Defending cruise ship staff

I've been reading the threads and have noticed that there are a few comments from people who have noticed travellers being rude, entitled and disrespectful towards the cruise ship staff.

It really makes me visualize what I would do if I saw that happening. If you saw this happening, would you say anything? Have you said anything?

I probably would not say anything to the passenger being rude, but I likely would say something to the staff member to (hopefully) make him/her feel better. We often tell the crew what a great job they do -- and we mean it.

I have seen in multiple times. IMO the way to address it is as stated above. Talk with the crew member after the idiot has finished and commiserate with them.

I probably would not say anything to the passenger being rude, but I likely would say something to the staff member to (hopefully) make him/her feel better. We often tell the crew what a great job they do -- and we mean it.

This is absolutely the best way to respond. Confronting the offender would be completely useless.

I was once on an airline flight in which a passenger became completely unruly and did not want to comply with the flight attendant's instructions. He finally complied, but his final outburst was that he would be contacting the airline and that she would be fired.

This was a small turboprop aircraft carrying, maybe, fifteen passengers for that hop. So, all the passengers were able to clearly witness what was happening. As we left the aircraft every one of us gave the flight attendant a business card saying that we would be happy to testify on her behalf if anything arose from his threat.

I've been reading the threads and have noticed that there are a few comments from people who have noticed travellers being rude, entitled and disrespectful towards the cruise ship staff.

 

It really makes me visualize what I would do if I saw that happening. If you saw this happening, would you say anything? Have you said anything?

There is an old saying. "You can't make a leopard change its' spots." However, it may be just slightly easier than confronting a rude person and trying to get him / her to be kind and thoughtful towards a cruise ship staff member. You may not see it happen, but at some point that rude person will get what's coming to him / her. Ever heard the saying "Paybacks are a b*tch." ?

Oh yes. I speak quietly to a supervisor after the event. I would never want a crew member blamed because of a rude passenger.

Sandra

I was on the Celebrity Eclipse sitting next to the gelato station in Cafe al Baccio and various passengers would come up to ask for gelato and then find out it cost extra and would unload venom on whoever the poor crew member was who was working the gelato station. Sometimes it was almost as if they were lining up to be mean to the crew member who has no control of if Celebrity charges for gelato or not. After one morning that was particularly rough with a very rude man actually yelling at her, I went up and ordered a gelato and she told me it cost extra - I could see her inwardly cringe expecting yet another attack and I gently told her, I knew and that I was so sorry about the way the other passengers had been treating her as it was very wrong. After that, when she was in the gelato station, and yet more passengers would come up and abuse her, she'd look over to me and we'd smile, shrug, roll our eyes and shake our heads in silent response to the situation. But I think it helped her to know someone was on her side. I noticed over the 2 weeks I was on that ship that the servers in the gelateria changed frequently - about every 4 hours. I'm sure with the way cruisers were treating the person in that station that it is the least sought after serving duty onboard.

I later wrote a note about the situation to the supervisor so they would know how terrible duty was in that station due to rude passengers.

And make sure you let his boss know if the crew did nothing wrong.

Having been in the food & beverage industry as well as customer service my entire adult life, I feel for the poor gelato attendant. I good response to someone saying that they shouldn't pay would be "Sorry, but I am not allowed to charge any more than what I quoted you". Most time this approach would work, but it boils down to communication between the worker and their supervisor to get a good understanding of what's happening and how to diffuse the situation. Hoping for the best on our cruise next week.

Those who are rude to cruise ship staff (or anyone in customer service : grocery store, clothing store etc.) are cowards, pure and simple. They do it because they know the person they are treating like garbage cannot fight back.

This is absolutely the best way to respond. Confronting the offender would be completely useless.

 

I was once on an airline flight in which a passenger became completely unruly and did not want to comply with the flight attendant's instructions. He finally complied, but his final outburst was that he would be contacting the airline and that she would be fired.

 

This was a small turboprop aircraft carrying, maybe, fifteen passengers for that hop. So, all the passengers were able to clearly witness what was happening. As we left the aircraft every one of us gave the flight attendant a business card saying that we would be happy to testify on her behalf if anything arose from his threat.

What brilliant actions by everyone on board except the culprit.

Those who are rude to cruise ship staff (or anyone in customer service : grocery store, clothing store etc.) are cowards, pure and simple. They do it because they know the person they are treating like garbage cannot fight back.

