"This might be YOUR vacation, but it's MY life"

They do not directly impact a particular crew member - they get a team score...

I have been a waiter, and also eat out quite a bit. If there service is deplorable, I will see something, but it takes a lot of me to do that. When I write a review, I typically wait a few days, and never use the staff by name, nor mention the might I came in. Btw- OP said the service was great. And you friend, don't sound like a very nice person, I hope that you are not actually like this to the people who serve you at restaurants.

Please point to what I said that wasn't nice. I basically said that if there is an issue I have no problem voicing it. It serves no purpose to complain and never mention who the complaint is about. The issue can't even be addressed with that server since you have not told them who it was.

And for the record I always tip 20% and only once that I can recall have I ever complained and mentioned a specific server so please don't assume you know what kind of person I am.

I've read about 1/2 of this thread. As a former restaurant manager of a popular full service casual restaurant, I can attest to the workings of surveys.

In our system, the ratings were 1 to 5. No differentiation between wait staff and kitchen staff, just service in general. Ratings of 1's and 2's reflected poorly on experience, 5's reflected positively on experience. 3's and 4's were thrown out.

Fair? Not really but that was what we had to work with and yes, the wait staff bore the brunt of it. It took 30 minutes for your food, poor service. I've gone to tables where the food wasn't eaten, offered to cook something else and told no only to take the food off the check and still received 1's for poor service.

Surveys suck. In many cases they don't reflect the true experience of the diner. Many people believe 5's are the pinnacle of perfection and in their opinion that's hard to obtain. They believe a 4 is a fine mark to receive. When it's thrown out, it's not a true reflection of the consumer experience.

Sadly, the better shifts and stations were based on these surveys. I'm sure this is the case on RCCL as well except I'm assuming the rankings would reflect ship assignments, etc.

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... Sadly, the better shifts and stations were based on these surveys. I'm sure this is the case on RCCL as well except I'm assuming the rankings would reflect ship assignments, etc. ...

We've been told that the waiters with the better scores get more guests assigned. With more guests, they make more money.

I'm glad they have gone back to the MDR for our Anthem cruise I always said it was better to know 1 waiter for the cruise than a different one at each venue. Always had great service on the Explorer he knew what we wanted and had it on the table when we got there. On our last cruise on the Anthem every night we had to ask for everything over and over always gave service good marks BUT if you are cruising to have GREAT food stay home.

Thanks to the OP for posting this topic.

My evaluation of a cruise (or any other situation) always includes the employees ability to provide good service or food or issue resolution.

Meaning, the performance of the employer is the MAJOR element in the cruise experience.

Employees everywhere are increasingly unable to provide previous levels of service, food etc due to systemic corporate decisions to cut back/reallocate resources in many areas ie the corporate objective of the "great rush to the bottom".

We also evaluate a cruise against the corporate marketing piece to determine the variance in many areas - what was promised versus what was delivered.

We will provide a realistic rating - have yet to provide a 5 and not likely to do so.

The business model of the cruise lines that force employees to beg for a 5 is something that I can not really influence other than taking my business elsewhere and letting the cruise line know. It is pathetic and evidence of corporate lack of ethics.

Whether the nurse at the hospital, the person cleaning the hotel room, the waiter at the restaurant, those dear folks are front line to the consumer and always take it on the chin for other malfunctioning parts of the organization. When they inevitability apologize, I ask them to stop and apologize for only the actions that they personally control and nothing else.

A basic enduring principle is take accountability for your actions only if you totally control the context. Otherwise, do not.

Cruise lines are quickly losing our business due to their declining on board experience.

ABoatNerd

Just off Serenade. The Survey was waiting for us just after disembarking. At no time were we asked to give only a certain score in the MDR.

Our Cabin Steward was awesome (Gabriel not proper sp). The Concierge was Super Awesome (Mario Reyes).

I would say Food for Dinner (MDR) was good. Salad bar in MDR was super for lunch. We only ate lunch onboard on Sea Days. We did the Galley tour which included a Champagne Brunch and was was totally awesome. The Champagne was flowing with different mixes. The Sous Chef that gave us the hour long tour was awesome. He has been with Royal 16 years and had no plans to find another employer. One thing that stood out, he said he was short 50+ people. Also indicated that Fleet wide the open jobs was in the thousands. I believe he implied there were shortages in the Waitstaff as well. He gave us some interesting facts.

Was the survey a 5 scale or a 10

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Hello,

I just got off the Oasis today and had an amazing server. I told her about this thread and asked what she recommended. She said that both the service and food scores are tallied in her rating. (Which I believe is unfair and wrong. The scoring determines her position and side jobs) It is because she is held accountable for plating, correct presentation, etc. She showed me her scoring from the previous week where she had a 94% and was told to get it over 95. I then asked about the quality of the food, and she said to use the comments for that as you originally stated. She gets the score, and the cook gets the comment.

Be blessed,

Danielle

I can understand giving someone a rating if the service is terrible. But what upsets me is the top officials are making the wait staff and others beg to give top ratings. And it is not just the ships, I see it in the stores as well. I would love to ask the top officials may I rate you? And if you don't get all 5's do you lose your job?

