What Do You Consider 'Above and Beyond'?

[mr walker]

We have been very surprised when waiters remember us from previous cruises, so that's always nice.

A few examples of above and beyond, for me anyway:

- last cruise I was suffering from a chest infection at one stage. In MDR when our assistant waiter Judy went to pour me ice water I said no thanks, I don't want to drink anything cold, can you just bring me some hot water, which she did. The next night when we arrived for dinner, she had already prepared hot water with lemon for me. This continued each night until I was ok again.

- some of the waiters in the theatre got to know us during the cruise and where we preferred to sit. Each night the would greet us by name (there were 6 of us) and ask us if we wanted our usual drinks.

- one night we arrived a little late in the Colony club. One of the waiters saw us entering and rushed off to find us a table in a very crowded venue, and grabbed a waiter and said look after these guys for drinks, as he was actually on the way to the bar to collect drinks for others.

 

Overall we found that for all the staff we came in contact with, nothing was too much trouble.

[NorbertsNiece]

I know this is of topic :: but do they have a good mix of Gluten Free drinks on board ?

My friend is new to cruising and I couldn't help her with this

 

That's one thing that never occurred to me to find out..... am a GF cruiser.... will investigate next time and get back to you. Am not a beer drinker.... is Gluten in beer? I do have a list of all the beers served in the pub on Adventure.

[narrow56]

I will always remember our waiters on our honeymoon cruise on the Freedom of the Seas-Redentor and Imade (I hope I'm spelling those correctly). They went above and beyond to make our dinner enjoyable. They knew what kind of bread we wanted and always brought tea and coffee at the end of dinner without our asking. I would love to see them both again on a cruise!

[SECdawg]

Teen boys are no better than teen girls. Room service dishes everywhere, beds unmade several times a day, not to mention that they barely make it out of the room in the morning for the room attendant to clean. We have had some wonderful attendants that really catered to the teen boys and even kept us informed of their comings and goings. To me that is above and beyond.

[ckb523]

In 2012 we sailed on FOS in May and then again in December. To my surprise, I heard someone call my name in the hallway. It was our cabin attendent Wendy from May. It was December (7 months later) and she remembered us.:eek: She gave us a hug to welcome us back. She was not our attendent on the sailing, but is was wonderful to be remembered and welcomed back. We will look for her when we sail in June. :)

 

Desmond, in the DLounge on Monarch, is fantastic! We sit down, say hello and our drinks appear. Although he does this every sailing, it still amazes me and makes me feel special. :)

[audome78]

Desmond, in the DLounge on Monarch, is fantastic! We sit down, say hello and our drinks appear. Although he does this every sailing, it still amazes me and makes me feel special. :)

 

Agreed...Desmond is remarkable.

[BLAMBKY]

We have had some wonderful attendants that really catered to the teen boys and even kept us informed of their comings and goings. To me that is above and beyond.

 

Coming and goings?! FANTASTIC! Do you remember any of their names? :D I wonder if my teen guy knew that he could order room service.... If not, maybe I should not share, why add to the mess!:eek:

[sailor moon]

On one cruise our DD got ill and she threw up over the balcony railing of our cabin on deck 10 while we were at dinner. When we found out what she did, we notified the room steward and he promptly went to all the floors below us and notified the cabin stewards of those decks that were affected. Our DD was so sorry she had caused such a problem (she has autism and thought using the balcony was "better" than messing up the bathroom...) but the room steward made her feel better and really helped us in a difficult situation. Big tip was deserved for that vacation !!

[SHICHIDAN]

First, I admit to only reading the thread title, so here is what we do and have for a long time because we have never, thats right, never been disappointed in the service from our cabin attendent's or food service staff.

 

We pay 100.00 per person to the cabin professional and double the ships recommended gratuity per person to the two table staff assigned to our table. It works for us and we have always felt the resulting service to be over the top as well as the people.

[davy jones]

We are quite familiar with the teenage sisters cabin :)

 

Another was when were were in very rough seas, DW returned to the already cleaned cabin to rest through it. The cabin steward checked in to make sure that she was okay.

[spookwife]

In all the gratuity threads on here, many times I've seen comments that say something like, "I tip extra for service above and beyond."

 

Just curious... What do you consider "above and beyond"?

 

a few examples:

 

our room steward bringing our luggage inside rather than leaving in the hallway.. that's not their job as a general rule.

 

our waiter remembering without having to ask after the first night that DH liked decaf coffee after dinner. or remembering that our dinner companion drank unsweet tea and had a dish of chocolate ice cream with every dessert.

 

your bartender remembering you liked extra olives in your shaken, not stirred vodka martini.

 

the Headwaiter who not only stopped by every night, but stayed and chatted, asking sincere questions about our opinions on the food and personally replacing the incorrect dessert that was brought out one evening.

[spookwife]

This year I am going with the approach of this much will be taken out of your spending budget if your room is not "mom clean". ;) World's worst momma, right here folks! ;)

 

 

oh my goodness.. in my house growing up, MOM clean meant everything that wasn't where it was supposed to be got thrown in the trash bag and you had to earn each piece back, form your favorite tee shirt to your video games( e only school books were exempt) :D

[SECdawg]

Coming and goings?! FANTASTIC! Do you remember any of their names? :D I wonder if my teen guy knew that he could order room service.... If not, maybe I should not share, why add to the mess!:eek:

 

Donnie and Avalon on Freedom were both great! They always seemed to be in the hall and kept us well informed. We always leave a bunch of dollars for tipping the room service personnel as well because the boys have tried everything on the room service menu.