It’s been 10 years since I cruised on Carnival. This is the change which bothered me the most

[aborgman]

1 hour ago, staceyglow said:

 

 

I am sure it was not literally "the worst coffee known to humanity ".

 

Probably not... but it might have been close. Definitely significantly worse than most dive gas station coffee.

[aborgman]

1 hour ago, staceyglow said:

Less than six months ago,  a woman was caught putting poison in her husband's coffee:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/10/us/arizona-woman-pleads-guilty-poison-husbands-coffee/index.html

 

And I can say with the utmost confidence that that coffee was worse than than what @aborgman has been served in the Carnival MDR.

 

I can't... some of it tasted so bad I wished I was dead...

[elcuchio24]

Its actually one of the things I like the most....

[elcuchio24]

4 hours ago, aborgman said:

MDR coffee service is... awful.

 

Half the time I never get it.

 

The other half the time it's the worst coffee known to humanity, scorched/oxidized past recognition, and lukewarm.

 

I've just given up on that.

 

Its bad. We always do the drink package so thank goodness I just get Espresso which is quite nice. 

[jsglow]

43 minutes ago, Bollycats said:

Ok, so now I'm confused. Do you have to use a QR code or are the menus on the hub app every day? I prefer not using QR codes as my phone seems to have issues with them.

You can do it either way. I personally always pull it up from the App but one can also scan a QR on the table.

 

I actually like the fact that it's on the App for the entire voyage.  Sometimes I'll look ahead a day or two and that might influence my decision for tonight. Back in the 'good old days', we'd wander by the MDR during the day to read it outside the entrance. But that didn't give us a clue about tomorrow.

Edited yesterday at 08:26 PM by jsglow

[mfs2k]

1 hour ago, StephPS79 said:

 

Did they tell you they did not like having to go get one, or was this your assumption?  What was the hassle you had to go through to get it, above and beyond asking for the menu?

 

Again, Expectation vs Exception

[Mike45LC]

I wonder if the servers' apparent annoyance at having to go find a paper menu and if the failure to deliver coffee has any correlation to the time of the event -- when you want a paper menu (or coffee) at 6:00 p.m., the waiters might be more overworked  and stressed than at 8:30 (for Your Time Dining).  

 

If the server needs to take orders, send the orders to the kitchen, deliver appetizers, to 8 tables all at once (and more), the coffee might be forgotten.

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, aborgman said:

 

On my last cruise -

 

I asked for coffee with dessert 5 times.

 

Twice I got it - and it was BAD.

 

Once they didn't bring it, I reminded them, then they brought me a cup of bad coffee.

 

Twice they didn't bring it, I reminded them, they still didn't bring it - and I had finished my dessert so I just gave up and left.

LOL, so when delivered it was BAD (so bad in fact, it deserved CAPS), another time you had to remind them and they brought and it was bad, I might be reading into your post that it was not quite as bad as the other BAD, but maybe that is me. Did you talk to the team leader on the issue?  Did you talk to the restaurant mgt staff on the issue?

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, jsglow said:

You can do it either way. I personally always pull it up from the App but one can also scan a QR on the table.

 

I actually like the fact that it's on the App for the entire voyage.  Sometimes I'll look ahead a day or two and that might influence my decision for tonight. Back in the 'good old days', we'd wander by the MDR during the day to read it outside the entrance. But that didn't give us a clue about tomorrow.

Wait a minute, don’t go throwing positive facts into a discussion.

[jimbo5544]

58 minutes ago, Mike45LC said:

I wonder if the servers' apparent annoyance at having to go find a paper menu and if the failure to deliver coffee has any correlation to the time of the event -- when you want a paper menu (or coffee) at 6:00 p.m., the waiters might be more overworked  and stressed than at 8:30 (for Your Time Dining).  

 

If the server needs to take orders, send the orders to the kitchen, deliver appetizers, to 8 tables all at once (and more), the coffee might be forgotten.

Why would anyone think a server got annoyed by serving clients?  They give out menus every single cruise.

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, aborgman said:

 

Probably not... but it might have been close. Definitely significantly worse than most dive gas station coffee.

Yet you kept on ordering it…..that does speak volumes.

[jimbo5544]

3 hours ago, mfs2k said:

Somewhere, someone is being served ""the worst coffee known to man"  Maybe it was his lucky day. 

I am having flashbacks to Elf…..😅

[RoperDK]

58 minutes ago, Mike45LC said:

I wonder if the servers' apparent annoyance at having to go find a paper menu and if the failure to deliver coffee has any correlation to the time of the event -- when you want a paper menu (or coffee) at 6:00 p.m., the waiters might be more overworked  and stressed than at 8:30 (for Your Time Dining).  

 

If the server needs to take orders, send the orders to the kitchen, deliver appetizers, to 8 tables all at once (and more), the coffee might be forgotten.

I would hope that we can all agree that there is a staffing shortage.  It is stressful for me to see the staff running around like they do.  I can only imagine what they go through day after day.  It must be exhausting.  We are past COVID, gratuities and cabin prices have increased, and ships are sailing full.  I would like to see Carnival increase staffing and by default that would increase service.  I know it's just wishful thinking, but it sure would be nice. 

