The pressure to provide "excellent" service

[jane01jp]

We thought the service was good on our most recent cruise, but thought that the food was poor.

Our server indicated to us that he bore some responsibility for food quality, due to providing recommendations, providing replacement items, etc.

This seems unfair, as all of the menu options should meet some minimal standards.

We thought both the menu selections (overabundance of pork dishes - which we like, within reason) and the quality of preparation were poor. The poor preparation was particularly noticeable on fish dishes, which were so dry and overcooked that they were more like fish jerky.

 

[DnA2010]

We've only done one Disney cruise and were quite put off with it, especially as our service team wasn't great- not their fault, they had a large table and a very demanding table of 3, so our 8 top was kinda ignored- not a big deal as our family and the other family weren't the demanding sorts, but we were pretty surprised by the asking for the excellents. Our other cruise experiences were on RCL where you get a survey after, which is nice.

 

[Davistigers]

We've been on 4 DCL cruises and are leaving for our 5th one in a week. I don't remember ever receiving pressure to provide an excellent rating on the comment cards. Now I will be aware of it, and definitely use the tactics shared here to nip it in the bud if its starts.

 

[Agent 86]

This is a tricky one for me as well. We only got the "excellent" speech once, but I still felt ... pressured to give everyone an "excellent" rating despite varying levels of service. But, that pressure was my own concern for their job security and well being as opposed to "pressure" from the individual.

For example, the Assistant Server on our most recent cruise seemed to still be learning English, which led to quite a few misunderstandings when ordering food and drinks. It wasn't a big issue, but it still led to mix-ups and delays (which were promptly rectified). I guess the fault lies with Disney for hiring someone who couldn't speak and understand English at the required level, but I couldn't penalise the individual for that. I had a similar issue with the housekeeper - although the room was relatively "clean" on the surface, it clearly hadn't had a deep clean in a long time. There were all sorts of crumbs and food residue under the bed, even though we never ate in the room and the tiled walls in the toilet had all sorts of unpleasant dried residue (which I eventually cleaned because I couldn't stand the thought of what it must have been). We also found a number of odd items in the drawers and cupboards (e.g. an earring, various notes / brochures, etc). Once again, although I wouldn't call the level of cleanliness "excellent", I really couldn't give our housekeeper anything less than excellent since he seemed to be working 20 odd hour days and looked absolutely exhausted, yet was always friendly and welcoming and always did a great job with the twice daily "quick" cleans. It seemed to me that Disney was simply expecting far too much from the staff.

In both instances, I didn't want to penalise the individual for what seemed to be issues which were caused, or at least contributed to, by Disney's hiring practices and/or excessive responsibilities.

 

[Lilylogan]

I guarantee they are required to use the word excellent x amount of times - companies think the more times people hear it then they'll have it in their mind when they fill out the survey. I used to work for AAA and we had to say "totally satisfied" multiple times- so awkward

 

[wombat_5606]

For example, the Assistant Server on our most recent cruise seemed to still be learning English, which led to quite a few misunderstandings when ordering food and drinks. It wasn't a big issue, but it still led to mix-ups and delays (which were promptly rectified). I guess the fault lies with Disney for hiring someone who couldn't speak and understand English at the required level, but I couldn't penalise the individual for that. I had a similar issue with the housekeeper - although the room was relatively "clean" on the surface, it clearly hadn't had a deep clean in a long time. There were all sorts of crumbs and food residue under the bed, even though we never ate in the room and the tiled walls in the toilet had all sorts of unpleasant dried residue (which I eventually cleaned because I couldn't stand the thought of what it must have been). We also found a number of odd items in the drawers and cupboards (e.g. an earring, various notes / brochures, etc). Once again, although I wouldn't call the level of cleanliness "excellent", I really couldn't give our housekeeper anything less than excellent since he seemed to be working 20 odd hour days and looked absolutely exhausted, yet was always friendly and welcoming and always did a great job with the twice daily "quick" cleans. It seemed to me that Disney was simply expecting far too much from the staff.

Personally, I think you should send this information in an email to Disney. I would not be happy with the state of that cabin and someone needs to know what your experience was like.

I understand you did not want to stress out an already stressed cabin steward. I think Disney needs to be aware that a lot of passengers may feel the same way. Personally, I don't think we should have to call attention to a stateroom that was clearly not cleaned well from the previous passenger.

