCann going to check on the children was when she raised the alarm, and said it was usually only the men of the group who had carried out the checks. His testimony contradicts some aspects of what the McCanns have said about the night. They said the whole group took it in turns to check on the children, and told how they only had four bottles of wine, although another two bottles were brought to their table and remained unopened because of what had happened.

He said the group got unlimited free wine with their dinner as part of their holiday package, but said they were 'very sensible' about their drinking.

"It's been reported that they had 14 bottles of wine a night but I was serving them and I know it was usually between eight and ten," he said. He said the group ate at the resort's other restaurant on the first two nights of their holiday, a buffet restaurant called Millennium, and took all their children with them. But they complained that the meal was too late for the youngsters and asked the Mark Warner manager to have the biggest table at the tapas bar, so they could leave their children in their nearby apartments while they ate.

The staff member's wife, who served the group at the Millennium, said the fractious children started crying towards the end of first two nights.

She said: "The children were generally very well-behaved, and I definitely remember Madeleine. She was like a little angel, very quiet and good as gold. Just a lovely little blonde girl.
"The second time they came in the McCanns were looking for the baby high chairs for their twins and Madeleine went over to the corner of the restaurant and started trying to drag them over.
"She obviously remembered where they were kept and wanted to help her parents, it was quite sweet really. "Other than that she was just like any other little girl. She played with her food a little bit but didn't cause any trouble apart from that."

The latest eyewitness detail about the night of Madeleine's disappearance came as a team of Portuguese detectives prepared to fly to England to reinterview some of the Tapas Nine.
Portuguese police and an official from the public prosecutor's office want to sit in while British detectives interrogate the group of friends. The head of the Portuguese police force Alipio Ribeiro said formal letters asking British authorities to agree to such a deal would be sent 'within days', but the Policia Judiciaria refused to reveal when the team would travel to Britain.
Friends of the McCanns said police in Portugal had not contacted the couple to say if they would be questioned again. A family friend said: "Kate and Gerry have not been told anything about Portuguese police. It may well be that they will not be told in advance. As far as I'm aware their legal team have not been informed either." The couple's spokesman Clarence Mitchell said they welcomed anything which would help the investigation. He said: "Anything that helps to eliminate Kate and Gerry from the inquiry is good. "We view this as a positive development. Kate and Gerry and their friends have always said they will do anything to find Madeleine or at least find out what has happened to her. "So obviously they will cooperate fully with any further questioning the PJ might want to carry out."

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

jd wrote:According to this, they switched to the tapas bar on the 30th (another element pointing towards the 30th).

No, not really, that information is incorrect. They arrived on the 28th and on the first night they eat at the Millennium. From the 29th onwards, they eat at the Tapas Bar.

Stella wrote:

jd wrote:According to this, they switched to the tapas bar on the 30th (another element pointing towards the 30th).

No, not really, that information is incorrect. They arrived on the 28th and on the first night they eat at the Millennium. From the 29th onwards, they eat at the Tapas Bar.

Have we a Tapas bar reservation form that confirms this? In The PJ files they seem to start from 1st May

jd wrote:

Stella wrote:

jd wrote:According to this, they switched to the tapas bar on the 30th (another element pointing towards the 30th).

No, not really, that information is incorrect. They arrived on the 28th and on the first night they eat at the Millennium. From the 29th onwards, they eat at the Tapas Bar.

Have we a Tapas bar reservation form that confirms this? In The PJ files they seem to start from 1st May

The list for the 29th has been witheld. Maybe they are trying to protect someones identity who may have also been there that night.
At the end of the day they all stated in their Rogatories that this is where they eat on the Sunday night.

Remember, according to the tapas receptionist, the tall, thin, pushy man booked it on the morning of the 29th, for the whole week.

Like with a lot of things we only have their word for it, including this report from the Millennium staff. She says the first 2 nights she served them and also quotes ""The second time they came in..."