I agree 100%

I was on the Celebrity Eclipse sitting next to the gelato station in Cafe al Baccio and various passengers would come up to ask for gelato and then find out it cost extra and would unload venom on whoever the poor crew member was who was working the gelato station. Sometimes it was almost as if they were lining up to be mean to the crew member who has no control of if Celebrity charges for gelato or not. After one morning that was particularly rough with a very rude man actually yelling at her, I went up and ordered a gelato and she told me it cost extra - I could see her inwardly cringe expecting yet another attack and I gently told her, I knew and that I was so sorry about the way the other passengers had been treating her as it was very wrong. After that, when she was in the gelato station, and yet more passengers would come up and abuse her, she'd look over to me and we'd smile, shrug, roll our eyes and shake our heads in silent response to the situation. But I think it helped her to know someone was on her side. I noticed over the 2 weeks I was on that ship that the servers in the gelateria changed frequently - about every 4 hours. I'm sure with the way cruisers were treating the person in that station that it is the least sought after serving duty onboard.

 

I later wrote a note about the situation to the supervisor so they would know how terrible duty was in that station due to rude passengers.

I blame Celebrity for the problem. They should have a sign at the table stating that there was an additional charge for the gelato. Sure, people would have complained but at least the server could have easily pointed to the sign.

It was kind of you to let her know that the way that people yelled at her was not right. I bet you got a nice heaping scoop for the price.

Those who are rude to cruise ship staff (or anyone in customer service : grocery store, clothing store etc.) are cowards, pure and simple. They do it because they know the person they are treating like garbage cannot fight back.

Truth...and also I will add entitled cowards

I've been reading the threads and have noticed that there are a few comments from people who have noticed travellers being rude, entitled and disrespectful towards the cruise ship staff.

 

It really makes me visualize what I would do if I saw that happening. If you saw this happening, would you say anything? Have you said anything?

No.

I don't stop strangers and tell them not to be disrespectful to other people - I'd be spending all day doing that and never get my work done. The general freedoms we live with allows people to be rude and disrespectful if they want to. I'm not the "polite police". I don't police other people's manners. I would probably be a little extra-nice or supportive the that staff member, letting them know that I don't agree with the boorish passenger's opinion.

Well, like most things in life, I guess it would just depend on what was actually being said or done -- and where. If the behavior was out of control, or escalating toward violence, I would find a phone (or a senior crew member) and report it immediately. Short of that, I would probably not get involved. As another poster so succinctly put it: I'm not in the business of teaching manners to other adults. My butting in would most likely make the 'berate-or' more belligerent. And, it might have the unintended consequence of embarrassing the 'berate-ee' even further. And, since I most likely wouldn't be privy to all of the facts, putting my $.02 in with the employee's supervisor might back-fire, as well. Sometimes, minding your own business is simply the best course of action.

My bottom line, when it comes to rude people is: Don't be THAT guy! :o

Those who are rude to cruise ship staff (or anyone in customer service : grocery store, clothing store etc.) are cowards, pure and simple. They do it because they know the person they are treating like garbage cannot fight back.

I always tell my wife (who is a branch bank manager) and deals with some real red neck idiots, many who have more money than they do manners. :( 'When you have someone who THINKS they have the 'right' to talk down or ugly to someone who is just trying to do their job, you can bet 'they' have never been on OR had a public contact job and had someone talk to them like that.' I've often wished I could just blink my eyes and make it possible and have both parties instantly change positions and have the rude, SOB have too work in the clerk's job, for oh, let's say six months ? Think after that long he/she MIGHT change their attitude ?:eek: I had a public contact job ( a uniformed deputy Sheriff ) for ten years and dealt w/many rude, arrogant SOB's who threatened me day after day,' If you arrest me I'll do this or that'. I expected that, I wasn't there trying to be nice (just neutral and respectful) OR help. That's why I cannot, for the life of me, understand WHY these rude idiots do not understand that the clerks and staff do not make the rules ! I have been on the receiving end, I know how they feel. Hopefully, like the OP stated above, they silently roll their eyes. I did this too, when someone went off on me about anything. Actually, the clerk should say, 'I can get my manager here, would you like to address this matter with THEM?' Probably a lot of these rude types belong to the ' it's all about ME' generation. :( Makes you wonder HOW their children will turn out ?? SCARY !!

Mac

I've been reading the threads and have noticed that there are a few comments from people who have noticed travellers being rude, entitled and disrespectful towards the cruise ship staff.

 

It really makes me visualize what I would do if I saw that happening. If you saw this happening, would you say anything? Have you said anything?

I've only seen one flagrant incident. We were in Belize and I had purchased my own snorkel gear and drug it with me on the cruise. The excursion I was on was canceled after we stood in line for an hour. A Royal crew member came and told us it was canceled, offered to put us on other not similar excursions or we could get a 125% back on the ship. We ended up back on the ship and in line for the refund. The guy in front of me started getting loud and slamming his fist on the counter and filled the air with cliches, "Do you know who I am?" I'm going to write to...(insert cruise line Exec name here) and profanities. I watched the poor girl behind the counter take it until he finally stormed off. She turned me and asked how she could help. I felt compelled to apologize for my fellow passenger and told her I was sorry she had to endure that. I told her why I was there and she quickly gave me a 150% refund on the excursion.

