You’ve got answers, and I’ve got some questions for you.

Just a quick morning blog to wipe the cobwebs from my mind. I thought I would answer some questions that have piled up. In the next blog I am going to “blog on” about balancing family life with ship life as many have asked about that.

Any advice for people who bring their laptop or other wireless device onboard? Yes in fact I do have. Don’t whine if the connection is slow. ;0) Honestly, wireless onboard is pretty good, and less restricted than other internet in the I-cafe, at least on Princess Ships. You can bring and use any wireless device. You have to be in the wi-fi zone which will be in and around the main atrium (on Princess) but I know on RCI and NCL they have alternate wi-fi zones not around the atrium so it’s more cozy for surfing. In any case don’t expect the same speed as you get at home. If you use your laptop at your company go see your IT guys at work FIRST and tell them you will want to hook up to the ships internet and to turn off your firewalls or anything else specific to your company network.

How many days on and off do crew get? We don’t, we work every day for four to ten months depending on your nationality and contract length. For example I do six month contracts, Philippine’s do ten. You only get a day off if your sick and then you’re confined to your cabin. Medical treatment onboard for crew is excellent and free. If your desperately sick and need to go home it’s all covered by the company and when your well again they put you back to work on another ship.

Does the Captain actually read those letters to the Captain? Yes and no. Most letters to the Captain are complaints from passengers who think the Captain runs the ship alone. Technically he does, however only as the Master of the vessel because of maritime law. He is in charge of safety and that is a huge responsibility. All our lives are his problem. But the operation of the ship as a whole requires many senior officers. So yes he reads them, he has to, but he is probably just going to hand it down to the person in charge of the department you’re complaining about. For example if you went to the Pursers Desk and screamed and yelled and didn’t get what you wanted, then you wrote the Captain complaining about your lack of satisfaction, that letter is only going to end up with the PSD ( Passenger Services Director) who runs the hotel. Basically right back where you started because he is going to give it to the First Purser (second in charge of the hotel) and he is going to give it to the Senior Assistant Purser in charge of passenger relations or the Pursers Desk, and they are going to give it to the Assistant Purser (Front Desk Manager) who is probably the person you already screamed at. So like I said in a past blog, the desk holds all the cards if you have a hotel complaint. If you’re writing the Captain about other things, like safety questions or ship comments he will hand it down another chain of people. In any event someone will always get back to you, just maybe not who you wanted. If you have an absolutely outstanding Captain like we do on the Pacific Sun right now, he might actually pick up the phone and call you himself to answer your questions. It depends on the man (or woman).

Can I grease a palm and get a bridge or engine room tour? No. Not going to happen. Not ever. Don’t waste your breath or ink on it. Give it up. Let it go. Forget it. Move on.

If I give cash to a crewmember for tip do they have to share it? Yes, they should share it. Go back to my blog about tipping. Just let the automatic tipping do its job. It’s fair for everyone that way and does not cause troubles. If you want to do automatic gratuity AND still give a ten spot to “Joe” for whatever reason then feel free to do so. Will Joe put it in his pocket or give it to his supervisor for the gratuity pool? Hummmm…. Anyone’s guess. ;0)

How much do crew pay for things onboard? Well, there are too many things to list. My first answer should be “too much” but that might not be fair. We are a source of revenue for the company just like passengers but we do get discounts and sometimes free tours if we go along in a “guide” capacity assisting along the way which is not so bad. If you do a free tour as crew you also have to complete a company assessment and review of the tour for the Shorex Manager so there is value in them allowing the odd free escort tour. Keep in mind we only pay for things like alcoholic drinks, or items from the gift shops. All our food (unlimited amount), lodging and etc are free. It’s actually a pretty good deal.

Someone also asked me about the Dawn Princess and what I think of her because they are going on her soon. I love the Sun class. That’s what we call that “style” of ship. The Dawn, Sun and Sea are the most unique looking (coolest looking) cruise ships around I think. They are beautiful inside as well. They are neither the newest out there, nor the newest in the Princess fleet but they are well maintained and I think you made a good choice. Wherever you stop you will see your ship stand out from the rest and everyone will come and look at it. It’s kind of fun. My favorite bar onboard is the wheelhouse. It has such a nice feel to it. From a crew point of view, everyone loves those ships. But that’s assuming we also like the PSD, Captain and other senior officers. For us it’s who is onboard that can make a ship a great contract or a hellish one!

