The pressure to provide "excellent" service

[KashasMom]

Sadly, you'll get the same excellent speech on other cruise lines. At least in our experience. But yes, they won't be the entertainers that DCL servers are (magic tricks, brain teasers, etc).

We have not had this on our recent NCL or RCI cruises....only DCL.

 

[Douvres Family]

I've never experienced as if they had to perform like circus clowns or degrade themselves entertaining us in order to get a good gratuity or review. I've been lucky, my first cruise they were just all so wonderful and thoughtful and on my second and third my servers in the MDR were the same...the head server became part of the family. On the third cruise we requested for her and brought a gift from NYC for her and her husband (who also worked at DCL).

But after reading this, I'm scared to go on my next cruise...I don't want that awkward uncomfortable feeling and if I see them acting as if they had to degrade themselves to get a good tip, I will definitely put a stop to that...straight out. DH worked in the restaurant business when he was younger and DS summer job is as a server in a restaurant...they put up with enough from guests without having to humiliate themselves.

I wonder...do CM feel they have to go above and beyond because they don't feel appreciated by the guests present?

 

[KashasMom]

I'm so sad for the servers who are unfairly treated by Disney if they don't receive an "excellent" rating. This has gone on for years; some day when I get to be in charge of DCL that will be one of the very first things I change. So wrong to treat your employees that way.

But, it is what it is, and I understand their need to let us know how important that rating is to their jobs. We always react gently, and let them know we understand and to not worry. I've read of one poster here who threatened to reduce their rating or their tip if them mentioned "excellent" again. Now that's pretty rude.

These wonderful, hardworking folks have a system that puts them in an uncomfortable position. We need to understand, sympathize, and guess what...they will appreciate the kindness and you will get it back in spades during your cruise.

Absolutely not rude! Why should I have to listen to a speech FIVE of 6 nights in the dining room? None of us are getting a free cruise! We are paying for it. We should be enjoying the experience not held hostage at dinner by some stupid speech! It's annoying and disrupts my time with my family! And the worst part...the service was no where NEAR excellent and neither was the food!

 

[ffw]

This is sad to hear so many complaints of these tense, uncomfortable situations. Given I've only been on two Disney cruises (4 night on Magic and 7 on Fantasy), I'd only experienced this when I'd changed servers on our 7 night. Our initial servers were incredibly rude and bitter about their jobs and had absolutely no reservations about expressing it to us in their behavior / attitude. By the third day, we'd had enough and complained to guest services. I'd swapped tables and we had a great new set of servers. The only issue was, the new servers were incessant about asking if we were pleased with our service-- they knew where we came from and were SO nervous about us. By the second night of this (night 4 of 7), I had to stop the main server and literally sit him down to say "Hey. Stop worrying about us. The last server made it clear he did not want to be here. We pardoned ourselves from his company. You have not given us any inclination that you do not love your job. We are okay. I promise we will tell you if there is a problem. Just.. stop." After that, no more asking and I offered a full "10" for that set of servers at the end of my cruise.. Why? Because they earned it. I didn't flag them or lower their rating for being scared about their jobs. God knows I've worked enough in customer service to empathize with that fear. People can be HORRIBLE. I did not focus on their concern-- I rather focused on their service. Were they attentive? Did they meet our needs? Did they give us the impression they wanted to be there? Yes? 10.

I find it sad that most servers replicate the behavior of abused animals; they are SO nervous about getting fired they practically jump at their own shadow! Now I understand that some of these servers understand they've done a less-than-excellent job and need to kiss tail to try and fix the situation, but most of these people are under tremendous pressure to be perfect (there is no such thing as perfect.) It doesn't mean we have to just hand it to them out of sympathy, but it wasn't the servers who setup the rating system-- admin did. So refuse to rate; write all over the card, addressing it to admin, instead. Write letters of complaint regarding how unfair the rating system is, how the system is deflating all of the fun out of the cruise for you, AND for their employees. I'd like to believe the idea of power in numbers is real, and if they hear from enough of us, they'll back off of it.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

We have not had this on our recent NCL or RCI cruises....only DCL.

Yeah. B2B on NCL Escape in May. Not one single excellent speech. Not 1. In 2 weeks on 2 cruises.

 

[85glht]

Just returned from a 3 night cruise on the Dream. Nothing was mentioned about "excellent" service. Just emphasized that the survey was very important. We did get a magic trick after every meal. The team did a great job and we left happy and content. It is obvious that it depends on who you get as servers on a cruise.

 

[Flossbolna]

I understand that dinner in Cabanas does have a salad bar. Is that not correct?

We've had "I hope my service was excellent" thrown at us in Palo, also. Not specifically mentioning the comment card, but nevertheless......

I've always been confused by this. I've seen mention here of the Cabanas salad bar at dinner numerous times.....all the times I went to Cabanas dinner over the years, I've never seen it. ???

Yeah, I've had the excellent comment or 2 at Palo but never a full speech. Ugh. To escape that dreaded "e".

We had a salad bar at Beach Blanket Buffet on the Wonder in 2013. No salad bar at Cabanas on the Magic in 2015. Never had dinner at Cabanas on the Fantasy.

The salad bar was not big, I would say similar to what I seem to remember from lunch at Cabanas on the Fantasy. But it was a nice change!

 

[Judyat]

We also got excellent service and a magic trick or puzzle with crayons at the end of our dinners. They were fun. The only thing mentioned was "please let us know if there's anything we can do better." The three couples at our table always agreed they were doing a fanatic job. And they were.