Complaint of the Week #13

[Philip217]

We had another good cruise this week, with many creative entries.

But the best of over 2,000 attempts contained 2 great items:

 

"The food I　sampled was OK. In the Lido it had an assembly line taste to it. (Yes I know that it is an assembly line)"

 

"The one thing I disliked was coloring in the circles on this comment card."

[cherylandtk]

ROFLMAO

 

Perhaps the 'author' thought he/she was required to find a fault and this was the worst they could come up with????

 

(Just you wait until my next cruise--I gotta come up with a doozie for you all to laugh over. But I promise to make it clear that its just a joke and not a true comment)

[SheriNtexas]

We had another good cruise this week, with many creative entries.

But the best of over 2,000 attempts contained 2 great items:

"The one thing I disliked was coloring in the circles on this comment card."

 

 

I understand how this person feels-it is just SO darn hard to make sure the ENTIRE circle is colored in!!;) :D

 

I actually thought about this thread when i was filling out my comment card on Conquest last Saturday!

[PhoenixCruiser]

I understand how this person feels-it is just SO darn hard to make sure the ENTIRE circle is colored in!!;) :D

 

 

No kidding!! Especially after a few cocktails :D ;)

 

###

[Krazy Kruizers]

Great!!!

[LHP]

Thanks...these are great.

[EggDropErin]

LOL Thanks Philip! I read these each and every week.

[ldog]

The second one actually made me laugh out loud. Thank you so much for sharing these with us.:D

[Kevbirch]

"The one thing I disliked was coloring in the circles on this comment card."

 

Heck, I thought you would be able to give 'em their choice of colors to make things easier for them (and you) . . . :p

[Caliber1]

Once again, it never ceases to amaze me what people complain about. :rolleyes:

[dforeigner]

We had another good cruise this week, with many creative entries.

But the best of over 2,000 attempts contained 2 great items:

 

"The food I　sampled was OK. In the Lido it had an assembly line taste to it. (Yes I know that it is an assembly line)"

 

"The one thing I disliked was coloring in the circles on this comment card."

 

Norwalk virus transmission (among other things) waiting to happen. Some people never learn.

[Cruisenouvelle]

...your perpetually upbeat tone despite the fact that you're dealing with...well, not the happiest campers in the canoe. You stated,

"We had another good cruise this week, with many creative entries "...:D

No way I could perform your job, so I tip my hat to you every time I read these. The sanguine comments inspire me to never become the type of cruiser who scribes these pithy gems. :rolleyes:

[dforeigner]

We had another good cruise this week, with many creative entries.

But the best of over 2,000 attempts contained 2 great items:

 

"The food I　sampled was OK. In the Lido it had an assembly line taste to it. (Yes I know that it is an assembly line)"

 

"The one thing I disliked was coloring in the circles on this comment card."

 

 

Did I somehow missed complaint of the week # 12?

[Kevbirch]

Did I somehow missed complaint of the week # 12?

 

I think you just created it . . . :(

[Robb]

I think some people would complain about not having anything to complain if they could not find something else to gripe about.

[Coolmama_1]

We had another good cruise this week, with many creative entries.

But the best of over 2,000 attempts contained 2 great items:

 

"The food I　sampled was OK. In the Lido it had an assembly line taste to it. (Yes I know that it is an assembly line)"

 

"The one thing I disliked was coloring in the circles on this comment card."

 

 

FUNNY!!!!:D

[larainec]

Assembly line taste to the food?

 

After 34 years of teaching, I don't even want to count how many school lunch meals were eaten. Now that was an assembly line with smiling lunch ladies.

 

Remind me not to sit next to this person anywhere on my cruise.

[petel]

We had another good cruise this week, with many creative entries.

But the best of over 2,000 attempts contained 2 great items:

 

"The food I　sampled was OK. In the Lido it had an assembly line taste to it. (Yes I know that it is an assembly line)"

 

"The one thing I disliked was coloring in the circles on this comment card."

