'O Sole Mio

[richard1s]

One of our fondest and favorite memories from our many Royal Caribbean cruises, which for us started decades ago, was "Italian Night" in the MDR; as I recall it was on Wednesday night. The MDR staff would walk thru the room waving napkins and singing a beautiful rendition of the great Italian song - 'O Solo Mio. Is that tradition still around or has it unfortunately gone by the wayside in favor of other "efficiency" considerations? 

[Clarea]

You may still see it on some ships, but I see it less and less.

[Havin'fun]

On Allure this past October the Matre' de was doing this.  He had a wonderful voice!

[CntPAcruiser]

They still did this on Adventure in January 2019.

[voyager70]

I may be in the minority but I wish they would do away with the wait staff singing and parading all together.  I find it very degrading and uncomfortable.

 

[time4u2go]

2 minutes ago, voyager70 said:

I may be in the minority but I wish they would do away with the wait staff singing and parading all together.  I find it very degrading and uncomfortable.

 

I agree.  Also, they work hard enough as it is without having to do this.

Edited March 16, 2019 by time4u2go

[time4u2go]

On 3/15/2019 at 3:39 PM, richard1s said:

One of our fondest and favorite memories from our many Royal Caribbean cruises, which for us started decades ago, was "Italian Night" in the MDR; as I recall it was on Wednesday night. The MDR staff would walk thru the room waving napkins and singing a beautiful rendition of the great Italian song - 'O Solo Mio. Is that tradition still around or has it unfortunately gone by the wayside in favor of other "efficiency" considerations? 

When I saw this, I thought of Chef Mickey's at Disney World.  They do a dance every so often and everyone is encouraged to wave their napkins around, flinging food particles and whatever else they've wiped off of their mouths at everyone around them.

[sergeant655]

Navigator had it before the dry dock not sure if they still do it as she will do mostly short cruises now

[Germancruiser]

Well I found it to be a nice touch! Liked that very much! The waiters seems to have liked it, too, they can´t have been all extremly good actors...!

What I don´t need is the captain playing waterball in the pool along with his senior officers with the passengers. THAT is no is job- therefore they have the Entertainment staff! That might be a little contradictory, waiters - yes- captain - no- but thats just opinion!

[Paulxyz2004]

I haven´t seen it in a while but then this could be due to the fact I´m mostly in MTD now and usually come in past the time it would have happened for first seating and I´m gone before it would happen for second seating.

 

1 hour ago, Germancruiser said:

Well I found it to be a nice touch! Liked that very much! The waiters seems to have liked it, too, they can´t have been all extremly good actors...!

What I don´t need is the captain playing waterball in the pool along with his senior officers with the passengers. THAT is no is job- therefore they have the Entertainment staff! That might be a little contradictory, waiters - yes- captain - no- but thats just opinion!

 

My Experience is a different one in regards to the waiters. Yes they are good at making it look like if they have fun. Not surprising I think as they are forced into it By their bosses and if they´d not perform to their liking they could face negative effects from them. Over the years I´ve seen many waiters trying to get out of participating. Many also acted embarassed and apologetic About Service being interrupted By this. 

The same you say About the Captain and Senior officers goes for the waitstaff. It is not their Job and therefore they have Entertainment staff. The difference is the waiters work is interrupted By this and they Need to run faster Prior and after this to get Service completed, but they have no choice.

The Captain and officers however most likely do this because they have fun doing it. They certainly have a choice and not every Captain does it. For them it´s voluntairily and probably done in their spare time not pushing more workload into their shifts.

It´s also just an opinion but I feel more for the waitteam than the Captain and officers.