Mickey of the Villages
Can't have nice things
- Joined
- May 6, 2019
I want to vent for a minute about the begging and bullying from servers in the MDRs for excellent ratings on the end of cruise survey/comment card. You know, at dinner the servers campaign for you to give them an excellent rating by constantly asking if everything is "excellent." Of course on the last couple of nights on the cruise the servers become very direct about getting an excellent rating on the comment card.
My wife and I have been fortunate enough to cruise with DCL many times. The grade-grubbing from the servers is consistently the single biggest service fail on our cruises. Maybe it just hits us differently than others but we are so frustrated by it that we often don't eat in the MDRs. We get a couple of reservations at Palo and then eat room service or up on deck the other nights. For us, it's problem solved - we just remove ourselves from the part of the cruise we hate.
We have a cruise on the Wish booked for September. I would like to try out the MDRs on this ship since I've never seen them before. But, I don't want to hear about excellent ratings. My first night at dinner when the servers bring up the excellent spiel I plan on telling them as politely as I can that I don't want them to bring up the survey/comment card again. If they do, we'll leave. It is so tedious to me to hear this over-and-over again. I know Disney is aware of this problem and does nothing about it because for many of our cruises the survey/comment card includes a question asking if you were pressured by your server to provide an excellent score.
And for what it's worth, my wife and I always rate the service as excellent (though it rarely is) and always tip more than the recommended amount and/or bring gifts for our servers. This post isn't about whether the service is excellent and it is not about tipping. It's about the pressure campaign that servers run to get an excellent score. The blame for this has to be placed at Disney's feet. What, they can operate a 341m-long, 144,000t cruise ship with 1,250 guest staterooms to accommodate up to 4,000 guests but they can't figure out a way to ACTUALLY provide excellent service instead of making their servers gaslight their customers?
In my opinion far too much responsibility for one's MDR experience is placed on the server. It is our understanding that any complaint about MDR food is directed at the server. If a server believes someone is not enjoying themselves they are supposed to bring other dishes or more desserts so that the diner gets something they like. I mean, it's all Hyatt-catering coming out of the same industrial kitchens on the ship - I'm certain cooking on the ships outside of the upcharge restaurants is a soulless affair. I don't think there's anything the servers can do about the quality or type of food so what they're left with is to increase the quantity. Dumb.
I understand that others may think the service on the ships is excellent. I won't argue with them; I think this a matter of personal preference. In my experience the service is not excellent but not because of the servers. They are trying to feed hundreds of people at a time in a tightly packed catering hall setting and at times performing or dancing too. What does one expect? My issue is not with the service itself - it's with the system in which begging for excellent scores is required for the servers to feel safe in their position.
My wife and I have been fortunate enough to cruise with DCL many times. The grade-grubbing from the servers is consistently the single biggest service fail on our cruises. Maybe it just hits us differently than others but we are so frustrated by it that we often don't eat in the MDRs. We get a couple of reservations at Palo and then eat room service or up on deck the other nights. For us, it's problem solved - we just remove ourselves from the part of the cruise we hate.
We have a cruise on the Wish booked for September. I would like to try out the MDRs on this ship since I've never seen them before. But, I don't want to hear about excellent ratings. My first night at dinner when the servers bring up the excellent spiel I plan on telling them as politely as I can that I don't want them to bring up the survey/comment card again. If they do, we'll leave. It is so tedious to me to hear this over-and-over again. I know Disney is aware of this problem and does nothing about it because for many of our cruises the survey/comment card includes a question asking if you were pressured by your server to provide an excellent score.
And for what it's worth, my wife and I always rate the service as excellent (though it rarely is) and always tip more than the recommended amount and/or bring gifts for our servers. This post isn't about whether the service is excellent and it is not about tipping. It's about the pressure campaign that servers run to get an excellent score. The blame for this has to be placed at Disney's feet. What, they can operate a 341m-long, 144,000t cruise ship with 1,250 guest staterooms to accommodate up to 4,000 guests but they can't figure out a way to ACTUALLY provide excellent service instead of making their servers gaslight their customers?
In my opinion far too much responsibility for one's MDR experience is placed on the server. It is our understanding that any complaint about MDR food is directed at the server. If a server believes someone is not enjoying themselves they are supposed to bring other dishes or more desserts so that the diner gets something they like. I mean, it's all Hyatt-catering coming out of the same industrial kitchens on the ship - I'm certain cooking on the ships outside of the upcharge restaurants is a soulless affair. I don't think there's anything the servers can do about the quality or type of food so what they're left with is to increase the quantity. Dumb.
I understand that others may think the service on the ships is excellent. I won't argue with them; I think this a matter of personal preference. In my experience the service is not excellent but not because of the servers. They are trying to feed hundreds of people at a time in a tightly packed catering hall setting and at times performing or dancing too. What does one expect? My issue is not with the service itself - it's with the system in which begging for excellent scores is required for the servers to feel safe in their position.
