Intrusive Staff in Main Dining Room

[3CatsInMA]

This was never a problem until people started wearing shorts to the dining room.

[BND]

10 minutes ago, dada2199cc said:

 

Is this MDR or SR?

 

Our only cruise so far was Symphony Oct 22 and the food in the SR was amazing.  Our only complaint was Wonderland and it's the first time in memory I left a 6/10 instead of a 10/10.

Going back on her in a few weeks, same ports so same SR schedule and I won't be going to Wonderland again based on it.

MDR.  

[jencruzin]

14 hours ago, cello56 said:

Is this something that is happening on all the ships or were our staff just afraid of a bad review? 

Perhaps not 100%, but I have seen this happen from the "head waiter" who kept on interrupting the table discussion telling us things that her waiters at our table had already told us. I mean, she would just cut right in and start flapping her jaw impolitely - no "excuse me" just would cut in. Now, the excuse for this is problably her having to say this spiel about the following day's events at every single table, but she could've handled it better.

 

Overall though, Royal's MDR, especially their menu and the decrease in food quality, needs much improvement. Perhaps this is their way of trying to see from you how things are going from your viewpoint. Maybe the dining staff identify you as someone who is good at communicating.

[BND]

Oh, and we were told by someone we met at the Cheers lunch who happens to be a chef in a resort in FL the reason food quality has decreased.  He said the company that Royal used for food supply pretty much only supplied cruise ships and didn't survive Covid.  They're now using another food supply company that apparently isn't the highest quality and it was obvious. 

[davekathy]

We must give off a bad juju as our MDR waitstaff and head waiter (on occasion) will stop by to ensure everything is ok with the meal and the waitstaff but no long winded conversations. The next thread will be about the waitstaff and headwaiter never stopping by and how rude that is. 

Edited November 23, 2022 by davekathy

[Tree_skier]

I'm not buying the OP's story...

 

Over 50 cruises but can't identify the head waiter. Please...

 

If people lie about small things they will lie about bigger things.

[Husky1987]

20 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

I'm not buying the OP's story...

 

Over 50 cruises but can't identify the head waiter. Please...

 

If people lie about small things they will lie about bigger things.

 

Yeah, that was a dead giveaway, who knows....but in my experience, most of the time someone exaggerates a customer service story from hell and goes out of their way to point out that they were "very polite and gentle", they usually weren't.

[Billy Baltic]

21 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

I'm not buying the OP's story...

 

Over 50 cruises but can't identify the head waiter. Please...

 

If people lie about small things they will lie about bigger things.

I couldn't identify  the head waiter if he called to my house. They’re all staff in different uniforms. Seems an odd reason to decide the op is lying. 

[Tree_skier]

I

Just now, Billy Baltic said:

I couldn't identify  the head waiter if he called to my house. They’re all staff in different uniforms. Seems an odd reason to decide the op is lying. 

If you have been on 50 cruises you can easily identify who is a head waiter.  He's the guy in a suit LOL.  

[BND]

2 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

I

If you have been on 50 cruises you can easily identify who is a head waiter.  He's the guy in a suit LOL.  

And, we've had the headwaiter come by our table on all of the 35+ cruises we've ever been on several nights just to "check in" and hope they get a tip at the end lol, the vast majority on Royal.

[cello56]

Wow! I most certainly do not appreciate being called a liar. What I wrote in my original post was exactly what happened. Some of you seem to want to accuse me of fabricating the story - why on earth would I want to do that? 

 

Ok - no, the man in the suit was NOT the Head Waiter - we knew who the HW was as he had already introduced himself. This was someone else who had a list of specific people he was looking for to ask his questions. Our friends were not on his list so he ignored them. Our friends felt that they were ignored because they were 'only' Diamond level which may or may not have been the case. Could have just been a random list of people corporate wanted him to speak to. He should have been more polite and less obtrusive about how he approached our table.

