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

[Aquahound]

Sorry but I can't stand your attitude in this comment. The problem is that the way you approach a rating scale is completely different from how RCI does it.

 

If you knowingly hurt someone's job by marking them down for stuff like "didn't go the extra mile" then you're just a jerk on a power trip.

 

Wow! Pull the reigns back a little there. Who in the world said anything about "knowingly" hurting someone and feeling like a power trip? You've made quite a leap from me saying someone should be honest on their review. Let's not get ridiculous here. :rolleyes:

[Strophic]

I think you're being a bit unrealistic. The average passenger doesn't read CC and has no idea that RCI's scoring system, as described by some people here, is essentially pass/fail. In the real world, when marking on a 1-5 scale, 1 would be poor, 3 average and 5 exceptional (or similar terms). There's not a lot of sense in trying to convince CC members to rate an average server as a 5 when the vast majority of passengers, lacking your insight, would score a 3 or 4.

 

I'm not talking about the average passenger, I'm talking about the people in this thread who *know* the system is pass/fail but are still arguing that they will give lower marks for good/great but not exemplary service.

[Fouremco]

I'm not talking about the average passenger, I'm talking about the people in this thread who *know* the system is pass/fail but are still arguing that they will give lower marks for good/great but not exemplary service.

Even if it is a pass/fail system, and I'm not convinced that it is, an average server is going to get an average mark from most passengers, so the occasional 5 from CC members isn't going to make any difference.

 

I've not sailed RCI, with our first cruise scheduled for March, but I've had numerous discussions with Celebrity staff. According to them, higher marks are beneficial for a number of reason, from promotions to getting more time off at ports, but there was no "my life is ruined if you don't give me a 5" attitude.

Edited December 20, 2016 by Fouremco

[John&LaLa]

Has anyone actually done the survey in the last week or so? I have one on my to do list for a cruise that ended Sunday. I'll try and copy the exact wording of the questions as best as I can and report back. Oh, and the last one I did two weeks ago, was a 10 scale. No idea when 5 was used.

[Grand PooBah]

So I guess RC would rather have their head in the sand, merrilly believing that

the food is great, even when it isn't. Why the hell even bother with a survey. Just assume that it is awesome, and go on with your current level of

food quality.

[Jarmo]

Just did mine from Indy last week. Scale was 10. The 1-10 questions were pretty basic, the only 2 things I can think of that called for free text answers were asking about the shows/parties and the standard 'what/who was exceptional'.

 

Also, zero pressure from any staff to give 10s, just a couple of quick reminders to fill out the survey by the head waiter and one of the bartenders.

[apocalyps3]

I just did one yesterday and it was a 1-10 scale.

 

I've never heard of this idea of it being Pass/Fail (and I don't buy it), so I scored based on how I honestly feel about the level of service (mostly 9's).

 

It doesn't make any sense to me that anything less than a 10 is considered a failure. They must get thousands of these a week and most of them are not 10's. So do they assume they are failing across the board? Every single non-10 can't possible resort in a "bad thing".

[Strophic]

I just did one yesterday and it was a 1-10 scale.

 

I've never heard of this idea of it being Pass/Fail (and I don't buy it), so I scored based on how I honestly feel about the level of service (mostly 9's).

 

It doesn't make any sense to me that anything less than a 10 is considered a failure. They must get thousands of these a week and most of them are not 10's. So do they assume they are failing across the board? Every single non-10 can't possible resort in a "bad thing".

 

You'd be surprised. I used to work in a fast food restaurant that did surveys, and anything less than five stars counted against you. People think it couldn't possibly be that bad for the employees because it makes no sense. It does make no sense—but it still is that bad.

 

No matter how hard you try to reason with the powers that be about how some people just don't give out prefect ratings, they will tell you "your job is to deliver service that earns those five stars." And the sad thing is that for a lot of people it's literally impossible to be good enough, some individuals will not give a perfect rating under any circumstances.

Edited December 20, 2016 by Strophic

[davekathy]

Has anyone actually done the survey in the last week or so? I have one on my to do list for a cruise that ended Sunday. I'll try and copy the exact wording of the questions as best as I can and report back. Oh, and the last one I did two weeks ago, was a 10 scale. No idea when 5 was used.

 

Please do. I'm interested. Our last RCI Cruise was September of this year and with all the 5 scores being posted here by some I thought RCI has changed the rating scores. All the RCI surveys we've taken including the onboard spiels have a top rating of number 10. No where do I remember reading any verbiage on the survey saying anything less than a 10 is consider a failing score. Of course the only number you hear on board is "number 10". Funny thing when I was stationed in Vietnam and if a local said you are number 10 GI that was not a good thing.

