Acknowledging the waiters at dinner

[mek]

On one cruise, it was just our waiter who was pushy.

 

We had to go speak to the Head Waiter for our section and tell him that if he didn't either tell the waiter to cut it out or replace him, we were going over his head to the Restaurant Manager.

 

It stopped.

 

Actually, our waiter, who was great, only mentioned the comment survey at the very end of the cruise and only once - we all commented on how tastefully it was handled.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

I disagree, their job is dependent on getting a good mark. I wish an RCI employee or insider would let us know how those ranks affect the crew. At my work, if a customer returns a survey less than a 10, it was a terrible job and nothing is awarded for less than a 10. Only people with a 10 or above get an extra bonus.

 

You disagree that no one is perfect? Wow - I want to live in your world!

 

I don't care how hard someone works, they are NOT perfect.

 

If it is truly a pass fail where only 10 is passing, the cruiseline needs to change the survey to pass/fail.

[Penciltwister]

No.

 

 

 

Have you been on a cruise?

 

 

 

Let's be honest, Royal menus are hardly fine dining. What's the usual order? Some shrimp, a bit of chicken and a cheesecake? It doesn't take a great deal of training to be able to serve generic food to an easily impressed clientele.

 

People on mid-market cruises are impressed by quantity, not quality.

 

 

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[LMaxwell]

Let's be honest, Royal menus are hardly fine dining. What's the usual order? Some shrimp, a bit of chicken and a cheesecake? It doesn't take a great deal of training to be able to serve generic food to an easily impressed clientele.

 

People on mid-market cruises are impressed by quantity, not quality.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I've not been impressed with the quality of Royal's food in the past few years. I honestly think it is the worst of all competing mass market lines, both in quality, presentation, and even availability. That's not to say it is bad, it just is at the bottom of the list.

 

But waiters ask you to rank their service. I separate out the two. I know waiters get penalized if you don't like the food, but that is not their fault and should not count against them.

 

So to me service means service; how prompt were they, were they friendly (I don't like that over-friendly fake best friend stuff), did they get the orders right, etc.

 

I don't order 5 entrees and 4 desserts. Not sure how the ability to do so equates to service.

[KansasK]

Yes, just off Serenade and I thought they really pushed this on the night when they presented all of the kitchen staff. We were asked 3x if we thought the food and service were exceptional - overkill!!!! I would agree that the service was great: however as with most of the food in the MDR on our last three RCI cruises, the food has been just average and many times not served hot.

 

I wonder if there has been some directive to the Maître 'Ds to do the overkill on the service and food since several people mentioned this besides me. People tend to want to be polite and go along with it. I did.

 

I have been cruising for 15 years and the overkill and "only a 10 counts" is a recent thing, just when many people don't think the food is as good as it used to be and the wait staff has been reduced.

[DiamondSuiteCruiser]

When on the May 22, 2016 Allure of the Seas cruise, we had a good waiter and assistant waiter. We had early, traditional dining. The bartender who took our drink order each night also did a good job. On Tuesday, they had the parade of waiters and we all acknowledged them with applause, waving napkins, etc. The Maitre 'D announced how many meals the waiters delivered during the cruise, which was a huge number, as you might guess. This was also applauded with enthusiasm.

 

The next night was the parade of chefs and everyone again applauded and waved napkins, etc. We appreciate the chefs.

 

On the second to last night, our waiter and assistant waiter came together asked if there was anything they could do better for us and we all smiled and told them we were happy with their service. They told us we would get a survey and that a 10 was the only score that mattered. We all again assured them we were happy with them.

 

On the last night, just after getting the dessert menu, they played the "Happy" song and people got to their feet and some danced with the waiters and the Maitre 'D again told us how hard working the waiter staff is and gave us the number of meals statistics again and went on some with this and then asked if we didn't think they all deserved a standing ovation? Everyone stood then and applauded them all again.

 

We had given the waiter, assistant waiter and bartender an additional tip early at dinner when they came to take our order. We had prepaid tips, but felt they deserved the additional cash tip.

 

I respect that the Maitre 'D appreciates and supports his staff. I thought the last night was kind of overdone and was a little uncomfortable with this much adulation on top of the two nights earlier in the week.

 

I wonder if this is now happening on all ships?

 

(When the survey came, I was comfortable with giving our wait staff a 10. I don't think they should ask for it, though. This did not stop me from giving the 10, which was deserved.)

 

They did the exact same thing on the Explorer a couple of weeks ago. They also aske us to give them a 10 in the Windjammer, which I did not do, only used the Windjammer twice the entire cruise and IMO it was awful.

[TigerLady]

get a NAME

 

and put it in the comments section of the "review" . . .

 

That's how the people at the top know who doing a great job.. Tipping them extra and a sincere thank you, go a long way as well...

[PattyW]

We got off Freedom Sunday and had this pandering for 10's. We only ate in the dining room 4 times and the first night did not go well at all (one appetizer/main course order incorrect, no refills on soft drinks (soda card) until our after our third request (one request of asst. waiter, two requests of waiter - finally a refill that arrived after we had begun our dessert though our glasses had been empty since we finished appetizers).

 

To the team's credit, the Headwaiter came to our table the first night during dessert to ask how things went; we informed him of the refill issue and the remaining three nights were fine on that issue. They weren't great, service was particularly slow on the last evening (over 2 hours for dinner), but it was fine, at least our orders were correct.

 

I could never honestly give that team a 10. Keeping in mind the first night, I gave them a 7, because I think that's a fair score for the service we received. If it is considered a zero by corporate, so be it. Just as it's not my job to fix their wage structure (our waiter made my husband and I VERY uncomfortable in that it was very obvious she was expecting an extra tip from us that was not forthcoming), it's also not my job to change the survey from 1-10 to 0 or 10.