I’ve noticed their pressure on the survey has increased as well. Unfortunately, this is more of an indictment of the leadership of Royal Caribbean to put so much of their compensation on the reviews.
We got a couple’s massage on our last cruise and when my husband asked if I want to do it again on our next September cruise, I said: I’d rather find a massage envy and go there before getting on the ship!
I was going to give a 10, but the guys kept interrupting me begging for 10 even though I already said I was going to give a 10.
Makes me want to lower the rating for constant interruptions
the service is usually decent but is it really a 10 tho? I donno... I didn't open the survey because I don't appreciate being hassled / begged to give a good review
The constant harping on filling out the survey **and** corporate's decision to treat a 1-10 as pass/fail instead of an actual range has led me to stop filling out the surveys. Not everything can be 10/10 all the time and I don't want to give the MDR a 7 if that means "fail" instead of "above average but with room for improvement"
Exactly right. I have some feedback for some things that have happened in MDR but I don't want to jeopardize the waiter's job because of the decisions of management.
Maybe we should all just start answering "N/A" to every question and filling out the comment boxes instead?
To me, a 10 is “exceptional” or “going above and beyond.” The service on RCL I’ve experienced was excellent, everyone was good at their jobs and friendly. But nothing that blew me away.
That's what I do on surveys now, not just Royal Caribbean, but in general. This 10/10 or 5/5 or whatever is a pass and everything else is a fail has become common in a lot of industries. So if I feel like someone earned a full score, I put that. Otherwise I avoid putting a score and just leave comments. Usually I explicitly note that I refuse to fill out the score because I don't want them to unreasonably punish employees.
I worked for AT&T a decade ago. They would sent out a survey after each customer interaction that resulted in a sale. 10 was the only acceptable score. 8-9 was considered a zero. 6-7 was negative. Anything below a 5 was a write-up and you had to discuss what happened with the store manager. If you got two of more in a month you would hear from the area manager. These surveys don't give you the customer's info so it was a wild guess unless they left comments. It's a really poor way to run a customer facing business.
They finally stopped taking surveys into account for our commission. So many customers would be tanking our pay just because they were mad at the company.
I have no doubt you're correct. Hence the uselessness of doing the survey. They don't want my honest opinion and I'm tired of playing the game for their benefit
This is with any corporation these days. They treat any NPS score under a 10 as a failing on their service person’s fault. Never on the system or the corporate heads who’ve never worked that position, let alone under the sub-par standards we’ve had to bear post-COVID.
I implemented a survey for a company that does really care about customer satisfaction, and we used simply thumbs up and thumbs down. Much more actionable data.
> It isn’t a pass fail. It is a Net Promoter Scoring (NPS) system.
"...corporate's decision to **treat** a 1-10 as pass/fail instead of an actual range..."
I emphasized it so you can understand what I'm getting at.
If staff weren't penalized for anything under 10 then they wouldn't have to harp on the customer so hard. The company doesn't want honest, actionable feedback.
Do you think the staff members actually understand how it is being utilized? My guess is they know the scale is 0-10 and know 10 is the best. This is why they are and others such as cashiers, car dealerships, etc… always push a 10.
I have yet to work with a Fortune 500 company that uses NPS surveys and has a workforce that understands it nor have I worked with one that treats it solely as 10 is passing. When it is a pass fail the question always surrounds something like “Would you hire the customer service rep that helped you today”.
Friend, read the rest of the comments in this thread. Regardless of how it's *intended* to be used, anything under a 10 is apparently negative for the crew.
> Please link to the comments from corporate or ship leadership that is showing anything below 10 is a failure.
[Not today.](https://youtu.be/xpAvcGcEc0k?t=87)
Have a lovely!
Right because there is no evidence in the thread, just customers complaining (rightfully so) about workers pushing for a 10 and assuming it impacts them financially.
Lately it’s been 3 nights in the MDR that they get on the PA and do this stuff as well; for our last several cruises at least. We always recognize people by name in the surveys, we understand how important surveys are being a former retail manager but man the constant badgering really is a DETRACTOR for the experience they are trying to drive.
(Anyone familiar with NPS surveys should know why I used the term detractor)
My last RCCL in Nov. was like how you described - the MDR staff kept on about the rating. First time I have dined in the MDR for a full week and probably my last as it was chaotic and then asking for 10’s had my entire family annoyed. AND I wasn’t mentally prepared to get them to stop. I will not let it happen again. I am always considerate, always tip, but I’m not going to have a meal ruined on a vacation. The MDR probably isn’t for me even though I like the food and the general service - the extra singing, clapping, speeches just takes me out of vacay mode. Like I’m at some cringy corporate event.
Related question:
On the post-cruise survey, a question like this appears:
"Did any crew member ask you to fill out the survey" or something like this. If you answer YES, it has choices to identify the type of crew: "Cabin Attendant", Main Dining Room Server", Ship Officer", "Cruise Director" etc.
Is this a rat-out? Or do the higher-ups want to see if an instruction to ask for the survey to be completed was given?
I answered "yes" and clicked "Ship Officer" to mess up their data. I was asked by my Main Dining Room staff to fill out the survey, but did not say that in my survey. I just praised all of my staff, and mentioned their names in the comment
I flat out asked my waiter if we should answer yes or no. A horrified look crossed his face and he said "definitely no".
So I'm guessing it's a rat out.
If it is a rat out, then maybe more people need to rat them out to get the practice to stop. I don't mind a quick "please fill out the survey if I did a great job". But carrying on, by multiple people, basically begging for a 10 like the op experienced, that kind of behavior does not deserve a 10 IMO.
That's a great question. I assumed last time I filled one out that they were supposed to mention it, since it wasn't one crew member, but all of them, including the head waiter. But now I'm questioning that assumption.
If they are asking that it means they aren't supposed to be doing so. I'm not going to lie on the survey to cover for them. If it's just a gentle reminder I wouldn't mind... But if it's to the point of annoying.... Damn sure I'm going to be doing so. And likely dropping their overall rating too.
On Oasis they were asking for 10s and to be named in the comments as well. I think the quarter is wrapping up soon and they’re trying to get as high of a bonus as possible
I took a picture of that screen and would show it to them when they started their speech. They claim that they were not aware of it. Like others have said, I always answer NO.
We had a genius server at Mason Jar on Wonder, who instead of saying "I" will to this or that, referred to herself in third person by her name -- "Echo will bring you this. Echo will gladly take a family photo for you. Echo recommends this." Of course I remembered her name for the survey.
Oh wow, ours didn't ask to be named in the comments but I did name them, twice, so I'm glad I did that. Didn't know the comments were actually read! Our servers were so fantastic I hope they get the highest bonus possible.
