High Pressure Specialty Dining Sales Pitches

[Cigar King]

Nonsense. Workers need to know which policies to really follow.

 

They are following the policies of their management. Generally speaking, the cruise ship employees do not have a lot of freedom to make their own decisions.

[Rae Chull]

We are about to go on our first cruise. I am very disappointed to hear that we will be hassled nonstop to buy extras. I swore off Vegas because the time share people drive me insane. I’m really hoping that is not how a cruise ship is. I love to spend money but I hate being interrupted - especially during a nice meal with my husband.

 

 

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[shellunderwater]

We were on the Oasis last week. While in Champagne Bar, heard someone "selling" Chops to a group. We were going to Chops that evening. I looked away, and by the time I looked back, he was gone. Actually wanted to chat with him.

 

At no time did anyone interrupt a meal to sell us.

 

But, if you can survive getting through any of the ports with a simple No Gracias, you can survive the ship.

 

But, I agree, if you don't like it, tell them on the ship. We here at CC can't solve the issue. We had issues on the ship, and visited Guest Services to address the issues on the ship.

[OSUZorba]

We are about to go on our first cruise. I am very disappointed to hear that we will be hassled nonstop to buy extras. I swore off Vegas because the time share people drive me insane. I’m really hoping that is not how a cruise ship is. I love to spend money but I hate being interrupted - especially during a nice meal with my husband.

 

I know some people do, but I've never had issues with hard sells on the ships. Before the days of the drink packages, you would get a pool waiter asking if you wanted a drink every 10 minutes, but now you can't get a server at the pool at all. The worse thing I've ever had is a server had me the drink of the day right after I got on board, I thought it was free, then he tried to charge me and I handed it back to him ;) (second cruise).

 

 

Based on what people post here, Oasis and Anthem seem to be the worst with the hard sell.

[Dennis#1]

Guess we have been lucky. We have not had any high pressure sales pitches for the speciality restaurants in MDR. Have had some in the DL and SL however.

[JamesEM]

I'm an American that speaks German, and was on the Freedom and eating in the Windjammer, told the salesperson to go away in German and ten minutes later a German speaking crew member showed up, we both had a good laugh

[yuvraj]

Saw people do this on my last cruise on Allure but wasn't approached myself. Can be a little annoying but in my experience, doesn't happen all the time. Probably depends on how busy the speciality restaurants are.

[bUU]

If the issue is they won't take no for an answer you might try changing your approach. A lot of times people have trouble saying No; they think it's rude or something else, but a lot of times No is all you need. You can add a thanks if you'd like, but it's not necessary?

 

"Excuse me, are you interested in getting specialty restaurant reservations?

"No."

 

"Do you need help finding anything"

"No"

 

The conversation is over once you say No. If they refuse to accept your No as a complete sentence and a complete answer that's actually them being rude. Why do you need to engage further? Conversation is not something you "owe" people. Common decency? Sure. Answering their question is common decency.

This.

 

Be polite... Once. After they are impolite, by refusing to take 'no' for an answer, your obligation to be polite expires.

 

I think one of the most effective way of communicating that they have gone over the line is to switch from polite discourse to terse orders: "Stop." "Step back." "Go away." "Go away now." (louder)

 

Nonsense. Workers need to know which policies to really follow.

This is nonsense. There is nothing about these policies that make them something workers shouldn't follow. The workers simply need to know when to give up and move on.

 

This post may have been entered by voice recognition. Please excuse any typographical errors.

[Rae Chull]

I know some people do, but I've never had issues with hard sells on the ships. Before the days of the drink packages, you would get a pool waiter asking if you wanted a drink every 10 minutes, but now you can't get a server at the pool at all. The worse thing I've ever had is a server had me the drink of the day right after I got on board, I thought it was free, then he tried to charge me and I handed it back to him ;) (second cruise).

 

 

 

 

 

Based on what people post here, Oasis and Anthem seem to be the worst with the hard sell.

