Comment Cards - The Hard Sell

[DVCjj]

My adult daughter keeps hounding us to go on a Disney cruise (only been on one Carnival 25 years ago) as their/our winter condo is a stone’s throw from the Canaveral dock. They know we think the ships are very cool as we pass them or eat around there many, many times when snowbirding.

This thread has opened my eyes that, because I DESPISE…..truly despise harassment and high pressure of any kind, cruising is not for me. I expected more from Disney. I’m DVC, AP snd everything in between but it’s obvious cruising is not for me. I’m stressed just reading this thread but thanks for helping me make a decision. I feel relieved.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

My adult daughter keeps hounding us to go on a Disney cruise (only been on one Carnival 25 years ago) as their/our winter condo is a stone’s throw from the Canaveral dock. They know we think the ships are very cool as we pass them or eat around there many, many times when snowbirding.

This thread has opened my eyes that, because I DESPISE…..truly despise harassment and high pressure of any kind, cruising is not for me. I expected more from Disney. I’m DVC, AP snd everything in between but it’s obvious cruising is not for me. I’m stressed just reading this thread but thanks for helping me make a decision. I feel relieved.

Whoa, in no way would their silly survey stop me from cruising but to each his own.

 

[Kingkonig]

Of course, if a company really cared about feedback, they would take the time to do qualitative analysis on comments instead of just quantitative on the ratings. Alright I'll get off my survey/data analysis soapbox now, lol.

I mean, they kind of do allow for it on the email survey post-cruise. I'd imagine that for the cruise itself, they'll likely just scan the survey and then it gets uploaded to a database, where on-shore staff will analyze the data - it is much easier to scan datapoints of 1-5 than it is to OCR handwriting and try and convert it to a text datapoint. I'm sure they do qualitative analysis on the cruise, but quantitative will get you the most respondents, and requires the fewest data analysts to support. If you have 2500 on-ship surveys per ship per cruise, and then another 125 online surveys per ship per cruise, it is a lot easier to support.

 

[RedHead0186]

My adult daughter keeps hounding us to go on a Disney cruise (only been on one Carnival 25 years ago) as their/our winter condo is a stone’s throw from the Canaveral dock. They know we think the ships are very cool as we pass them or eat around there many, many times when snowbirding.

This thread has opened my eyes that, because I DESPISE…..truly despise harassment and high pressure of any kind, cruising is not for me. I expected more from Disney. I’m DVC, AP snd everything in between but it’s obvious cruising is not for me. I’m stressed just reading this thread but thanks for helping me make a decision. I feel relieved.

I will say I've been on several Disney cruise and never once have I been bothered or harassed about it. Sometimes my servers said nothing, other times they would politely give a short spiel on the last night. But never once did I hear about it more than once on a particular cruise, and I never was bothered by it in the slightest.

Just providing an alternative perspective. Since this thread is about the hard sell on the comment cards, I'm not sure it's the best place to get unbiased information about that (not faulting anyone, as everyone is of course sharing their experience-and people are always more likely to share negative experiences than positive ones). But for every person that has been harassed by this is another who likely hasn't.

Of course, there are lots of reasons to cruise or not to cruise, so you have to decide what is best for you. But personally I love cruising and would hate to think that the hard sell on comment cards was the only reason someone decided not to try a Disney cruise.

 

[DCL Repeaters]

That was the case as well for our WBPC on the Wonder last year. It was our 25th Disney cruise and by far the best ever, with no survey harassment. We went to GS to adjust our tips higher and while I was being helped, another guest in the line next to us was there for the same thing. I didnt think to add a sheet of paper. Do you pack a stapler?

I go to Guest Services and ask them to staple my additional page of comments to the survey and then I drop it in the survey box. The drop box for the survey is right there at Guest Services.