[Roscoe13]

6 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

Had it many times- coffee on the mess deck of a Navy ship at midnight. 🙂

And horse crock sandwiches and bug juice.

 

[sparks1093]

7 hours ago, Roscoe13 said:

And horse crock sandwiches and bug juice.

 

I stopped drinking the bug juice when I found out that they used it to clean the deck plates in the engine room.

[aborgman]

12 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Yet you kept on ordering it…..that does speak volumes.

 

Yeah, I kept hoping that somehow the MDR would just fill a cup with Lido coffee and it wouldn't be awful every time. Hope springs eternal.

 

It was also only 5 potential cups of coffee, which is about 1/10th what I'd normally have with dinner/desert in a week... So it did cause me to attempt way less than would be normal.

[aborgman]

13 hours ago, Mike45LC said:

I wonder if the servers' apparent annoyance at having to go find a paper menu and if the failure to deliver coffee has any correlation to the time of the event -- when you want a paper menu (or coffee) at 6:00 p.m., the waiters might be more overworked  and stressed than at 8:30 (for Your Time Dining).  

 

If the server needs to take orders, send the orders to the kitchen, deliver appetizers, to 8 tables all at once (and more), the coffee might be forgotten.

 

The coffee situation for me involved YTD and early dinners - mostly 4:30pm, sometimes 5pm... But always before 5:30pm.

[aborgman]

12 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

LOL, so when delivered it was BAD (so bad in fact, it deserved CAPS), another time you had to remind them and they brought and it was bad, I might be reading into your post that it was not quite as bad as the other BAD, but maybe that is me. Did you talk to the team leader on the issue?  Did you talk to the restaurant mgt staff on the issue?

 

Nope. I make a habit to never correct restaurant staff in any way.

 

I either accept how things are, or I vote with my dead presidents. It's managements job to make sure their employees are doing their job, not mine.

[MagnoliaBlossom]

BallFour4, since yu like the RCL ships, try sailing te Regal Princess out of Galveston.  We are Diamond on CCL and NCL, and after 92 cruises we’re getting a little jaded with all the cutbacks.  Our neighbor sailed the Regal and came back with wonderful reviews, so we booked it last fall, and oh my, it made us fall in love with cruising again.  Elegant dining, beautiful music during happy hour, elegant meals, with table others and nice flatware.

 

give her a try, I think you’ll be pleased.

[ontheweb]

26 minutes ago, aborgman said:

 

Nope. I make a habit to never correct restaurant staff in any way.

 

I either accept how things are, or I vote with my dead presidents. It's managements job to make sure their employees are doing their job, not mine.

And how is management supposed to find out there is a problem if customers do not let them know?

[aborgman]

2 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

And how is management supposed to find out there is a problem if customers do not let them know?

 

By paying attention to their employees interactions with customers and managing them.

 

If management needs customers to point out issues, then management is failing at their duty to manage employees.

 

 

 

[sparks1093]

33 minutes ago, aborgman said:

 

Yeah, I kept hoping that somehow the MDR would just fill a cup with Lido coffee and it wouldn't be awful every time. Hope springs eternal.

 

It was also only 5 potential cups of coffee, which is about 1/10th what I'd normally have with dinner/desert in a week... So it did cause me to attempt way less than would be normal.

One could always order a specialty coffee which would be made at the coffee bar, especially if one has Cheers. I've never had the MDR coffee because I can no longer have caffeine that late in the day but if I really wanted a decent coffee (and the coffee in the MDR is as bad as you say it is, remembering of course that I have literally had the worst coffee known to man or beast) I would just order a specialty coffee. (And the fact that it's similar to a bar order increases the likelihood of receiving it.)

[sparks1093]

2 minutes ago, aborgman said:

 

By paying attention to their employees interactions with customers and managing them.

 

If management needs customers to point out issues, then management is failing at their duty to manage employees.

 

 

 

Yes, and no. Managers rely heavily on customer feedback in these situations since they cannot possibly view every single interaction at every meal. If I routinely ordered something and didn't receive it then I would do 3 things- 1) I would let the Maitre'd know (after expressing my displeasure to the team lead of the waitstaff), 2) I would reduce the amount of any extra tip left and 3) I would mention it on the post cruise survey. 

[aborgman]

2 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

Yes, and no. Managers rely heavily on customer feedback in these situations since they cannot possibly view every single interaction at every meal. If I routinely ordered something and didn't receive it then I would do 3 things- 1) I would let the Maitre'd know (after expressing my displeasure to the team lead of the waitstaff), 2) I would reduce the amount of any extra tip left and 3) I would mention it on the post cruise survey. 

 

As someone who has worked in restaurants quite a bit - you're telling me something I already know... Almost all restaurants are poorly managed.

 

There is a reason restaurants and bars fail at about 2x the rate of other businesses, and the reason isn't the market - it's the people who start and operate them.

[jimbo5544]

42 minutes ago, aborgman said:

 

Nope. I make a habit to never correct restaurant staff in any way.

 

I either accept how things are, or I vote with my dead presidents. It's managements job to make sure their employees are doing their job, not mine.

Well that is a plan.  I do see the advantage of not sending food back to a kitchen, but we might disagree on the rest, but it is your cruise