Service in Allure Dining Room Was Awful

[Llmtax2000]

I'm not one to rant -- but I don't think I've ever had worse dining service on a cruise. My traveling companions and I were MTD this trip (3/6/16 departure) but spent five nights in American Icon with the same waiter. The water glasses were left empty for extended periods of time, I had to ask for my card to be returned more than once, food was delivered incorrectly (eg, "no croutons" asked every time, salad first delivered with croutons every time), food delivered to the wrong person, menus delivered in the wrong language. And after each (incorrect) delivery, he would disappear for 15 minutes, so we had to wait to ask for the correct item/order. Those are just a few of the issues. I've never not given extra tip to the waiter at the end of a trip, but I couldn't bring myself to do that for such bad service. It was like he wasn't even trying.

 

Please, no flames that I should have asked for a different waiter. I'm an eternal optimist, and kept thinking it would get better. I can't wait for that survey to arrive ....

Edited March 13, 2016 by Llmtax2000

[sgrove06]

We were on the sailing right before you and had the same experience.

Only ate there twice because of it

[sgrove06]

We actually left mid meal the second night because we were basically done our main course and were over the experience. That being said, except that slight hiccup we had a great time on allure

[IndyKid]

Sounds pretty bad. My wife & I are doing the traditional dining in the MDR on the Allure next month, hope it goes better!

[OSUZorba]

We did MTD on Oasis a couple years ago and had a similar experience. We begged to be moved to the one of the regular seatings, but they they refused.

 

They assign tables based on the previous week's survey results, and the lowest rated servers get MTD. Considering the only non-excellent servers we've ever had were all three in MTD, I think it shows.

[silvermcs]

We are sticking with traditional MDR.

[Powersboyee2]

MTD is definitely not the way to go. If you can get reserved seating that's the money shot.

[JamesEM]

When I was on the Allure last year I had a similar experience, after the first night ate rest on my meals in the windjammer.

[BekkaW]

That sounds terrible. The only thing I can suggest is that after 2 nights of this (I'll give staff a chance in case they were just having an off night) I would have spoken with the head waiter. It's their job to make sure things are running smoothly and correctly but if no one tells them it's going wrong they can't fix it.

[north29]

This most likely is not the servers fault, it is RC's. There seem to be too many reports from legitimate cruisers, who say RC is cutting back too far and service in most free venues and some paid bars etc is getting worse and worse.

I do not think MTD has anything to do with it.

Edited March 13, 2016 by north29

[Lionesss]

Having sailed the Allure twice, the MDR was ok, was not as well presented as when we sailed the Freedom, from service to food quality.

 

Now last summer the Oasis has much to be desired, cranky wait staff to cold food.

 

Guess we will be eating More at CK.

Giving it another try.

 

Safe travels.

[cruisecraze96]

We are getting ready to get off ship now and I agree. I have not been impressed with most the food this week, MDR was slow. Chops was overrated and horrible and not worth the extra money. I will write a review later but the service on this ship, except our stateroom attendant, was pretty awful. It won't stop me from maybe sailing again with RCCL but it is not on my top picks list.

[Ocean Boy]

Having sailed the Allure twice, the MDR was ok, was not as well presented as when we sailed the Freedom, from service to food quality.

 

Now last summer the Oasis has much to be desired, cranky wait staff to cold food.

 

Guess we will be eating More at CK.

Giving it another try.

 

Safe travels.

 

Its a good thing RCI increased those auto tips or the cranky staff might have been even more unhappy.

[LXA350]

My first ever cruise was on Oasis and absolutely loved it, one year later we went on the Allure and the service experience including dinner MTD, especially in the MDR was very poor. Last year we were again on the Allure on a Med cruise and the service in MDR was again very poor and in my views by far the worst on any ship of RCL

[micmacmissy]

Our MTD experience on Indy was FANTASTIC. Great waitstaff, same each night, no waiting for a table no matter when we showed up.

 

Now...although we booked our Allure cruise 16+ months out, Early set dining was already "full", so we picked select, thinking it would be just like Indy.