As we know there are lots missing from the PJ reports, and it seems the Tapas reservations form from the 30th April is one of them. If they were booked in that night there is no reason not to have included them with the others imo

jd wrote:As we know there are lots missing from the PJ reports, and it seems the Tapas reservations form from the 30th April is one of them. If they were booked in that night there is no reason not to have included them with the others imo

If something has been withheld, it is probably for a very good reason jd. It is not for us to decide, which is and which is not important.
To withhold the tapas reservations for both the 29th and the 30th, must be significant.

Stella wrote:

jd wrote:As we know there are lots missing from the PJ reports, and it seems the Tapas reservations form from the 30th April is one of them. If they were booked in that night there is no reason not to have included them with the others imo

If something has been withheld, it is probably for a very good reason jd. It is not for us to decide, which is and which is not important.
To withhold the tapas reservations for both the 29th and the 30th, must be significant.

I totally agree it must be significant but at this moment in time it could be for any reason. Maybe it is to protect someone else's name also there that night, maybe the T9 names isn't booked on the 29th and/or maybe on the 30th there is cancelled written on the form, maybe their names are not booked in. We don't know but what we do know is that appears vital documents have been withheld and they always seem to be the ones we really want to look at, but I can see why the PJ would want to withhold these ones and not let anyone else see them at this point in time

Exactly and when you consider what is missing from the 29th and 30th, you have to ask yourselves if the PJ perhaps suspected something happened as early as that.

Missing on the 29th April
Tennis list
Tapas list
Jellyfish crèche list for the morning session
OC daily run report

Missing on the 30th April
Tennis list
Tapas list
OC daily run report

I think that they did and why they have been withheld. They release the days after and the 3rd of May itself, but for what is supposed to be 'normal' days before they withhold them. Has to be a very good reason for this

Getting back to what stuck out to me in this report....if true, why were they getting unlimited free bottles of wine each night?

From a business POV this does not make any sense whatsoever. Putting aside I have never heard of something like this before, but for any restaurant their main line of making money is the selling of the wine/drinks and here we have a group of 9 wine goozling drinkers willing to drink around 10 bottles per night and they are giving them all for free!!!! This is not right. Maybe this is why the restaurant was always fully booked

So the mccanns have a 2 bedroom apartment when they booked for a 1 bedroom apartment, and also given free unlimited wine too! I am surprised MW haven't gone bust if this is how they do their business

Didn't this little revelation come from the Daily Mail? How do you know the information is correct?

I don't think the room upgrades (alone) are that unusual. Especially given the time of year (early season). I've read dozens of reviews on numerous sites with guests saying they were upgraded. Here's just a small sample from one site - 4 out of the 8 reviews say they were upgraded.

"Booked a 1 bedroom apartment and was given a 3 bedroomed / 2 bathroomed apartment - very spacious."

"We were upgraded to a 3 bedroomed "Club cottage" (having booked a 2 bed appartment)which was huge..."

"The apartment was great, we booked a 1 bedroom apartment and got
upgraded to a 2 bedroom with our own patio garden which was clean and
well equipped."

"Been here twice now, first time in 1999. We booked a one bedroom appartment but ended up with two bedroom accommodation."

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Not only the mail, express and sun too

Its these little revelations that form a picture, another little piece of the big jigsaw

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

jd wrote:Getting back to what stuck out to me in this report....if true, why were they getting unlimited free bottles of wine each night?

From a business POV this does not make any sense whatsoever. Putting aside I have never heard of something like this before, but for any restaurant their main line of making money is the selling of the wine/drinks and here we have a group of 9 wine goozling drinkers willing to drink around 10 bottles per night and they are giving them all for free!!!! This is not right. Maybe this is why the restaurant was always fully booked [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

So the mccanns have a 2 bedroom apartment when they booked for a 1 bedroom apartment, and also given free unlimited wine too! I am surprised MW haven't gone bust if this is how they do their business

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Maybe if the holiday was arranged for doctors/medical staff as part of a "sell" for a medical/pharmaceutical company as has been mentioned in other parts of this blog the wine was included as a perk (hic!) The Tapas/McCann group don't seem to have been the only doctors staying at the OC as some people on this forum have spotted the name(s) of other doctors on the accommodation lists.

