Bad Service In Dining Room

[luv4cruzan]

Has anyone experinced bad service from your waiters in the dining room? If so what did you do about it? We were so dissappointed we did not go the last couple of nights.Instead of puting up with bad service,we chose to eat at the buffet.

[pcur]

Always talk to the head waiter if there's a problem, after talking to your dining waiter. The head waiter's usually are very happy to please. If the head waiter doesn't take care of it, then I agree: go to the Windjammer and document the problem on your Comment Card at the end of the cruise.

 

However, I would think the head waiter would do the trick.

 

Sorry you had a bad experience.

[AFT_LOVER]

he is the boss of the waiters & should have been told of the bad service. Did you do this???

[luv4cruzan]

We did fill out the comment card at the end,and I'm pretty sure the waiters got the message when they did not recieve tips from us.

[pcur]

Next cruise, as soon as you know the server is not going to solve the problem, find the head waiter and tell him about your issue. You should NOT go a whole cruise and eat in the Windjammer if you don't want to!!!

 

Your head waiter would be really upset to know this happened to you.

[bplazo]

Just curious, what was the bad service?

[jrhale]

Has anyone experinced bad service from your waiters in the dining room? If so what did you do about it? We were so dissappointed we did not go the last couple of nights.Instead of puting up with bad service,we chose to eat at the buffet.

 

 

Can you give more information (what ship, dates, and the details on the poor service)?

[harrodsfan]

We had a very unfriendly waiter in the dining room once (years ago) on the old viking serenade. We talked to the head waiter who was wonderful. The next day our waiter was delightful. He apologized and said he had had some bad news from home the day before. (We then felt a bit bad.) He was fine the rest of the trip.

So do talk to the head waiter...and give your waiter the benefit of the doubt. It is had to be up and perky 24/7. Life happens.

[TrentS]

I would also like to know what you mean by bad service, but instead of just withholding tips and filling out the comment card, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL THE HEAD WAITER AND/OR MATRE'D WHAT THE PROBLEM WAS??? :confused:

[colette5479]

I would also like to know what you mean by bad service, but instead of just withholding tips and filling out the comment card, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL THE HEAD WAITER AND/OR MATRE'D WHAT THE PROBLEM WAS??? :confused:

 

Since this person is new to the boards, perhaps this was their first cruise and did not know what they should have done. And I believe the question you SHOUTED to the OP has already been asked....maybe you should give them some time to respond.;) :)

[Alexis]

Hi luv4cruzan, Is this the reason your service was bad?

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by luv4cruzan

They wouldn"t give my Brother-in-law 2 lobster tails:eek:

 

 

 

You just posted this on another thread that more or less asked about dining room experience.. Come back and give us a clue to what ship and when and why?

I am curious too.

Thanks

[TrentS]

Since this person is new to the boards, perhaps this was their first cruise and did not know what they should have done. And I believe the question you SHOUTED to the OP has already been asked....maybe you should give them some time to respond.;) :)

Well colette, common sense would dictate that if you have a problem with something and come on here to whine about it you explain what that problem is... And it doesn't matter if this was their first cruise or not - I'm sure they've been to a restaurant before! If you have a problem with a waiter you can't resolve yourself, you tell someone higher up the chain what that problem is so it can be rectified!

[nascarfans_wny]

We have been fortunate, and have never had what we considered less-than-adequate service from any of our waiters or assistant waiters. Maybe it is because we are always friendly and immediately appreciative of their pampering, but we always seem to get along famously with our servers. On our honeymoon, Kathy started the cruise without her voice (we had a nice "reserved" wedding reception the night before :cool:), and at our first meal she asked for tea with lemon and honey to finish it off (and maybe help her find her voice). Every meal for the rest of the cruise ended with our assistant waiter calling out "Honeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" from across the dining room as he delivered Kathy's tea and honey, without having ever been asked a second time.

[jplotts865]

Gee...this is very interesting. I have never experienced bad service in the dining room on any of the ships I've been on...on RCL they are, if anything, a bit over zealous in their efforts to please. The Head Waiter always stops at the table and asks if everything is okay and, per my experiences, it always has been. I've always left an RCL cruise raving about the food and service - however...it does help to keep it in perspective as they are feeding several thousand people at one time, work long days and still manage to do it with a smile - something I simply could not pull off. One is not going to get the same level of personal service on RCL that one might expect on, say, Silversea...you "get what you pay for" and I've been satisfied on RCL.