[PerferWarmWeather]

Just finished a cruise and no survey. Not one crew member mentioned the survey on board. :confused:

[Aquahound]

Even if it is a pass/fail system, and I'm not convinced that it is, an average server is going to get an average mark from most passengers, so the occasional 5 from CC members isn't going to make any difference.

 

Not long ago, I did a galley tour on a RCI ship. Hanging on the wall was a ship-to-ship comparison of how the dining rooms were being rated by passengers across the fleet. One ship...I think it was Explorer...was, at the time, scoring the lowest in fleet. If the scale was 1-10, she was somewhere around 5 on the bar graph.

 

Now lets assume the alarmists on this thread are correct and people get fired, keel hauled or made to walk the plank for anything less than a 10, theoretically, Explorer shouldn't have been able to sail. Or at least if she was, there shouldn't have been anyone to man the dining room

Edited December 20, 2016 by Aquahound

[John&LaLa]

Just finished a cruise and no survey. Not one crew member mentioned the survey on board. :confused:

 

The survey gets emailed to you the morning you leave the ship and is valid for 7 days. they often send multiple reminders to fill it out.

 

Reminder to share your thoughts on your recent cruise experience with Royal Caribbean

 

Thank you for choosing Royal Caribbean for your recent cruise.

 

We are always looking for ways to improve the guest experience. Please share your feedback on your Royal Caribbean 9 Night Southern Caribbean Cruise sailing on December 9, 2016. This should take no more than 10 minutes to complete and will help us provide the best possible experience on future cruises.

[vacationlover_mn]

Other than witnessing some "typical" teen behavior while on Allure during what we expect was "Europe spring break", we only encountered on batch of very rude people. While on Adventure, 4 older folks, wearing Cruise Critic card holders were so rude/mean to me, that I almost cried (and I NEVER cry- I am not a crier). While they didn't "ruin our cruise", it definitely put a slight damper on the evening :(

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[ThirstyCruiser]

I did one last week, scale was 1-10.

I gave lots of 8s and 9s. Some 10s. Disembarkation got a 2.

 

I don't know its a pass / fail system. The only official doc on this is the survey itself, which is not presented as pass / fail.

 

If we all dish out 10s because "it hurts us less to give a 10 than it hurts them to get < 10", RCI sees all these perfect ratings, sees if it can reduce staff and training to save a little, still nothing but 10s, reduce a little more, still 10s. Then one day all the servers are wearing pointy paper hats and the only decision you'll have to make is whether you want fries with that or onion rings.

 

One waiter was 10 worthy on our cruise. I mentioned him by name to the Head Waiter. And later that week to the Officer of Hotel Operations when I ran into him and we were talking about stuff in general. Should have mentioned this survey business and the theory that it is pass/fail. That would be a great question to ask over the microphone at Captain's Corner.

[lucymorgan]

That would be a great question to ask over the microphone at Captain's Corner.

 

What a great idea! Let's all do that and get rid of this silly pressure to lie because we don't want to hurt the staff.

 

I think it is about time to express our distaste at the requests for 10s too. We had a waiter who tried hard but seemed to be pretty miserable and explained to us that he had been sick (not good dinner conversation!) and who also wanted a promotion so he wanted a 10. I wasn't really impressed with his attitude but could see that with good guidance he could have been helped to do well.

I didn't mention him at all in the survey because I didn't want to cause him harm.

Edited December 21, 2016 by lucymorgan

[brfan]

 

Not long ago, I did a galley tour on a RCI ship. Hanging on the wall was a ship-to-ship comparison of how the dining rooms were being rated by passengers across the fleet. One ship...I think it was Explorer...was, at the time, scoring the lowest in fleet. If the scale was 1-10, she was somewhere around 5 on the bar graph.

 

Now lets assume the alarmists on this thread are correct and people get fired, keel hauled or made to walk the plank for anything less than a 10, theoretically, Explorer shouldn't have been able to sail. Or at least if she was, there shouldn't have been anyone to man the dining room

 

Chances are all senior management on the hospitality side (eg Hotel Director, Food and Beverage Manager, etc.) were demoted or fired and replaced by people who were promoted from other ships that were better rated.

[apocalyps3]

Chances are all senior management on the hospitality side (eg Hotel Director, Food and Beverage Manager, etc.) were demoted or fired and replaced by people who were promoted from other ships that were better rated.

 

That may be the case, but it probably wasn't due to a single non-10 survey rating, which is exactly how it should work. If their average reviews over a certain length of time turned out to be poor, then they SHOULD be fired/replaced. To think they are making these firing decisions based on single pass/fail ratings though defies logic.

[John&LaLa]

Please do. I'm interested. Our last RCI Cruise was September of this year and with all the 5 scores being posted here by some I thought RCI has changed the rating scores. All the RCI surveys we've taken including the onboard spiels have a top rating of number 10. No where do I remember reading any verbiage on the survey saying anything less than a 10 is consider a failing score. Of course the only number you hear on board is "number 10". Funny thing when I was stationed in Vietnam and if a local said you are number 10 GI that was not a good thing.