 

[MickeyMouseLove]

Just off Fantasy (10th cruise). Server and assistant each gave 5-minute spiels about comment cards the last two nights. About the importance of Excellent over Very Good. One said they needed the rating to get a promotion and to be able to send money to their sick mother. Rest of my table mates were embarrassed. It was very uncomfortable to sit through. One said it amounted to begging. I joked ‘what happens if they don’t get an excellent rating do they get thrown overboard.’

I’ve never seen it that hard before. Usually they mention a little bit and that’s it. State room hostess didn’t say anything. The thing is both of our servers were excellent and I was going to give them that rating anyway. Has something changed? Or was it just these two in particular or is this a trend? I’ve never seen such desperation before. It was indeed begging. And I noticed on the comment card they don’t ask anymore if you felt pressured into giving your rating. Interesting.

I got of the Fantasy a few weeks ago (my first Disney cruise) and experienced the same thing (super hard sell the last two nights all about how they are affected, etc.--although nothing about a sick mother). I somehow missed hearing about this before the cruise, so I was surprised at how long it went on. It's just inappropriate and seemed so out of place. The servers were great and felt like friends, so it was extra weird.

I was unpleasantly surprised by this and some other aspects of the cruise--I expected a Disney cruise to be different than other cruises I've taken, but, except for the Disney beauty and characters everywhere, it was basically the same experience as the few other cruises I've been on (Carnival and RCL). Although I think there was actually more begging on DCL than any cruise I've been on. Besides the dining survey hard sell, my room steward was even worse-- I only saw him for a minute on embarkation day and the last night in the hallway when he was begging me for a tip by saying repeatedly that I wouldn't see him again so if I had anything to give him now would be the time. I later found out that he hounded my mother that same night in the hallway begging for a tip. I was embarrassed and irritated. (Side note: on every cruise I've been on, I almost felt like I saw my room steward too much- multiple times a day, always super friendly. So I was really surprised that I never saw my steward after the first day (except the last night) on my Disney cruise (and both times he was super stressed and sweaty). Is this normal on DCL? Just curious.

This is all really a shame. For the enormous price tag we all pay for a Disney cruise, it shouldn't have any begging from the employees. And it's an extra shame because it leaves one with a bad feeling--I marveled all week at seeing how hard the workers were all working (and what long hours they work--seeing them all at different venues throughout the day), and then to encounter begging at the end not only was inappropriate for me as a high-paying customer, it made me feel bad like Disney was treating them poorly (whether or not that is the case). I've never felt this way at any Disney experience on land or any other vacation experience that I can think of. A mixture of sad and mad and surprised and disappointed.

 

[Kwami]

Besides the dining survey hard sell, my room steward was even worse-- I only saw him for a minute on embarkation day and the last night in the hallway when he was begging me for a tip by saying repeatedly that I wouldn't see him again so if I had anything to give him now would be the time. I later found out that he hounded my mother that same night in the hallway begging for a tip. I was embarrassed and irritated. (Side note: on every cruise I've been on, I almost felt like I saw my room steward too much- multiple times a day, always super friendly. So I was really surprised that I never saw my steward after the first day (except the last night) on my Disney cruise (and both times he was super stressed and sweaty). Is this normal on DCL? Just curious.

That's definitely not normal. I've never had a room host even suggest a tip or a survey grade, much less beg for one. Ever. And they're always around. Nearly every time I'm in the hallway, there's the room host saying hello and asking us how our day has been. They're some of the nicest people!

I can't compare them to staff on other cruise lines because I haven't sailed with other cruise lines. I do know that most of the other big lines have reduced room cleaning to once per day, though. Disney still has twice a day service.

 

[Remysister28]

Wow. I guess I was lucky on the Wonder although my bff and I each had our own staterooms with verandah. We asked our friendly host to remove the divider between our verandahs and enjoyed room service and our time with our MDR servers who never mentioned the comment cards until the end and it was only a gentle reminder. We had an experienced team and we were able to get to know them. I loved our room steward’s attention to our requests everyday.