Excellent speech

[pppiglet]

What is the "excellent speech"? I have seen it mentioned a few times.

 

[GenieDana]

The rehearsed speach your servers give you to "encourage" you to tip prior to your last dinner. If you ask them politely to skip the speach, they will.

 

[videogal1]

Originally posted by pppiglet
What is the "excellent speech"? I have seen it mentioned a few times.

At your first meal, when your servers are introduced, you will get the 'excellent speech", so named for the out and out blatant request for an excellent grade on your passenger survey form that you complete at the end of the cruise. There is a great deal of emphasis on the results of these forms when the supervisors are determining the performance of the servers. If I had not been forwarned, I probably would not have been paying much attention but, being forearmed, several of us rebelled and assured the servers that if they did an excellent job, they would get excellent tips and excellent comments on the forms...If not....... All in good fun, but the point was made and our speech was cut a little short....

 

[RobinMarie]

Our servers expressed their desire for our dining experience to be excellent and if for any reason it was not - to please tell them so they can correct the situation UNTIL it was excellent.

I thought it was a pretty fair speech though I was expecting it.

On your survey card at the end of the cruise, excellent is the best choice. If I understand things correctly, servers who receive EXCELLENT scores are treated well. If they do NOT receive excellent scores they may be reassigned - not sure about this though.

 

[SeaSpray]

I was expecting an "excellent" speech, too. But I was glad to find that our server, Toto, was very tactful. He WAS excellent, and that's the grade that I gave them on the card. I don't know how the other servers approach this, but I did not find this to be offensive in the least, and it's funny because I was expecting it to be annoying, but he truly wanted to do all that he could to make us happy each night at dinner, and I don't think there was anything wrong with him letting us know that. Apparently these cards are looked at very carefully after each cruise, and what they say can effect whether they get a new contract once their current contract expires.

I expected "annoying", but all I experienced was "concern"

P.S. This didn't come across to me as a "speech", he made it part of the conversation.

P.P.S. We had barely-adequate servers on our Royal Caribbean cruise last summer. On DCL, the service was excellent, and the fact that the servers are AWARE of the fact that we grade them, and the fact that they WANT to do their best to make us happy, is something that I very much appreciate.

 

[NeedsNEscape]

Our cheif server gave s the 'excellent' speech, but I had no idea until now that all of the servers did so. I should have guessed. The service was excellent despite our cranky array of children. They went out of their way to make sure that kids got french fries with every meal.... sigh!

We gave them an excellent ratting too.

 

[gottaluvdisney]

I agree with SeaSpray - "I expected "annoying", but all I experienced was "concern" --On DCL, the service was excellent, and the fact that the servers are AWARE of the fact that we grade them, and the fact that they WANT to do their best to make us happy, is something that I very much appreciate.

I have always gotten the 'excellent' speech and never bothered by it. I think they do it to let you know that if something is not excellent with their service or the food to let them know. I see many people complain about the food being 'adequate', 'subpar', or just ok. Our food was always excellent - because they would do whatever they could to give us what we wanted. If a plate was not warm or if it was not to my liking, I felt comfortable sending it back and having it replaced.

 

[pppiglet]

wow..thanks for all your replies. Do other cruise lines have you grade their services also, or just DCL?

 

[AuntyBrat]

i have to agree with the excellent service. I had 1 bad meal...i ordered a steak and I swear it was as tough as shoe leather. Both servers noticed I quit eatting it, inquired what was wrong and brought me another appetizer instead of another steak since it had ruined my taste for it that night. I could not call the service anything but excellent. Palos is more intimate service and also excellent, but the service in the dining rooms was outstanding.

 

[Carol36]

I was on RCCL on Sept. 28 and we filled out a form to rate their services. Of course, everything was excellent!!! The difference between our May 23 Wonder cruise and RCCL Mariner was the Disney "magic"!!! I wouldn't hesitate to sail on either!!!!

Carol

 

[UMTerp]

We got the "excellent" speech every night! On top of that, when asked how is your food, drink, etc. if we didn't say excellent we were asked again and again until we said excellent. Got old to say the least!

UMTerp

 

[ivanova]

Originally posted by UMTerp
We got the "excellent" speech every night! On top of that, when asked how is your food, drink, etc. if we didn't say excellent we were asked again and again until we said excellent. Got old to say the least!

UMTerp

I'd simply tell them if they bugged me, excellent would NOT be the box I'd check on the survey

 

[fortierv]

We didn't get the excellent speech on our recent cruise from our server team, Gabor and Toney. What we did get was excellent service with a simple question at the end of each night. Was everything OK tonight? I did make a point of telling them it was excellent when the question was asked. I was impressed that all they did was provide great, sorry excellent service without grovelling for a mark on the comment card.

 

[jrabbit]

Ah.... the "Excelent Speach". Most of the servers do it. It seems like some have toned it down (those that are truely excellent).

Someone earlier mentioned Toto (is he from the Philippians? - if so we had him a couple of years ago) Back when he was our server he gave the strong excellent speach, but it seems like he has become more comfortable with how his service is and he doesn't need to push it.

The "excellent" theme of the cruise is pushed from the time you get on board. Whenever the cruise director speaks he/she always uses the word excellent. "Has this weather been excellent or what!". "You're going to see an excellent show", "We are trying to make this the most excellent vacation you've ever had", etc, etc, etc.

Next cruise I'm going to count how many times I hear the word excellent while on board.