 

It seems like no matter when you book, you can either choose from late or MTD.

 

So my question is...how do you secure early seating? Anyone?

Edited March 13, 2016 by micmacmissy

[cb at sea]

I agree that this is RCI's fault. The more dissatisfied folks are with the "included" items and venues, the more folks will pay an "uncharge" for a better experience. That's proven, since there are more and more "for fee" venues!

 

The only way this will stop would be if folks either stopped cruising lines with uncharges...or refuse to utilize those spaces!

[F27TW]

MTD is definitely not the way to go. If you can get reserved seating that's the money shot.

 

Absolutely not true -- its a crap shoot any way you look at it.

 

We had MTD on each of our RC cruises and have had great servers each time. Our friends on Indy this past cruise who had traditional seating had a really bad pair serving them each night.

 

It really can go either way.

[Paulxyz2004]

Absolutely not true -- its a crap shoot any way you look at it.

 

We had MTD on each of our RC cruises and have had great servers each time. Our friends on Indy this past cruise who had traditional seating had a really bad pair serving them each night.

 

It really can go either way.

 

I have to agree with you. I´ve done traditional many times as well as MTD. You can get good and not so good waiters in both Settings. With MTD it´s easier to get away from a bad wait Team. If I got a good wait Team in MTD I ask for being seated with them again the next night. If not I´ll ask for a different table the next night.

[TCBFlash]

This most likely is not the servers fault, it is RC's. There seem to be too many reports from legitimate cruisers, who say RC is cutting back too far and service in most free venues and some paid bars etc is getting worse and worse.

I do not think MTD has anything to do with it.

 

I fear this is true, especially on the Oasis class ships. We had a similar experience as the OP on our Oasis cruise. The waiter was the worst we have ever had on any of our Royal Caribbean cruises. One example, If we asked him a question on the menu,he took the menu and started reading. Actually, we could have done that! This was main seating. I just feel they did not make any effort to go the extra step. We are sailing Navigator soon and are hoping this is not the case. We shall see.

[WaveSplasher]

Absolutely not true -- its a crap shoot any way you look at it.

 

We had MTD on each of our RC cruises and have had great servers each time. Our friends on Indy this past cruise who had traditional seating had a really bad pair serving them each night.

 

It really can go either way.

 

Agreed as well..Both of our past cruises with RCL in MTD has been fantastic, with great service provided by the staff.

 

I don't know if what the other poster said was true or not about the staff who were in the MTD section because they were getting the lowest survey result.But it certainly was not the case on our cruise.

[LMaxwell]

Oh I totally believe OP.

 

On allure with MTD:

 

Never had same service team twice.

 

Always had to wait for a table despite daily standing reservation; sometimes up to 45 minutes.

 

Service universally slow.

 

But on all other ships that I had MTD we had good experiences. So kind of a crap shoot or the bigger ships just can't handle that sort of flow adequately, and / or are short staffed

[M_BA]

So my question is...how do you secure early seating? Anyone?

 

It depends on the ship and everyone before you who has chosen their dinner choice first. I booked a March 20th cruise on Liberty of the Seas in mid-January and was able to select the 5:30 PM early dining.

[Pipo]

Something very common is that waiters never get familiar with table numbers, so they walk you in circles until they find the table that was assigned at the entrance. But no blame, it's a HUGE MDR with hundreds of tables.

[kalliekae]

Unfortunately, we had the same type of service on our Oasis cruise in the MDR. We asked for a different waiter the next evening and they obviously told the new waiter that we had asked for a change because our treatment was way over the top. It was embarrassing to have the head waiter and several waiters come by our table constantly asking us if everything was ok. We couldn't eat one bite without a waiter interrupting us. It was so uncomfortable that we never returned. We learned then to never ask for a different waiter.

 

Contrast that experience with the Allure and it was night and day. Allure had wonderful food and service in the MDR.

[gsarnow]

We just got off the allure and had a great experience with my time dining...we had reservations every night and never waited for a table..we liked our servers the second night and requested them for the rest of the week..the service was excellent.