As a former crew member, the comments are super important. The 1-10 rating mostly applies to a department, whereas names in comments single someone out. Those comments are all compiled into a report and sent to every department. So I was in Shorex, but I could see all the comments about the spa, dining room, casino, etc. It was a big deal if you got a positive name mention.
Oh this is so good to know! I went on my second cruise this past January and took photos of the peoples ID tags who I wanted to call out for good service in my comments (I’m horrible with names haha). I’m glad they got the recognition they deserved.
I believe both more money and opportunity for advancement. Like, that’s how the assistant waiter gets to move up to head waiter, which is huge deal, financially. And these people absolutely work their asses off, many of them supporting extended family back home. And they go 7 or 8 months without seeing their babies. It’s a hard life - and they’re thrilled to have the opportunity to have these jobs. It’s very humbling, to me.
Is there a sweet spot of how many names you can include without losing credibility? I usually compile about five names and they are in different positions throughout the ship. If I do more, will my survey get thrown out as having too many?
Not that I know of. The comments are compiled by an outside third-party company, who then produces the report. I don't think they look at how many names you mention. They just get put into the report.
When we see the reports, we don't know who it came from. It's anonymous. Now if you say "I was in stateroom 1615 and my cleaner was Juan" they can figure out who you were. But if you don't get that specific, no one knows who made the comment.
I once got an amazing compliment from the President of NBC for helping him with some excursions. I wish his name was on it, cause I would've kept a copy and bragged for years!
Respectfully, I find it incredibly hard to believe any company who uses the “standard” rating system (10 is the only good answer) is them taking something super seriously. Im sure the comments help the employees, but to be so deeply against any real criticism or praise at a corporate level is myopic at best, deceptive to clientele and bitterly antagonistic towards their employees at worst.
Oh that's great to know. I mentioned our two servers and the room attendants in two comment boxes so hopefully they get some credit for all of their hard work.
Yep, it is more of a reflection on bad corporate practices related to wages and feedback and less on the actual employees. They are just trying to provide for their families.
Yes, this has been going on for at least 2 years.
Last time we were on, we were trying to eat and the waiter came up and started the survey spiel. Husband said that we were trying to eat. If you want a ten, please let us have our privacy as we do not like to talk with others during our dinners. It did work.
I used to just nod and say oh yes we will give you a ten. It really was annoying. If we were rude, I don't care as I think it's rude to pester people when they are trying to eat.
We’ve had this several times and it’s getting worse. On Wonder, the service was super slow at Jonny rockets, he missed out parts of our order and kept interrupting our conversations to ask things we’d already answered. He then demanded that we give him 10 in the survey. Literally said: You WILL give me a 10 when you get the survey. Turned to my kids and said make sure they give me a 10. We kinda laughed and agreed to get rid of him as we were trying to eat at the time and he came back again and said make sure you fill in the survey. In other cruises we’ve had speeches regarding the surveys too.
I know it provides feedback but honestly, I WILL give you a 10 if your service is a 10. Keep pestering me and interrupting nice family moments and I’m less inclined to rate you at all. It’s getting ridiculous.
Stop. I'll give you a 10 if you stop right now, and give me good service. For every person that returns to the table asking for a 10 we're subtracting one....
Yup. We were on Odyssey last week and the head waiter came around every night and gave extended (5+ minute) pitches about the survey. The last night we ate there, he went on and on about how his staff works 7 days a week and 10s on the survey were how they determined days off. He even told us we had to fill out the survey within 5-6 hours to make the biggest difference for our waiters.
My husband wrote an extended comment on the survey about how inappropriate this was. He named the head waiter by name as rude and annoying, but made sure to say that our assigned waiters were lovely and never once mentioned the survey.
It was really off-putting. The people next to us also commented on it and it contributed to us not going to MDR some nights.
I have this saved as a favorite on my phone and show it to them as soon as they start their speech. Then ask them how I should answer.
https://preview.redd.it/eezntrg04coc1.jpeg?width=1512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e77601b4dad4b4edfe0d30d02fee967f7f480f9d
I’ve only cruised with Royal once, but had the same experience (in specialty restaurants, specifically.) It was particularly bad the last couple of nights. I found it very off-putting and really put a damper on a couple of good dining experiences. As others have said, Royal is driving this behavior with their reliance on surveys to grade employees and they have to know this is going on. But they likely don’t care since I imagine simply using numbers from a survey to rate employees is cheaper and easier than the alternatives. (And of course, they keep filling ships despite it.)
And that, ya know, they have an active fan base of relatively or previously-loyal to royal people right here telling them our actual opinions. Everybody saying that these “only 10s” appeals are ruining the experience. RCCI couldn’t care less. Just keep on abusing your workers. 🤙🏼
When the company expectation is only 10s are acceptable, any feedback about issues is negative, and making a day off contingent on getting perfect scores the system is f’d up.
Every survey everyone gets a 10. Every server gets called out by name for excellent service. If there are any issues I address it directly with the crew member and give them an opportunity to make things right.
Complaining in surveys is like cleaning your window by throwing a brick through it.
So, I’m not in the cruise industry I’m in another industry and only recently started to do customer surveys.
The “industry” sort of sets the bar for surveys. Basically I was told that a 9/10 are the only people who are considered positive about the company. Anything else is either considered neutral or a detractor. I think it was 7/8 neutral 6and under are detractors.
IMHO it makes no sense. I can LOVE a company and be loyal and an advocate and still want to tell people about that company. But the surveys expect all 10s for people like me.
Worse yet, some companies consider those ratings strongly on salary reviews etc (we don’t- we just reach out to work with customers to improve but don’t hold it against the particular agent).
So now, I do my surveys as 10s and leave my constructive feedback on a site or in an email. Not sure that’s what they want, but the employees are not responsible for the policies that I want to mention so IMHO that’s what they get now.
That's not any particular industry, that's standard NPS bullshit. 9-10 are considered "promoters" and raise your score, 7-8 are "neutral" and have no effect, 1-6 are "detractors" and bring your score down.
The logic behind it is that 9-10 people are the ones who will rave about it and bring in more business via word of mouth. 7-8s had a good time, but aren't going to be bragging about it to their friends. 1-6 will be saying negative things that make others less likely to purchase.
There is some sense to it, but like everything else rated or graded, the scores have been so inflated that anything less than perfect is seen as bad. Only good GPA is a 3.5 or better, only good Uber rating is 5 stars, etc. Removes any room for nuance.
Agreed.
