William and a group of friends from his Anglesey airbase were turned away from a restaurant because staff said they didn’t have room for them. The prince showed up with a group of 20 friends this week at the Seacroft restaurant in Wales, close to RAF Valley, where he works as a search and rescue helicopter pilot.
“The plan was to eat there but unfortunately they had one of their chefs off sick, so they weren’t able to cope with the number that we had brought,” said William’s commanding officer, Squadron Leader Iain Wright. “So we found another location and moved on.”
The incident took place in the village of Treaddur Bay, close to RAF Valley.
The situation was resolved amicably after staff at the Seacroft telephoned the nearby Treaddur Bay hotel which was able to accommodate the group. But first they had to convince the hotel that they were being serious.
The hotel “thought it was a joke, because it was Prince William and his buddies, and I think they had to phone up three or four times to say no, this is real,” according to Seacroft customer Jonathan Campbell. Campbell said it was only fair that Prince William should have been turned away, as it wouldn’t have been right to treat him differently from any other customer. But airbase engineer Marianne Swanner, from Orlando, Florida, disagreed.
“In the States, if Obama wanted to go, they’d clear it out and let him in,” she said.
