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Is it me or does staff seem miserable on Royal Caribbean?

kimstoess

By kimstoess,
in Royal Caribbean International

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vacationlover_mn Great Review Rare

vacationlover_mn

Posted
Posted

Overall, I’d say we’ve had 1% rude,  99% great 🙂. The very rudest was a few cruises ago...  he was our drink waiter in the MDR.  We did our normal thing- tip him $5 the first night (we had the drink pkg), and $1 per drink after that.  However... he was grumpy and rude, and rarely came to our table- and he only came because we flagged him down.  And, he would often avoid looking our way, and some nights he would never come to our table.  This is when we started our habit of grabbing a wine at the bar, prior to dinner 🙂. Note, we weren’t trying to get like 5 drinks each every night- I wanted just one glass of wine, and the DH wanted 2.  And, seriously, we are nice people!  We were not mean to him, or yell at him or anything. 

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Ocean Boy

Ocean Boy

Posted
Posted
19 hours ago, Ashland said:

No I've never noticed this at all...just the opposite...I feel at times like I'm running down a gauntlet of "Happy, smiling faces  and responding to everyone's hello's" just to walk down the ships corridor's to get to my cabin. 

I tend to agree with you. I sometimes get concerned that I get preoccupied thinking about something and I fail to either initiate or return a greeting when passing someone walking down the passageway. I find that if I demonstrate some friendliness at the beginning of the week the staff remembers and returns it all week long.

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grapau27

grapau27

Posted
Posted (edited)
35 minutes ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

Really? 🤔

Interesting!

I for sure would not want to tell all of that to clients! 🙄😱

 

35 minutes ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

Really? 🤔

Interesting!

I for sure would not want to tell all of that to clients! 🙄😱

I think our friendly demeanour encourages people to talk about themselves to us.

Edited by grapau27
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DustFSU

DustFSU

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Im sure they get home sick and they do work long hours.  If they seem a little try to do something nice for them.  Either slip them some cash so they can send more money home, or ask their coworkers if they know if there is something and buy them a little gift.  If you have followed Chris's post that works for RCCL he mentions that in his post.  All those crew members work hard and it is always a quick turn around for them every week.

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Saman

Saman

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On Seranade in may most of the staff we were in contact with were very friendly , our steward and all around our cabin were very pleasant and helpfull , restaurant staff if anything were abit over talkative for me , if i did find anyone that could of been more pleasant it was the bar staff , and we were paying for drink no package!!!

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dplusd

dplusd

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I am always amazed at how the staff maintains such a positive and friendly spirit.  I know they work hard, long hours with no days off for months at a time.  Turnaround day amazes me the most because I know how hard they have worked to get the ship ready for new cruisers.  We always treat them with respect and a smile and gladly tip them extra when given any reason to do so.  We've sailed Celebrity and Princess and have found they too have great service staff.  

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BND

BND

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After 28 cruises, we have yet to meet a "miserable" crew member.  Some don't smile and say hello all the time, but most do.  I just find it so weird that someone would even start this thread based purely on assuming something.

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ryguy2008

ryguy2008

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I wouldn't say that I've ever met a miserable crew member. However, the main dining room staff on Symphony (MTD) were clearly under a ton of pressure to perform. I had multiple waiters on my August sailing explicitly ask for 5-star review. One even went as far as telling me that his rating is different from how I liked the food.

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BirdTravels "Live from...." Rare

BirdTravels

Posted
Posted
On 9/27/2019 at 12:05 PM, kimstoess said:

I’ve been on a lot of cruises on 6 different cruise lines. Is it just me or does the royal Caribbean staff seem very unhappy. Don’t get me wrong we have encounter some friendly staff but over half of the workers never smile and they seem inconvenienced when you ask for items. Even the kids club staff acted like they hate children. I’ve never experienced this on other cruise lines but it seems like royal Caribbean it’s every cruise.

We agree. We cruise on multiple lines and find the Royal crew the most unhappy and unwelcoming. And we have seen it on every Royal cruise over the past couple of years. Just an observation. 

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Oceansaway17 Holiday Sharing Rare

Oceansaway17

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, BND said:

After 28 cruises, we have yet to meet a "miserable" crew member.  Some don't smile and say hello all the time, but most do.  I just find it so weird that someone would even start this thread based purely on assuming something.

 

 

Yes yes yes I agree.

It was a general statement at best and considering how many ships RCI has and the various locations, I think the crew do a good job. And the best are the Room Stewards.  

Try living away from home for 9 months (crew not officers) and see if you have a 100% sunny day personality.

Perhaps someone did not feel good or perhaps upper management is the issue behind the scenes.  

 

I have noticed even at Disney World not all is magical and happy for everyone. People are people and they might have things are their minds or are trying to catch up on something.

Then again the Op might give off a vibe that a crew member might think "I will steer clear of that person"

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grapau27

grapau27

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, Oceansaway17 said:

 

 

Yes yes yes I agree.

It was a general statement at best and considering how many ships RCI has and the various locations, I think the crew do a good job. And the best are the Room Stewards.  

Try living away from home for 9 months (crew not officers) and see if you have a 100% sunny day personality.

Perhaps someone did not feel good or perhaps upper management is the issue behind the scenes.  

 

I have noticed even at Disney World not all is magical and happy for everyone. People are people and they might have things are their minds or are trying to catch up on something.

Then again the Op might give off a vibe that a crew member might think "I will steer clear of that person"

Good reply.

None of us can be happy all the time and it is difficult when customers are rude and arrogant but I have always found cruise crew to be professional and well mannered to us when they might have worries of their own to deal with.

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boscobeans

boscobeans

Posted
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In 20 years of cruising on X and Royal we have found a few staff members who did their best and managed to put on a smile and happy face even though they were obviously stressed and overworked.  

 

Only once did we find one who was a chronic complainer. 

 

He was our room steward on the Grandeur about 10 or so years ago. Always complaining while doing the bare minimum taking care of our room.

 

One out of about 26 or so cruises isn't bad at all...  

 

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Mikew0805

Mikew0805

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Posted
On 9/27/2019 at 2:52 PM, travelplus said:

How unfair!

I don't think so. I don't know what business you work in, but it seems to me that most employers constantly add more work without adding more employees. Seems normal for me. In this case, I would think that might result in more gratuities as well.. who knows?

 

As far as grumpy crew members.. well they are human first. We all get grumpy from time to time, but I have not noticed a trend with grumpy RCI employees.

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mcatmcat Great Review Rare

mcatmcat

Posted
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They don’t seem miserable but extremely tired. I was on the navigator a few weeks ago and they just try to avoid eye contact they are so busy and focusing on what they have to accomplish that they forget about the passengers. I was in a suite so I was able to do lunch at the Italian restaurant. There was a lady with a white shirt ( she wasn’t a waiter ) and that lady never looked up the whole time while she was in the computer by the entrance, not even to say HI 

I know she might be busy but wow Just a simple fake smile will Donat least once. 

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mr walker Holiday Sharing Rare

mr walker

Posted
Posted
On 9/29/2019 at 7:22 AM, BND said:

After 28 cruises, we have yet to meet a "miserable" crew member.  Some don't smile and say hello all the time, but most do.  

Not quite 28 for us, but agree, we have never met a miserable crew member, but have met many, many miserable passengers, some who treat crew as servants. I think some post here on cc 🙂 

We are always pleasant to the crew we encounter and find this reciprocated. Whilst we are never looking for bff in the crew, on some longer cruises we have met crew who we have remained in contact with for years.

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