Finding a favorite waiter again on a subsequent cruise

[Dr. Peds]

We had a fantastic waiter on the Sky Princess last month and he indicated he would still be on contract when we sail again in December.  I have gone ahead and made dining reservations for our party for our upcoming cruise (earliest time available in the same dining room we ate before).  Is the best way to find if he is still on ship and in our chosen dining room by asking when we check in at the restaurant on the first night, or is there another place we might consult at or before that time?

[PacnGoNow]

9 minutes ago, Dr. Peds said:

We had a fantastic waiter on the Sky Princess last month and he indicated he would still be on contract when we sail again in December.  I have gone ahead and made dining reservations for our party for our upcoming cruise (earliest time available in the same dining room we ate before).  Is the best way to find if he is still on ship and in our chosen dining room by asking when we check in at the restaurant on the first night, or is there another place we might consult at or before that time?

Yes, either the first night at dinner

or you might ask at the embarkation lunch in the MDR, if you go there for lunch.  

[wallyj]

It is my understanding the dining staff are ‘rotated’ so your waiter may or may not still be assigned to that particular dining room and section. You should be able to verify during the first dinner service and possibly during the embarkation lunch.

[BlerkOne]

The best way might be to ask if they are on social media and stay in touch. Next would be ask on the ship.

[Serious Cruisers]

Ask any staff they can see on there company issue phone if staff is on your ship. Have done  this. Many times. Will even show staff photo

 

 

 

 

[Dr. Peds]

Thanks for all these helpful replies!

[Crystaltipps67]

18 hours ago, Dr. Peds said:

We had a fantastic waiter on the Sky Princess last month and he indicated he would still be on contract when we sail again in December.  I have gone ahead and made dining reservations for our party for our upcoming cruise (earliest time available in the same dining room we ate before).  Is the best way to find if he is still on ship and in our chosen dining room by asking when we check in at the restaurant on the first night, or is there another place we might consult at or before that time?

It didn't happen to be Arvi did it? 

[Dr. Peds]

1 hour ago, Crystaltipps67 said:

It didn't happen to be Arvi did it? 

No, it did not.  But it is good to know another name even though we have generally had good wait staff (particularly assistant or junior waiters) on all our cruises.  But our last cruise was simply exceptional and we were onboard for a 14 day cruise which made it even better.

[6boysnana]

3 hours ago, Dr. Peds said:

No, it did not.  But it is good to know another name even though we have generally had good wait staff (particularly assistant or junior waiters) on all our cruises.  But our last cruise was simply exceptional and we were onboard for a 14 day cruise which made it even better.

We had  excellent service on the Enchanted with Sheldon. I hope we can meet up again on a future cruise. Made our cruise!

[Dr. Peds]

What was odd was that in talking to our waiter we found out that he had been a waiter on our last five cruises (some on different ships) and we had never crossed paths to the best of our knowledge.  That is why we will make the extra effort to find him this time.  Interestingly, we had a pretty crummy table in terms of location right next to the galley door, but that meant that we actually had more interaction with our wait staff as their station was actually in an alcove by the galley door rather than out in the dining room itself.  Made for extra good service apart from the waiters being excellent.  

[Thrak]

While we have never "gone looking" for a crew member it has been gratifying to either find one again or have one recognize us from prior cruises. We have met up with one bar server (excellent and great to talk with) on more than one cruise and been recognized on boarding by another crew member. On one of our cruises last year I had a bartender recognize me immediately (I wasn't within range of his tablet to "see" my Medallion) and remember my drink of choice. I'm always amazed by the ability of some crew members to remember former passengers. (It may have to do with how the crew member has been treated/interacted with in the past.) We are always polite and nice to all crew members. It amazes me how surprised some can look when I use a simple "please" or "thank you". I don't understand why it's such a surprise but I guess some folks just see the crew as objects or "lesser people" or something. To me they are the folks who go out of their way to make my cruise special and they are always nice to us. I don't see any reason not to be nice to them or to not treat them with respect. That really shouldn't be something that is unusual. Whatever... it's nice to be recognized and I feel bad that, for the most part, I don't have that ability. Like I said above, we both recognized a particular bar server and I'm absolutely certain there are a couple more crew members we would recognize on sight but my brain doesn't seem to retain that sort of stuff for most instances. I truly wish it did.