 

[disny_luvr]

On our first two cruises I never heard the speech and felt no pressure whatsoever to give an excellent rating. Our third cruise was a different story and our server started with the speech about midway through our trip and gave it every night after. The assistant server never said a word about an excellent rating and we noticed that when the server was giving his speech he'd always do it when the assistant server wasn't around or, if the assistant server was heading to our table, he'd change the subject. It was rather odd. Anyway, I gave them both an excellent rating but I was tired of hearing the speech night after night.

 

[closetmickey]

In seven cruises we have only received the hard sell once. And it ruined the entire MDR dining experience. Every night. And my husband even addressed it on the first night in hopes that it would end.

 

[Ofinn]

I haven't filled out the survey since the 5th cruise. I don't feel like taking the time when I'm on vacation. I know shame on me. I wish DCL would send out surveys by email like most company's do. I would complete it then. The last couple of cruises I haven't left envelopes either. The service hasn't warranted extra money, and it always feels extremely awkward. I don't know if other cruise lines do this, but I don't see the point if tips are charged to your account anyway. I really wish they would get rid of the whole envelope thing. If I want to leave extra I can do it at guess services.

 

[cmwade77]

How odd, I have never once had a server ask for excellent ratings on the last night. They have politely reminded me to fill out the survey card that will be in my room and to answer it honestly.

I think the server mentioning that there are survey cards in the room is good idea, as they could easily be overlooked otherwise, but they are not supposed to ask for specific ratings.

I have had servers ask throughout the cruise if there is anything that they could do better so that they do provide excellent service, but never have I been pressured to give all excellents and if I were, it would knock down the rating.

 

[MinnieMouse64]

Also in the hospital industry, the hospital loses money for anything below an excellent and the next rating below.

I am a nurse at a hospital, and yes the hospital loses money for anything below an excellent rating. We get the speech about this every month about how we are or are not doing. Actually, I have to go to an hour long meeting next weeks concerning this. The patient experience survey in the medical field has taken the importance out of patient care. Its all about a free for all. If the patient or the patients family isn't happy no one is going to be happy. We have rules that need to be followed while visitors are visiting patients in the ICU's concerning things such as no food or drinks (other than water) or no cell phones because of infection rates. People get so upset with the nurses because we tell them they can't have them due to the policy, so they run to management and tell them we are being mean to them. So then the mangers come to us like we did something wrong by following the rules. So now days, nurses just let them do whatever they want. So when people ask me to give them an excellent rating, I tell them I will as long as they give the hospitals excellent rating, no matter if you hated your stay or not. Most people say, "oh they do that to you guys too?" So when the DCL staff do their begging for an excellent rating, I tell them don't worry, I will give you an excellent rating. They normally never mention it again.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Well--only 3 cruises so far on the Fantasy but we never experienced any song and dance for an excellent rating. In fact, don't recall our servers even mentioning it.

 

[buzzrelly]

We were on the Dream in April and never got the hard-sell speech. Maybe because we skipped the MDR the night they gave it! We found the MDRs tedious and were definitely not in love with our servers. They made many errors and seemed super rushed and sweaty all the time. I don't remember what rating I gave on the card.

 

[85glht]

We were on the Dream in April and never got the hard-sell speech. Maybe because we skipped the MDR the night they gave it! We found the MDRs tedious and were definitely not in love with our servers. They made many errors and seemed super rushed and sweaty all the time. I don't remember what rating I gave on the card.

Great..... Going on the Dream on Friday. Hopefully we dont get idiots for servers. We shall see.

We're going on our first cruise soon. I'm not looking forward to this. I may use the tactics mentioned.

Don't stress over this. Hopefully you will get decent servers.


We alway give an excellent rating due to the fact that the crew does work hard for very little pay. Filling out the card affects me none and it will help the crew. If, at all, I am not satisfied, I do bring my concerns up to whomever it applies to. I remember 2 particular cruises where I wasn't satisfied though. One was on a Royal Caribbean ship... We haven't stepped foot on another one of those ships again..... Nor Norwegian Cruise Lines.... Really bad experience on that ship.... Ugh, I get sick just thinking about those past experiences, lol.

 

[Expatriat]

I am all for giving Excellent ratings to those who put forth their best efforts, because I know that is how they earn a little time off. My only problem on my recent cruises is when I simply don't like the menu at a particular MDR, yet for the serving team's sake I am encouraged/begged to rate everything Excellent. Sure, they may be able to get me something from a different restaurant, but I would never impose on them to do that. It still would not solve what I view as a problem - that if I rate Excellent for the food at any MDR, as far as DCL is concerned, I must love the food/menu at that MDR, so it does not prompt them to change or try to improve it. I think it's time they should change their system and not try to merge the ratings for servers and food/restaurant into one. The servers do not create the menu or cook the food. They should stop being penalized for any shortcomings in that area.

