NOT happy with FREEDOM at all

[vols_159]

This is the first cruise this has happened to me.

 

I had chicken tenders the night before (lightly breaded pieces of real chicken). The following night I really didn't care for anything on the menu (I don't do lamb, tofu steak, and I have to be careful of fish, because I'm very allergic to many types and didn't want to experiment on a cruise ship!) I asked my head waiter if it was at all possible to get 4 of the chicken tenders I had yesterday? I told him they don't need to make the dish fancy, just 4 tenders on a plate. He told me they were all out. (He didn't even ask anyone and frankly found this hard to believe) Later, still at the table, I told my husband, "he didn't even ask". The head waiter was behind me, and I knew it. He came to my side and said that if he had ordered the tenders for me, he would have had to put it in as a special order, and he didn't want to do that. I'm still in disbelief.

 

So he didn't wanna do his job??

[Havingfun2010]

Places like Denny's never run out of chicken fingers, and since the MDR of Carnival ships converted to a Denny's like menu, I would find it hard to believe the simple request of having a kid's meal plate ordered of chicken fingers would be that difficult. However, like the poster, my last cruise, the waiter was horrendous, and was the only time, I ever did not tip. I did tip, the assistant waiter.

[Djptcp]

This happened to us on the Fascination in 1995 and we told the Maitre'D, although this made the waiter even more surley. We did mention it on the end of-cruise survey. Only time it's happened. We have had some waiters who were not fall all over us friendly, but they weren't rude like the one on the Fascination.

[CRUZBUDS]

Places like Denny's never run out of chicken fingers, and since the MDR of Carnival ships converted to a Denny's like menu, I would find it hard to believe the simple request of having a kid's meal plate ordered of chicken fingers would be that difficult. However, like the poster, my last cruise, the waiter was horrendous, and was the only time, I ever did not tip. I did tip, the assistant waiter.

 

Chicken Tenders as requested by the OP were the ones served as an appetizer the previous evening. She did not request the nuggets from the kids menu

Our kids’ menu features delicious, fun foods to keep even the pickiest eaters happy. We’ve got all the familiar options they love from home, like spaghetti & meatballs, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, mac & cheese, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, and fresh fruit and veggies. And save room for dessert, because with sweet stuff like banana splits and chocolate brownies, your young’uns are going to be pretty excited. There’s even 24-hour pizza and ice cream, as well as kids’ items available on the in-room dining menu.

[near the beach]

I don’t understand how one meal could make a cruise.

[cruzeluver]

I do not care if the paying customer was rude or not, the staff should never, ever roll their eyes at a paying customer. To find that acceptable really takes dumbing down and lowering expectations to a new low.

 

Sorry OP.

[Tithonus]

This happened to us on the Fascination in 1995 and we told the Maitre'D, although this made the waiter even more surley. We did mention it on the end of-cruise survey. Only time it's happened. We have had some waiters who were not fall all over us friendly, but they weren't rude like the one on the Fascination.

 

Was he Russian, and was this the southern Caribbean Route including Venezuala, curaçao, Grenada, and Guadaloupe?

[Dicecatt]

my guess is she meant her main Server, not the head waiter- just giving benefit Of the doubt- and while I agree the OP might have been high maintenance it wouldn't have killed the Server to Actually check to See if it was Available. If I was told My server basically just didn't feel like doing something, I would have been annoyed too, whether it was Carnival or Apple bees.

 

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[tkportersat]

We didn't have the best waiter on our last cruise and I didn't do anything. It wasn't so much that he was rude, just didn't have much of a personality and the service was a little slow. I try to roll with the punches on vacation as much as possible. There are cultural differences and some of these people are leaving families for months at a time. Maybe there was a death back home or they missed an important family event. And yes maybe they are at the end of their contract and are just ready to get home for a while. And lastly, maybe they aren't the friendliest person. Either way, I can't imagine how hard it is to see families having fun day in and day out while they aren't with theirs. I can't imagine dealing with less than friendly individuals either, complaining about every little thing while they are away from their families. Sorry you had to ask for more water, butter and bread. That must have been awful. :rolleyes:

 

Just wondering how you handle a rude waiter while on your cruise.

We were on an 8 day cruise (first of 2 legs) and the head waiter never came to our table till day 3 or 4. He never introduced himself either when he DID. (Now that's not the rude one)

 

The asst. waiter was the rude one. If you asked him a question about an item on the menu, he would roll his eyes in disgust....and gave me the wrong information anyway. We found this out when our meal came. (Another tablemate and myself ordered the item from the information he provided)

He just had this attitude from the start, like he either wanted to end his contract or was sorry he signed up. But it was apparent he didn't want to be there. At one point I had to ask a waiter in training if he could get our table more water, more butter, and more bread !

[hutat]

I do not care if the paying customer was rude or not, the staff should never, ever roll their eyes at a paying customer. To find that acceptable really takes dumbing down and lowering expectations to a new low.

 

Sorry OP.

It isn't that we're dumbing down, but when you have a problem with a ship employee you address the issue with that person's superiors immediately. Why come on cruise critic and write 3 different stories about the same thing and say you're "not happy with Freedom at all" . The OP does not state anymore problems with the cruise just this incident. I would never let one incident ruin my cruise. In my honest opinion, not to offend anybody.

[cruiseonthebrain]

I have never had a rude waiter on a Carnival cruise. Even when we were with a big group.

[lovesublime]

We had an extremely rude waiter on Breeze back in Feb. I will call him out right here...head waiter Anthony from Jamaica in the Blush dining room. He was condescending and rude. When we asked for milk for the toddler, he literally rolled his eyes and everyone saw it. It was only our second night in the MDR and we never went back. Instead, we had dinner at the steakhouse, Italian restaurant x2, buffet and pizza. We didn't adjust gratuities, but in retrospect we should have. We should have also made a complaint.