 

As a rule I try to never taste an assembly line. Nope, don't think I ever did taste an assembly line.

 

OMG! never mind, I get it. :eek: :D :cool:

 

Thanks for another great laugh.

[cruzeluver]

Thanks for continuing with the weekly chuckle!

 

Perhaps if we brought back walking the plank...............:p

[Annieeee]

So once you read the comment cards, are the serious comments taken into consideration? Why do you get to read them, is it your job to read them, sort them and perhaps hand them to someone up the chain of command and what do they do with them? In other words, are the comment cards taken as seriously as we have been told?

 

Thank you in advance for you response.

 

Annieeee

[Philip217]

Annieeee,

Excellent question.

At the end of each cruise - on nearly every cruise line - the Hotel Department Heads sit down and go through all the comment cards. This is quite a job. The typical return rate is around 75%, which can translate to something between 1200 to 3000 forms. On a typical cruise, about 65% of the returned forms have written comments on them.

 

First we try to read them. About 20% of them are completely illegible. After passing them around the table and asking everyone what the writer might be trying to say to us, we give up and put these in a separate pile.

 

Many cards have only the message "Please see comments on my wife's card".

 

About 20% of them have all sorts of strange things stuck to them - food, coffee, whatever. We really don't want to know sometimes. These usually go into another pile.

 

Then we all wash our hands and get serious with the remainder.

 

There are many very thoughtful comments written there. Many passengers have some great ideas (some reasonable; some not). Comment Cards with praise for individual crew members are marked and passed to the appropriate Supervisor who gives a copy to the crew members. The crew REALLY like this. You cannot imagine how it makes their day to see their names written on those cards.

Comment cards with criticisms of crew members are also marked and passed along to the appropriate supervisor for follow-up. Even if the crewmember's name is not listed, the cabins number and table number are available, so we can trace the culprit(s).

 

Many comments are quite predictable:

100 people think the ship was too cold; 100 people think the ship was too warm.

200 think the food was too spicy; 200 think is was too bland.

100 say the food was too fancy; 100 say the food was too pedestrian.

100 complain that the dress code was not enforced; 100 complain that there was a dress code.

At least 50 say the entertainment was too racy; 50 say it was too boring.

At least 50 say the music was too loud - everywhere.

100 say there was too much smoking onboard; 100 say there were not enough places to smoke.

50 complain that there were not enough sea days; 50 complain that there were too many sea days.

200 want to know why we cannot offer xxxxxx like all the other cruise lines; another 200 complain that we are getting too similar to all the other cruise lines.

A very surprising number of passengers tell us every week that if they had known when and where the ship was going before they purchased the cruise, they would not have taken it !!!

 

Positive and negative comments about food quality, entertainment quality, services, tours, etc are all marked and passed along to the appropriate shipboard department head. That department head then has them all typed into a report, where he lists all the actions he intends to take to remedy any shortcomings. These reports go to Captain, Hotel Manager, and many department heads in the Home Office. These reports are tracked from cruise to cruise to gauge improvements, or lack thereof.

 

The cute and crazy comment cards go into my file for the book I am writing.

Some of them end up here on Cruisecritic.

[Mr Snavely]

"The one thing I disliked was coloring in the circles on this comment card."

 

This is another way of saying "Everything was excellent".

 

 

I like that sense of humor. :)

[Plant]

 

Comment Cards with praise for individual crew members are marked and passed to the appropriate Supervisor who gives a copy to the crew members. The crew REALLY like this. You cannot imagine how it makes their day to see their names written on those cards.

 

 

I'm sure Philip will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe consistent good comments on the cards will also help the crew member get a raise or promotion. Consistent bad comments...:confused:

 

My complaint? The final night's comment cards are too small :) ! I want to list everyone who made my cruise wonderful!

[Stoneyard]

My complaint is, there was no complaint of the week # 12.:D

[critterfriend]

Can we make our own comment cards or attach an extra piece of paper to continue our comments. I too have found that I run out of room praising everything and everyone. *grin*