Ok so that’s some Q&A for today. Keep your questions coming; I find it interesting what people actually want to know about the cruising world. It is such a huge industry but still such starvation for real information. Funny that!

Venice anyone?

So many great questions are being asked in the posts, and I will answer them all in tomorrows blog. Today I had already written this blog in answer to an earlier question.

A reader asked me where my favorite place or area for cruising is. And it took me almost 3 nanoseconds to decide on the Mediterranean. The med is the most amazing itinerary all because of three stops, Monte Carlo, Venice and Istanbul. I love Venice, if you have never been to Venice then I am afraid I must insist you stop living your life immediately, mortgage your house ( again), sell your car, borrow from your friends, send your kids off to Grandma’s house and do whatever else you have to do and get yourself to Venice by ship. Do it now.

There is nothing like sailing up the Canal Della Giudecca and gliding elegantly past St. Marks square on the deck of a one hundred ten thousand ton floating work of art. I once joined the Grand Princess (started my contract) in Venice. It was my first time there. I was flying in from Vancouver and my flight route took me around the world about fifty times (crew flights are free, but not always convenient) so my total travel time was around twenty seven hours including an 8 hour lay over in London. I got in at about 6:00pm. I was picked up by the local agent (all cruise lines employ local “agents” who assist with everything from obtaining ship clearance to picking up crew and passengers from the airports) and driven at incredibly high speeds down pencil thin liberally cornered Italian roads from the airport to Venice itself (in a beautiful Mercedes e-class I fell in love with, wish I could afford one!). This was before I was married with children so I didn’t have the same fear for my life as I do now and I actually enjoyed the high risk ride.

Instead of taking me to a hotel to rest for the night and joining the ship in the morning, they took me directly to the ship as it was doing an overnight in Venice (normal for this itinerary). I guess they wanted to save money on hotel rooms since the ship was already in port. This ticked me off a bit because as crew, we relish the overnight in a hotel before the joining day. You can rest up, clean up, and get into the right mind set for another six months at sea. You NEED this time.

We arrived on the pier at 8:00pm and I went directly onboard. I was joining the Grand for my third time so I knew the people and the ship very well. I went to report to the PSD (Passenger Services Director, the Hotel Manager and four stripe executive officer) that I had arrived (it’s a ship custom to do this, he's the boss) and then to crew office where I got keys to a cabin for the night. I was SO tired I could hardly stand up. Instead of sleeping however my friends grabbed me and took me off the ship with them to go into Venice for a welcome aboard Chinese dinner (Venice has great Chinese, and if your on a ship that is doing an overnight ANYWHERE it is an abhorrent crime for crew if they don't get off and enjoy the town. We rarely get to be off the ship at night as overnights are so rare). Before I even knew what was going on we were off the ship and onboard a Vaporetto (a water taxi, because Venice’s roads are all canals).

It was amazing to me, riding in this water taxi past all the amazing architecture of Venice. I couldn’t wrap my head around anything I was so over the top from the long journey, so I just looked around and went with the flow. The water taxi finally pulled up to a station, we disembarked (got off) and walked about one hundred feet and then suddenly, quite suddenly, I was simply overwhelmed with what I was seeing. It was almost 10:30pm now, I had reached the ship two hours before and had been traveling more than twenty hours before that… and suddenly without warning here I was standing in the middle of St. Marks Square surrounded by palaces, cathedrals, giant angels and a thousand years of history. It was so stunning and surreal and overwhelming I just stood there. If I had not been surrounded by my friends I would have just sat down in the middle of the square and wept at the magnitude of it all.

Eventually I got control of myself. The Chinese was EXCELLENT and the GRAPPA and LIMONCELLO were also excellent, a little too excellent now that I think about it. So excellent in fact that after about five of each it seemed logical and sane for us to swim the canal back to the ship at 3:00am rather than take a water taxi. But that’s another story.

Really, trust me on this. Go to Venice by cruise ship. And when your there buy a carnival mask, drink the Grappa and Limoncello and eat Chinese. There is nothing like it.

Employee treatment, stiffing on tipping and getting a little special something.

I had a comment on my last entry that asked three questions; what's treatment of third world employees like, how many passengers stiff on tipping and how DO you get those extra little considerations?

Well, wow.. That’s three really big questions. I could go on and on and on about employee treatment, because I have only ever seen Princess treat their employees with incredible respect and fairness and it bothers me a bit to read these so called "news reports" or comments from disgruntled crew that are essentially lies.

