Are they still doing the "excellent" speech?

[pfm18]

I heard on my recent cruise that the second level (good?) results in -2 points.

 

 

 

So if you're not giving an excellent you might as well leave it blank.

[LittleMissMagic]

I've never gotten an "excellent" speech, which is a good thing because I think I would be very put off by it. If someone told me to mark them as excellent, that would probably make me not mark them as excellent if I wasn't super impressed with their service, and if I really enjoyed them, then I'd be really annoyed that they left me with a bad taste in my mouth, telling me how to rate them.

[labeachcomber]

Lately there seems to be several threads about passenger satisfaction and crew service.

 

I find it somewhat surprising that the majority of responses here - on an RCI forum - seem to slant towards the negative variety in general.

 

We had MTD and ate in the MDR every night. Had the same waiter for the last 5 nights. On night 6, he gave us this so-called excellent speech. It didn't bother us at all. Our waiter was a nice guy and worked hard. Was the service excellent every night? No, the desserts were slow on at least two nights. But was it so bad that I would get on my high horse and raise up my hand and tell him to stop talking mid-speech? Not in a million years.

 

I think that the service crew - especially those in the MDR - have a tough job. 7 months or more straight without a day off. Trying to please demanding passengers each and every night. And then when the week is over, they have to put on their happy face and do it all again with a new group. And for likely not much money, or depending on what country they come from, it could be a lot for them. And before anybody says it, yes, I know, nobody FORCED them to take this job and it's their personal decision. But if you come from Bangladesh, maybe it's the best job you could find that could support your family.

 

I think the least we as relatively well-off Americans (and Canadians, Europeans, etc.) could do is to at least give them some respect and understand where they are coming from. Getting rated excellent and being mentioned in the satisfaction surveys is likely one of their top priorities and stressors for each passing week. Their raises and bonuses likely are tied to this. It has impact on their livelihood. Can't people understand that?

 

If you don't think the service was excellent, fine. But there's no need to be snooty or rude. Listen politely and then carry on. And if you want to give them average marks on the survey, then so be it. Or if you really have the guts and feel so strongly, then why not tell them directly to their face why their service wasn't excellent if you are so bold?

[Big_G]

We've heard the speech on four different lines. Usually it comes on the last or second to last night. We've never heard it every night of the cruise although the servers occasionally offered that their goal is to provide excellent service every night of the week. Usually the survey is only mentioned once unless some table mates were missing when it was first given. I'm skeptical of those that say they got it every night of the cruise but that's just me, flame away if necessary. I have no problem with the speech considering my goal each cruise is to have the best time of my life and these guys and gals are trying to help me reach my goal. I can spare 5 minutes out of the minimum 10000 minutes I spend on a cruise ship listening to them but again, that's just me and my opinion.

[marci22]

On our last 5 night, they did the same thing, over a couple nights. Then on the last night, as we were getting ready to leave, the assistant waiter told us to 'wait, your server has something really important she wants to say to you'. We waited about 10 minutes, which felt longer because we had been ready to leave.

 

I thought it was thanks for the extra tip I gave, despite the fact that I only ate there 3 nights, or maybe for the Wow cards I gave each one, but no, it was 'the excellent speech'. I listened to it, but I have to admit that I was annoyed. Why the hell wouldn't I give you excellent after extra tip, wow cards, and I already told you twice that I know the drill. Ok now I am making myself angry lol.

[superduper123]

Yes, I have heard the "excellent" speech, probably on all my cruises, and more than once. That is one thing I really dislike about the dining experience. I agree with most other posters, it is quite a turn-off.

[Dontforgetbritt]

Each time that we cruise we don't receive this speech but rather at the start of our first dinner onboard we typically get something like "we want this to be your best cruise ever and we strive for excellency. Please let us know if anything is less than excellent so we can fix any problems" but that's about as far as it goes. Fairly quick and doesn't bother us at all.

 

Each night they ask us if everything was excellent. If we said it was great they were disappointed that it wasn't excellent and would kind of freak out.

 

The last night they politely ask us to fill out the questionaire to reflect how they did and that they hope it was excellent.

 

We are easy to please and rarely have any problems for them to make note of so we always choose excellent.

[HesterMofet]

We didn't get anything like this on our first Freedom cruise last year. Maybe because we were first timers?

 

Everybody makes mistakes, its how they fix them that matters to us.

 

I know they depend on tips and I would never take those from anyone unless it was something that went egregiously wrong and they were rude and unhelpful. And then I probably just wouldn't tip *extra.*

[orville99]

We always do MTD, and have never gotten the "speech" on RCL. Maybe it's because the MTD staff serve different people each night, so they don't worry as much about it.

[cello56]

Does anyone else feel that all these performance surveys - not just RCI, but Kohl's, the grocery store, car dealer etc. - are starting to make rating someone kind of like a five year old's T-Ball league? Everybody is wonderful and everyone gets a trophy! We have done 11 cruises, and if I was honest, the service was excellent on 9 of them. One of them had a waiter that never smiled, never said two words that he didn't have to say and overall was just not very nice. However, on that cruise the assistant waiter went above and beyond and was awesome! The extra tip and the WOW card went to the assistant, but I ranked them both excellent since I was afraid that they would be looked at as a team and I didn't want to hurt the assistant. Our last cruise a couple of months ago on Enchantment the service was just plain bad. The service was slow. There was zero personal interaction with us at all. The meal took forever and was not enjoyable. BUT, they still gave us the 'excellent' speech, and I admit it, I gave them their excellents just out of - I don't know, maybe guilt when I thought of their families back home?