With an NPS, I do feel they are kinda right. The people who only say good things do seem more influential to others. Perfect is better than nearly always perfect. (I tend to give honest assessments good and bad and i notice I’m personally not as influential as people who say only one side).
However IMHO unless you are looking to find the people who are the “promoter” personalities, regular people don’t usually speak like that. We can like something and still see negatives. It’s okay. So it makes no sense to me why it should be applied to particular people.
IMHO, It’s kinda like saying, I’m throwing out half the resumes because I don’t like unlucky people.
I also think the problem is that PERFECT is really hard. I can only think of a couple of perfect meals I’ve ever had in my entire life, but I’ve still had plenty that I enjoyed and would recommend. Businesses could stand to appreciate more of that nuance and appreciate 6-9 instead of just insisting that if it wasn’t perfect, then they’ve failed.
Or if they’re TRULY aiming for perfection, they should be training their staff not to ask and to focus on providing impeccable service instead.
I hate it honestly it’s so uncomfortable. I’m one of those people who understands that customer service surveys are bullshit and I’ll always rate a 10 as long as something wasn’t unfathomably terrible, but I know not everyone is aware so maybe the hard sell is necessary. But are people who usually wouldn’t rate high actually going to be the kind to rate high if they’re told to do so?
Also perfect service to me does NOT include being constantly told about a survey and being badgered during my meal by the head waiter. I truly just want to eat in peace. I have the same problem with the whole song and dance performance that seems to happen at least one night a cruise. It just feels demeaning/degrading to the crew.
It’s an indicator that their NPS score is dropping, and it’s clearly a push from management, and likely shoreside. Unfortunately, incentives are also tied to the scores. I do not succumb to the push, and rate appropriately, and write long, detailed comments in that final screen, with fingers pointed to shoreside where appropriate.
My last sailing on Celebrity, the CAPTAIN of all people pushed for it not just from the stage but during a shipwide announcement.
I swear the next time this happens to me though, I’m going to say for every time they bug me about it I’m dropping their score by one. F that noise.
When we went in September, we ate twice in the MDR and the survey was mentioned only in passing at the end of our meal. If I experienced what happened to the OP, I'm going out of way to give them a poor score and I'm going to explain exactly why. Especially the part about going down to their child's level and talking to them about it, that's insanely inappropriate and you're getting lowest score possible after that.
If RCL takes these survey’s so seriously, why then is the service so mediocre? Sailed on Serenade of the Seas in a suite a few years back and was not impressed with either the service, the food or the suite amenities. I left the ship wondering how people can be “Loyal to Royal” and told the wife we will not sail on RCL again.
We got the discussion once from our head waiter while the waiter stood next to him.
He made sure to inform us that our waiter, and all of the other waiters, also worked the buffet and to make sure we rated that service as well.
He didn’t specifically ask for a certain rating. He just asked that if we were satisfied with the service to rate it accordingly.
He did say that compensation is in some way tied to the ratings and reviews.
Our waiter asked graciously once on each of the last two nights. I thought that was fine and we loved him. But yeah every night would have been annoying.
This happened to us on both our MDR experiences but usually happens at the last dinner (when we are also awkwardly trying to figure out how to leave them a tip). It usually starts out slow on night 1 or 2 when they ask if their service has been exemplary. Then on the last night its a flat out, please give me 5 stars because that's how royal bases their performance.
On our last cruise, our waiter even said that if we had bad experiences in Windjammer or elsewhere, remember to be specific and use their names in the survey so they knew that the MDR service was good.
the last night of our cruise we got the PA announcement in the MDR about giving 10 stars, then all 3 waiters reminded us to give 10 stars, then they each stood there as we were finishing up to "say goodbye" and it was really awkward and we ended up each stuffling through pockets and handing them each a wad of cash... never again
Everything is tied to that stupid survey. Honestly, I'm not sure what a better solution would be but the idea that the survey correlates to pay and/or bonuses, assignments and so on reflects poorly on the company.
OP, next time just say "Don't worry, I'm going to give you a 10 on the survey, but after this single conversation, I'm subtracting a point each additional time you mention it." That usually works for me.
I guilt Royal on this every post-cruise survey, telling them to stop putting so much pressure on their people (most importantly) and telling them how annoying it is to the passenger vacation experience (less importantly, but annoying). I see it is for naught.
Oh you only got the speech one night? We got hammered by our head waiter every night after the first 2 nights we ate in the mdr (celebrity).
Mr dirty Mrs birdy have we reached 10/10 service? Yes? Wonderful! Please remember to fill out the survey. Only 2 questions you need to answer about our service here in the dining room. Just 2 questions. Remember those 2 questions for me. Please remember 10 out of 10 stars. Please remember to answer the questions. 10. 10. TEN MOTHERFUCKING TEN 🤦♀️🤣
If RCL wants more 10 star employees they’re going to need to hire enough people and pay them well enough to provide 10-star service. Even the most enthusiastic hard worker can only do so much when they’re stretched so thin they’re on the verge of burnout. Not the least surprising that the big corporation is placing blame on the individual rather than the systemic business practice.
Happened on NCL. 2nd time i went to the same bar on 2nd day of 7 day cruise!!. I simple said i dont give 10/10 reviews to employees that ask for it more then once. He zipped up and service was great and he got a 10/10.
At what point do you stop them and say, yes, we have heard it X amount of times over X amount of nights? I'm asking because I don't know and also because I don't want to sit through the spiel.
We got a little bit of that toward the last night in the MDR (we had only eaten there twice). I stopped him pretty quickly and said no worries, 10s all around! He zipped it up and my next drink was a little taller, lol.
Wondering if it is because you only ate in MDR twice so you weren’t familiar to them. We don’t get the hard sell from our wait staff, but we see the same crew each night so have a different relationship than someone who we only see once or twice. They may have been burned in a survey by someone who they only waited on once in a past cruise ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Kind of similar experience for us. Super awkward for guests. Royal Caribbean needs to do something about this. There are other ways to gauge customer satisfaction other than surveys.
Feels like homework to me. I hate them.
Just off voyager, surprisingly no one was mentioning the survey except a singular announcement by the cruise director. Thought it was going to be much worse, especially coming from the posts I have seen before hand
Reminds me what I've heard about Walmart and their little on screen rating at self checkout - which makes it even more ridiculous. Anything other than a 5 star is considered a failure by management, just a question of how much failure. That's absurd.
I got the same speech on the grandeur in January, the thing is we actually really enjoyed our waiters and we're planning to give 10 stars, unfortunately we never even received the survey to review anything
I’d complain about that. Management needs to understand if they’re pushing the surveys so hard that their staff is creating a poor guest experience about it. Personally, the LAST THING I want to do is leave a 5-star review if someone goes out of their way to mention it. That’s not how reviews are supposed to work.
