Intrusive Staff in Main Dining Room

[gavvy]

I can understand RCL wanting feedback but it's clear that those surveys can get people fired and that's why they seem so scared of negative feedback. On my last cruse the survey was mentioned every single night and the importance of scoring 10. Made me a bit fed up by the end of it 

I think RCL should use guest feed back but not screw it so that it's the only thing that matters. The thing that should be a positive ends up being a bit of a negative because of the constant prompts to give a 10.

[3CatsInMA]

1 hour ago, John&LaLa said:

Hoping they ask me about the lasagna 😉

Do you have some suggestions?😄

[goldfish65]

My $.02....Many of the staff are new and not experienced. It's an awkward thing to fault someone when they are trying to please us. Yet we want to enjoy our dinner! IMO the solution is to muster our social and communication skills. This is easier at the beginning. But this can work for any issue, kindly assure them that you appreciate their service very much, but you prefer not to be interrupted and if there is anything you need, you will beckon them to come to your table. At a later time, thank them again for understanding your particular needs and reward them if it's your habit to do so. 

[allie3490]

6 hours ago, dada2199cc said:

 

Well I'm a multinational so while I was born in the US, I have lived and worked internationally almost all of my life.

 

I consider myself an American of the US flavor -- my accent is Midwest Chicago, my primary language is US English, but I was raised by immigrants without the same cultures as our neighbors.

 

The demanding folks are rarely the obvious meathead AHs -- I see them on airplanes, I see them at restaurants in the States, I see them on cruises.  It's the folks who think they're the only ones who paid for the trip, and that they should be free to cut in line just because they have some status, or make demands because their $7 free MDR meal isn't up to snuff against the $3200 they're going to lose at the casino this week in order to get a free $600 cruise.

 

Last week, I was getting off a flight up in first class, and the guy BEHIND me just barged past me and my luggage.  Looked like any normal American, nothing meathead about him.  I figured maybe he had a connecting flight, but we both got to the Uber Black spot about the same time, so obviously he was just another entitled snowflake.

I let him have it, verbally and even stepped forward to him to let him know he won't do that again, not when I'm around.

I'm no Karen, but I will always, always, always step up to entitled snowflakes and let the hammer fall.  Always.

 

And lately, on cruise ships, I do it a lot -- especially with older American and Canadian folks.  It's been a new ritual.  "Who do you think you are?"

 

For me, I tip heavier, but I've made actual off-ship friendships with ex-crew who served me well for years, and the stories they tell me of what tips did for their families always encourages me to tip more.  I have no kids by choice, I have no mortgages or debt by choice, I'm probably in the top 5% incomes but I only work 8-10 hours a week by choice, so I'd rather help a hard worker than give a rusty penny to the entitled snowflakes I run into in the US restaurants, casinos, hotels, resorts, etc.

 

If I never vacation within the US again, it'll be too soon -- both because of the staff and the other folks around me, haha.

🤣🤡

[RD64]

20 hours ago, dada2199cc said:

It’s a cultural thing.

 

Competition is extremely heavy back home for these jobs, and the recruiters teach them repeatedly that US and Canadian customers are demanding and specific and to make sure everyone is happy.

 

They don’t have the same cultural barriers we do, in social settings, so some of them embarrass themselves in contorting to making sure everyone is 10/10 so they’re invited back.

 

source: I have (distant) relatives who have worked cruise ships and act this way among Westerners still.

 

 

Canadians are demanding?

[Engineroom Snipe]

15 minutes ago, dada2199cc said:

Everyone but the Manitobans.

 

 

 

OK Mister, first you challenge my ability to reserve a chair for unlimited time with a towel, and how dare you, a $20 bribe to remove my privilege and have staff remove my towel. You call it a tip, I call it a challenge to my entitlement.  Let's just not go talking about Manitobans!  😉😁

[not-enough-cruising]

2 hours ago, gavvy said:

I can understand RCL wanting feedback but it's clear that those surveys can get people fired and that's why they seem so scared of negative feedback. On my last cruse the survey was mentioned every single night and the importance of scoring 10. Made me a bit fed up by the end of it 

I think RCL should use guest feed back but not screw it so that it's the only thing that matters. The thing that should be a positive ends up being a bit of a negative because of the constant prompts to give a 10.

And very, very few get a 10 from me

[coaster]

I have not completed the survey last 7 or so cruises since last October because of the constant 10 requests in the MDR. Figured others would mention it and it would stop. Hated to ding the staff as they served us well with being understaffed in many cases. Just a constant trend the past year with even the head waiters stopping by and suggesting 10's. I feel it hurts them in the long run as experienced cruisers like me know this has not been the norm in the recent past.