 

I never said I was rude. In fact, being raised in Canada, I am an extremely polite and respectful person, that is why we didn't say anything prior to the last night when I had just had enough. Our friends - also from Canada - land of the polite - were ready to give up on the main dining room they were so frustrated with the interruptions.

 

No, I should not have to readjust my expectations of how I spend my mealtime in the dining room. If we want to use this time to talk among ourselves that is what we should be able to do. That is not being 'entitled' that is called eating in a restaurant. Pretty sure in most land based restaurants the staff come back and ask the table as a whole how their meal is. They don't go around the table one by one and specifically ask each person how their soup is, how they salad is, how their entree is and on and on for every single dish brought to the table. People know how to speak for themselves and make the staff aware of any problems.

 

My DH and I are very low maintenance on cruises. We ask our cabin attendant for two extra towels in our cabin. That is it. In the dining room we normally have no requests at all. We are always pleasant and polite to all the staff. Ask them how their day is going, wish a good evening as we leave. The service itself in the dining room was excellent - we were not complaining about that at all. All we asked for was to have fewer interruptions to our meal.

[jencruzin]

3 minutes ago, cello56 said:

Wow! I most certainly do not appreciate being called a liar. What I wrote in my original post was exactly what happened. Some of you seem to want to accuse me of fabricating the story - why on earth would I want to do that? 

 

Ok - no, the man in the suit was NOT the Head Waiter - we knew who the HW was as he had already introduced himself. This was someone else who had a list of specific people he was looking for to ask his questions. Our friends were not on his list so he ignored them. Our friends felt that they were ignored because they were 'only' Diamond level which may or may not have been the case. Could have just been a random list of people corporate wanted him to speak to. He should have been more polite and less obtrusive about how he approached our table.

 

I never said I was rude. In fact, being raised in Canada, I am an extremely polite and respectful person, that is why we didn't say anything prior to the last night when I had just had enough. Our friends - also from Canada - land of the polite - were ready to give up on the main dining room they were so frustrated with the interruptions.

 

No, I should not have to readjust my expectations of how I spend my mealtime in the dining room. If we want to use this time to talk among ourselves that is what we should be able to do. That is not being 'entitled' that is called eating in a restaurant. Pretty sure in most land based restaurants the staff come back and ask the table as a whole how their meal is. They don't go around the table one by one and specifically ask each person how their soup is, how they salad is, how their entree is and on and on for every single dish brought to the table. People know how to speak for themselves and make the staff aware of any problems.

 

My DH and I are very low maintenance on cruises. We ask our cabin attendant for two extra towels in our cabin. That is it. In the dining room we normally have no requests at all. We are always pleasant and polite to all the staff. Ask them how their day is going, wish a good evening as we leave. The service itself in the dining room was excellent - we were not complaining about that at all. All we asked for was to have fewer interruptions to our meal.

You're the kind of people we like meeting on our cruises. Cheers!

[PhillyFan33579]

1 hour ago, Husky1987 said:

 

Yeah, that was a dead giveaway, who knows....but in my experience, most of the time someone exaggerates a customer service story from hell and goes out of their way to point out that they were "very polite and gentle", they usually weren't.

Good post. If the waiters spent as much time at the table as the OP stated, I am positive the people sitting at other tables the waiters were serving would not be happy. 

[not-enough-cruising]

3 hours ago, LinRon3 said:

Yea, we've wondered how to answer this question on the surveys [as to did anyone approach us about giving a good score]?  We appreciate the crew and staff on cruise ships; they do a magnificent job and are amazing at being able to make one feel special.  One stops to consider the many many people they see and faces change so often...their hospitality always seems sincere, fresh, and vital.  Truly amazing.  So, when asked this question on the survey, by answering 'yes' [we were approached, and we usually are in the MDR, just to suggest how important these surveys are to them]...well, we wonder if by saying 'yes' is this somehow incriminating?  Are they SUPPOSED to approach us on this? By saying 'no' however, does it suggest they are neglecting part of their job IF RCL requires them to approach us?  We usually just say 'NO' [even if we were approached].  