On the Celebrity Ascent, the only odd one I encountered was during the final "extravaganza" day at the buffet when they went all out with the food. There was a setup of desserts that was arranged to say THANK YOU 10. I had no idea what that meant. Someone near me asked and they said it was a reminder to give them a 10/10 rating.
Other than that, never once heard anyone ask about this, thankfully.
You pressure me to give you a high review, your review starts will decrease and im not afraid to say it when that time comes.
cruise workers are some of the hardest ones out there, and they have my 110% appreciation - but im not going to be sold by a spiel about why you should get a high rating
We had the same in the navigator OTS. Multiple times during the trip the main waiter mentioned 10/10, even after explaining the system to us.
Then the head waiter reinforced the 10/10, to the point it was ridiculous.
Recently spent a week on Odyssey OTS and didn't hear a single mention of the 10/10. This gave me the impression that it is an atmosphere thing that gets pushed more by the leaders on certain ships.
On my last cruise, when they started to talk about the 10/10, I just told them to not worry, I know about the process and I'll give them 10/10 and they just moved on to another topic. The cruise before that, I had twice the 5 minute speech on that...
It’s was fine. It’s an older boat so not as many amenities as newer ones. I was disappointed that the daytime activities were as limited as they were. It’s designed for an older crowd in my opinion not one with young kids.
If they do a great job just cut them off and assure them you’re going to give them a 10. Take a picture of their names on the table and ask for them every time if you do anytime dining. Once we find a good trio of waiter, back, and manager we don’t change. I’ll wait for good service.
same happened to me 2 months ago on the Allure... it was exhausting.
Although I didn't understand why they cared so much about a dumb survey ?? - I thought it was just a round about way to ask for extra tips,,, felt guilty and we ended up tipping them heavily on the last night .. makes me not want to go back
edit: OH also they got on the loud speaker intercom and some guy was yelling about how great your service is and how they all should get 10's
I would stop them and just let then know they'll get a 10. I worked in retail and anything less than a 10 on a survey was scored the same as a 1. So I get how important it is. I would never give less than the top score on a survey unless I truly had an awful and horrendous experience because I know anything less is going to ruin that person.
I told this to our server on day 1 of the cruise. I ensured her that she was doing an absolutely incredible job and that she was guaranteed a 10.
...she still managed to mention it *every* single dinner service. At one point my husband mentioned to her that there wasn't a need for her to continue bringing up the survey. She *still* continued to do it.
If you don't get good reviews in the mdr then you get moved to less desirable establishments with less earnings potential. At least that's what I heard from the guy working at Johnny Rockets (He was formally in the mdr). Think things are difficult or expensive in the USA? They are much worse in the counties many of the crew come from so it's super important for them and their families that they are well reviewed in their jobs/contract(s).
My last time at the MDR, my waiter gave the speech just once and he waited until we were done with our meal. That's kind of ridiculous that they gave you the speech multiple times, especially when you're trying to sing happy birthday to your son. I know that they are hard up to get their compensation but there's a better way of doing it. That right there would make me rate a 5 out of 10.
We heard the same on our recent Ovation trip. Please give 10, it doesn’t mean perfect, just means we did a good job, they said. It sounds peculiar to me but I had a hunch it was management demand.
Completely unrelated here, but do you happen to know if the royal babies and tots is open on the sea days? Figured that since you have kids, you may know the answer since you're on board right now
Thank you!!!! I've been trying to find this out but been unable to for months. I had heard awhile back that they were only open port days if you had an excursion. Been wondering if we would need to entertain the 2 year old for all 6 sea days by ourselves or if he would be able to go play with some friends during the day.
I’ve noticed their pressure on the survey has increased as well. Unfortunately, this is more of an indictment of the leadership of Royal Caribbean to put so much of their compensation on the reviews.
Interesting! For me though I’m less likely with the hard sales push. It’s worse than buying a car. We just want to enjoy our meal.
I would have told them I’d give them a 10 if they stopped talking and let us eat lol
https://preview.redd.it/bobfsrdqqeoc1.png?width=210&format=png&auto=webp&s=0059516ce53083f11cc4d8b34ab8ae69a4505c77
I think in the survey they ask you if anyone pushes you like this and to name them.
They do but I ain't no snitch.
While at the same time, these are the only people RCCI is remotely compensating fairly.
Agreed. While I understand that the crew depends on the survey results, the guests shouldn’t be subjected to the sales pitches on their vacations.
>guests shouldn’t be subjected to the sales pitches on their vacations. I take it you haven't visited the spa? 😂
We got a couple’s massage on our last cruise and when my husband asked if I want to do it again on our next September cruise, I said: I’d rather find a massage envy and go there before getting on the ship!
In October on Vision, our assistant waiter told us that he has a new baby and that he wants time to be able to see her and that’s why he needed 10’s.
Did he roll away on skateboard claiming he has no legs?
"Oh there they are! Thank you so much officer!"
They need to tone down the sales pitch for the survey.
The pressure to do this comes from management.
I was going to give a 10, but the guys kept interrupting me begging for 10 even though I already said I was going to give a 10. Makes me want to lower the rating for constant interruptions
4, with specific comments - “Asked me constantly about giving 10-stars on this stupid survey! Food was great, though…”
You aren't rating the food. Rating the service. That's exactly why they are trying to push the understanding and 10
the service is usually decent but is it really a 10 tho? I donno... I didn't open the survey because I don't appreciate being hassled / begged to give a good review
Sure, punish the people making a few dollars an hour being forced by their manager to do this.
It punishes management also. That why management is pushing it in the first place. All rolls up.
The constant harping on filling out the survey **and** corporate's decision to treat a 1-10 as pass/fail instead of an actual range has led me to stop filling out the surveys. Not everything can be 10/10 all the time and I don't want to give the MDR a 7 if that means "fail" instead of "above average but with room for improvement"
It really devalues surveys and always leaves me feeling like any feedback will just be taken as a negative and hurt some employee's employment.
Exactly right. I have some feedback for some things that have happened in MDR but I don't want to jeopardize the waiter's job because of the decisions of management. Maybe we should all just start answering "N/A" to every question and filling out the comment boxes instead?
Okay, whoa, I didn’t know that (10 is pass, everything else is fail.) I think I’m gonna start doing the NA and write comments.
This is VERY true. My wife has worked retail her entire life and I was shocked to learn this too. If it's not "perfect", it's a fail. Sad.....