 

The thing is, if every service person is rated by this inflated scale of "You are ALL excellent!" then the really, truly excellent staff get shafted since they never get the credit that is really due to them for being excellent. It is a conundrum for sure! :confused:

[Thetrail]

We've heard the speech on four different lines. Usually it comes on the last or second to last night. We've never heard it every night of the cruise although the servers occasionally offered that their goal is to provide excellent service every night of the week. Usually the survey is only mentioned once unless some table mates were missing when it was first given. I'm skeptical of those that say they got it every night of the cruise but that's just me, flame away if necessary. I have no problem with the speech considering my goal each cruise is to have the best time of my life and these guys and gals are trying to help me reach my goal. I can spare 5 minutes out of the minimum 10000 minutes I spend on a cruise ship listening to them but again, that's just me and my opinion.

Couldn't have said it better myself. :)

[Travel R]

Strange, with all of the options to choose from on a survery, I have never had a worker/service staff ask me to rate them anything below an "excellent" or lower than a 10 out of 10 (5 out of 5, etc.).

[Arzeena]

When we were on the Monarch, every night at dinner our server gave us the speech about how we needed to mark them as "excellent". Are they doing this on the Enchantment? The Freedom? Has anyone found a way to get them to not do this? I want to be polite, and I don't want to get them in trouble, but I find this dampens the tone of the proceedings.

 

Ratings are very important in a customer service based business. How else are they going to make any changes/improvements for complaining customers?

[orville99]

Ratings are very important in a customer service based business. How else are they going to make any changes/improvements for complaining customers?

 

 

How will they ever know that changes are needed if everyone is "coached" to always check excellent?

[exchiefPFD]

As a diamond plus member I have heard it many times. The crew really does care that you are happy. What is the big deal? They are trying to make sure you are getting the service you want and it is very important to them as managment does read the surveys at cruise end and the future contract could be in danger if people are not giving a crew member an excellent . Some people are over critical and this hurts. Be honest and FAIR.

[steveru621]

I don't remember anyone on Royal giving us the 'excellent' speech. If they did, it didn't make a lasting impression.

[OCruisers]

Back when we had to do Traditional Dining on RCCL ships, the waiters would always practically beg us to give them an Excellent rating. :rolleyes:

 

With My Time Dining it's never happened.

 

LuLu

~~~~

[Giorgi-one]

How will they ever know that changes are needed if everyone is "coached" to always check excellent?

 

I think what they are saying is that they want an excellent rating and to tell them if you have any problems. I remember once on Celebrity I ordered Beef Carpacio. We had been joking a lot with out wait staff and when I ordered my entree I asked my waiter if I would have to scrape it off the plate like the beef. Next thing I know, the Maitre' D and Restaurant Manager show up at our table. It took me 5 minutes to assure them I was joking. They really do not like problems.

[marci22]

On the survey, they also ask you about food quality. I was told that I should rate that 'excellent' too, or it would detract from the waiters' ratings. They said to complain about the food in the space at the end, separately.

[SnorkelAway]

Our first cruise was on the Carnival Carnivale in 1986. Our waiter practically broke down in tears begging us to give him an excellent rating - our impression was that he was about to be fired if he got any bad reviews. In all our cruises since, no other waiter has come close to that guy - always wondered if he worked on ships for long - he really was not a very good waiter. The good ones make the point subtly that it is not fair to rate them less than excellent unless you have given them a chance to improve anything you are experiencing which is not excellent. In any event, as others have said, we always just tell a waiter making the speech that of course we will rate them excellent.

[OCruisers]

Our first cruise was on the Carnival Carnivale in 1986. Our waiter practically broke down in tears begging us to give him an excellent rating - our impression was that he was about to be fired if he got any bad reviews.

 

Back in the old days on RCCL they would do the same in the MDR! The waiter would actually say that he would be in fear of losing his job with anything other than an Excellent rating.

 

Just wondering if that's now still the case in the MDR for TD on RCCL? :confused:

 

LuLu

~~~~

[Cruzin-K]

I rate the staff based on how well they do their job, not because they ask me to rate them excellent. If they do a great job, the survey will reflect that. If they don't, I will be honest. A couple cruises ago, my cabin steward ended up somewhere in the middle of the ratings (fair???). She was just awful, but I gave her credit for at least showing up every day :rolleyes:

[bouhunter]

been on 8 cruises the past 8 years and never heard this:rolleyes:

[z44212]

I didn't get the speech on the Allure, but we did comment to the head waiter what outstanding service we had received and he mentioned that the survey would be a good way to record our opinions. That was it.

[Aquahound]

We've heard the speech on four different lines. Usually it comes on the last or second to last night. We've never heard it every night of the cruise although the servers occasionally offered that their goal is to provide excellent service every night of the week. Usually the survey is only mentioned once unless some table mates were missing when it was first given. I'm skeptical of those that say they got it every night of the cruise but that's just me, flame away if necessary. I have no problem with the speech considering my goal each cruise is to have the best time of my life and these guys and gals are trying to help me reach my goal. I can spare 5 minutes out of the minimum 10000 minutes I spend on a cruise ship listening to them but again, that's just me and my opinion.

 

Agreed. This is just another one of those forgetable small things that becomes a huge debate on Cruise Critic. :rolleyes: