Servers asking for an Excellent on comment card

[1200emily]

We were not asked once to put that on our Western Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy. On board for a week and our servers were so awesome! We sailed on the Dream in October 2021, and the servers continually asked us to give them excellent and it was awful! The cruise was only four days and it was nearly torture. The service wasn’t great on that trip, to the point where I questioned if Disney had lost its touch. The Fantasy crew was nothing less than perfection. We are sailing on the Dream over Memorial Day weekend and I’m terrified we’ll end up with the same servers.

Hi, here is a tip for your servers. You can request a server for your cruise. We had the head server Anik in 2018 and he was amazing, not sure if he is still there. Also, when you board the ship you can chat with the dining team on the app. I did this on the May 7 sailing of the Fantasy and was able to ask who my servers were. I was able to switch servers and to a different dining time. Best of luck!

 

[Cruising Girl]

We also request servers on the Fantasy. Our favorite server of all time has been Nelia Henry from St Lucia. She is beyond sunny all the time and loves us all from 6 months to 66!! I would advise anyone sailing on the fantasy to definitely request her!! You won't be disappointed!

 

[pklein09]

We just got back from Disney Dream 5/20-5/23 and were HOUNDED by the main dining staff (all three of them) so many times. I've never seen people so agressive.

Interesting....we also just got off the Disney Dream 5/20-5/23 and never had them mention the survey except to ask that we filled it out. We started in Royal Palace, went to Animators Palate (did not like the menu at all), and ended in Enchanted Garden. We had excellent service. What we noticed was that after asking for lemon with our water on the first night was not remembered as it had been on previous cruises. We chalked it up to it was a shorter cruise and we had always done 7 day cruises before.

 

[cwis]

What we noticed was that after asking for lemon with our water on the first night was not remembered as it had been on previous cruises.

Did you bring it to your wait staff?

(I totally get that you expressed just a minor concern, and that in now way you would have lowered their ratings because of this. Just felt it right to ask — hope you'll not get offended — because as always we're on a public board where people might be anxious about planning their own vacation, and felt maybe it would be a sensitive thing to add, just in case it happens to someone else, and they feel too shy to tell anyone.)

 

[pklein09]

Did you bring it to your wait staff?

(I totally get that you expressed just a minor concern, and that in now way you would have lowered their ratings because of this. Just felt it right to ask — hope you'll not get offended — because as always we're on a public board where people might be anxious about planning their own vacation, and felt maybe it would be a sensitive thing to add, just in case it happens to someone else, and they feel too shy to tell anyone.)

No, we didn't bring it to the wait staff. They work very hard, and this is a minor thing. We just asked for it every night, and they brought it. No harm, no foul.

I want to add that I did not care for the menu at Animator's Palate. I was going to order one of the "lighter options" that are always available. My server remembered that I liked my meal from the previous night and offered to bring me that again even though it wasn't offered in this restaurant. I took him up on his offer, and enjoyed the same dinner again.

 

[hrhdhd]

This is industry-wide practice and not going to stop.

Disagree. My last several cruises have been with Celebrity, and the servers and my stateroom attendants have never mentioned the post-cruise survey. There's a reference to it in the debarkation materials (something like, "Within the next week, please complete the survey you'll receive"). That's it.

 

[Disneygirlxo91]

Interesting....we also just got off the Disney Dream 5/20-5/23 and never had them mention the survey except to ask that we filled it out. We started in Royal Palace, went to Animators Palate (did not like the menu at all), and ended in Enchanted Garden. We had excellent service. What we noticed was that after asking for lemon with our water on the first night was not remembered as it had been on previous cruises. We chalked it up to it was a shorter cruise and we had always done 7 day cruises before.

The main animators palate menu is my least favorite. On our last 7 night cruise we booked palo for this night. There are some other menus I’m not a huge fan of but this one I cannot find anything I like on it.

 

[mousefan73]

We have always given excellent. if we had a server that was downright rude or totally off the whole sailing then we would adjust, hasnt happened. The way DCL makes it a non-secret that "excellent" is basically their "minimum" requirement for staff, then we adjust accordingly too. Our last server really did have it on the ball, once we apoloziged our food was taking too long, as when we took the hood off the plate he thought the meal didnt look right and asked for a replacement. I found that going a bit beyond.

 

[cwis]

when we took the hood off the plate he thought the meal didnt look right and asked for a replacement. I found that going a bit beyond.

They are into so much despair to get their ratings that I wonder if maybe, sometimes, going “too far” up to the point of “ackward” is not part of the plan. Just so guests “understand” how desperate they have to get the “excellent” ratings and everybody thinks “omg I feel their pain I'll give them what they ask for”.

Anyhow I hope that you had a wonderful time in the restaurants anyway!