Doctors/hospital staff must be given lots of perks by companies vying for their business as is done by a lot of big organisations.

Newintown wrote:

jd wrote:Getting back to what stuck out to me in this report....if true, why were they getting unlimited free bottles of wine each night?

From a business POV this does not make any sense whatsoever. Putting aside I have never heard of something like this before, but for any restaurant their main line of making money is the selling of the wine/drinks and here we have a group of 9 wine goozling drinkers willing to drink around 10 bottles per night and they are giving them all for free!!!! This is not right. Maybe this is why the restaurant was always fully booked [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

So the mccanns have a 2 bedroom apartment when they booked for a 1 bedroom apartment, and also given free unlimited wine too! I am surprised MW haven't gone bust if this is how they do their business

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Maybe if the holiday was arranged for doctors/medical staff as part of a "sell" for a medical/pharmaceutical company as has been mentioned in other parts of this blog the wine was included as a perk (hic!) The Tapas/McCann group don't seem to have been the only doctors staying at the OC as some people on this forum have spotted the name(s) of other doctors on the accommodation lists.

Doctors/hospital staff must be given lots of perks by companies vying for their business as is done by a lot of big organisations.

Possibly this was included as a perk free wine.... but unlimited? and every night? I know first hand from a close friend whose sister used to work at MW resorts and the staff always joked about the number of doctors/medical professionals that were always taking their holidays there (not PDL resort). And joke about a fact a lot of them were insistent on being called 'DR' and not 'Mr' or 'Mrs'. I will have to ask them about the unlimited wine offer

In the Daily Fail the barman apparently said "He has been interviewed by police for a total of four hours during two interviews about that night, and other evenings when the so-called 'Tapas Nine' dined at the restaurant."

Read more: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

There is only one Tapas barman interviewed twice (he that said they drank 8 bottles an evening) and that was Jeronimo Tomas Rodrigues Salcedas

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (6th May 2007)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (rogatory 23rd April 2008)

As regards wine consumption in his initial statement he said

"They were people who showed their satisfaction with the food and would consume on average 8 bottles of wine (4 red, 4 white) between the nine of them, which he considered to be normal consumption for a group of such a number."

and in his rogatory he said

"In relation to alcohol consumption, it never appeared to me to be excessive. The wine was included in the dinner at Tapas and the functionaries were very generous in this respect. The permission was approximately one bottler per person . According to what I remember, and relative to the consumption of alcohol, there were seven bottles between the nine adults. I believe that on the first or second night they dined in the Tapas, they drank a bit more, perhaps eight or nine bottles of wine. I believe that they were also offered liquor this night, as they had been such good clients. The behaviour of the table did not change the night in questions. If anything, the group jested more than usual but no one appeared drunk."

Could the first visit to the Millenium have been dinner on the first night the 28th, and the second visit the first breakfast on the 29th? And this is how Madeleine knew where the high chairs were stored.

Re the wine one bottle per person to 9 bottles of falling over juice. I really do enjoy a drink with my meal but a whole bottle after pre prands is imo a lot, every night too.

I compiled several threads regarding the Ocean Club staff and in particular the Unidentified Barman (including a thread from 3A)

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

.......as they had been such good clients

What did they do to be regarded as such good clients? They drank all their wine for free, they didn't use the childcare service, they didn't pay the extra for a babysitter, they bullied their way to get the top table over everyone else at the Tapas after the 2nd night, they got room upgrades for free, during the day just ran or played tennis.....Maybe I am missing something but I don't see any reason why they can be such good clients

Reading your link HiDeHo I read on one of the posts that the waiter expanded in one of his interviews re the wine and it seems that it was customary, but not to the extent the T9 were using it. A bottle each every night I think is excessive on a family type holiday when you have kids you are responsible for, and the amount they were drinking amounts to about 50 bottles of free wine for 5 days! this for just one single party, sorry but this is a lot! and this does not include the cocktails they started with & the offered liquors for afters. My next holiday I am going there, drink as much as you can for free every night and be regarded as a good client. This is paradise!