 

I did the survey last night and here are some highlights. :o

 

Welcome to the Royal Caribbean Feedback Survey. Your opinion is extremely important to us and we'd love to hear feedback on your 9 Night Southern Caribbean Cruise aboard Navigator Of The Seas that sailed on December 9, 2016.

 

To begin with, there are only 2 questions on the MDR.

Thinking about your overall*dining and bar*experience, please rate each of the following:

1) Quality of food in*main dining room, 1-10 with 10 meaning very satisfied

2) Main dining room*service, also 1-10

 

I did a 6 on the food and a 9 on the service. I just could not give a 10, there are issues that need work, sorry.

 

Because I rated the food a 6, I got a follow up set of questions on the food at the end of the survey. ( I also got one on disembarking, which I rated a 2)

 

The follow up question was:

You provided unsatisfactory ratings for the following area(s), please select the areas where you would like to provide additional feedback (select all that apply).

 

Quality of food in main dining room

 

Departure/Leaving the ship

 

I would not like to provide feedback on any of them

 

Please indicate the aspect(s) where the quality of food in our main dining room can be improved (select all that apply).

 

Food Temperature

 

Menu Selection

 

Taste

 

Presentation

 

Special dietary needs

 

Other

 

I chose the first three :eek:

 

I'm pretty sure the survey is geared to new cruisers and is not very substantive. However, there was an entire page devoted to Christmas decorations. :confused:

[davekathy]

I did the survey last night and here are some highlights. :o ...

 

Thank you. So the grading range is from 1 to 10. Glad my memory hasn't completely failed me.

[sellwingri]

The 10 point scale is a survey called the Net Promotor Survey. 9s and 10s are positives, 7s and 8s are neutral and every other score is a fail. A calculation is then done based on percentages of each category to come up with the overall score. Obviously, the higher the percentage of positives, the better. (I used to administer and analyze surveys.).

 

I'm honest in my evaluations but in comments always state that asking for 10s on surveys is absolutely wrong. I strongly suggest that everyone else note this in the comments and maybe they'll get the message. Begging for good scores actually negates the results.

 

I cover my ears when the survey is brought up by the waiter and head waiter multiple times every cruise.

[John&LaLa]

The 10 point scale is a survey called the Net Promotor Survey. 9s and 10s are positives, 7s and 8s are neutral and every other score is a fail. A calculation is then done based on percentages of each category to come up with the overall score. Obviously, the higher the percentage of positives, the better. (I used to administer and analyze surveys.).

 

I'm honest in my evaluations but in comments always state that asking for 10s on surveys is absolutely wrong. I strongly suggest that everyone else note this in the comments and maybe they'll get the message. Begging for good scores actually negates the results.

 

I cover my ears when the survey is brought up by the waiter and head waiter multiple times every cruise.

 

That makes sense since the 6 for food and the 2 for departure showed up as a fail. However, I ranked C&A a 4, photo a 5 and check in a 6, but got no follow up on them like the other two.

Edited December 21, 2016 by John&LaLa

[Fouremco]

The 10 point scale is a survey called the Net Promotor Survey. 9s and 10s are positives, 7s and 8s are neutral and every other score is a fail. A calculation is then done based on percentages of each category to come up with the overall score. Obviously, the higher the percentage of positives, the better. (I used to administer and analyze surveys.).

Very interesting and quite an eye opener. I have to wonder how many people are aware of this scoring methodology. Maybe it stems from my school days, where a passing mark was 50%, but it just doesn't seem right that with the NPS, anything less than a 7 is deemed a failure.

 

If they are going to score in this manner, maybe they should include the information in the survey so that those completing it and those scoring it are talking a common language.

[John&LaLa]

Very interesting and quite an eye opener. I have to wonder how many people are aware of this scoring methodology. Maybe it stems from my school days, where a passing mark was 50%, but it just doesn't seem right that with the NPS, anything less than a 7 is deemed a failure.

 

If they are going to score in this manner, maybe they should include the information in the survey so that those completing it and those scoring it are talking a common language.

 

But according to the OP's waiter, and apparently many others, 9 is a failure. :eek:

[Fouremco]

But according to the OP's waiter, and apparently many others, 9 is a failure. :eek:

Well, maybe he was just trying to jack up his scores. Or else was just as clueless about the scoring system as I apparently am. :eek:

[molsonschooner]

Well, maybe he was just trying to jack up his scores. Or else was just as clueless about the scoring system as I apparently am. :eek:

 

It would not just be this one particular waiter trying to jack up his score but any waiter who hounds people about the survey