Service on Oasis

[mamadawg]

We just returned from a cruise on Oasis of the Seas. The other two cruises we have taken were on Mariner and Liberty, the last one being Liberty in 2010. There was a noticeable difference in service on Oasis. Not bad service, mind you, just not the "johnny on the spot" excellent service we had on our other cruises. I am wondering if this is because of the size of Oasis, or is this across the line these days - since it's been awhile since we cruised I was just curious. It seemed like the dining room staff had too many tables to service, and the cafes and Windjammer were always running out of things and not replacing them immediately as we had experienced in the past. We chose My Time Dining, as we have in the past, and there didn't seem to be any incentive on the part of the waitstaff to do their best - this wasn't the case previously. I will say that the service at Chops was impeccable. Of course, lines were dreadfully long at Windjammer at normal mealtimes, so we rarely went there. I would appreciate any insight on this. Thanks!

[wolfganghowell]

I do believe they have done cutbacks in staffing the dining room fleet wide. It seems to be a common observation these days and we have noticed our meals take longer now.

[OCruisers]

Seems it's fleet wide. There have been so many staff cut backs.

Service is seldom awful ... but not what it once was. :o

LuLu

[toxicfairy]

We (DH, myself & dds) were on the Oasis this past August. While we don't cruise as much as some it's not more than 2 years between cruises (and usually less😊). We did notice it shipwide. Not just the MDR. Lots of crew seemed overwhelmed. Less smiling, less helpful, just ....less. Not unfriendly, just they had less time to answer a question or help with something. We enjoyed our cruise but we won't do Oasis class again. I think some times Bigger is not necessarily Better.

[Pooh8941]

I just completed a b2b on Oasis in January. Admittedly, I did not eat in the MDR or Windjammer where there are hordes of people. However, we utilized much of the ship in our 14 days and I have no complaints with the service whatsoever. In fact, I was very impressed with the service I received. I don't see how one could ask much more of these crew members. They worked their hearts out for us and we were always greeted with cheeriness and a smile. I think as travelers we need to differientiate between the cruise line and the people who make up the crew. They are not responsible for cut-backs or ships that sail full, week in and week out. I also have great admiration for the officers, who are visable on a daily basis and seem genuinely eager to interact with the passengers. Nothing but praise for the officers and crew of the Oasis from this cruiser.

 

BTW, my signature is not up-to-date. We sailed Jan. 17 and 24.

[ladyariadne]

I have noticed this on every ship during the past few years. The first thing to go was the wine steward who used to get wine and all drinks from the bar. This job then went to the assistant waiters who already had plenty to do..and did not really know wines etc. Then there seemed to be more tables assigned to each waiter and fewer assistant waiters. While everyone was cordial, it seemed that the workload really was getting them all down. As someone said, no more time to talk or get to know their guests as before. It is a sad reality about our world today in lots of areas. More with less...

[mamadawg]

I think you misinterpreted what I was saying - I was not in any way maligning the crew, who did seem to be helpful, and I certainly know that they are not responsible for cutbacks, etc. I was just making an observation and asking a question of those who cruise often - it just seemed to me that the service was not quite what it was the last time we cruised RC - the crew seemed to have too much to do and I wanted to know if it was fleet-wide or unique to Oasis because of the size of the ship.

[Jimmers]

Maybe the auto gratuities have made them less industrious. Just thinking aloud:D

 

We had a similar experience on the Quantum in December. It was like we were on a different cruise line and I wondered at the time whether RC had subcontracted the staff from an outside source.

 

I don't think it's a big ship problem. We've been on both the Oasis and Allure and it wasn't until the Quantum that I picked up on what appeared to be a big shift in service. We found it to be generally less friendly, less attentive and less competent.

 

I'm still hoping it was just a Quantum thing, specifically an early Quantum thing and not something we'll be dealing with on future cruises. We'll find out soon enough.

Edited February 17, 2015 by Jimmers

[CntPAcruiser]

I think it's a lower staffing level issue, and for us it seemed that way most acutely on Oasis and Allure, but even on this last B2B on Explorer in November 2014, dining service was noticeably "rough." We thought it was that the staff were spread too thin.

 

Cabin service was excellent, however, and it seemed as if there were enough personnel handling those areas. Our cabin steward was not happy about the prospect of being transferred to Oasis once Explorer goes into her refit, though. Apparently your assigned number of cabins goes up and you're expected to do more in the same amount of time.

[topnole]

I would have to say that we had some truly outstanding service in many areas (cabin steward, windjammer, mdr, bars, etc.) over the past twelve months on several different cruises and ships on Royal. In fact our wait staff in the mdr (head waiter, waiter, asst waiter, and bar waiter) on two of our cruises last year were as good as we have ever had. I know it certainly can be hit or miss but I haven't seen anything that noticeable. Now I'm wondering if we have just been lucky.