 

[wilkeliza]

We were on the Dream in April and never got the hard-sell speech. Maybe because we skipped the MDR the night they gave it! We found the MDRs tedious and were definitely not in love with our servers. They made many errors and seemed super rushed and sweaty all the time. I don't remember what rating I gave on the card.

Great..... Going on the Dream on Friday. Hopefully we dont get idiots for servers. We shall see.



Don't stress over this. Hopefully you will get decent servers.


We alway give an excellent rating due to the fact that the crew does work hard for very little pay. Filling out the card affects me none and it will help the crew. If, at all, I am not satisfied, I do bring my concerns up to whomever it applies to. I remember 2 particular cruises where I wasn't satisfied though. One was on a Royal Caribbean ship... We haven't stepped foot on another one of those ships again..... Nor Norwegian Cruise Lines.... Really bad experience on that ship.... Ugh, I get sick just thinking about those past experiences, lol.

I'll admit we have done the Dream and Fantasy and found the service on the Dream lacking as compared to the Fantasy. I think the big difference is the length of the cruises on the two. The Dream does short cruises and it so the crew always felt rushed and like they were going through the motions. On the Fantasy cruises we have done the longer week longs and I felt like the crew was able to slow down a little and actually get to know us and serve us to that excellent level.

 

[Napoleon Dynamite]

Our cruise at the beginning of the month on the Dream our service wasn't great. I did feel pressure though on the last night from the server to leave an excellent! Our meals were taking almost 2 hours, which is ridiculous to me. We rarely got refills for our drinks, and everything was just SUPER slow compared to other cruises we've taken on the Dream.

Also as a side note, I noticed no pirate attire on the servers for pirate night on our 3 night. Is that just a 3 night thing, or did they take the dressing up away?

 

[Jennifer777]

Our first two cruises it wasn't bad. They mentioned it on the last night but with the amazing service we had during the cruise it didn't feel like they were necessarily pressuring us, just letting us know it was important. I still don't think they should do this though, it impacts the results and if DCL was truly looking for honest feedback they would terminate this practice immediately. I find it hard to believe they don't understand that they aren't getting accurate results when it sounds like plenty of people have sent feedback on these sales pitches, which makes me wonder if maybe DCL wants those "excellent" ratings, which they can then use to sell their product (X% of customers gave our food and service the highest rating).

While it wasn't horrible our first two cruises, on our last cruise it was. In fact, the last time we ate in the MDRs our server actually stood at our table quizzing us after he gave us the speech (again), "now, would you say the service I'm providing you is good or excellent?", with emphasis on the excellent waiting for us to repeat the appropriate word. If we hadn't already waited well over an hour for our dinner (and were still waiting at that point) with restless kids, maybe we would have given him a piece of our mind but we were tired and hungry and just wanted to get our food and get out of there. We knew repeating anything less than excellent at that point would result in more interrogation as to why and there was nothing he could have done at that point to fix things, so we just performed the trick he was training us to do and didn't go back to the MDR again after that. We won't tolerate this next time though. Our last cruise was a short 4 days and we didn't want to waste more time at Guest Services (we had already been there a few times due to other issues). We will immediately request new servers if anything like this happens again and will be putting in a request pre-cruise to not get the speech at all.

 

[butterfly71076]

I never noticed this on our first cruise (Fantasy Jan 2015) BUt, our servers mentioned it several times on our past cruise (Fantasy June 2016) The service team was really good and very friendly, but it was a bit uncomfortable when the excellent rating is mentioned several times, towards the end of our cruise, a few times that night! For our next cruise, we may avoid the MDR that last night. I did say I felt pressured to give an excellent rating on the comment card. I do like the idea a pp had about bringing an extra paper to add more comments!

 

[RedSox68]

just came off the Fantasy and had a great time, but I have to say, the way our server gave us the riot act of making sure he gets an "excellent" rating was so off putting. I'm sure they are under insane pressure by Disney for excellent standards, but it was not subtle...it was down right uncomfortable. Maybe it was the language barrier in the delivery I don't know.

I'd really love to read about the "behind the scenes" of Disney crew...I can't even imagine.

This is the WORST experience to have to sit through on any Disney cruise. In the past, we found it offputting and rather insulting that we had to be told how to rate the service! I will say on our cruise in 2014, our servers never gave us that speech! On our previous cruise, however, we had to finally tell the servers to stop -- we know the speech and the drill and don't want to hear it every night. They did and it was a much more enjoyable experience after that!