Has Celebrity cut back on wait staff?

[The_Big_M]

Would that mean 40% reduction in staff? There hasn't been an increase in passengers being served to increase the load...?

 

I wouldn't expect it to mean a 40% reduction in staff. Likely some have been redeployed to other dining rooms, and probably a small head count reduction.

 

There has been an increase as well in passengers though. In 2008, there was only the M (and older) class. Since then the M class have been refurbished, which involved all of them getting another ~200 passengers.

[techwatcher]

The place I noticed it most was in the MDR. There were no bar servers and the asst. waiter took your drink order. After 2 poor Martinis we just brought our drinks from the Martini Bar in with us. I did complain to the HD Dan Simon about this but he came off cocky and unconcerned. Other than this the cruise was wonderful and I will just work around cocktails in the MDR in the future.

 

Removing the bar servers from the MDR will certainly impact our experience; I drink a lot of soda (5-6 cans over dinner isn't unusual) and normally establish a good relationship with the bar server to keep me topped up, which normally ends with an extra tip. Can't see this working too well with the new system.

 

Celebrity is changing and I'm not sure I like this and other changes (we like trivia, which also seems to have been changed). We have enjoyed our cruises with Celebrity and are on Eclipse in a few weeks. We will assess whether the changes work for us and if not may choose to move on.

[4774Papa]

This subject has been beaten to death on many earlier posts.

[Bruceandmaree]

This subject has been beaten to death on many earlier posts.

 

OK perhaps it has. However, we were on Solstice in 2012 and 2013 and may have some new insights.

 

On the first cruise (Mediterranean) Cafe Al Bacio was apparently unloved - free tables were plentiful. Second time ex Sydney it was packed and the staff were a little grumpy trying to meet the demand.

 

The only difference we could attribute to this change in popularity was the introduction of the 123Go promotion.

 

We are doing a B2B on Silhouette next month and anticipate Cafe Al Bacio to be busy. We have the drinks package.

[cle-guy]

There has been an increase as well in passengers though. In 2008, there was only the M (and older) class. Since then the M class have been refurbished, which involved all of them getting another ~200 passengers.

 

Ahh, now this I HAD forgotten about, the addition of the upper deck Aqua Cabins.

 

Were others added in addition to the Aqua cabins or was it all those new ones on the top deck?

[Gunnerpup]

This subject has been beaten to death on many earlier posts.

 

Regrets if this is a rehash however I find the forum search impossible and it brings up way too many irrelevant matches..or threads from 2001. I gave up and started one anew! ;)

 

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Forums mobile app

Edited August 16, 2014 by Gunnerpup

[The_Big_M]

Ahh, now this I HAD forgotten about, the addition of the upper deck Aqua Cabins.

 

Were others added in addition to the Aqua cabins or was it all those new ones on the top deck?

 

New insides were added on that deck as well.

 

Also, oceanviews were added, replacing the cinema and meeting rooms.

[May B]

Regrets if this is a rehash however I find the forum search impossible and it brings up way too many irrelevant matches..or threads from 2001. I gave up and started one anew! ;)

 

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Forums mobile app

 

You see that we're all reading and responding, so I guess it's not quite been "beaten to death" on many earlier posts (Papa4774, did you mean on many earlier threads?).

 

Plus, I am with CLE-guy! I keep saying the M class ships have c. 2000 guests, but I too never added in the extra cabins. Thx for the reminder, The_Big_M. Gotta love CC.com. Home of friendly and helpful fellow cruisers.

[beentothere]

There's quite a bit of insight to this question in this thread: Reduced Staffing - a myth?

 

A lot of analysis as to the relation to published financials and staff count etc. involved.

 

I'm on the side of perhaps some, but very little. More likely staff has been reallocated.

 

I've ordered drinks from roving staff in Martini and Pool as recent as my May bermuda sailing, sometimes I still go get myself. I think a lot has to do with timing and how busy they are etc. I also am a firm believer in the theory of "the law of diminishing returns" that the more we have access to something, the more we don't really get so excited about it over time and it loses its newness and luster, i.e. we feel they are less and less as our expectation is for more and more.

 

I feel if staffing was reduced, those empty cabins would have been converted to revenue generating cabins by now. I also feel cost savings be losing wait staff is so insignificant versus other cost saving methods (the vast majority of their expense is made up by our automatic gratuities and not from the company bank account) it wouldn't really be the place to look to cut costs.

 

In MDR bar drink order taking staff is noticeably missing (your waiter can still order for you though), I attribute that to more people dining in alternate venues, and having far more empty seats each night than in the past. Also attribute it more to wanting to push sales of Wine thus the Somolliers still are there. I also strongly del X will move in the next year or 2 to no assigned times, bout full select dinning, as the Suite Dining will take over some portion of the upper ding room, likely from the select dinners. So I feel like they are gearing staff up to wait tables more like traditional waiters, offering full table service from a single person, rather than a barrage of 3 or 4 staff assisting the tables each with individual tasks to perform.

 

get a life

get an app

take a cruise

 

restaurants are implementing apps to order on your appleseed so that when you arrive, your table is waiting and so is your order. fresh and hot

 

the value of this is massive in terms of quality of service, efficiency and reduction in cost

 

the order rate ...those poor wanderers is so low they barely make any tips.

they walk they walk and must be 90% do not order where the % was likely

much higher in times past.

 

having worked in strategy for a number of restaurant chains, from a to z,

arby's thru zaberer's, in my humble opinion, it is celebrity that does not get it as well as all these other misguided visions.

[cle-guy]

get a life

get an app

take a cruise

 

restaurants are implementing apps to order on your appleseed so that when you arrive, your table is waiting and so is your order. fresh and hot

 

the value of this is massive in terms of quality of service, efficiency and reduction in cost

 

the order rate ...those poor wanderers is so low they barely make any tips.

they walk they walk and must be 90% do not order where the % was likely

much higher in times past.

 

having worked in strategy for a number of restaurant chains, from a to z,

arby's thru zaberer's, in my humble opinion, it is celebrity that does not get it as well as all these other misguided visions.

 

Get a life

Not really sure what that means... :confused:

 

Get an app

X can't even manage a website, don't see any useful on-board apps coming soon. :eek:

 

Take a cruise

14 days to the next one, and about 100 till the one after that :)

 

all these other misguided visions.

To add credibility to my theory that wait staff is in process of retraining to move to full select dining and single waiter table service than group service, this thread was just started this week in Royal Caribbean's threads:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2086558

 

Looks like RCI isn't waiting for Quantum to institute dynamic dining as a policy moving away from set seatings, sounds like it's coming soon, and fleet wide, at least to RCI. And as X and RCI have aligned many of their systems, programs and policies over the last 2 years, I imagine it's not far off from X. Certainly likely once M class ships lose their select dining areas on the upper MDR deck when Suite dining comes in April 2015.