[colette5479]

Well colette, common sense would dictate that if you have a problem with something and come on here to whine about it you explain what that problem is... And it doesn't matter if this was their first cruise or not - I'm sure they've been to a restaurant before! If you have a problem with a waiter you can't resolve yourself, you tell someone higher up the chain what that problem is so it can be rectified!

 

Well, I can see where some people might not say anything because they don't want the hassles. At least they did fill out the comment card. I didn't find the cruise boards until after my first cruise and I might not have realized what to do, either. And I do have a little bit of common sense to boot

 

At least give the OP some time to respond to the questions other asked before we get all uptight:)

[justaknucklehead]

I would still have tipped the requested amount. I have never had a bad waiter. I didn't always have great ones, but never bad ones.

[CAT GIRL]

We had a problem with our asst. waiter having a terrible body odor

problem. I realize that there are cultural differences but it was

nausiating having this smell while being served food. It became

a topic of conversation with our dinnermates. I wanted to tell

the head waiter but wow, this is such a tender subject. As a manager,

I've had to deal with this situation before but it was my job then.

It's very awkward. I think I ended up putting a comment on my

comment card and I still tipped accordingly. What would you have

done? We literally had to hold our breath when he came around.

[BarbaraM]

On our Brilliance cruise this past June we received less than satisfactory service -- and since it was a 12 day cruise it was fairly obvious.

 

Both the assistant and head waiter were extremely personable. But our meal service was soooo sloww -- one night we didn't receive our appetizers for 30min after we had given our orders. We were right next to the kitchen door -- not too pleasant, but hardly a long walk for the waiters. We got our initial drink order, but after that the asst. waiter was no where to be found. I'm used to great service on RCL -- and will highlight just a couple examples of our service.

 

ON the second formal night, where lobster was served -- our salad and appetizers were 45 min in getting to our table. We got our entrees -- I got prime rib -- and asked for horseradish -- i was told 15 min later that none was on the ship. The people who had lobster started digging in -- by the time the asst waiter came with the butter -- 15 min later, they were finished. My hub waited, as its usually custom that the waiters pull off the shell. He asked for butter in the meantime, and the asst waiter said, your lobster is still in the shell, so you cannot have it now. We waited for the procedure to be performed, and lol, this took another 15 min. THen saw the asst waiter walk by, butter dish in hand, and had to ask again for the butter. THis was a joke of course, because after 30 min, the lobster was quite cold. oh, at the beginning of the meal, he accidentally put Sprite in the water glasses, and when we drew it to his attn, he said ' my misake" and never did come back with water for us.

 

The head waiter -- asst maitre d, or whatever was a joke. He showed up 4 times on our 12 night cruise, at the end of the meal, asking if we were rested for our big day the next day -- He not once asked about our service, never checked during meal times to see if the staff needed help. One person in our group asked for his steak to be well done, and was served a very rare piece of meat -- he would have said something had the wait staff shown up before taking dessert orders. When taking the plate away they asked if everything was OK, but 2 hours after showing up in the dining room , isnt the time to ask. On all of our previous cruises the waiter ALWAYS stopped to check while we were eating. Not everyone on a cruise is going to be a complainer or extremely verbal. They always seem to know this -- however on this cruise no one seemed to care.

 

Your initial question -- I guess was what did I do about it??

 

I paid the recommended tip and gave them a frank review on the comment card. I do not believe in "stiffing" the wait staff. If anyone had any idea of how little they are paid and how many hours they work, I don't think its an option. I go on vacation to avoid hassles, and its just not my style to run complaining every meal. It will however make me rethink cruising again on RCL. I don't expect restaurant quality food, but I have come to expect 5 star service, and I did not receive it on this trip.

[TaylorgoCruz]

...The head waiter -- asst maitre d, or whatever was a joke. ...

 

From our previous experience, we never found the head waiter and the maitre'd being very helpful except for fixing table arrangement problem on the first day. For the rest of the week, they rarely came by our table or smiled; with the exception on the very last night (Tips night), then they put up very large smiles on their face stopping at every tables to shake hands - they didn't do that on the first night. The waiters and the bus boys deserved big tips from us as they did good job serving us, but the head waiter and maitre'd don't deserve daily tips - JMHO; we always gave them the suggested tips anyway, but we gave the waiters and the bus boys more than the suggested tips because they were the ones who worked like ants most of the time.

 

Taylor and Jane

[Erie Dave]

I would still have tipped the requested amount. I have never had a bad waiter. I didn't always have great ones, but never bad ones.

