Booked RCI cruise for July now not liking what I read

[Guest]

In my cruising experience (DCL, NCL, MSC), they all are trying to hard sell you stuff. They instruct their staff to hard sell on everything.
The worse is actually with DCL, the servers will always beg you to give them an excellent rating on the last night. Anything other than excellent, they will get fired or punished or whatever. Now, I hate to be told what rating to give but on the other hand I don't want to cause them any trouble so in the end, I just decide not to fill-in the questionnaire !

[Dinglebert]

Thanks for all the replies. The thoughts on the other forum where I first read this was that RCI have in the past 6 months or so become more forward with their upselling. The satisfaction questionaiire I will wait and see on. We are doing mytime dining and so will have a different server most meals rather than the same one. The whole point of these surveys is to find out where companies can improve not to be told they are already perfect! They become pointless if people are not honest. Equally I would suggest they are a waste of time. As any read of trip advisor will show people think differently about the same thing.

[JudeB]

We did My time dining on our Greek Island cruise with RCI, and it was great! We had the same server the first two nights, but after that it was different every night, mainly because we arrived at different times each evening. Only on the night before the last was the satisfaction questionnaire mentioned, but not in a pushy way. I wouldn't let the thought of upselling put you off, it certainly didn't even register as bothersome to us and definitely wouldn't put us off booking RCI again.

[JessBlu]

Agree the servers on DCL really push the questionnaire on the last evening, quite uncomfortable.

[jas72]

We are also going on RCI in July from Southampton.

I will expect some sales pitch then but with 4000 people onboard I don't expect them to hang around after being told no.

[Dinglebert]

Originally Posted by jas72

We are also going on RCI in July from Southampton.

I will expect some sales pitch then but with 4000 people onboard I don't expect them to hang around after being told no.

See more...

Thats not the only problem. They apparently have goldfish memories and therefore approach you everytime you pass.

[bonnies mum]

We were on Royal Princess in April and the hard sell was awful. At dinner 1 night we were asked many times if we wanted a Lemoncello - no thanks can you bring me my dinner first.
Couple at nearby table never said no and ended up wasted by the end of dinner though they probably had a lot of wine too.
Went on Regal Princess in November - no hard sell but seemed to have a lot less staff.

[JAF]

Originally Posted by Dinglebert

Thats not the only problem. They apparently have goldfish memories and therefore approach you everytime you pass.

See more...

They do not have goldfish memories as goldfish actually do have reasonable memories. Found this out from our marine biologist son. However, as a frequent cruiser we do find that cruise lines are getting worse at trying to up-sell. Photographs as soon as you dock in a port - we always manage to walk around them, those who insist on taking one on formal nights all we do is have a look but never purchase, those trying to sell drinks - we are teetotal and don't drink soda when asked if we want a non alcoholic package. We find it is quite easy to bat them away and have been known to tell them if they have already asked us.