 

 

 

We booked a 13 day Celebrity Eclipse Mediterranean cruise for 2018 and then decided we should “try out” a shorter cruise to make sure we like it. We then booked 5 nights on the Empress for later this year. I bought drink packages and three lunches at Chops already. I’m hoping the sales people aren’t too aggressive. It’s nice to hear it isn’t always the case and if it seems to be an issue you can talk to guest relations. Hopefully a day in the sunshine will offset any annoyances :)

 

 

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[time4u2go]

For me the problem is not that it's "hard" sells, or high pressure. It's that I've been approached so often, in so many places. I've been approached in the MDR, in Windjammer, in Promenade Cafe, etc. Leave me alone, I'm on vacation!

[Clarea]

For me the problem is not that it's "hard" sells, or high pressure. It's that I've been approached so often, in so many places. I've been approached in the MDR, in Windjammer, in Promenade Cafe, etc. Leave me alone, I'm on vacation!

This is our experience too. They are quick to take no for an answer, but it still interrupts breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

[cruisegirl1]

Funny - we've sailed Oasis a few times this year as well as other RCCL ships and I don't recall any meal interruptions for speciality restaurant dining sales. On some cruises the waiter might (once) suggest one of the upsell menu items but usually with a casual "of course we also have a very nice lobster or surf and turf " and a few cruises they might offer the selection at a slight discount. If we are approached around the ship, we always find a simple "no thank you" is sufficient. We've never felt over pressured or even bothered.

On boarding day we do find a little more sales activity but generally folks are looking to buy dining, drink package etc,

 

I know each cruise is different, but we had a recent B2B on Oasis and spent most evenings (from 6-7) at the Trellis Bar in Central Park. We noticed that on many evenings, the surrounding restaurants we only half filled. Vintages was empty every evening. A few nights we had our drink at the bar at Sabor, and that place was practically empty also. We had dinner in Coastal Kitchen most nights and took a look at the chefs table and some evenings there were only 4 or 6 people having dinner there. On the contrary, the few times we looked in Izumi, it was crowded. We were on the Oasis cruise that was extended 3 days and during that extension, all speciality dining was half price, and the restaurants were much busier. Apparently many passengers took advantage of the offer.

 

 

M

[lbjen]

I wonder if they look for certain targets when choosing who to ask. We were on Oasis this summer and we were only approached once on the pool deck, and then once again as we walked past 150. I guess we don’t look like he kind of people that eat at the fancy places!

 

We were asked a lot more often on Navigator, as we passed the sales staff outside the WJ every single time we went in there, and they also had people walking around the MDR selling packages. There were roving sales guys in the WJ on Oasis but they never approached us. I never saw anyone roaming around the MDR to sell anything either.

 

 

OP I don’t blame you for lashing out, and I’m sure the person who you snapped at is used to it unfortunately. We’re all human, even if some on this site think otherwise.

[grapau27]

Par for the course anymore. We had the same experience on Oasis.

When they approached us i asked for a big discount on specialty restaurants and got it.

[SRF]

On Grandeur in Aug, they were wandering around pitching various things prior to boarding and also on the pool deck while waiting for cabins to open.

 

Not high pressure. I actually had a nice chat with a couple of them. One was the boyfriend of the casino manager. So when I met her, I mentioned that she must be Xs girlfriend. That got me 5 drink coupons for the casino bar. :)

 

They had a table set up outside WJ, but you were free to stop and discuss, or walk on by.

 

No pitches inside the MDR or WJ.

[Cindy]

I thought the sales pitches were numerous and intrusive on my last 2 Royal Caribbean cruises (both on Liberty). We were approached IN the Windjammer while we were having lunch with offers to purchase both dining and beverage packages.

 

The specialty dining pitch that really bothered me was in Giovanni's during suite breakfast. Every day the same waiter approached us. I finally asked that we not be bothered about it again and my request was honored.