Danielle- thanks for the tip on how to rate service versus food! I'll remember that :)

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Was the survey a 5 scale or a 10

 

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Haven't opened it yet. Got to go through my Photos for proper spelling on names I want recognized.

From my experience, here is how these surveys work. You either get all 5s and the survey counts towards your goal (% of guests have to be completely satisfied), or you get anything under 5 and they count for nothing.

Unfortunately this leads to people pressuring for all 5s, and no real improvements coming from the survey process.

I've even been told by some companies I've worked for, that unless I know the person is going to give a perfect score, don't offer/mention the survey.

Was the survey a 5 scale or a 10

 

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It was a compromise 1.0 to 7.5.

Was the survey a 5 scale or a 10

 

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Just off the Adventure. The survey was from 1 - 10.

Just off the Oasis today. We were told by our dinner waiters in Chops and Solarium that they needed a rating of "10" and told that anything less would affect them negatively. Our waiter in the Solarium badgered us while we were eating. and repeated at least 3 times that he "had" to be given a 10.

The only waiter we didn't hear this spiel from was our waiter in Giovanni's. He was by far the best server we had the entire cruise.

Can't say that I have ever been badgered by waitstaff about this but never fails to get mentioned.

Was the survey a 5 scale or a 10

 

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Good catch John

Our survey was 10 , with 10 being highest score.

If I hit the share button, to share on Royals website, what happens if you know.

Good catch John

 

Our survey was 10 , with 10 being highest score.

 

If I hit the share button, to share on Royals website, what happens if you know.

Sorry, no idea. BTW, did the Concierge letter in your room mention shorts at all? Laura's on Jewel did not.

I very rarely give anything a "perfect" score on any survey. It has to be something that is way above and beyond my expectations to earn that high of praise.

I expect the servers and staff to do the job that they were hired and trained to do. If they do so then I will give them a 4/5 or a 9/10, depending on the scale.

Having a server beg me for a perfect score would just anger me to the point of a lower score and a complaint to their supervisor.

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I will be on a 23 night cruise and have had that experience with the wait staff starting about 3/4 of the way through the cruise with their pitch.

Here's how I am rolling from now on:

At the end of the first or second night, if the service was great (worthy of the highest ranking), I will talk with the waiter privately:

"We are experienced cruisers, not hard to please, and generally greatly appreciate the service and food. The one thing that might ruin our experience is for our wait staff to verbally coerce us into giving them the top score.

At this point, we think you are worthy of the highest ratings, but any mention of the survey will result in a lower rating. I hope that this brief discussion will allow you to relax, continue to maintain your high standards, and know that you don't have to approach the topic near the end of our cruise."

Maybe, it should be written in a letter or on a card. Perhaps we should all start doing this.

Sorry, no idea. BTW, did the Concierge letter in your room mention shorts at all? Laura's on Jewel did not.

No it did not... and each night there were people in shorts during cocktail hours, including formal night. i will mention that they sat at the bar each evening. Nothing was said and I sure wouldn't have even tried to look up these folks shorts.... :D:rolleyes:

I did make a suggestion that they give VOOM to everyone and eliminate all the paper they print and throw away. I was planning on bringing it all home with us but it was just too much. For some odd reason we met the Captain, his second in command, the Hotel Director, Event Directors, as well as the shops director ( we actually had the pleasure to chat with Matt in Aruba at one of our favorite stores). The main officers were hosting a Save the Turtles event and we make a donation just passing bye and ended up talking to them. I didn't complain about the smoke in the Casino. The night before last I had 6000+ Casino Points. I think I qualify for our next cruise. The Casino was very good to me this trip.

I mentioned the VOOM thing to them as Royal is big into the SaveTheSeas. I suspect the compass will be on the TV before they give away VOOM. Other than some rough seas the first two sea days, it was simply and awesome cruise. Got tons of island pictures. Best cruise ever!!! Sure beats the 3 and 4 day cruises.

I just returned from a cruise on Eurodam - there was never any mention of the survey by the dining room staff and only a very brief comment from the cruise director on the last night after the final show. Very nice.

I just returned from a cruise on Eurodam - there was never any mention of the survey by the dining room staff and only a very brief comment from the cruise director on the last night after the final show. Very nice.

What was the CDs pitch?

I just returned from the Freedom of the Seas on an eight night voyage. The first night my travel companions and I ate in the dining room, our server rudely interrupted our conversation to give her speech about her survey scores. In addition to the standard spiel, she informed us of the next night's menu and that we would not like it at all. She told us we should eat the Italian at Giovanni's as the primo ingredients are reserved for the specialty restaurants and therefore, the meals in the dining room were not good.

We did not eat there the next night as directed. The following evening, we were once again rudely interrupted and given the same speech. She told us that if we didn't give her perfect scores, she would be sent to the back corner of the dining room.

We were so shocked and appalled by her behavior, we felt we were forced out of the dining room. I have never had such rude service ever... On or off the ship.

Danielle