 

Why would you tip the requested amount for bad service??? I guess you screen name says it all.

[TheBeachBears]

I guess I am justaknucklehead too because would always “tip” and the requested amount unless the service was horrid. These people make little or no money, they have unbelievable overhead just to get the job and many of them support families at home so that there children can have a hope of a better life. If they are having a bad day they deserve a break. Speak to the head waiter delicately or fill out a comment card. Then make your decision about not tipping.

[pcur]

In both cases: the ass't waiter with the body odor problem, and the waaaaaaay toooooooo slooooooow service, the head waiter should have been talked to, and more than once, if necessary.

 

There is NO reason to let these people not perform their jobs correctly. It sounds to me like the slow service is a major training problem, and the only way people know to improve is when they are given a reason to do so.

 

If bad service persisted, I'd nicely ask to be changed to a different waiter somewhere else in the dining room. But, we would give the prorated minimum tip to the original staff. Just moving tables sends a strong message without a confrontation. If asked, then we can tell them that we like to eat our dinner more quickly.

 

Discussing these problems doesn't have to be an unpleasant experience. I would look for the head waiter on the way in one night, since he is usually standing at the door as people come in. Or, I'd ask the waiter to have him stop by. That puts the waiter on alert to begin with.

 

Trust me: if you bring a problem up more than once, then the staff will begin to get a little nervous.

 

I also think Alexis might have pointed out something to us on this thread: this OP may not be back. He/she may have posted the thread orginally to see what kind of reaction there would be to the complaint, especially if he/she posted similarly on another thread.

[TheBeachBears]

In addition for all of those “Head Waiter Haters” I will tell you about Asif on the Voyager of the Sea. It was on m first cruise and he was our head waiter. We were going with a group that cruised before I remember distinctly on of our table mates leaning over to me and saying ”Asif more like As If we are ever going to see him again” I was in the WJ a couple days later and everyone had picked up lunch and I was saving the table, I was craving the taco bar only to find out it was empty in the rush, I was speaking with my table mates and Asif stopped and asked me why I was not eating I told him about the taco bar and that I would get up in a second and seek out something else. He said he would be back and to wait, in a couple minuets he was back with a large plate of taco shells and fixing’s for the table. My table mate’s jaws hit the floor.

 

So did he save a life or stop the ship from sinking, well no. But he did his job to the best of his ability and a little more. The Head Waiters deal with a lot of difficult people and since this seems to be the “glass ceiling” for all but the rarest of the darker members of the staff, I for one cut them a break.

[madforcruising]

Bad service in the Dining room? Wel I think it´s always a matter of expectations and personal point of view.

 

Well I´ve had lessthan excelent service in the dining room but not bad service. At least it´s how I look at it.

 

I´m a person that more tends to let it go than complaining about it. I know sometimes I should have complaint about things instead of just letting it go.

 

On my last cruise we had a wait team I would call somwhere around good to fair.

The assistant waiter was very new to his job and it seemd they didn´t work together as a team very good. I.E. they didn´t seem to have a clear conversation about who´s job is what. They both did all which confused their interaction sometimes. Main issue was the very slow service. We usually had soup when the table next to us got coffee and desert. We´ve always been the last ones to leave the DR.

Anyway it didn´t ruin or affected my cruise and great table mates made for a good conversation during the "breaks" between courses.

I could have complained about it, and maybe it would have been the right way, I choose not to let it spoil my Dining experience.

The last two nights our waiter called in sick with bacl problems and rumour was that she had to leave the ship on debarkation day to get medical treatment. So who knows, possibly she had these problems already before and that was the reason for slowing her down in addition to having to deal with a newby in the job as assistant. You never know. These are failable humans too.

 

BTW I tipped her the recommended amount but not over it. I also tipped the waiter that replaced her for the last two nights (only the amount for the two nights he served us) but he seemed very surprised about receiving something. I think he deserved a tip even if it was only for two nights.

[lszu]

The only instance of bad dining room service was our assistant waiter on the Voyager. Not only was he rude to the passengers, he was snippy with the waiter - not just once, but continually. After two nights of this we did complain to both the waiter and the maitre d' and the following night had a new assistant waiter (he was training to be an assistant waiter) who was fabulous! We had the substitue assistant waiter for the next four nights. On the last night (a.k.a. tip night) the first assistant waiter was back. We split our assistant waiter tip with the original and the sub (the sub got more $).

 

We also ran into him working at Johnny Rockets and tipped him for his service there.