Too much emphasis on our opinions???

[mountainhouse]

Just came off the Grand today, and had to share a VERY weird story. Our friends, didn't like the cruise as much as we did, and wrote LOTS of details on the cruise comment card. One of their comments was that their sliding door lock didn't work. At one point, they were out of their cabin and left the comment card laying out. In the meantime, the cabin steward came in, read the comment card, had maintenance fix the door and crossed out my friend's comment about the broken door. Is that bizarre? Made me wonder what else they look at. It was a bit creepy.

[Catnip]

It DOES make you wonder...........:cool:

 

lock up your undies, everyone!!!!!!!!! :eek:

[spongerob]

I think it's obvious the crew is very concerned about the comments that are made. They sometimes go to inappropriate lengths to find out.

 

I am left wondering why the people didn't just ask to have the door fixed...???

[98Charlie]

By all accounts, the comment cards have the power to promote or punish crew members. Waiters who receive positive comments get better and/or more tables. Same thing for stewards and cabins.

 

In the case of the room steward he may have felt that not seeing and reporting the broken latch would have a negative effect on his job.

 

If you walked into your bosses office and your performance evaluation were laying on the desk, would you look? I know many would not but the temptation to do so would be great. Actually modifying the evaluation is another thing.

 

I always fill out the comment card and run out of space every time. My last comment is usually "need more space for comments" :D Nearly 100% of my comments on each cruise are positive. IMO in addition to appropriate tipping, using the name of crew members in a positive comment is one of the best ways to reward them for good service.

 

Charlie

[Liner]

We were on the QE2 and our neighbors were loud. We wrote a letter to them and were going to deliver it thru their door. Our room steward saw the letter and told us what room it was. We going to deliver it to the WRONG cabin! So glad that she saw that letter!!!!!!:rolleyes:

[Nliedel]

I don't think it's creepy *if* you had not reported it to the steward before the comment card was filled out. If you had and he did not have it fixed then I would be bugged..

[susancruzs]

Maybe I'm strange but I don't think it's weird and if it bothered them enough to put it on a comment card, actually that part seems odd to me, I would be glad it was fixed. I guess different things bother different people, but I would have asked if he could have someone look at the lock.

 

Susie

[Coral]

It would have been best if your friends would have told the room steward when they discovered the door didn't lock - then he could have corrected it and it would not have been an issue.

 

I don't blame him for looking and am impressed he acted upon it once he found out but I agree, crossing it out was tacky.

[mountainhouse]

Yes, I agree, my friend should have reported it. BUT, that the room steward would modify the card is just bizarre to me.

 

Personnally, I'm a glass half full type of person. When I'm on a cruise something has to be pretty significant to get on my radar. I had a lovely cruise!

[cherylandtk]

Just came off the Grand today, and had to share a VERY weird story. Our friends, didn't like the cruise as much as we did, and wrote LOTS of details on the cruise comment card. One of their comments was that their sliding door lock didn't work. At one point, they were out of their cabin and left the comment card laying out. In the meantime, the cabin steward came in, read the comment card, had maintenance fix the door and crossed out my friend's comment about the broken door. Is that bizarre? Made me wonder what else they look at. It was a bit creepy.

Mountainhouse, you pose a very interesting question, as I too have felt the emphasis given to the cards may be out of proportion to what the pax feel. (a 4/5 is not seen an acceptable score, but the pax who gave that score is perfectly happy and has no complaints).

 

BTW, are you going to post any cruise commentary? Perhaps on the 3/26/05 roll call thread? I would be interested in hearing your comments if you have time and/or inclination.

[tlmlb]

I don't blame him for looking and am impressed he acted upon it once he found out but I agree, crossing it out was tacky.

 

 

Crossing it out has two functions:

 

One, it lets the writer know the problem was fixed.

 

Two, it prevents a useless work order from being created if the comment would get into the system.

[Dreamer333]

If I were a room steward, I certainly would read the comment card if it was sitting out!

 

I don't know about scratching out the comment after I fixed it tho!

[billybob123]

On our Golden cruise last May, our waiter indicated gently to us that if we were anything above satisfied with the service we received during the cruise, we should indicate that the service was "excellent" - since upper management reads anything less than excellent (I don't remember the categories - but something along the lines of excellent-very good-good-acceptable-poor) as poor service. This means that the offending service person has to meet with management and explain their actions.

 

Whether or not this is true (it wouldn't surprise me), I find it a bit ridiculous. I realize the cruise industry really keys on service, but if my waiter hadn't let me know, I would have filled in everything as "very good" - instead, since I was quite satisfied with the service and I didn't want anyone to get in "trouble", I put everything as "excellent". Kinda defeats the purpose of honesty in the evaluations???

 

Anyone else have any experiences like this?

[HELENROSE]

If they didn't want the cabin steward to read the comment card, they shouldn't have left it out in the open. It could be the cabin steward thought that is why they left it out so he COULD read it and repair it. It might have been wrong to alter the card, but it was his/her way of saying the problem was taken care of. We never leave anything out that we don't want them to see. We leave notes when we need somthing. So the Stewards are use to reading things.

