Service = Gratuities

[CoupleUK]

Someone asked if I expected bar wait staff to be my own personal server (or words to that effect).

 

Well, more or less I do !!

 

Not personal to me, but personal to a group of tables with people sitting down on a cruise ship enjoying what cruising has always been promoted to be.

 

I can't remember when they started showing promotional adverts with long queues of people standing in line to buy a drink?

 

When did they last do a video which showed several tables of guests, all with empty glasses and all trying to spot the lone wait staff?

 

I really want the cruising experience we enjoyed 5 years or so ago - if they don't want to provide it, what am I paying the gratuity for?

[Paulette3028]

Re the Guest Survey

 

On my last few cruises, we have never had the same wait staff for more than one night; quite often we don't get the same wait staff for more than one food course.

 

Dining staff are now just nicely dressed fast food waiters - I wonder how long before the roller boots are added.

 

So, how do I mark a specific server with a 10 - when I have had a bunch of different ones?

 

Is someone seriously telling me that with all these staff rushing around like headless chickens, Royal kept records on who served me?

 

So, forget any notion about the results of a Survey influencing job promotion prospects.

 

Perhaps an overall score of 8/10 across all guests might give ALL wait staff their full wage but certainly not on an employee by employee basis.

 

I can understand if you do MTD that you do not have the same wait staff for dinner, but if you have a set table in the MDR for either Early Traditional or Late Dinner service, you would have the same wait team.

 

They all have shifts that they cover across a week in the MDR for breakfast or lunch service, which does vary day by day. Specialty restaurants are different as well.

[Paul65]

Someone asked if I expected bar wait staff to be my own personal server (or words to that effect).

 

Well, more or less I do !!

 

Not personal to me, but personal to a group of tables with people sitting down on a cruise ship enjoying what cruising has always been promoted to be.

 

I can't remember when they started showing promotional adverts with long queues of people standing in line to buy a drink?

 

When did they last do a video which showed several tables of guests, all with empty glasses and all trying to spot the lone wait staff?

 

I really want the cruising experience we enjoyed 5 years or so ago - if they don't want to provide it, what am I paying the gratuity for?

 

I'll repeat more or less what I said before - if you don't like the product, don't buy it. Choose another vacation type or different cruise line. I have never experienced a "long queue of people standing in line to buy a drink" on Royal Caribbean, but if you have and feel that's now common, and you don't like it, stop doing business with them. I don't keep going back to hotels or restaurants or resorts that I don't like.

 

I mean, I guess you could keep doing it, being unhappy about it, and retaliating against the employees by not giving them any gratuities, if that's how you like to spend you vacations.

Edited May 3, 2016 by Paul65

[Rala]

Re the Guest Survey

 

On my last few cruises, we have never had the same wait staff for more than one night; quite often we don't get the same wait staff for more than one food course.

 

Dining staff are now just nicely dressed fast food waiters - I wonder how long before the roller boots are added.

 

So, how do I mark a specific server with a 10 - when I have had a bunch of different ones?

 

Is someone seriously telling me that with all these staff rushing around like headless chickens, Royal kept records on who served me?

 

So, forget any notion about the results of a Survey influencing job promotion prospects.

 

Perhaps an overall score of 8/10 across all guests might give ALL wait staff their full wage but certainly not on an employee by employee basis.

 

I think that cruising is just not the vacation for you. I would suggest that you pick a city (or country), stay in a hotel or B&B, and just do what you want to do and pay what you want to pay.