What's the difference between a head server and a dining room manager?

[idreamaway]

Longtime lurker here with a burning question...

We just returned from our ninth DCL vacation. We've always wondered about this and never remember to ask. We were always told of the differences between dining room managers and head servers from other cruisers, but never really paid attention ourselves before. DH is in the catering industry and is interested in the way things work behind the scenes it was eating away at him, so this time we REALLY paid attention.

On the Magic for the past two weeks, our head server (as referenced by our tip card at the end of the cruise) introduced herself to us on the first night as "The dining room manager... in charge of our waiters" and if we needed anything, we should go to her. She did NOT say anything about being our head server, but obviously she was. She was absolutely awesome... probably the best head server we've ever had. She stopped by the table every night and got really involved with our table. And again, she was the "head server" on our tip card but the "dining room manager" when she introduced herself.

So, DH and I were mulling this over in our minds... Maybe she pulled double duty and was the manager of the WHOLE dining room and the head server of our section. So we started doing more observing... There were three... authority figures in our dining room, including our head server. All three wore the same costumes and ear pieces and were in charge of their own section of the dining room... They all seemed to interact very well with their guests and be in charge of the same amount of waiters. All three stood in the doorway greeting guests and finding escorts to tables, etc... But it seemed after that they all had different "tasks."

Of course, they checked on their tables and interacted with guests/servers, but after... it seemed our head server was doing a lot of extra waiting on tables and carrying trays from the kitchen (a few nights there were some sick servers on our rotation who she had to cover for... but even if there weren't, she was helping A LOT). Another was constantly running to and from the kitchen and taking waiters aside to talk to them. There were some nights where he was almost totally absent from the dining room. The other spent a lot of time at the podium by the door doing paperwork and on the phone. The food and beverage officer spent a lot of time in our dining rooms, and the paperwork HS had a lot of interaction with him. Still it seemed that both men reported back to our head server (the first one mentioned... who introduced herself as manager) frequently... but they seemed to be on the same level of seniority somehow.

We weren't asked to tip a "dining room manager" (and we never are) but evidently there were three head servers on our rotation that all seemed to share the task of managing the dining room very well. (All three were wonderful... we got to know each of them and they kept a great operation going). So the question remains (after a REALLY long post)... where does the difference between dining room manager and head server come in?

 

[ppiew]

Boy am I going to get flamed here! But in my book, the Server and Asst Server are the two who present/give us our food, take orders and assist the server to deliver same to table. The 'head server'/ maitre d', is the person we alway saw on the last night (hint hint tip) of the cruise - very nice yes, but this was a bit obvious. So to me, the 'bucks' go to the server and his/her assistant - not to the maitre d'. Never saw him until last night of the past 6 cruises.!!!!!

 

[idreamaway]

^ I understand that some people don't have the greatest head servers and don't think they're worthy of their tips (and believe me, we've had a few). But I think DCL, lately, has been taking some great strides to improve that area of the dining experience. We visibly saw how hard the "bosses" (whatever they're referred to as) worked on our Baltic cruise and we really got the impression that they were in charge. Our head server was at our table and involved with our group almost as much as our server/assistant server (also excellent) were.

Sorry if I was unclear, but my question wasn't asking about peoples' opinions on tipping.

 

[mikayla73]

I don't know if I know the answer, but here's what DH and I thought from our experience.

There were three people who that "attended" to our table. The head waiter (what I would call the maitre d'), server, and assistant server. They were all wonderful, but the head server was obviously in charge of more tables and had other servers/asst servers they were working with. Our server/asst server had other tables to take care of, but didn't go to all the same ones our head server did.

On other cruise lines we have been on, it's sort of set up the same way, only I have always heard them just called maitre d' or assist maitre d'.

So, after my rambling, I think they are the same thing, just people calling them different things. Like some people call a refrigerator, an ice box. It's the same thing, just different name.

head server=dining room manager=maitre d'

Of course I have nothing to base this on, it's just what DH and I thought. Maybe someone else has some inner working knowledge of it and will chime in.

