dolphingirl47

At this rate, they soon have no cruise directors left. I know two activities managers have just been promoted, but they seem to lose cruise directors quicker than they can replace them.

Corinna

I am not sure when the rotation on Quantum occured, but we were on the ship from December 1st to 6th and Captain Erik was in charge.

Corinna

I did not get very far on Quantum. The activity manager was listed as Pan Pan. Not sure if male or female as I never saw the person.

Corinna

Unfortunately I never managed to find out how long Paul will be on Quantum for. 

Corinna

I got on Quantum today. The cruise director is Paul Rutter. Will try to find out more tomorrow and post an update when we get to Nagasaki on Monday.

Corinna

I am getting on Quantum on Saturday and will see what I can find out.

Corinna

I did this on Quantum last year and we are doing it again when we go back on Quantum in two weeks' time. All in all, it took about 2 hours and that included the galley tour. We got canapés with the first glass of prossecco and then everybody got the same soup and salad. For us that was a coconut seafood soup with ginger and lime and a Salad Nicoise. We then had a choice of 6 main courses. As this was an ex-China sailing, three of them were western dishes and three Chinese. The western dishes were Pork Normandine, Beef Tenderloin or duck. I had the pork and it was absolutely delicious. We were encouraged to try multiple main courses, but the portions were quite big so we just had one each. Dessert was the same for everybody again, which was a chocolate cake.

Corinna

Who has sailed with Captain Rick before? Checked the rotations and if I go back to Symphony next summer, then he will be there. Had Captain Rob this year who was great. Came across more subdued than I expected but is very funny and hosts a very fascinating Captain's Corner session rather than canned jokes like some of the others (not mentioning any names).

We sailed with him on our Transpacific cruise last year. He is a real character and very approachable.

Corinna

Not sure I understand how the rotations work. I'm sure someone has explained it on this thread before, but I couldn't find it.

 

We will be on the Vision October TA and was hoping Captain Marek would still be on board.....???

 

Thanks

 

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Usually the captains work for 10 weeks and then have 10 weeks off. Somebody posted that Captain Marek joined Vision on 6th August so if he does the standard 10 weeks, he will go on vacation on or around 15th October.

Corinna

Michele Scarpato is still on Symphony.

Corinna

Anyone have current info for Explorer, Ovation and Symphony? Handovers are expected "late July".

My boss got on Symphony today. I will ask him who is the cruise director when I speak to him tomorrow.

Corinna

Thanks for keeping the list, Joe. I have always enjoyed reading along. Thanks Donna for taking over.

Corinna

As the ship is off to China, perhaps that would be a good compromise for him - getting a new ship, but staying away from the Caribbean market. I heard that the Chinese care less about the CD, particularly with the language barrier. Apparently that's why Mike Hunnerup is on OV for Asia.

And by all intents and purposes, this is working out OK. He still won't win a Cruise Director of the Year award, but he seemed a lot more animated than he was on our transatlantic in 2016 and I saw more of him in 5 days than I had seen on him in 13 days on that cruise. Now the activities manager is a different matter. I could not even tell you who she was.

Corinna

I am on Ovation at the moment and the activities manager is Kitty. I have not seen her yet and therefore do not know when she started or how long she is here for.

Corinna

I would love to see Joe Chambers be promoted to Cruise Director. When we had him on Explorer last year, he was very proactive, visible and personable. He was also extremely funny.

I also really rated Mark Rous and think he has huge potential. When I cruised with him, he was fairly new in AM role. He was still running the show chiefly because the CD could not be asked.

Corinna

You may have wondered what the recent questions have been all about.

I have had a change of heart in the past year and actually want to become a Cruise Director myself. Things on land aren't working out and I want to go where I feel my passion truly is.

Therefore, this leads me onto my next point - The reason that I cancelled my plans to do the Symphony Transatlantic was because I had planned that as a perfect opportunity to orientate myself with what the Staff do and essentially gain a better knowledge of the job, and with Bobby running the show, it wouldn't work well. Not because I am a complainer as others claimed.

 

I will continue to run this list and fingers crossed that I am successful! I have got plenty to offer the CD role and some new ideas that I am developing. I also recognize that I have to be CS then AM first, but CD is the goal! :D

Appreciate everything that you all do for the list,

Joe

I will keep my fingers crossed for you. I hope you achieve your goal.

Corinna

He seemed quite popular when he did the Australian sailings on Voyager and Legend.

Maybe they should send him to a USA based ship, as he seems like a young guy with plenty of potential as a CD. Being stuck in a harder market like China should be reserved for people like Fang Lixin (who is Chinese) or the likes of Mike Hunnerup, who are already invisible and that would let the Mandarin speaking AM run the show. BB would be another good option for China, as he is the closet equivalent to Mike that I have experienced.

I would agree with this assessment.

Corinna

Graham gets a reputation for being one of Royal's best. I heard that he was stepping back a bit, but the HD on EX seems to want him back full-time.

I had read only good things about him before our Explorer Transpacific last year and had high hopes that he may be a second Joff Eaton. I always suspecting that as he was halfway through what was supposed to be his final contract, he was coasting a little. He seemed friendly and personable enough when you saw him around the ship, but his AM Joe Chambers did most of the headline events. Now he definitely stood out. He was a complete riot and I would love to have him as a cruise director.

I haven't heard much about Bill or Chris, mainly because neither seem to be based out of the USA, which is where most people who frequent this list seem to sail from.

Again, both are friendly and personable, but low key. I think Chris may be held back by the fact that he does not speak Mandarin on a ship that mainly has Chinese passengers. That makes shining in his role a touch difficult.

Corinna

I am a huge Joff fan. Given the number of Brits that sail out of Barcelona on Oasis Class ships, he would be perfect for it. Just watched some clips of him on YouTube and he is hilarious. Abe Hughes is my other favorite and I would nominate him for the US inaugural season. There are other good CD's with Royal, but those guys are the top two that I have met.

I have yet to come across Abe, but would like to. We loved Joff on the Ovation Suez Canal cruise. Other than him, we had Bill Brunkhorst on Splendour, Graham Seymour on Explorer and Chris Brown on Quantum, who were all nice enough and I would not mind cruising with them again if they happened to be on a ship I want to cruise on, but they also do not really stand out to me. And of course there was Mike Hunnerup on Navigator... You know what I think of him. I can't believe we have only done 5 Royal Caribbean cruises. It feels much more than this.

Corinna

I would second Joff. Other than him, I have not had any outstanding cruise directors on Royal Caribbean.

Corinna

We are on Ovation on June 6th and were also supposed to stop at Boracay. I have to say for me the ship is the main reason for going and this cruise is part of a bigger Hong Kong and China trip. I just checked my booking and Boracay was replaced with Manila.

Corinna

We had a W guarantee for our Quantum cruise in December and were assigned a Family Junior Suite.

Corinna

Mariner definitely goes to dry dock after arriving in Spain. The Global Odyssee was supposed to have three legs (Singapore to Dubai; Dubai to Barcelona and Barcelona to Miami), but the Barcelona to Miami leg was cancelled to accommodate the dry dock. I am only booked on the first leg, but there are a lot of people on our roll call that were booked on all three and are affected by the cancellation.

Corinna

today as in Dec 15?

Yes, we were on Quantum from December 9th to 15th.

Corinna

We got off Quantum today and had Captain Charles. Maybe the rotation is happening today.

Corinna