Sorry but I don't buy any of this. At that point in time they were just a group of friends from the UK on holiday together, a normal scenario and nothing special, so why do MW see them as something special? I can fully guess the reason

HiDeHo you have done fantastic work

Hi de ho,does it seem like they were good clients ,maybe because it was a larger group booking and it was wanted that the group could be repeated as its a reguler event ALL doctors , for what ever reason they were reqired to attend?and the oceon club wanted it to be repeatd on regular basis ,good for business especially that early week ,not most populer time to fill up the place? joyce1938

jd wrote:

.......as they had been such good clients

What did they do to be regarded as such good clients? They drank all their wine for free, they didn't use the childcare service, they didn't pay the extra for a babysitter, they bullied their way to get the top table over everyone else at the Tapas after the 2nd night, they got room upgrades for free, during the day just ran or played tennis.....Maybe I am missing something but I don't see any reason why they can be such good clients

Reading your link HiDeHo I read on one of the posts that the waiter expanded in one of his interviews re the wine and it seems that it was customary, but not to the extent the T9 were using it. A bottle each every night I think is excessive on a family type holiday when you have kids you are responsible for, and the amount they were drinking amounts to about 50 bottles of free wine for 5 days! this for just one single party, sorry but this is a lot! and this does not include the cocktails they started with & the offered liquors for afters. My next holiday I am going there, drink as much as you can for free every night and be regarded as a good client. This is paradise!

Sorry but I don't buy any of this. At that point in time they were just a group of friends from the UK on holiday together, a normal scenario and nothing special, so why do MW see them as something special? I can fully guess the reason [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

HiDeHo you have done fantastic work [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

jd may I endorse your [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] for HiDeHo?

I agree with your comment re the drinks. Whatever it was, wine, beer, preprandials liquers, it is all alcohol, and a lot of it. No wonder the activities through the day to try to burn it off. But can you imagine going back to their children with that level of it in their systems, had there been an emergency they could well have been a drink enduced stupor so no good for any action.

Why are they good customers? Well they were pushy but they also gave the impression of having a great time, loud, energetic and of course a group of professionals, mostly of the medical profession, and senior members of that profession too so what a way for MW to advertize. For discerning professionals who want to play hard both day and night.

Keep out the lower working class, let's have the educated middle class [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] .

Nina wrote:
jd may I endorse your [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] for HiDeHo?

I agree with your comment re the drinks. Whatever it was, wine, beer, preprandials liquers, it is all alcohol, and a lot of it. No wonder the activities through the day to try to burn it off. But can you imagine going back to their children with that level of it in their systems, had there been an emergency they could well have been a drink enduced stupor so no good for any action.

Why are they good customers? Well they were pushy but they also gave the impression of having a great time, loud, energetic and of course a group of professionals, mostly of the medical profession, and senior members of that profession too so what a way for MW to advertize. For discerning professionals who want to play hard both day and night.

Keep out the lower working class, let's have the educated middle class [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] .

Lets not forget they also were swigging the wine in the apartment before leaving for the Tapas bar too. When you add it up.....glasses of wine before going out + cocktails on arrival + at least a bottle of wine each during dinner + after dinner liquors + nightcaps......This is an awful lot of drinking every night and especially when you have left your kids unattended in an unlocked apartment in a foreign country that you are solely responsible for their safety and well being...no wonder they never heard the twins crying for 75 mins!

Good customers....if they were buying then of course they would be good customers but they didn't buy the majority, they were given it for free....just does not make sense. MW is always very popular with the medical profession and these 9 were just another lot, there was nothing special about them at all and were ordinary customers in the scheme of things that they see each week. There must be something we don't know about the T9 that makes them special to MW.....

That's an unbelievable amount of wine. I thought they were fitness fanatics?

How could they get up and play tennis after a bender like that?

I love the way that doctors are always telling everyone to drink less and then you read stuff like this!!!

Pershing36 wrote: I love the way that doctors are always telling everyone to drink less and then you read stuff like this!!!

Too true!!! A close friend of mine was telling me last week that her doctor asked her a few weeks ago if she fancied going outside for a smoke! I kid you not