Have you ever lied on the survey

[Expatriat]

I used to let it slide and automatically give excellent ratings because they did make it seem they'd be punished in some way if I did not, even though in my mind I thought it may be that they'd simply not be "rewarded." But as DCL prices climbed and service often declined, I started being 100% honest. When you are Platinum a few times over, it's sometimes harder to fall for their standard lines. My automatic response is now to smile and say, "I base my survey responses entirely on the quality of food and service I receive. If they are excellent, I give excellent ratings." This sometimes causes them to look a bit frightened - lol. Well, it is what it is! Now if DH completes the survey before I get my hands on it, he tends to give them what they've begged for.

 

[cgolf]

We have never lied or purposely omitted anything on our survey. Granted we have never had any huge problems, but we do always send out an email to customer service after the cruise with lengthier comments that they appear to listen to. We have had bad servers, but there is a difference in bad and efforting and just bad and careless. On our hawaii trip we had servers that were likable and really trying, but they just didn't have it. We did have some demanding tablemates, so at times it felt like they were under a lot of pressure. We commented that while they struggled the effort was there. On our most recent B2B on the other hand since our server was going on vacation, we asked not to be paired again with our assistant who was not good at all. That assistant did not get a positive write up in our review.

 

[RedSox68]

I just wish that the dining staff would quit begging for the highest marks and let people decide for them selves when filling out the survey.

This is one of the WORST rituals on a Disney ship! It borders on pathetic and beyond irritating. Yes, just do your job and stop pandering and we'll give you the review you deserve. We had one server who was so relentless about his spiel that we ended up skipping dining on the last three nights because it was intrusive. And yet sometimes, we've had serving staff who say hardly anything about it and it's wonderful (but not very often!).

 

[richkaryn]

I feel like I (fortunately) missed out on something on our Dec 2014 Dream cruise. We never got a big, repetitive speech about excellent ratings. On the last night we were just told to please make sure to fill out the survey as it's important, and if we felt we had received excellent service to be sure and let them know with the survey. And we did have excellent service from both our servers and our stateroom host.....we loved interacting with these individuals and they felt like part of the family during our cruise. So glad they didn't pressure us to mark excellent or it may have ruined the great vibe.

 

[squirk]

One thing that crossed my mind is if the servers are pressured not just to get excellent ratings, but to give the "excellent" speech as well.

Like, they know their head server is buzzing around the room, listening to and watching the servers from afar, making sure the mandatory "excellent" speech is delivered satisfactorily.

Perhaps seasoned and well-regarded servers aren't pressured as much as the noobs? Or maybe some head servers don't make it as much of a priority as others?

 

[AquaDame]

The only time was the evening that our server sat down at our table and watched us mark everything as excellent... he was going to get that anyway up until then so I let it happen but I did decide not to write the note I wanted to at the end of it. Instead I just said to stop pushing their servers to get nothing but "excellent"'s since it makes things awkward.

 

[jdb in AZ]

This is one of the WORST rituals on a Disney ship! It borders on pathetic and beyond irritating. Yes, just do your job and stop pandering and we'll give you the review you deserve. We had one server who was so relentless about his spiel that we ended up skipping dining on the last three nights because it was intrusive. And yet sometimes, we've had serving staff who say hardly anything about it and it's wonderful (but not very often!).

Rather than skip three dinners to avoid the spiel, I would have told the waiter (or the head waiter) to just stop the spiel already.

 

[cdoc29]

Considering the long hours they are forced too work for the little pay they receive to me giving them an excellent is the right thing to do. I know some will argue with this concept but ask yourself how well you would do under the same circumstances. The extraordinarly hard work is probably why you never see Americans working in the dining room, allow your eyes to be opened with a little research and it will show you these are not glamorous jobs at all. All the work they do to make your cruise is far above anything you yourself could do in the same circumstances so to me that is excellent all around. Add the fact that they have to put up with self serving and entitled passengers and do so with a smile on their face is simply amazing. I will continue to give them excellent just for that reason alone. If I have to make a suggestion for improvement I do so that no one is singled out and when I have a compliment I always attach a name to it. If they were a labor force protected under US labor laws maybe I would feel differently, until then I will not grade them as if they are.

 

[RedSox68]

Rather than skip three dinners to avoid the spiel, I would have told the waiter (or the head waiter) to just stop the spiel already.

Oh believe me, WE HAVE -- more than once. But depending on your serving staff, they are robotically engineered to repeat it every night and in the case I mentioned, we just decided we'd already seen the first rotation of the restaurants and what they offered, so we opted for other venues.

 

[KingRichard]

What annoys me most is when they keep repeating the "excellent rating" speech and you're wearing a platinum lanyard.
After the first time I want to ask them if they think we don't know the spiel already, but I just can't be rude because I know how hard they work everyday, so I just sit and listen.

Our first Gold cruise we got the speech more then once, so I ask the server if it was his first cruise! He didn't mention it again. lol

Just did a B2B and the servers only mentioned once that it was important to fill it out and hand it in. Never said the word excellent. They got excellent and extra tips as they were great.

 

[smiths02]

I haven't been on DCL, but I regretted agreeing to do a WDW survey on our last trip because if I didn't rate something as so great that I'd be willing to give my first born to experience it again, then the survey asked why not.
I'm so tired that if someone does as they are expected or food is edible, then you should rate it 10/10

 

[TestingH2O]

I haven't been on DCL, but I regretted agreeing to do a WDW survey on our last trip because if I didn't rate something as so great that I'd be willing to give my first born to experience it again, then the survey asked why not.
I'm so tired that if someone does as they are expected or food is edible, then you should rate it 10/10

I feel like schools are like this now too.

Suzy got a B+?!?! Quick! Someone needs to schedule emergency intervention!

Last time I checked, B's were good grades. Heck, C's are SUPPOSED to be average. Not everyone can be THE BEST at everything.

(Yes, I do understand the ultra competitive college game.)

 

[bobbiwoz]

DCL is not the only cruise line in which we have had our servers tell us about marking excellent for everything food related.

 

[TrySomethingNew]

I appreciated how our dining team handled it last summer.

Night 1: "Our goal is to have everything be excellent. If, for some reason, you are not having an excellent experience, please let us know right away so we can fix it."

Other nights after food came out: "Is everything excellent?"

Final Night: "We hope everything has been excellent and that you will share your thoughts on the surveys. Your feedback is very important."

That was it. Clearly they want you to make the word association, but it never felt like pressure.

This is basically how our serving team handled it last summer too-on the Magic. We never got the "give us an excellent" speech, thankfully. There was one night that one server seemed to feel awkward when I asked if a particular menu option was good-she wasn't sure how to give me an honest (negative) view, but still be positive. I did order the item -I then returned the item as it was not at all tasty, and heard that this item had been returned/not eaten by approx half the people who ordered it (when I was apologizing for not being able to eat it-hate wasting food).