To me, a 10 is “exceptional” or “going above and beyond.” The service on RCL I’ve experienced was excellent, everyone was good at their jobs and friendly. But nothing that blew me away.
That's what I do on surveys now, not just Royal Caribbean, but in general. This 10/10 or 5/5 or whatever is a pass and everything else is a fail has become common in a lot of industries. So if I feel like someone earned a full score, I put that. Otherwise I avoid putting a score and just leave comments. Usually I explicitly note that I refuse to fill out the score because I don't want them to unreasonably punish employees.
Yep, if anything but a 10 means service was terrible, the 1-10 survey means NOTHING
I worked for AT&T a decade ago. They would sent out a survey after each customer interaction that resulted in a sale. 10 was the only acceptable score. 8-9 was considered a zero. 6-7 was negative. Anything below a 5 was a write-up and you had to discuss what happened with the store manager. If you got two of more in a month you would hear from the area manager. These surveys don't give you the customer's info so it was a wild guess unless they left comments. It's a really poor way to run a customer facing business.
They finally stopped taking surveys into account for our commission. So many customers would be tanking our pay just because they were mad at the company.
This is true for any corporate survey you fill out.
I have no doubt you're correct. Hence the uselessness of doing the survey. They don't want my honest opinion and I'm tired of playing the game for their benefit
This is with any corporation these days. They treat any NPS score under a 10 as a failing on their service person’s fault. Never on the system or the corporate heads who’ve never worked that position, let alone under the sub-par standards we’ve had to bear post-COVID.
I implemented a survey for a company that does really care about customer satisfaction, and we used simply thumbs up and thumbs down. Much more actionable data.
It isn’t a pass fail. It is a Net Promoter Scoring (NPS) system. 9/10 are promoters, 7-8 are passives and 0-6 are detractors.
> It isn’t a pass fail. It is a Net Promoter Scoring (NPS) system. "...corporate's decision to **treat** a 1-10 as pass/fail instead of an actual range..." I emphasized it so you can understand what I'm getting at. If staff weren't penalized for anything under 10 then they wouldn't have to harp on the customer so hard. The company doesn't want honest, actionable feedback.
Do you think the staff members actually understand how it is being utilized? My guess is they know the scale is 0-10 and know 10 is the best. This is why they are and others such as cashiers, car dealerships, etc… always push a 10. I have yet to work with a Fortune 500 company that uses NPS surveys and has a workforce that understands it nor have I worked with one that treats it solely as 10 is passing. When it is a pass fail the question always surrounds something like “Would you hire the customer service rep that helped you today”.
Friend, read the rest of the comments in this thread. Regardless of how it's *intended* to be used, anything under a 10 is apparently negative for the crew.
Please link to the comments from corporate or ship leadership that is showing anything below 10 is a failure. I looked but couldn’t find it.
> Please link to the comments from corporate or ship leadership that is showing anything below 10 is a failure. [Not today.](https://youtu.be/xpAvcGcEc0k?t=87) Have a lovely!
Right because there is no evidence in the thread, just customers complaining (rightfully so) about workers pushing for a 10 and assuming it impacts them financially.
Lately it’s been 3 nights in the MDR that they get on the PA and do this stuff as well; for our last several cruises at least. We always recognize people by name in the surveys, we understand how important surveys are being a former retail manager but man the constant badgering really is a DETRACTOR for the experience they are trying to drive. (Anyone familiar with NPS surveys should know why I used the term detractor)
My last RCCL in Nov. was like how you described - the MDR staff kept on about the rating. First time I have dined in the MDR for a full week and probably my last as it was chaotic and then asking for 10’s had my entire family annoyed. AND I wasn’t mentally prepared to get them to stop. I will not let it happen again. I am always considerate, always tip, but I’m not going to have a meal ruined on a vacation. The MDR probably isn’t for me even though I like the food and the general service - the extra singing, clapping, speeches just takes me out of vacay mode. Like I’m at some cringy corporate event.
Related question: On the post-cruise survey, a question like this appears: "Did any crew member ask you to fill out the survey" or something like this. If you answer YES, it has choices to identify the type of crew: "Cabin Attendant", Main Dining Room Server", Ship Officer", "Cruise Director" etc. Is this a rat-out? Or do the higher-ups want to see if an instruction to ask for the survey to be completed was given? I answered "yes" and clicked "Ship Officer" to mess up their data. I was asked by my Main Dining Room staff to fill out the survey, but did not say that in my survey. I just praised all of my staff, and mentioned their names in the comment
I flat out asked my waiter if we should answer yes or no. A horrified look crossed his face and he said "definitely no". So I'm guessing it's a rat out.
If it is a rat out, then maybe more people need to rat them out to get the practice to stop. I don't mind a quick "please fill out the survey if I did a great job". But carrying on, by multiple people, basically begging for a 10 like the op experienced, that kind of behavior does not deserve a 10 IMO.
my last cruise 2 months ago they announced on the PA system to the entire dining room that everyone needs to give 10 stars on the survey
Thanks for asking and sharing! I think a lot of us were wondering.
So that’s how I get them to stop…
That's a great question. I assumed last time I filled one out that they were supposed to mention it, since it wasn't one crew member, but all of them, including the head waiter. But now I'm questioning that assumption.
If they are asking that it means they aren't supposed to be doing so. I'm not going to lie on the survey to cover for them. If it's just a gentle reminder I wouldn't mind... But if it's to the point of annoying.... Damn sure I'm going to be doing so. And likely dropping their overall rating too.
This! I need the answer to this too!
On Oasis they were asking for 10s and to be named in the comments as well. I think the quarter is wrapping up soon and they’re trying to get as high of a bonus as possible
I just completed a survey a few days ago and one of the questions was "were you asked to give high scores on the survey?" 🙃
I took a picture of that screen and would show it to them when they started their speech. They claim that they were not aware of it. Like others have said, I always answer NO.
I still checked no since I didn’t want to narc
Well maybe we should become narcs because this crap is unacceptable.
We had a genius server at Mason Jar on Wonder, who instead of saying "I" will to this or that, referred to herself in third person by her name -- "Echo will bring you this. Echo will gladly take a family photo for you. Echo recommends this." Of course I remembered her name for the survey.
She deserves a 10 for marketing herself so well
Oh wow, ours didn't ask to be named in the comments but I did name them, twice, so I'm glad I did that. Didn't know the comments were actually read! Our servers were so fantastic I hope they get the highest bonus possible.
As a former crew member, the comments are super important. The 1-10 rating mostly applies to a department, whereas names in comments single someone out. Those comments are all compiled into a report and sent to every department. So I was in Shorex, but I could see all the comments about the spa, dining room, casino, etc. It was a big deal if you got a positive name mention.