 

 

I think it's a lower staffing level issue, and for us it seemed that way most acutely on Oasis and Allure, but even on this last B2B on Explorer in November 2014, dining service was noticeably "rough." We thought it was that the staff were spread too thin.

 

Cabin service was excellent, however, and it seemed as if there were enough personnel handling those areas. Our cabin steward was not happy about the prospect of being transferred to Oasis once Explorer goes into her refit, though. Apparently your assigned number of cabins goes up and you're expected to do more in the same amount of time.

[mcatmcat]

My theory is always the same. Oasis class is no longer with the newest ship

[mamadawg]

I think it's a lower staffing level issue, and for us it seemed that way most acutely on Oasis and Allure, but even on this last B2B on Explorer in November 2014, dining service was noticeably "rough." We thought it was that the staff were spread too thin.

 

Cabin service was excellent, however, and it seemed as if there were enough personnel handling those areas. Our cabin steward was not happy about the prospect of being transferred to Oasis once Explorer goes into her refit, though. Apparently your assigned number of cabins goes up and you're expected to do more in the same amount of time.

 

Cabin service was better than dining room service - we almost never saw our cabin steward, but everything was done and we had no complaints. There was, however, some kind of nasty-looking "splatter" on the bathroom wall that we asked him about - he told us that it had been there for awhile, they had put in work orders to deal with it, they were unable to get it off and that we shouldn't worry about it. I just tried to ignore it - don't know what it was, but it looked yukky. Also, the bottoms of the drawers looked kind of nasty - I just put plastic or paper in the bottoms of the drawers. May be overkill, but given the spotless nature of the rest of the ship, it was a bit of a disappointment. The rest of the cabin was clean, though. I'm sure it was just age, but given these days of illnesses on cruise ships, I'm a big fan of spotless!

[cheers55]

We did the Allure, Freedom, Liberty and the Navigator all in the last 2 years. We are doing the Oasis in June. Over the years we have seen some drop off in service through about 16 cruises with RCCL. But it has been consistent across all of the ships. I would say less impact in MDR and more so in housekeeping and other venues around the ship. It seemed in the past they looked for ways to WOW you. Now it appears to be more nitpicking and cut backs. In the end, it is still a great value vacation. From the moment you step on the ship, I don't have to drive anywhere, worry about where I eat, how much I drink, I wake up somewhere different everyday, and IMO first class entertainment. For the money and the time, you won't get that roaming the mainland period. Even if the service has taken a step backwards , it's still better than the majority of places you would go otherwise in my experience.

 

 

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[surgie]

We were on Oasis at the end of January. We thought the service most places was excellent. We had MTD but did not eat in MDR or Windjammer. But the waitstaff in specialty restaurants were all friendly and worked hard to be sure we were satisfied with our food and service. Even the more casual restaurants like Sabor or Johnny Rockets at breakfast had good service (especially Sabor.) We found most bartenders to be overworked and were trying hard to serve all the patrons. By far, the bars in general seemed short-staffed. The exception was Vintages where we always got quick service and good wine recommendations from Alan who was awesome.

 

We asked the servers about their families and if the conversation lent itself, about whether they thought RCI was a good company to work for. They were all grateful to have a good job so they could send money back to their families but they did not gush about how much they love their employer. I'm sure they have experienced changes due to economics just as the cruisers have.

[Morecruisesplz]

Although we have yet to experience the Oasis (we leave on that ship the end of the month), our experiences have been similar to yours over the years. Having cruised with Royal 30+ times it is our experience that main dining room service has suffered the most. Although some servers have too many tables, the problems seemed to start with automatic / shared tips. When you server knew his tip depended on great service and we were able to put cash in the envelope to hand him/her the last night, they asked every night if you were happy.

 

We cruised 4 weeks b2b last January and it was not until the last week, when the service desk got the Head Waiter involved that main dining room service improved some.

 

When tips are guaranteed there is little incentive to provide excellent service. Some will still care but not the majority.

[tobyt]

We head out this week on Oasis and while I will hope for the best with full ships of this size I suspect that may be a big part. A normal off school vacation week might be sold out, but might not be and of course the more people the more pressure. I do think the longer contracts all the lines now have play a bigger role. The staff has less time off and like all of us the less time off we get the harder it is to put on that happy face and give 110%.

[ryano]

I have a real hard time believing it has anything to do with "guaranteed" tips.

 

As far as I know, there is still that thing called a comment card that from my understanding, RCI takes very seriously. It would behoove the dining room staff to still provide the best service they possibly can in order to not receive negative remarks on these cards. Not to mention, everyone except those in MTD can have those "guaranteed" tips removed and or adjusted. Bad service can = removed tips.

 

I think its solely a problem of a severe cutback in staff. They are doing the best they can possibly do but are very limited now because they are so short staffed.

 

JMHO and worth exactly what you paid me for it :)

Edited February 18, 2015 by ryano