[Terre]

Take careful note of the waiter's name, and what table number you've been assigned

and have a word with the Maitre D' at a suitable time -when the Maitre D' is not too busy.

 

.

 

Ditto

[FSUNole]

I'm curious if the OP had any good experiences on the cruise? With all the complaint posts I would think the last thing the OP would want to do is go on another cruise.

[newlights]

So your whole cruise sucked because of a couple of chicken tenders? Really? I just got off the Freedom had the best time and service both of my life!

 

 

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[EnTnSA]

The experience is entirely what you make of it. If you go, looking for a reason to be mad and to hate it, I promise, you will find one.

 

If you go looking to throw your worries away and enjoy yourself, you can do that too.

[Tithonus]

So your whole cruise sucked because of a couple of chicken tenders? Really? I just got off the Freedom had the best time and service both of my life!

 

 

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I think I am in disbelief that people think this is about tenders, not the service that was rendered.

[RuthlessBoss]

We had an extremely rude waiter on Breeze back in Feb. I will call him out right here...head waiter Anthony from Jamaica in the Blush dining room. He was condescending and rude. When we asked for milk for the toddler, he literally rolled his eyes and everyone saw it. It was only our second night in the MDR and we never went back. Instead, we had dinner at the steakhouse, Italian restaurant x2, buffet and pizza. We didn't adjust gratuities, but in retrospect we should have. We should have also made a complaint.

This is not aimed at you, but I wonder if in a case like this, the server has run back and forth and just as he thinks he's got all the little things and extras on the table, a person says "oh by the way, can you get the child a glass of milk?" I think this is part of what causes a server to frazzle knowing he's still got x amount of tables to please.

I could say that of a server on Liberty who was tending a demanding table next to us. Our table took a back seat to this happening. I was upset, but it didn't ruin the cruise.

[EnTnSA]

This is not aimed at you, but I wonder if in a case like this, the server has run back and forth and just as he thinks he's got all the little things and extras on the table, a person says "oh by the way, can you get the child a glass of milk?" I think this is part of what causes a server to frazzle knowing he's still got x amount of tables to please.

I could say that of a server on Liberty who was tending a demanding table next to us. Our table took a back seat to this happening. I was upset, but it didn't ruin the cruise.

 

Yea, for some reason I think milk is a chore for them to get, like they have to travel down to the engine room, get in a sub, travel down to the ocean floor and back…We brought our toddler on our first cruise and asked for milk for him. Our waiters were AWESOME with a capital AWESOME, but they did let us know it would take a while to get. Every night after the first, they had it prepared in a carafe in a small cooler in the dining room so they could avoid the trip. I have not had that level of service since…Service has always been good, but not that good. We gave each one of those guys 50 bucks at the end of the cruise.

[skittl1321]

If there is a rude waiter you should:

-mention the problem directly to the waiter. If the problem is not corrected then:

-ask to speak to the Maitre'D. If the problem is not corrected then:

-ask to be reassigned to a new table.

 

You can also adjust gratuities based on performance.

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

CCL doesn't really do special order/customer service MDR anymore. We had a great maitreD last year on the Conquest that helped us with our Gluten Free requests the night before, but this year on the Dream, it never happened and not only did we not get special requests, we just didn't even get the normal orders right. CCL is really turning more into a value service one-size-fits-all style operation, not special service like most of us decades long cruisers remember the industry used to be. Thankfully, other cruise lines absolute excel in this regard. Perhaps its time to move on.

[treasure4two]

First thing I would do is ask for a table/server change. And I wouldn't wait till the MD wasn't busy (huh?).

 

And he certainly wouldn't be rewarded with a tip. I would hope to assist in his quick departure if he's that bad. Luckily, this only happened to us once.

Exactly what we did and the MD was wonderful. I did not even want to be in same dining room(both servers were rude):mad:, so they put us in Anytime but gave us a set table and servers and they took the tips away from bad servers and we gave them all to new servers, who were wonderful. :D

[lovesublime]

This is not aimed at you, but I wonder if in a case like this, the server has run back and forth and just as he thinks he's got all the little things and extras on the table, a person says "oh by the way, can you get the child a glass of milk?" I think this is part of what causes a server to frazzle knowing he's still got x amount of tables to please.

I could say that of a server on Liberty who was tending a demanding table next to us. Our table took a back seat to this happening. I was upset, but it didn't ruin the cruise.

 

 

 

Well, excuse me. I didn't realize that ordering milk for a child would frazzle the waiter and categorize our table of six as being demanding. BTW, our table ordered two bottles of spring water, several bar drinks and the milk ALL at the same time. The milk request wasn't a last minute order intended to frazzle the waiter. If he cannot handle the job, then maybe he needs to find employment elsewhere. I'm just so tired of people on here excusing poor service.

 

I forgot to add that I believe that employees who roll their eyes at paying customers should probably be terminated. Just not acceptable.

Edited November 4, 2013 by lovesublime

[RuthlessBoss]

Yea, for some reason I think milk is a chore for them to get, like they have to travel down to the engine room, get in a sub, travel down to the ocean floor and back…We brought our toddler on our first cruise and asked for milk for him. Our waiters were AWESOME with a capital AWESOME, but they did let us know it would take a while to get. Every night after the first, they had it prepared in a carafe in a small cooler in the dining room so they could avoid the trip. I have not had that level of service since…Service has always been good, but not that good. We gave each one of those guys 50 bucks at the end of the cruise.

I said nothing about milk being hard to get. I was referring to it perhaps being a last minute request just as the server thought he had all needs met;)

[jimbo5544]

I have never had a rude waiter on a Carnival cruise. Even when we were with a big group.

Same here and I have been on 25