Dining Experience... Am I being too critical?

[Brandy C]

I will have to give DFi a heads up on this as he is a very Funny, outspoken and straight forward person. I can picture him saying "Hello? Where are our refills? I need more ketchup. We need more napkins. Honey, can they get you anything else? blah, blah blah. I feel sorry for the people that have to sit with us. Well not really because he will make sure that they are satisfied as well. He just strongly believes that the tip we give when dining out should be earned and we tip according to the level of service we receive.

 

[inkkognito]

just wondering -
Do you think the servers would be offended if I say at the first meal something along the lines of "be prepared; I drink iced tea like a camel drinks water at an oasis (haha)" Our servers were super on our last cruise except for that - and an empty glass is really my pet peeve and has cost many a server a better tip! But on the flip side, I will tip great for great service. (which I went ahead and did last time)

SO...would I be doing them a favor OR being an obnoxious-right-off-the-git-go guest to clue them in???

I think it's perfectly appropriate to say and not obnoxious at all! You are telling them what you expect in service, and it's certainly not an unreasonable expectation. Hubby and I love our iced tea at land-based restaurants; at times, we warn the servers beforehand and we've had a couple instances where they just brought us a pitcher. That most definitely earns an extra tip.

On DCL, we will tell the servers if we need to eat quickly to go to a show or if we have some special need, and most of the time they are johnny on the spot about it. Out of 61 cruises, I can probably count on one hand the number of times where main dining room service was mediocre enough to warrant a cut in the tip. I don't think we've EVER had bad service in Palo; if we did, it was so long ago that my aging brain has already purged it.

 

[A&A'sGrammy]

I also want and expect good service when we eat out. The reason I try to be a little more patient and understanding is that on a cruise all the waitstaff work very hard. They have very long hours and I never had the heart to really complain. The one thing I won't tollerate is rudness. If they seem to be trying (maybe they are new) I will cut them a little slack. That is why we laughed and joked about our very slooooow service.

 

[Dreamfinder2]

Perhaps one day Disney will be able to program audioanimatronic servers that give the same consistent service across the board with nary a glitch. Until then, we'll be contending with servers who are either new, having a bad day, or are just Mr. Cranky Pants by nature. As I've stated, we had the best service imaginable, as close to flawless as is humanly possible, but I also recognize it was the luck of the draw.

I'm wondering if your head server can be an asset in the bad cases. Asking to be seated at another table with different servers, perhaps. That's what he or she is charged with doing, overseeing the dining rooms, yes?

OP, I think you handled this with great restraint and class. Kudos to you.