One great feature: no pressure for good reviews

[Markanddonna]

I forgot to mention this in my review.  I detest the pressure from the waiters on cruise lines like RCL where the MDR servers start their speeches about giving them nothing less than a 10 on the questionnaire.  I remember last time wanting to tell the waiter on day #1 that they already have a ten and the only thing that would decrease his score was to mention the survey.  I often feel sorry for the staff that RCL and other cruise lines put so much pressure on them for this.  

 

Our MSC waiter never mentioned any survey or anything about giving him good ratings. He just did a fantastic job.  There is also no mention of additional tipping or envelopes sent to the room before the final day. We asked the maitre d for an envelope for an additional tip and they had none, so we just handed our waiter cash.  Maybe this is because Europeans tend to not tip.

 

How nice to just get good service with no pressure or lectures.

[mef_57]

I've never had any cruise employee mention reviews (NCL and Cunard recently, Costa and Princess in the past). I would be strongly complaining to the company if they did...about the practice, not the individual.  However, I have had more smiles, name dropping and attention the last few days - so might be leading to the same thing.  I have good service on all these lines.

I am not sure I would agree with the generalization that 'Europeans don't tend to tip'.  Perhaps it has more to do with the concept of over tipping not being a global culture.

[Markanddonna]

This seems to be more of an RCL issue.  NCL has freestyle which means you never can be assured of who your server will be.  The practice was quite annoying on our last few long (14+ days) RCL cruises.

[mef_57]

5 minutes ago, Markanddonna said:

The practice was quite annoying on our last few long (14+ days) RCL cruises.

I bet it would be.  Like you mentioned, I might have said something about losing marks for mentioning the survey  

[SeaTheW0rld]

24 minutes ago, Markanddonna said:

This seems to be more of an RCL issue.  NCL has freestyle which means you never can be assured of who your server will be.  The practice was quite annoying on our last few long (14+ days) RCL cruises.

I had the same experience on Carnival, Costa, HAL and Princess.

[Captain-John]

Wow. I have never heard of this practice. I have also cruised multiple lines, although not RCCL. That would seriously annoy me. There's no point in asking for feedback if you're trying to influence the result from the start - totally off putting!

[ssmea03]

We definitely got the chat on the last evening of our only ever RCL cruise. Never had it on MSC.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

I used to experience this more on Celebrity than I do lately.  Anybody who asked for a 10 automatically got 9 if I would have given them a 10.

[Captain-John]

4 minutes ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

I used to experience this more on Celebrity than I do lately.  Anybody who asked for a 10 automatically got 9 if I would have given them a 10.

 

We have booked our first ever Celebrity for next year, and I won't be looking forward to this element as I've never experienced it to date on any cruise over 5+ lines. Yikes!

[sptrout]

I always thought that it was a common practice. It did not bother me too much except during my two Carnival cruises years ago (therefore the following comments may not still apply). At the end of both of my Carnival cruises, it was made very clear by all service people that anything less than a 10 (perfect) would be bad for them. However, our waiters always added that if we rated the food (not service) anything less than a 10 then the waiter would be knocked for that also. The reasoning was that if the passenger did not like what they got then it was the waiter's fault if the disliked food was not replaced (I guess they had to read minds). Seemed like blackmail to me. The waiters were always great (a 10) the food not so much (~5-6). But, if we rated the food correctly then the waiter was in deep trouble. Therefore, we felt pressured to always rate the food high to save the waiters. 

[Captain-John]

What if you don't partake at all - leave the form blank? Does that also reflect badly? (sounds like anything does!!!)