You will always hear stories about the "below deck sweatshops" and employees that work 18 hours a day, eat a bowl of gruel and then sleep on a mat in a room with 20 other crew all sharing a bathroom. It's just not true. Maybe years ago and maybe still on some third world country cruise line. But today’s legitimate cruise lines, the big ones like Carnival, Holland America, NCL, RCI and Princess... it just doesn't happen.

Yes, it’s true that regular crew share cabins. Usually they share 2 per cabin, sometimes up to 4 per cabin in a two bunk bed design room depending on the age (design) of the ship and the cruise line. Yes, they share a bathroom but only with one other cabin. Basically imagine two crew cabins with a bathroom in between so each cabin has a door into the bathroom. It is no worse than sharing the bathroom in your house when you have a house guest in my opinion. And now keep in mind that this is only SOME crew. Most crew shares a cabin with only one other person. I won't go into what positions get what for perks or do what right now as I was going to blog on about that later.

It is also true that some crew get paid very small wages. HOWEVER! They are positions that get paid out of the gratuity pool, and the gratuity pool pays them very well. In fact most people who are part of the gratuity pool ( as an officer I am not part of it) get paid MORE than I do, and I get paid pretty well.

NOW WAIT! Before you start going on and on about how it's unfair and the company should pay a fair wage and the passengers should not be expected to pay gratuity and etc.. There is an entire economic WORLD involved here. Yes, sure, the cruise line could raise the wages of fifteen thousand crew and then pass that cost onto the cruise ticket and then nobody could afford to cruise... there are many little and big things to consider BEFORE you start calling the cruise lines evil for paying some crew low wages and cutting them a BIG share of the gratuity pool. I am NOT an expert on the finances of the cruise lines, but I know it's not an evil practice. There is no Mr. Burns sitting at a desk rubbing his hands together and counting gold coins and muttering "excellent" every time a passenger pays a gratuity. Maybe they could pay a bit higher wages, maybe they are trying to save cost on a passenger ticket.. maybe allot of things. But it's not bad practice. Those crew in the gratuity pool are HAPPY to be in it, they make good money. I wish I WAS IN IT!! I have four children! A room steward normally makes more than me! Yes, they work long, long hours and they work very hard, and they are trying hard to earn your gratuity. They DO earn it. But I believe the gratuity system works and keeps costs down and the crew makes more money on that system than they would if the cruise lines raised wages and eliminated passenger gratuity. If you asked any crew member would he rather a higher salary or gratuity pool system? There is no doubt what they would choose.

Now keep in mind, if you DO ask your room steward that question... you might get a sob story answer. It's actually against company policy for this to happen, and it is very rare, but crew have been known to make their lives and wages sound relatively...um.."pathetic" in order to inspire higher gratuity. I am not saying this will happen to you, and on Princess it hardly ever happens, but it could. If you just stick to either the recommended tipping guidelines or just leave the automatic tipping (in operation on all Princess ships and other major cruise lines like NCL) in place you can sleep easy knowing you did the fair thing when it came to tipping your people.

How often do passengers stiff crew on gratuity? Not as often as you might think. I would guess about 10% or around that. They usually have themselves "removed" from the auto gratuity system and tell the people at the desk "we would rather tip in person with cash".

By the way, should you just get bad service and not want to pay because of that, then tell that to the desk as well and fill out a comment card. We read them. It’s important we know.

How DO you get those extra perks? Well, there is allot of things you can do but the main thing in my opinion is to befriend the Maitre'd. Find out in advance who he is, where he is from. Take him a bottle of your city or towns local wine as a gift and see what happens in return. The best place to get excellent service is the dining rooms onboard these ships, and if the Maitre'd likes you your service will be absolutely outstanding. If he does not like you because you screamed at him over your seating times or something else very silly, you will be lucky to see a hot steak on your table ;0). Actually,the service will be good even if you do yell at the Maitre'd, but trust me, make friends with him and it will be memorable. Of course being related to the Captain will also get you stellar service, but greasing the Maitre'd will work for the rest of us.

Just one thing more on treatment of crew and I will end this afternoons blog. Go online (I have a Princess link on this page) and take a look at a good high resolution picture of the Grand Princess, or Golden Princess, Or Diamond Princess. See on the very front of the ship, on the bow, there is a pool and two Jacuzzi’s? Passengers ask us all the time how to get to these exclusive rest zones, how to get all the way up front to swim or soak under the sky. The answer is, as a passenger you can't. Those facilities are for crew only. All crew.

Nice eh?? :0)