 

[shananigans]

Hi, here is a tip for your servers. You can request a server for your cruise. We had the head server Anik in 2018 and he was amazing, not sure if he is still there. Also, when you board the ship you can chat with the dining team on the app. I did this on the May 7 sailing of the Fantasy and was able to ask who my servers were. I was able to switch servers and to a different dining time. Best of luck!

Thanks for the tips!

 

[Youneek1]

We were not asked once to put that on our Western Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy. On board for a week and our servers were so awesome! We sailed on the Dream in October 2021, and the servers continually asked us to give them excellent and it was awful! The cruise was only four days and it was nearly torture. The service wasn’t great on that trip, to the point where I questioned if Disney had lost its touch. The Fantasy crew was nothing less than perfection. We are sailing on the Dream over Memorial Day weekend and I’m terrified we’ll end up with the same servers.

We are sailing on the Fantasy June 4th. Would you mind sharing who your serving team was?

 

[legler2250]

Call me crazy but I think that the crew evaluations should come from robust corporate metrics and supervisor / peer evaluations. Relying upon the subjective and arbitrary 'opinions' of the traveler is not an accurate or reliable way to promote / evaluate. I don't want to be responsible for properly evaluating the crew when I see things only in a vacuum with no additional context.

 

[shananigans]

We are sailing on the Fantasy June 4th. Would you mind sharing who your serving team was?

We had Kendell, Ashang, and Adi. FABULOUS GROUP!!!!!!!!!!! I will be requesting them when we sail in April 2023, hopefully they are all still around!

 

[holula]

The main animators palate menu is my least favorite. On our last 7 night cruise we booked palo for this night. There are some other menus I’m not a huge fan of but this one I cannot find anything I like on it.

I agree even though I love the truffle pasta. For me it’s skippable on the Dream/Fantasy since I hate the Crush show too.

I’ve been on three other cruise lines and never had the hard sell I get of excellent I do on DCL. The last few cruises I had really excellent experienced teams and they didn’t push as much.

Honestly if you have a hold of platinum lanyard you have heard it all before. Just remind you on the last night. Done.

 

[tvguy]

Disagree. My last several cruises have been with Celebrity, and the servers and my stateroom attendants have never mentioned the post-cruise survey. There's a reference to it in the debarkation materials (something like, "Within the next week, please complete the survey you'll receive"). That's it.

We sailed on the Celebrity Eclipse in October 2019 and it was mentioned by both. But this was our first Celebrity cruise. Only thing I would mark Celebrity down for was their VERY hard sell to sign up for extra cost dining.

 

[CatsnDogs]

It could be that there are newer servers on the Dream and they need the positive reviews. When we were on the Dream last summer, our Asst Server was offered the opportunity to move to the Wish. She was amazing and I called it out on the survey.

We are small eaters, we graze throughout the day, and do not finish our food. We have seen the look of panic in the servers face. We do not eat seafood and found the remaining options on the Dream last summer were not good. We ended up skipping one of the dinners because we didn't want to deal with the pressure.

Btw, the last question on the survey says "did anyone pressure you to answer the questions positively", I left that blank.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

1.) you may have an excellent server yet not be thrilled with your food, but;

Nope. That is not the service standard. An excellent server will find you food that you consider excellent.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

We had Kendell, Ashang, and Adi. FABULOUS GROUP!!!!!!!!!!! I will be requesting them when we sail in April 2023, hopefully they are all still around!

Be careful in how you phrase your request. Serving teams change, so requesting all three together may lead to confusion on the part of the dining assignment team. Then they might simply ignore your request because they do not know which of the team members would be most important to you. We usually request either a particular head server (with the assumption that the head server will manage any shortcomings of the server/assistant server team assigned) or a server (since assistant servers do get moved around, and sometimes promoted to the server position). Making a single server request like this has worked for us, since we have usually confirmed that the requested crew member would still be onboard during our subsequent cruise.

 

[shananigans]

Be careful in how you phrase your request. Serving teams change, so requesting all three together may lead to confusion on the part of the dining assignment team. Then they might simply ignore your request because they do not know which of the team members would be most important to you. We usually request either a particular head server (with the assumption that the head server will manage any shortcomings of the server/assistant server team assigned) or a server (since assistant servers do get moved around, and sometimes promoted to the server position). Making a single server request like this has worked for us, since we have usually confirmed that the requested crew member would still be onboard during our subsequent cruise.

Great point! Kendell was the head server. Ashang was the server and Adi assistant server. I’ll consider that when making our request.

 

[Sleepyluke]

In our experience, if you have to keep asking me every night, sometimes multiple times per night about the excellent on the survey, you are not living up to the excellent. The best servers don't beat the dead horse every night, they are too busy taking care of you.