We made it home safely from our cruise last night. We had an amazing time, and it was wonderful to not have access to a computer for four days. I need to do that more often. (Although when I opened my Google Reader I had 198 new posts. So I quickly closed that out to save for a rainy day.) :)
I've got lots of fun pictures to show you later on in the week when I get them all uploaded. But today I wanted to share with you all a story of what Peppy and I experienced our first morning in the dining room for breakfast. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. And not in a good way either.
Peppy and I woke up fairly early and made it to the dining room right as it opened. So we were able to be seated at a two-top, as opposed to sitting at a larger table with other families we didn't know. A couple minutes later two 40 something year old men were seated next to us at a four-top. Peppy and I were checking out the menu, when the two men start loudly joking about how they should have held hands when they walked in, pretending like they were gay. Once of them even proceeded to proudly tell a story of how he and his family were having dinner out one night, and were seated by an openly gay couple. He said that he was so very offended, and immediately asked to be moved to a different table.
Peppy and I hadn't said anything out loud, but our facial expressions were having a conversation of their very own.
Now, I don't care what your opinion about anything is. We are all entitled to our own. But I absolutely hate when someone is openly racist/sexist/homophobic/whatever. He was practically gloating. And he was SO loud. We could hear every single thing he was saying, without even trying to listen.
A few minutes later one of the wives comes in and orders. By this time the dining room is beginning to get crowded, and the wife calls over her server (literally yells him over) and demands that he bring her extra bacon. She is beginning to complain to her male companions that she ordered hash-browns and was brought hash-rounds instead. (They don't even serve shredded hash-browns anyway. It's always been that deep friend delicious little circle of potato.)
Not even a minute after she yelled out for her extra order of bacon her husband calls over the Maitre D assistant and says (verbatim,) "This food is all right. But our server SUCKS. I mean, he is HORRIBLE." And then he begins to berate their server for absolutely no reason, when suddenly he stops what he is saying and looks at the assistant Maitre D and says, "Wait....Can you even speak English?"
What a rude and horrible person!
Having worked in various restaurants for a number of years, I am well aware that this type of person exists. And it just makes me....sad.
If you've been a reader of my blog for a while, you probably already know that I am an extremely passive person. I would rather avoid confrontation, because I usually feel that whatever it is is just not worth it. But Peppy is fed up by the English speaking comment and says that we should leave now before he ends up saying something he might regret.
Peppy and I have both read cruise memoirs about how difficult it is to work on a cruise ship kitchen. They work ten months without seeing their families, and often work 16-18 hour days. There are hierarchies, and they take complaints very seriously. He could even lose shifts over something like that. So we marched ourselves up the hostess stand and told her exactly what happened. (We had the same server at our table, and he was nothing but sweet and attentive.) And anyone who wasn't full of themselves could see how suddenly busy the restaurant had become. Sorry she had to wait two whole minutes to get an extra FREE serving of bacon.
//end rant//
I just wanted to share that little experience chock full of intolerance, because it's really been floating around in my head. Other than that, I don't have anything negative to say about our trip. We had an amazing time, and I can't wait to tell you more about it! I actually started typing this up last night after the kids were in bed. And then I fell asleep at the keyboard. :)
14 comments:
wow, how rude. :( I'm glad the rest of your trip was enjoyable!
ugh. I hate when people act like idiots in public places. I have to work hard not to say things to them.
Ughhh that hurt my soul. What really angers me about people like that is that people who are the loudest about the hate and intolerance are usually people throwing religion and other beliefs in your face, AND whining when they feel that their rights are being trampled on. UGH a thousand times.
I'm so glad you stood up for the guy! We also prefer to avoid confrontation but have no problem talking to a manager when we see something like that! I've asked for managers before just to let them know that we really liked our server and thought they did an excellent job. I definitely like to let people know when their employees are wronging me or someone else, but I also like to let them know when their employees deserve praise.
I despise people that act that way. It is saddening and frustrating all at once. Some people have the sense of entitlement for no reason, when in actuality they are merely jackasses. Ugh!
On another note, I'm glad that you two had a fantastic trip. I can't wait to see the photos.
I always wonder where the sense of entitlement comes from with people who behave that way. And then I wonder what things they have going on in their personal lives that make them so insecure that they need to be so loudly intolerant of other people. You're right, it's just sad.
I love that you said nice things about the server, though! It's such a simple-seeming thing to do but it can make someone's job that day sooo much better.
You just know people like that are miserable deep down inside. That's the thing that gets me through it, knowing that.
It's amazing to me that people can live their lives so rudely and not think a single thing of it. I'm glad you both spoke up about it though. I would have done the same. I'm glad the rest of your trip was great!
I'm glad you stood up for the server and that you did it in a safe and smart way. I think you handled yourselves beautifully and I am sure that your comments helped to counteract those of the other guests. Intolerance is a rough thing to change but every small step helps. Well done.
People just disgust me. I mean if you are going to act like an ass at home - fine. But out in public and act like that. Ugh. They probably wouldn't understand what customer care work is.
That breaks my heart that he was soooo rude to those poor people!! I wish I could find where he works and do that to him... Not that it would help... But maybe he'd think twice ... Just sad
I will never fully understand anyone like that. People! We are all just people! Why do some of those people have to make life so much more uncomfortable for other people? Ugh.
I think there is way more to their first initial comments about pretending to be gay. Sounds to me like over compensating for having gay tendencies.
This story made me sick. I can't believe some people. Thank you for writing about this and thank you for taking care of the waiter.
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