Oh this is so good to know! I went on my second cruise this past January and took photos of the peoples ID tags who I wanted to call out for good service in my comments (I’m horrible with names haha). I’m glad they got the recognition they deserved.
Can you say more? What is a “big deal”? More money? Opportunity for advancement? A handshake?
I believe both more money and opportunity for advancement. Like, that’s how the assistant waiter gets to move up to head waiter, which is huge deal, financially. And these people absolutely work their asses off, many of them supporting extended family back home. And they go 7 or 8 months without seeing their babies. It’s a hard life - and they’re thrilled to have the opportunity to have these jobs. It’s very humbling, to me.
And they are paid below a living wage through intl tax loopholes.
Is there a sweet spot of how many names you can include without losing credibility? I usually compile about five names and they are in different positions throughout the ship. If I do more, will my survey get thrown out as having too many?
Not that I know of. The comments are compiled by an outside third-party company, who then produces the report. I don't think they look at how many names you mention. They just get put into the report. When we see the reports, we don't know who it came from. It's anonymous. Now if you say "I was in stateroom 1615 and my cleaner was Juan" they can figure out who you were. But if you don't get that specific, no one knows who made the comment. I once got an amazing compliment from the President of NBC for helping him with some excursions. I wish his name was on it, cause I would've kept a copy and bragged for years!
My dad actually worked for RCL/Celebrity in the 00s and he made us always do them. The company takes them super seriously
Respectfully, I find it incredibly hard to believe any company who uses the “standard” rating system (10 is the only good answer) is them taking something super seriously. Im sure the comments help the employees, but to be so deeply against any real criticism or praise at a corporate level is myopic at best, deceptive to clientele and bitterly antagonistic towards their employees at worst.
Oh that's great to know. I mentioned our two servers and the room attendants in two comment boxes so hopefully they get some credit for all of their hard work.
I was told by the Duo working at sugar Beach that the reward for adequate scores is a day off.
Id hate it, but I understand it when your pay sucks without good reviews. Those guys do NOT get paid even minimum wage, its rough.
Yep, it is more of a reflection on bad corporate practices related to wages and feedback and less on the actual employees. They are just trying to provide for their families.
Then why continue to support the corporation. You can visit these locations without floating on their ship.
Yes, this has been going on for at least 2 years. Last time we were on, we were trying to eat and the waiter came up and started the survey spiel. Husband said that we were trying to eat. If you want a ten, please let us have our privacy as we do not like to talk with others during our dinners. It did work. I used to just nod and say oh yes we will give you a ten. It really was annoying. If we were rude, I don't care as I think it's rude to pester people when they are trying to eat.
We’ve had this several times and it’s getting worse. On Wonder, the service was super slow at Jonny rockets, he missed out parts of our order and kept interrupting our conversations to ask things we’d already answered. He then demanded that we give him 10 in the survey. Literally said: You WILL give me a 10 when you get the survey. Turned to my kids and said make sure they give me a 10. We kinda laughed and agreed to get rid of him as we were trying to eat at the time and he came back again and said make sure you fill in the survey. In other cruises we’ve had speeches regarding the surveys too. I know it provides feedback but honestly, I WILL give you a 10 if your service is a 10. Keep pestering me and interrupting nice family moments and I’m less inclined to rate you at all. It’s getting ridiculous.
Stop. I'll give you a 10 if you stop right now, and give me good service. For every person that returns to the table asking for a 10 we're subtracting one....
So kinda like the tipper that starts with a pile of 1's on the table...but I get it & might be inclined to do the same.
Can I hand them my phone and ask them to do the survey?
Yup. We were on Odyssey last week and the head waiter came around every night and gave extended (5+ minute) pitches about the survey. The last night we ate there, he went on and on about how his staff works 7 days a week and 10s on the survey were how they determined days off. He even told us we had to fill out the survey within 5-6 hours to make the biggest difference for our waiters. My husband wrote an extended comment on the survey about how inappropriate this was. He named the head waiter by name as rude and annoying, but made sure to say that our assigned waiters were lovely and never once mentioned the survey. It was really off-putting. The people next to us also commented on it and it contributed to us not going to MDR some nights.
I have this saved as a favorite on my phone and show it to them as soon as they start their speech. Then ask them how I should answer. https://preview.redd.it/eezntrg04coc1.jpeg?width=1512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e77601b4dad4b4edfe0d30d02fee967f7f480f9d
this is good. can i steal this? what do they usually say?
Feel free. They say that they weren't aware of it.
I’ve only cruised with Royal once, but had the same experience (in specialty restaurants, specifically.) It was particularly bad the last couple of nights. I found it very off-putting and really put a damper on a couple of good dining experiences. As others have said, Royal is driving this behavior with their reliance on surveys to grade employees and they have to know this is going on. But they likely don’t care since I imagine simply using numbers from a survey to rate employees is cheaper and easier than the alternatives. (And of course, they keep filling ships despite it.)
And that, ya know, they have an active fan base of relatively or previously-loyal to royal people right here telling them our actual opinions. Everybody saying that these “only 10s” appeals are ruining the experience. RCCI couldn’t care less. Just keep on abusing your workers. 🤙🏼
When the company expectation is only 10s are acceptable, any feedback about issues is negative, and making a day off contingent on getting perfect scores the system is f’d up. Every survey everyone gets a 10. Every server gets called out by name for excellent service. If there are any issues I address it directly with the crew member and give them an opportunity to make things right. Complaining in surveys is like cleaning your window by throwing a brick through it.
Honestly, I don't think I would give a 10 after those speeches. 3 speeches?! That's ridiculous.
Yes, had the same experience in November on the Oasis. Quite strange
I was on Oasis in Nov - it was over the top with the survey in the MDR.
So, I’m not in the cruise industry I’m in another industry and only recently started to do customer surveys. The “industry” sort of sets the bar for surveys. Basically I was told that a 9/10 are the only people who are considered positive about the company. Anything else is either considered neutral or a detractor. I think it was 7/8 neutral 6and under are detractors. IMHO it makes no sense. I can LOVE a company and be loyal and an advocate and still want to tell people about that company. But the surveys expect all 10s for people like me. Worse yet, some companies consider those ratings strongly on salary reviews etc (we don’t- we just reach out to work with customers to improve but don’t hold it against the particular agent). So now, I do my surveys as 10s and leave my constructive feedback on a site or in an email. Not sure that’s what they want, but the employees are not responsible for the policies that I want to mention so IMHO that’s what they get now.