[DirtyDawg]

7 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

I

If you have been on 50 cruises you can easily identify who is a head waiter.  He's the guy in a suit LOL.  

Darn, I used to wear a suit in the MDR sometimes and never got a paycheck from Royal. Those cheap darn 🤬 holes!!

 

[Katems75]

I've only been on one cruise, in 2018.  Reading this thread though, makes me dread my upcoming cruise in May.  I absolutely do not want people constantly asking me how things are and interrupting and telling me to rate them a 10 on a survey.  That sounds very intrusive and rude.  If RC is either telling them to do this, or rewarding/punishing them if they do/don't, shame on RC.  The whole thing sounds very uncomfortable for everyone involved.

 

Is the staff truly so subservient to people?  I am not on vacation to be bowed and scraped to, I am on vacation to enjoy the people I have chosen to be with (which is NOT the staff) and to relax. If this is how things go it sounds very unrelaxing and not a whole lot of fun.  I do recall announcements going on in the dining room a lot, but I mostly ignored it.  I don't recall my waiters being annoying but now I'm definitely scared.  I certainly hate the whole idea of one group of people being waited on hand and foot by another group of people from less wealthy countries.

Edited November 24, 2022 by Katems75

[topnole]

22 hours ago, D4 said:

This is the best answer.  It might have been better if you had mentioned it to them earlier in your cruise.

This!!!   And if you are getting annoyed, but happy with the service and food,

tell them how great everything is when you start to feel it is too much.  If you really want them to stop, tell them you will be giving them a top score

on everything and ask if they can give you a little more time with friends.  That rating is their main motivation in the first place.  Remove the motivation (ie. They know you are giving a 10/10) and you’ll remove the behavior.  

[davekathy]

1 hour ago, DirtyDawg said:

Darn, I used to wear a suit in the MDR sometimes and never got a paycheck from Royal. Those cheap darn 🤬 holes!!

 

That's why I stopped wearing my suit. 

[Mapleleafforever]

Just make a game of it and start sending them on wild goose chases. 

[BND]

5 hours ago, 3CatsInMA said:

Do you have some suggestions?😄

I'm not John, but how about no bechamel sauce on an Italian dish.  Just marinara please.

[time4u2go]

9 hours ago, cello56 said:

Wow! I most certainly do not appreciate being called a liar. What I wrote in my original post was exactly what happened. Some of you seem to want to accuse me of fabricating the story - why on earth would I want to do that? 

 

Ok - no, the man in the suit was NOT the Head Waiter - we knew who the HW was as he had already introduced himself. This was someone else who had a list of specific people he was looking for to ask his questions. Our friends were not on his list so he ignored them. Our friends felt that they were ignored because they were 'only' Diamond level which may or may not have been the case. Could have just been a random list of people corporate wanted him to speak to. He should have been more polite and less obtrusive about how he approached our table.

 

I never said I was rude. In fact, being raised in Canada, I am an extremely polite and respectful person, that is why we didn't say anything prior to the last night when I had just had enough. Our friends - also from Canada - land of the polite - were ready to give up on the main dining room they were so frustrated with the interruptions.

 

No, I should not have to readjust my expectations of how I spend my mealtime in the dining room. If we want to use this time to talk among ourselves that is what we should be able to do. That is not being 'entitled' that is called eating in a restaurant. Pretty sure in most land based restaurants the staff come back and ask the table as a whole how their meal is. They don't go around the table one by one and specifically ask each person how their soup is, how they salad is, how their entree is and on and on for every single dish brought to the table. People know how to speak for themselves and make the staff aware of any problems.

 

My DH and I are very low maintenance on cruises. We ask our cabin attendant for two extra towels in our cabin. That is it. In the dining room we normally have no requests at all. We are always pleasant and polite to all the staff. Ask them how their day is going, wish a good evening as we leave. The service itself in the dining room was excellent - we were not complaining about that at all. All we asked for was to have fewer interruptions to our meal.

Thank you for coming back and setting the record straight, and for responding to those that had accused you of lying. 

[DirtyDawg]

2 hours ago, davekathy said:

That's why I stopped wearing my suit. 

One of the benefits of wearing shorts in the MDR is not being confused with one of the staff.

 

But I do miss collecting all those tip envelopes at the end of my cruises. 😉

[schmendrick b]

5 minutes ago, DirtyDawg said:

One of the benefits of wearing shorts in the MDR is not being confused with one of the staff.

 

But I do miss collecting all those tip envelopes at the end of my cruises. 😉

 

😮 ... but looking for a confused face ...