How about just answer honestly? Sounds like a good plan 

[3CatsInMA]

We had somebody stop by the table with a list of questions, I didn't think it was a big deal.  In fact, there was a semi-minor annoyance my wife had with our cabin that was remedied as a result. 

 

He did seem to have a list of tables he was stopping at.  By the way, it was our head waiter. 🙂

 

 

[not-enough-cruising]

Ironically I just received, last night, a rather lengthy surgery on the MDR. 

The survey covered everything from menu design, food choices, lighting, sound, place settings; and yes, expectations of wait staff. 

[jbrinkm]

I noticed a similar trend on our cruise last year. I didn't say anything or downgrade my survey score because of it, but I didn't like it. On a six night cruise, we got the "please give us 10 on the survey" speech 3 different nights. Our head waiter was a low speaker who was hard to hear, we had to stop eating and lean closer each time she came to check on us, then she had to repeat herself because we couldn't hear, listen/nod/smile for 5 minutes, then we would try to go back to our family conversation. Repeat 10 minutes later after we got the next set of food, etc. Having teens with busy lives at home and doing their own thing on the ship, dinner was a time when we wanted to all get together and relax and talk and connect as a family and the continual interruptions made that hard to do. 

 

I don't think that all of the positives about the staff and dining room AND also feeling slightly annoyed at what seemed like unnecessary interruptions are mutually exclusive - both can be true. There were so many things I appreciated about our wait staff and enjoyed about our experience. We were joking with them and kind and polite and tipped extra. And I also wish we hadn't been interrupted as much as we were about how we were enjoying our experience. It is not the same as getting to know our staff. We would have been fine with more general conversation with them - we did with our assistant waiter and those conversations were great! Our assistant waiter worked in WJ during lunch and would always say hi to us, and one day took a video of my husband on the zip line to show to us at dinner. And the staff made special cold fruit soup for us specially. So those things were fantastic and we would have given more than 10s on the survey if we could have - without them even asking. It is very different to hear a quick - "Is everything ok with your meal? Please let me know if I can get you anything" and the long speeches about how important the ratings are multiple times. 

 

I wish there was a way to give feedback about this to Royal without it coming back to the wait staff. I do believe that they feel that they have to make these pitches to the diners and that is unfortunate that they live with that much uncertainty around their jobs and job performance.

[csnarpy]

All I want to know is, how every time wait staff ask you how things are - your mouth is stuffed with food. 
 

it’s like they went to school for that exact timing !

 

😜

Edited November 23, 2022 by csnarpy

[davekathy]

Just now, csnarpy said:

All I want to know is, how every time wait staff ask you how things are that you mouth is stuffed with food. 
 

it’s like they went to school for that exact timing !

 

😜

Now that you mention it, I can that same thing about the so called photographers wandering around in the MDR. 

[Jasukkie]

This is definitely a problem and to accuse the OP of lying is ridiculous. I am polite to a fault. I never cut anyone off or act dismissive. I ate in the MDR twice out of eleven nights on my last sailing partly due to this over-solicitousness. The waiter asked us if our reason for not coming often was because we were disappointed with her service and what could she be doing differently. Ugh. I would never say back off, I know the head waiters are very demanding and everyone is working hard. This is a systemic problem. 

 

Other cruise lines are purposefully backing away from this vibe. I really enjoyed my dining experience on Virgin Voyages which felt much more like going to a regular restaurant with attentive service. We really don't need to be Sir and Madame. I don't want to feel like my waiter is going to lose their standing if I don't give a ten on a survey. Enough.

[not-enough-cruising]

40 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Now that you mention it, I can that same thing about the so called photographers wandering around in the MDR. 

Photographers need to be banned from the dining venues

[davekathy]

2 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Photographers need to be banned from the dining venues

Agree. We have always thought that. 

[Bulldogsoc]

14 minutes ago, Jasukkie said:

Well said Jassukkie. 

 

[John&LaLa]

Hoping they ask me about the lasagna 😉

[BecciBoo]

My standard retort:  You can please all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time....C'est la vie