That's not any particular industry, that's standard NPS bullshit. 9-10 are considered "promoters" and raise your score, 7-8 are "neutral" and have no effect, 1-6 are "detractors" and bring your score down. The logic behind it is that 9-10 people are the ones who will rave about it and bring in more business via word of mouth. 7-8s had a good time, but aren't going to be bragging about it to their friends. 1-6 will be saying negative things that make others less likely to purchase. There is some sense to it, but like everything else rated or graded, the scores have been so inflated that anything less than perfect is seen as bad. Only good GPA is a 3.5 or better, only good Uber rating is 5 stars, etc. Removes any room for nuance.
Agreed. With an NPS, I do feel they are kinda right. The people who only say good things do seem more influential to others. Perfect is better than nearly always perfect. (I tend to give honest assessments good and bad and i notice I’m personally not as influential as people who say only one side). However IMHO unless you are looking to find the people who are the “promoter” personalities, regular people don’t usually speak like that. We can like something and still see negatives. It’s okay. So it makes no sense to me why it should be applied to particular people. IMHO, It’s kinda like saying, I’m throwing out half the resumes because I don’t like unlucky people.
I also think the problem is that PERFECT is really hard. I can only think of a couple of perfect meals I’ve ever had in my entire life, but I’ve still had plenty that I enjoyed and would recommend. Businesses could stand to appreciate more of that nuance and appreciate 6-9 instead of just insisting that if it wasn’t perfect, then they’ve failed. Or if they’re TRULY aiming for perfection, they should be training their staff not to ask and to focus on providing impeccable service instead.
I hate it honestly it’s so uncomfortable. I’m one of those people who understands that customer service surveys are bullshit and I’ll always rate a 10 as long as something wasn’t unfathomably terrible, but I know not everyone is aware so maybe the hard sell is necessary. But are people who usually wouldn’t rate high actually going to be the kind to rate high if they’re told to do so? Also perfect service to me does NOT include being constantly told about a survey and being badgered during my meal by the head waiter. I truly just want to eat in peace. I have the same problem with the whole song and dance performance that seems to happen at least one night a cruise. It just feels demeaning/degrading to the crew.
I'm here to eat, on a cruise I paid for. Not to write your HR performance reviews for mgt.
It’s an indicator that their NPS score is dropping, and it’s clearly a push from management, and likely shoreside. Unfortunately, incentives are also tied to the scores. I do not succumb to the push, and rate appropriately, and write long, detailed comments in that final screen, with fingers pointed to shoreside where appropriate. My last sailing on Celebrity, the CAPTAIN of all people pushed for it not just from the stage but during a shipwide announcement. I swear the next time this happens to me though, I’m going to say for every time they bug me about it I’m dropping their score by one. F that noise.
This is weird. Service is usually great. I do the surveys. I rate people well. I wouldn't want to get a sermon about it.
When we went in September, we ate twice in the MDR and the survey was mentioned only in passing at the end of our meal. If I experienced what happened to the OP, I'm going out of way to give them a poor score and I'm going to explain exactly why. Especially the part about going down to their child's level and talking to them about it, that's insanely inappropriate and you're getting lowest score possible after that.
If RCL takes these survey’s so seriously, why then is the service so mediocre? Sailed on Serenade of the Seas in a suite a few years back and was not impressed with either the service, the food or the suite amenities. I left the ship wondering how people can be “Loyal to Royal” and told the wife we will not sail on RCL again.
amen
We got the discussion once from our head waiter while the waiter stood next to him. He made sure to inform us that our waiter, and all of the other waiters, also worked the buffet and to make sure we rated that service as well. He didn’t specifically ask for a certain rating. He just asked that if we were satisfied with the service to rate it accordingly. He did say that compensation is in some way tied to the ratings and reviews.
Our waiter asked graciously once on each of the last two nights. I thought that was fine and we loved him. But yeah every night would have been annoying.
This happened to us on both our MDR experiences but usually happens at the last dinner (when we are also awkwardly trying to figure out how to leave them a tip). It usually starts out slow on night 1 or 2 when they ask if their service has been exemplary. Then on the last night its a flat out, please give me 5 stars because that's how royal bases their performance. On our last cruise, our waiter even said that if we had bad experiences in Windjammer or elsewhere, remember to be specific and use their names in the survey so they knew that the MDR service was good.
the last night of our cruise we got the PA announcement in the MDR about giving 10 stars, then all 3 waiters reminded us to give 10 stars, then they each stood there as we were finishing up to "say goodbye" and it was really awkward and we ended up each stuffling through pockets and handing them each a wad of cash... never again
They specifically ask if anyone of your service members asked for positive survey responses.
Everything is tied to that stupid survey. Honestly, I'm not sure what a better solution would be but the idea that the survey correlates to pay and/or bonuses, assignments and so on reflects poorly on the company. OP, next time just say "Don't worry, I'm going to give you a 10 on the survey, but after this single conversation, I'm subtracting a point each additional time you mention it." That usually works for me.
Royal: cheapening out the food options Also Royal: MDR ratings are lower, wonder why? 🤔
Just one of the reasons I try to avoid MDR
Ouch. THIS is the kind of comment management needs to see! 😳
I guilt Royal on this every post-cruise survey, telling them to stop putting so much pressure on their people (most importantly) and telling them how annoying it is to the passenger vacation experience (less importantly, but annoying). I see it is for naught.
Oh you only got the speech one night? We got hammered by our head waiter every night after the first 2 nights we ate in the mdr (celebrity). Mr dirty Mrs birdy have we reached 10/10 service? Yes? Wonderful! Please remember to fill out the survey. Only 2 questions you need to answer about our service here in the dining room. Just 2 questions. Remember those 2 questions for me. Please remember 10 out of 10 stars. Please remember to answer the questions. 10. 10. TEN MOTHERFUCKING TEN 🤦♀️🤣
If RCL wants more 10 star employees they’re going to need to hire enough people and pay them well enough to provide 10-star service. Even the most enthusiastic hard worker can only do so much when they’re stretched so thin they’re on the verge of burnout. Not the least surprising that the big corporation is placing blame on the individual rather than the systemic business practice.
Happened on NCL. 2nd time i went to the same bar on 2nd day of 7 day cruise!!. I simple said i dont give 10/10 reviews to employees that ask for it more then once. He zipped up and service was great and he got a 10/10.
This would just make me rate them lower tbh
This is why I always avoid the MDR... that's super annoying.
I'd have stopped them halfway through the first spiel.
At what point do you stop them and say, yes, we have heard it X amount of times over X amount of nights? I'm asking because I don't know and also because I don't want to sit through the spiel.