I've been on both sides of this equation. I have had people give me their business card and have told me to have my manager contact them if the DYKWIA/as$hole tries to make trouble for me. I once had a gentleman actually intercede when a rather large and drunk Russian threatened me and my trainee and was standing over us. That gave me enough time to grab the radio and call out a Code Red ( our way of saying we need massive support for a bad situation). He was able to help distract this drunk until my "calvary" arrived. At most big-brand hotels, there is the ability for staff to enter comments about guests on their profile which will follow the bad-apples to every other hotel in that company. We would pre-flag these people so we would know they will not be tolerated and our service recovery methods will change. I've also had the authority to tell someone that he was no longer welcome and that we would be happy to arrange transport to another hotel. Have done that twice - almost did it last weekend to a entitled twit couple.

I've been somewhere as a customer or guest where someone is being an as$hole to an employee. My turn up - I say I am sorry that they had to endure the boor. I let the employee take a moment if they need. If it is something really egregious, yes, I give them one of my cards and tell them to have their manager contact me if needed.

Any front-facing job, regardless of what it is, is really a tough gig.

I've been on both sides of this equation. I have had people give me their business card and have told me to have my manager contact them if the DYKWIA/as$hole tries to make trouble for me. I once had a gentleman actually intercede when a rather large and drunk Russian threatened me and my trainee and was standing over us. That gave me enough time to grab the radio and call out a Code Red ( our way of saying we need massive support for a bad situation). He was able to help distract this drunk until my "calvary" arrived. At most big-brand hotels, there is the ability for staff to enter comments about guests on their profile which will follow the bad-apples to every other hotel in that company. We would pre-flag these people so we would know they will not be tolerated and our service recovery methods will change. I've also had the authority to tell someone that he was no longer welcome and that we would be happy to arrange transport to another hotel. Have done that twice - almost did it last weekend to a entitled twit couple.

I've been somewhere as a customer or guest where someone is being an as$hole to an employee. My turn up - I say I am sorry that they had to endure the boor. I let the employee take a moment if they need. If it is something really egregious, yes, I give them one of my cards and tell them to have their manager contact me if needed.

 

Any front-facing job, regardless of what it is, is really a tough gig.

A very interesting report, Slidergirl. Thank you for taking the time to share your insight.

I was totally unaware or the "pre-flagging" capability that you mentioned, but such a capability makes perfect sense. Being the operations-oriented person that I am, I started wondering about the most obvious difficulty with this--i.e., you can't just go by name. How do you know that the Joe Brown whether you just flagged in Los Angeles is the same Joe Brown who has a reservation in New York next week? One obvious easy answer, of course, is if the evil Joe Brown is a member of your company's "Loyalty" program. You know his number, and, most asuredly, he gives his number every time he makes a reservation.

the problem with confronting another passenger is that things could escalate further and you could be the one walking down the gangway with your luggage...I seem to have heard of this happening on another thread.

going and getting a supervisor if possible might be the best thing to do.

What would I do? Pull out my IPhone and film the abusive encounter. Then post it on YouTube and let the public shaming begin.

What would I do? Pull out my IPhone and film the abusive encounter. Then post it on YouTube and let the public shaming begin.

That's a really good idea. Even if you don't post it on YouTube, you have photographic evidence to show supervisors or whoever is in authority, and it's safer than confronting the offender.

That's a really good idea. Even if you don't post it on YouTube, you have photographic evidence to show supervisors or whoever is in authority, and it's safer than confronting the offender.

Exactly as the offender might have accused the staff member and got them into trouble.

I just got off of an Alaskan cruise 3 days ago. I am handicapped and for disembarkation I had to go to the Schooner Lounge for a wheelchair. The night before the colored and numbered luggage tags arrived with a full explanation for disembarking, either handicapped or on your own.

I arrived at the lounge 45 minutes before my time. The crew member added me to the list and explained when they called my number he would get me a chair.

At this time a woman walked up with her handicapped husband. The crew member explained she was number 25 and her time was 9 am. The woman started screaming at him, she had to make the cruise shuttle bus to the airport, her fight was at 2 pm (it was 745 am) and they wouldn't make it. He tried to explain that she would be on the 10 am bus to the airport giving her over 3 hours. She continued to yell, finally getting tired of yelling and sat down.

Several more passengers signed in and started the disembarking process. The crew member called 1 through 4 and she jumped up. He explained that she was 25 and she would have to wait. Again, more yelling.

I had enough and took my instructions over to her and showed her what it said and that she would make her flight. I told her that the crew member had no control over what numbers and when they would be called and she was making it uncomfortable for all the handicapped passengers. Her husband looked at me and then told her to sit down.

The crew member and many passengers thanked me.

I know I probably shouldn't have said any thing but she was making me uncomfortable so I did. If there had been a supervisor anywhere in the vicinity I would have gotten them.

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