[John&LaLa]

I know some people do, but I've never had issues with hard sells on the ships. Before the days of the drink packages, you would get a pool waiter asking if you wanted a drink every 10 minutes, but now you can't get a server at the pool at all. The worse thing I've ever had is a server had me the drink of the day right after I got on board, I thought it was free, then he tried to charge me and I handed it back to him ;) (second cruise).

 

 

Based on what people post here, Oasis and Anthem seem to be the worst with the hard sell.

They have more venues

 

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[John&LaLa]

When they approached us i asked for a big discount on specialty restaurants and got it.

I've only been approached outside Wind Jammer. Got a 20% discount for Izumi.

 

Will ask for more next time

 

This was on Oasis same week as OP. Maybe I just look surly

 

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[Cuizer2]

"Overcoming objections" training is interesting. I was at a timeshare sales pitch listening in on nearby conversations and no matter why the person said "no" they had a way to overcome the objection. They have the advantage because people can't just say no, we feel obligated to provide an explanation, and then they overcome that reason.

 

The super secret way to beat them is to say no without giving a reason. When they ask why, tell them you are not interested. Now the fun starts because they have no counter for this. They'll go nuts trying to get you to give them a reason why you are not interested so they can hit you with the counter-measure for that reason.

 

You can also try, "I told you no."

[Niagarawine]

Yes they were outside the Windjammer everyday of our last cruise. Never had them interrupt my meal in the Windjammer or MDR. However, at the Schooner Lounge was another story. It was a constant interruption. Yes, I was there a lot. But when we find bartenders we like, we tend to stay with them.

I was on a Celebrity transatlantic a few years ago and they were relentless about specialty dining. They would approach us everywhere , bars, restaurants , watching the view , on Constellation going to Rome. We really got fed up with it. But I have never had a problem since then but Celebrity was told to back off and I think they listened, just turned me off and I was thinking of booking a dinner in the Italian specialty restaurant but because of their tactics did not do so, husband was furious at them.

[Groucho]

We just returned from Oasis and the hard core (and rude) upselling was in full swing. The topper was during the day on formal night we received a call on our cabin phone from someone from Picture This asking if we wanted formal pictures for formal night. When the call came in, my wife and I were taking a nap. The crew member on the phone took about a minute to get to his point. We felt it was an invasion of our privacy and very rude.

 

We don't blame the crew member because he is just doing what he was told to do. I wonder if management forces a quota on the crew with consequences if they don't reach it, which may be the reason behind the aggressive selling.

 

We need to find out if we can force calls to go direct into voice mail so we aren't bother by such a call again.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

Just disconnect the phone!

[LMaxwell]

I don't find the sales tactics to be high pressure, but they degrade my overall experience and my preference is to not even be approached. When there are poor quality photocopies, pop up tables, those stand banners in the Centrum's, etc., I find it all a bit tacky. If I want to know the cost of a package, I can ask or check my cabin tv. I'm very capable of saying no, or to keep on moving, but the solicitation itself is bothersome.

 

If my phone ever rings with an ad for a premium product on a cruise they had better be telling me it has been comped...

[js]

Oh my! They call the phone too!? I own three timeshares and the FIRST think I do when I walk into our unit is disconnect every phone, wow, I need to do this on Royal now too?

 

Also, Im just not a compasionate person, just the way Im made. Im loving and caring to my family ans close friends but that is about it although I can be nice lol. I worked in Manhattan for 100 years and even beggers on the street wouldnt get anything from me so I will NOT be happy with eating a meal and being interuppted. If I want to eat is specialty I will ( and I plan on it).

 

I will keep an eye on this thread and if this is still happening when I sail in August, I think I will inform the matre de or hostess when we are seated for any meal I do NOT want anyone from Royal coming to me while I am at the table trying to sell me another meal.

 

Thank you for this thread. Not much of anything bothers me on vacatio. But I can say Royal has found a way lol

 

Thanks.

 

 

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[moopetguy]

"Is it free?...No? Then no." :)