That's what I've been told as well. The explanation was that in addition to what you said, the server was responsible for recommending the food, and for noticing if you weren't happy with what you got.
I found this to be a real problem, especially since the servers put so much emphasis on their ratings. I felt that the food was in most cases NOT excellent. In particular, the presentation of the food was stretched and exceeded the quality. It was as if upper management said "We want the food to look like the best of what you see on the Food Network" but was only willing to buy second-grade ingredients and considered it the crew's problem to somehow make it work. It's almost offensive that the system is set up so that it's considered the server's job to just make this all work and the only way to express other than an "excellent" rating for the food is to have it reflect negatively on the server.
Having said that, I was a bit put off by the "hard sell" by the server the first time for the excellent ratings. I noticed that the last question on the comment card was something like "Did anyone pressure you to give only excellent ratings?" I answered Yes to this question. On my second sailing, not only was there no heavy pressure from the servers, they didn't even mention the comment card to us at all.
I've done two 7-night sailings on the Fantasy. I can say from experience that it does seem very crowded the first couple of nights, with busy hallways and waits for the elevators. But for some reason, things calm down after that. It's kind of odd, since when not in port there are exactly the same number of guests on board, and the shows and dinner seatings are at exactly the same time each night, but things do calm down and it's not really an issue. Maybe enough people find alternate routes after a couple of days such that everyone is not trying to use the main elevator bank and atrium at the same time.
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