[cruise182]

Why would one need to lock a balcony door anyway? I guess maybe a thief could climb over the railing from an adjacent balcony but I do not think thieves are sailing let alone in a balcony cabin !! Just a thought

[tweetybird]

Wasn't the point of putting the problem on the comment card to have the door lock fixed?? I'm actually impressed that the cabin steward took the initiative!!

 

Laura

[Charles4515]

If I were a room steward, I certainly would read the comment card if it was sitting out!

 

I don't know about scratching out the comment after I fixed it tho!

 

I had the same thing happen on a Celebrity cruise. The cabin attendant read my card that was laying out. I had commented that the interactive TV service had never worked right all week. I had called the pursers desk about it but never mentioned it to the attendant because it never occured to me that a technical problem like that would fall under his purview. He was very upset and claimed he would get punished. I was very surprised that he would confront me about what I wrote on the card. Since then I have been very carefull about my comments from the standpoint of not wanting to write something that might get the wrong person in trouble.

[OCruisers]

I always fill out the comment card and run out of space every time. My last comment is usually "need more space for comments" :D Charlie

 

Love that "need more space for comments"! :D Will start using that also!

 

We try to list all of the people who were especially helpful to us! Whatever we have experienced that was negative ... we limit to ONE negative comment so it shows that it was very important to us.

 

Happy Sailing! OCruisers :)

[Cruisin' Chick]

Don't forget: if a crew member has gone way beyond the call of duty to help you out, go down to the Purser's desk and get a special card (can't remember what exactly they're called but the staff there should know) and fill it out.

[geoherb]

We also like filling out the "you made a difference" cards, usually for our waiters or cabin steward. If you fill one out, it helps to find out the person's last name and ask how to spell it correctly. Even if a first name seems unusual to us, it could turn out to be a common one in their home country--and a half dozen waiters may have the same first name.

 

I hate being told to put "excellent" on cards. The worst offenders, however, seem to be the CD and his staff.

[Michelle1234]

I write my comments down for someone to read them so just usually leave it in the room as I figure the room steward is more probable than someone in the central office who gets a boatload of them. I also like the fact that the person will know I appreciated the service. And if there is something that needs fixed (that came up as I was on my way out the door) then I note that down also as it is unlikely the steward would know about it and as a courtesy to the next passenger and the cruise line I let them know. As far as scratching it out my guess is that that was a courtesy by the steward also to let them know it was fixed. I suspect the person thought they were supposed to read the comment card and fix the problem. It is their job and the ones I have had have always done an excellent job in taking care of anything (be it a burned out lightbulb or slow draining shower) immediately.

[WazAnOkie]

We have found that many times things will get done quicker by asking the cabin steward. We have asked, as well as left notes, so they are used to looking and reading for notes left for them.

 

A good example, on one cruise, our balcony door was extremely hard to open/close. I contacted the pursers desk who said they would have it repaired - the next morning I mentioned it to our steward. Our steward walked down the hall, and within 5 minutes we had maintenance there and fixed it. He took care of us, and for sure, we took care of him at the end of the cruise. He really earned his TIP$, as his service was like that all week.

 

I don't see anything wrong with what the steward did, I would commend him for going out of his way to make the passengers happy. Sounds like he was helping them out by contacting maintenance and having repairs made as soon as he was aware of a problem.

[98Charlie]

I write my comments down for someone to read them so just usually leave it in the room as I figure the room steward is more probable than someone in the central office who gets a boatload of them.

It seems that on every one of our cruises they specifically asked that we deposit the completed comment card in the box at the purser's desk to avoid any tampering by the staff.

We also like filling out the "you made a difference" cards,

I have never heard of the "You make a difference" cards. I'll check it out in a couple of weeks on the Millenium. (Princess has to wait until Thanksgiving :rolleyes: )

It could be the cabin steward thought that is why they left it out so he COULD read it and repair it.

I never thought about that. If the comment card was left out, I can understand the steward thinking that it was there for him to read and act on.

 

Charlie

[donna5]

on our last few princess cruises, the room stewards have asked us to leave a note for them, if there is anything we need. I guess it helps, because if they could not understand what we want, then they can show it to someone else. If you call and leave a message on their pager, I don't think they always get it, or understand it. I always keep all the patters and port papers together, nestling them as each day passes and keep any notes in them.

[cruiselifers]

While on the Dawn this past January, we were told that the heads of the deparments(dining room, casino etc) were given copies of the evaluations that we fill out. This is the good and the bad comments both. They are then rewarded or talked to about the comments. Promotions are based on customer feedback. One staff had been promoted within the first two months of his contract based on passenger feedback.

 

One kind of funny thing in the dining room this time for us was that our wait staff said excellent after everything we ordered, said etc. I think it was supposed to be like subliminal messages for when we filled out our questionaire. They were wonderful so the subliminal message must have worked for us, lol. They got all excellents from us. :p