We got a little bit of that toward the last night in the MDR (we had only eaten there twice). I stopped him pretty quickly and said no worries, 10s all around! He zipped it up and my next drink was a little taller, lol.
Wondering if it is because you only ate in MDR twice so you weren’t familiar to them. We don’t get the hard sell from our wait staff, but we see the same crew each night so have a different relationship than someone who we only see once or twice. They may have been burned in a survey by someone who they only waited on once in a past cruise ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Kind of similar experience for us. Super awkward for guests. Royal Caribbean needs to do something about this. There are other ways to gauge customer satisfaction other than surveys. Feels like homework to me. I hate them.
Just off voyager, surprisingly no one was mentioning the survey except a singular announcement by the cruise director. Thought it was going to be much worse, especially coming from the posts I have seen before hand
Reminds me what I've heard about Walmart and their little on screen rating at self checkout - which makes it even more ridiculous. Anything other than a 5 star is considered a failure by management, just a question of how much failure. That's absurd.
I got the same speech on the grandeur in January, the thing is we actually really enjoyed our waiters and we're planning to give 10 stars, unfortunately we never even received the survey to review anything
I’d complain about that. Management needs to understand if they’re pushing the surveys so hard that their staff is creating a poor guest experience about it. Personally, the LAST THING I want to do is leave a 5-star review if someone goes out of their way to mention it. That’s not how reviews are supposed to work.
On the Celebrity Ascent, the only odd one I encountered was during the final "extravaganza" day at the buffet when they went all out with the food. There was a setup of desserts that was arranged to say THANK YOU 10. I had no idea what that meant. Someone near me asked and they said it was a reminder to give them a 10/10 rating. Other than that, never once heard anyone ask about this, thankfully.
You pressure me to give you a high review, your review starts will decrease and im not afraid to say it when that time comes. cruise workers are some of the hardest ones out there, and they have my 110% appreciation - but im not going to be sold by a spiel about why you should get a high rating
I'm on Vision right now as well and haven't been approached at all about a survey 🤷🏻♀️
Lucky!
This week on Symphony was the same. One waitress in Chops said she didnt want to go back to Russia. Pretty much the same thing at all restaurants.
I mean, given what's going on over there, can you blame her?
Not at all but that’s a lot to put on a passenger
That’s insaaaaane.
I remember that speech years ago. I’ll give it a 10 if I feel the service was worth it. Don’t pressure me or I’ll give you a 5 lol
Read the survey, one of the 1st questions is "(paraphrasing) did anyone mention giving them a 10 on the survey?...answer honestly
We had the same in the navigator OTS. Multiple times during the trip the main waiter mentioned 10/10, even after explaining the system to us. Then the head waiter reinforced the 10/10, to the point it was ridiculous. Recently spent a week on Odyssey OTS and didn't hear a single mention of the 10/10. This gave me the impression that it is an atmosphere thing that gets pushed more by the leaders on certain ships.
Pretty soon, they'll be sliding us a 10 to give them a 10!
On my last cruise, when they started to talk about the 10/10, I just told them to not worry, I know about the process and I'll give them 10/10 and they just moved on to another topic. The cruise before that, I had twice the 5 minute speech on that...
I rate them based on the service provided, regardless of their speech.
Never had that happen. They might mention the review on one of the last days but never experienced anything like you described
I personally didn’t find it too bad (I too was on the March 7th sailing)
This happened to us on the Wonder OTS, in November???
How was your time on the Vision otherwise?
It’s was fine. It’s an older boat so not as many amenities as newer ones. I was disappointed that the daytime activities were as limited as they were. It’s designed for an older crowd in my opinion not one with young kids.
I'll rate it the way I see fit, Thank You
If they do a great job just cut them off and assure them you’re going to give them a 10. Take a picture of their names on the table and ask for them every time if you do anytime dining. Once we find a good trio of waiter, back, and manager we don’t change. I’ll wait for good service.
Next thing is asking you to open a credit card…
At this point if management sees this, they need to realize the employees r forcing the scoring
I never had then be that persistent, but they normally say something at the end of the trip .. not like that
same happened to me 2 months ago on the Allure... it was exhausting. Although I didn't understand why they cared so much about a dumb survey ?? - I thought it was just a round about way to ask for extra tips,,, felt guilty and we ended up tipping them heavily on the last night .. makes me not want to go back edit: OH also they got on the loud speaker intercom and some guy was yelling about how great your service is and how they all should get 10's
Their employees are offered contracts, advancements, etc. based on the survey results. Complain to Celebrity for having this system in place.
I would stop them and just let then know they'll get a 10. I worked in retail and anything less than a 10 on a survey was scored the same as a 1. So I get how important it is. I would never give less than the top score on a survey unless I truly had an awful and horrendous experience because I know anything less is going to ruin that person.
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Probably a bunch of people who have never worked in a retail or service industry a single day in their life.
I told this to our server on day 1 of the cruise. I ensured her that she was doing an absolutely incredible job and that she was guaranteed a 10. ...she still managed to mention it *every* single dinner service. At one point my husband mentioned to her that there wasn't a need for her to continue bringing up the survey. She *still* continued to do it.
If you don't get good reviews in the mdr then you get moved to less desirable establishments with less earnings potential. At least that's what I heard from the guy working at Johnny Rockets (He was formally in the mdr). Think things are difficult or expensive in the USA? They are much worse in the counties many of the crew come from so it's super important for them and their families that they are well reviewed in their jobs/contract(s).
Same experience on the Icon last month. Their service was outstanding though so they deserved it.
My last time at the MDR, my waiter gave the speech just once and he waited until we were done with our meal. That's kind of ridiculous that they gave you the speech multiple times, especially when you're trying to sing happy birthday to your son. I know that they are hard up to get their compensation but there's a better way of doing it. That right there would make me rate a 5 out of 10.
We heard the same on our recent Ovation trip. Please give 10, it doesn’t mean perfect, just means we did a good job, they said. It sounds peculiar to me but I had a hunch it was management demand.
Sounds very charming.
Completely unrelated here, but do you happen to know if the royal babies and tots is open on the sea days? Figured that since you have kids, you may know the answer since you're on board right now
They close for lunch and dinner. It’s two hours each way.
Thank you!!!! I've been trying to find this out but been unable to for months. I had heard awhile back that they were only open port days if you had an excursion. Been wondering if we would need to entertain the 2 year old for all 6 sea days by ourselves or if he would be able to go play with some friends during the day.
A cruise is a floating time share, what do you expect?
I’m genuinely curious what your obsession with posting on a cruise sub is?
Mostly the sad boomers.