[rhino7176]

14 hours ago, Husky1987 said:

 

Yeah, that was a dead giveaway, who knows....but in my experience, most of the time someone exaggerates a customer service story from hell and goes out of their way to point out that they were "very polite and gentle", they usually weren't.

Exactly.... never seen that be the case, usually when exagerating, the people doing that were true AHs to their servers/bartenders/attendants, etc.....

[rhino7176]

14 hours ago, Billy Baltic said:

I couldn't identify  the head waiter if he called to my house. They’re all staff in different uniforms. Seems an odd reason to decide the op is lying. 

Every cruise I have been on I knew who the head waiter was and seek him out to tip him.

[Ashland]

13 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Ironically I just received, last night, a rather lengthy surgery on the MDR. 

The survey covered everything from menu design, food choices, lighting, sound, place settings; and yes, expectations of wait staff. 

I received that survey yesterday also. Funny cause we eat in the WJ not the MDR. They call us every cruise to ask why we're not there...and I have no problem nicely telling them that we prefer the WJ.

[rhino7176]

6 hours ago, Katems75 said:

I've only been on one cruise, in 2018.  Reading this thread though, makes me dread my upcoming cruise in May.  I absolutely do not want people constantly asking me how things are and interrupting and telling me to rate them a 10 on a survey.  That sounds very intrusive and rude.  If RC is either telling them to do this, or rewarding/punishing them if they do/don't, shame on RC.  The whole thing sounds very uncomfortable for everyone involved.

 

Is the staff truly so subservient to people?  I am not on vacation to be bowed and scraped to, I am on vacation to enjoy the people I have chosen to be with (which is NOT the staff) and to relax. If this is how things go it sounds very unrelaxing and not a whole lot of fun.  I do recall announcements going on in the dining room a lot, but I mostly ignored it.  I don't recall my waiters being annoying but now I'm definitely scared.  I certainly hate the whole idea of one group of people being waited on hand and foot by another group of people from less wealthy countries.

From my experiences it is not the case.  I take the effort to talk and get to know my wait staff, bartenders, entertainers, etc.....  I find that a huge interesting part of a cruise.  Don't let the OP and the other fuddy duddies scare you away with tall tales.

[ONECRUISER]

23 hours ago, BND said:

We were on Jewel last week.  We were interrupted in the middle of conversations so many times.  The first week, our waitstaff was very concerned with how we liked our food, etc.  Second leg, our waiter has been working on cruise ships since 1999.  He was much more relaxed about it and didn't bother us other than to check at the end of the meal and be available for refills, etc.  Service was great both weeks, but I do get tired of getting interrupted in the middle of a sentence to be asked how I like the food.  I, personally think the current survey needs to go and they should do a random survey of a portion of passengers.  Some waitstaff are so scared of not getting a "10", which I think is crazy because no one is perfect, that they get overzealous and forget we're there to eat, not provide them constant feedback.  Oh, and this was our 6th and 7th cruise since restart and the food was the worst we've had.

Managed a Restaurant years ago where one things Corp required was waitstaff to ask how meal in 1 min after dropping it off. 99% time I'm traveling SOLO fortunate as Royal Staff usually leave me in peace. 

[BND]

27 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

Managed a Restaurant years ago where one things Corp required was waitstaff to ask how meal in 1 min after dropping it off. 99% time I'm traveling SOLO fortunate as Royal Staff usually leave me in peace. 

I waited tables in college.  We also asked how meal was, but after that, we would only come by and peek to see if anyone needed anything and made sure they saw us so they could call us over if needed. We never interrupted a conversation. 

[pcur]

I can see myself smiling at the waiter, handing him a cash tip, and saying "XYZ, my dear, we are THRILLED with the food, but ESPECIALLY the service.  No need to ask from now on:  we appreciate all you are doing for us". 

 

But, that's just me.  I usually tip a small amount mid-cruise, anyway.

Edited November 24, 2022 by pcur

[BND]

7 hours ago, rhino7176 said:

From my experiences it is not the case.  I take the effort to talk and get to know my wait staff, bartenders, entertainers, etc.....  I find that a huge interesting part of a cruise.  Don't let the OP and the other fuddy duddies scare you away with tall tales.

I think you're way off base with what some of us are saying.  We always make the effort to get to know them.  I can tell you a ton about our waiters/waitress on our b2b on Jewel that we just got off of on Saturday, but that doesn't mean we have to be interrupted multiple times while eating or talking with our tablemates.  Our experience after more than 35 cruises, is that it is the case on the majority, especially since they started sending the survey by email.  Our waiter the first week was so concerned and all four of us had to reassure him everyday at dinner and anytime we ran into him.  It was almost bizarre how worried he was.  He was a great waiter, but overly worried.