 

[Rainwater]

Boy am I going to get flamed here! But in my book, the Server and Asst Server are the two who present/give us our food, take orders and assist the server to deliver same to table. The 'head server'/ maitre d', is the person we alway saw on the last night (hint hint tip) of the cruise - very nice yes, but this was a bit obvious. So to me, the 'bucks' go to the server and his/her assistant - not to the maitre d'. Never saw him until last night of the past 6 cruises.!!!!!

You only see the dining room manager if and when you have a problem. I think they have two assigned to each meal. I also have a problem with tipping someone I never see, but he/she is doing the job that they were hired to do. I say tip them, and enjoy the cruise.

 

[jeffl]

Boy am I going to get flamed here! But in my book, the Server and Asst Server are the two who present/give us our food, take orders and assist the server to deliver same to table. The 'head server'/ maitre d', is the person we alway saw on the last night (hint hint tip) of the cruise - very nice yes, but this was a bit obvious. So to me, the 'bucks' go to the server and his/her assistant - not to the maitre d'. Never saw him until last night of the past 6 cruises.!!!!!

No flame here. We wondered the same thing on our first cruise. We had such a great time with our server and assistant server that we were saying, "Who is this guy? What does he do?"

On our second cruise we had much more interaction with our head server - he helped us coordinate with the Palo manager to arrange our dining schedule so we could fit a night at Palo in (and not miss Animator's). On the last night of the cruise he also helped us plan our Daughter's birthday celebration at dinner.

 

[buck4568]

Just recalling our Baltic Cruise, the head server got $48 per person that tipped the recommended amount while the server got $196 (?) and the assistant a bit less. Of course the head server has many more tables in his charge. Some are better than others but overall they all do alot behind the scenes as well as in the dining room I think.

My DW has some food allergies and it was the head server that made sure that she saw the upcoming nights menu and took the order to give to the chef. If there was an issue with a meal and we asked for something else off the menu, the head server would come over and apologize, ask what or why we did not like something then assure us that the kitchen would hear about it. SO, they help the chefs get feed back on the quality, likes and dislikes as the cruise is in progress. They are earning the tips!

 

[owensjro]

On our recent B2B our head server explained that he was in charge of handling all of the seating arrangements for the entire dining room so they definitely do more than just wander around once in awhile.

On the second part of that B2B a white uniformed gentleman stopped by and introduced himself as the dining room manager. He was not one of the head servers we had seen around. He welcomed us aboard for the B2B and told us to let him know if there was anything he could do. Then he left the dining room and we never saw him again.

So, the dining room manager and head server does appear to be a different job and the head server definitely does have other responsibilities.

Jim

 

[amackay]

Our head server was absolutely fantastic. He came to our table every night to make sure everything was to our liking. He also arranged for us to get a curry made because we had mentioned to our server that we liked spicy food.

 

[Homemom]

Our first dinner we had a problem with our server (she kept touching DD1, pinching cheeks, rubbing head, etc. I was concerned about germs and such.) We discussed this with dining room manager and were told there should be no contact due to spread of illness and he arranged for us to have a different set of servers. When we decided to eat in our room he always called to see if we needed anything special or extra. He was very attentive. We did see his roll as more of an "overseer" type.

 

[OurDogCisco]

This past cruise was the 1st time we really loved our HEAD SERVER. She came by our table every night. She was even working the dining room during Breakfast and Lunch. She always had great tips about the port. She was the best I've ever encountered on any of my Disney Cruises. So, I do think they are trying to change their imagine. In fact, one night she came by right when our steak for dinner was being delieverd and my dh got the wrong one it was Med well intead of Med. rare. He didn't say anything but for some reason she knew and immediately went to the kitchen and brought out another steak. I was amazed. She was AWESOME. She is going to the Dream. She said that they start training on an empty boat in Oct. So, they have 3 months with no "real" customers.

 

[LKFan]

Our head server made the rounds to each table every night. He had a sort of canned speech that he would say, informing each table of shows that evening, meals the next day, etc. One night there was pasta dish with shrimp and clams (I think) and he went around to each table that ordered it and took the tails off the shrimp and removed the clams from the shells.

Is the restaurant manager the one who tells people what table to seat you at when you walk in the front door? If so, that was our only interaction with him.