Cruise staff Posted May 17, 2012 #1 Share Posted May 17, 2012 Hello there CC members, Just thought that I introduce myself to the members of the board. I have been lurking around reading threads and post with regards to certain policy and procedures regarding cruiselines. Would it be nice to hear it from the staff perspective? Well here I am. As for me, I work as a Junior Assistant Purser which some may or may not know is the front desk agent of the ship. So I pretty much have heard and dealt with anything and everything that happens on the ship. Due to legal and privacy concern of the line I work for, I am not able to disclose the company that I work for. I hope all board members understand my position and would appreciate it if no one ask me. From time to time, certain things I post may give you clues to which line I work for. Destinations I have been too are Alaska, Mexico, Hawaii, UAE, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, French Polynesia, Malaysia and Singapore. So you can imagine places that I prefer more than others. I am currently on vacation but will be flying to Europe where I will be spending time there before heading across the transatlantic and doing the USA east coast for a month or so then heading further south doing the amazing Caribbean run. :cool: If anyone have any questions, feel free to shoot me a message and I will try and answer to the best of my knowledge. Sorry for the long winded post mods. :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmwnc1959 Posted May 17, 2012 #2 Share Posted May 17, 2012 WELCOME to Cruise Critic! :D Your personal insight and advice from behind the scenes can prove quite valuable here. I had a friend that was a Junior Assistant Purser on Princess back in the 90's and she said it was quite a challenging job dealing with all sorts of people in all sorts of moods and attitudes. A job I would not want. :cool: I am sure there will be many threads here in the future that you'll be able to chime in on and give us your thoughts. Most important don't sacrifice your job security in the process. ;) Safe journeys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruise staff Posted May 17, 2012 Author #3 Share Posted May 17, 2012 WELCOME to Cruise Critic! :D Your personal insight and advice from behind the scenes can prove quite valuable here. I had a friend that was a Junior Assistant Purser on Princess back in the 90's and she said it was quite a challenging job dealing with all sorts of people in all sorts of moods and attitudes. A job I would not want. :cool: I am sure there will be many threads here in the future that you'll be able to chime in on and give us your thoughts. Most important don't sacrifice your job security in the process. ;) Safe journeys! Thanks for the warm welcome. Really appreciate it. You are most correct when you say that we deal with the moods of our passengers. You go from one extreme of the spectrum to another. At the end of the day, we JAPs' usually will laugh it off or run to the back to shed tears ( I have seen my female colleagues do it ). But we try as much to deal with passengers individually. Sometimes, after dealing with a challenging pax, we head to the back office to cool our minds off before returning to the desk and put on that happy smile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Kruizers Posted May 17, 2012 #4 Share Posted May 17, 2012 Welcome to Cruise Critic. I feel sorry for the way so many passengers treat the front desk people. Glad to have you here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul929207 Posted May 17, 2012 #5 Share Posted May 17, 2012 Welcome to Cruise Critics. Looking forward to hearing your comments on our favorite liesure activity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deladypilot Posted May 17, 2012 #6 Share Posted May 17, 2012 Welcome to CC and thank you for your offer to help. Im sure we will all have many questions that you will be able to give us insite on. Thanks for what you do to help each of us have a wonderful vacation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chipq Posted May 17, 2012 #7 Share Posted May 17, 2012 Welcome. Being one who is highly entertained watching the "humanity show", maybe you would share with us the most strange guest request that you have had to handle in your position? It certainly is difficult dealing with a demanding public at times. ChipQ. http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PattyG12 Posted May 17, 2012 #8 Share Posted May 17, 2012 Welcome to CC!! I look forward to seeing your insight into that side of cruising. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dayenu Posted May 17, 2012 #9 Share Posted May 17, 2012 Can you talk about tipping? There are many questions about additional tipping - is it common? Or most people only pay the mandatory $12 or so, posted to the account? Also, if we want to tip additional in cash, is it better to give to the cabin attendant on day 1, on last day, or 1/2 on day 1, 1/2 on last day? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waihekean Posted May 17, 2012 #10 Share Posted May 17, 2012 Welcome to Cruise Critic! We would love to be a fly on the wall:) Let's hope that there are posts on here that are of interest to you too. Just bypass nasty and boring threads and look for the fun threads. Like found a beautiful thread yesterday where a husband is going to surprise his wife for her 50th birthday with a cruise. This he started on her 49th birthday and is going to tell her over the year in the form of puzzle pieces and clues that he surprises her with. This might not be your thing, but you get my drift. Maybe you can let us know what you would be interested to talk about or wondered about to make a start. Great sailings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady_cruiser Posted May 18, 2012 #11 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Hello there CC members, Just thought that I introduce myself to the members of the board. I have been lurking around reading threads and post with regards to certain policy and procedures regarding cruiselines. Would it be nice to hear it from the staff perspective? Well here I am. ..... :p Welcome aboard (PUN intended). We had a young lady here who worked at The Port of Galveston that gave us a great deal of advice. If I have questions that I think you can answer I will be sure to come back and ask you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sail7seas Posted May 18, 2012 #12 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Welcome. Thanks for joining us. After many years of cruising, we've met a number of Pursers and in the case of HAL, Guest Relations Managers who run the front office and there is no doubt, you have to really enjoy working with people to do the work you do. :) Not everyone is cut out for it. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Keith1010 Posted May 18, 2012 #13 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Welcome to cruise critic and thank you for posting. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruise staff Posted May 18, 2012 Author #14 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Welcome to CC and thank you for your offer to help. Im sure we will all have many questions that you will be able to give us insite on. Thanks for what you do to help each of us have a wonderful vacation. I very much appreciate the kind words. It is funny how many times you have people saying thank you to us at the front desk after helping them solve their problems. Lets just say I can count with my ten fingers...;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruise staff Posted May 18, 2012 Author #15 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Welcome.Thanks for joining us. After many years of cruising, we've met a number of Pursers and in the case of HAL, Guest Relations Managers who run the front office and there is no doubt, you have to really enjoy working with people to do the work you do. :) Not everyone is cut out for it. ;) Very much agreed. Not many people are made for this kind of job. You get bombarded with the same questions over and over again especially when doing short cruises. You get asked where the MDR is probably over 50 times in a day, where the washrooms are and what not on the first day. When the cruise is almost over, passengers will come down to ask about disembarkation. Again, repeating it over and over. For some, you just suck it up and for others, lets just say the gangway is always available if you want to get off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruise staff Posted May 18, 2012 Author #16 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Thanks to the posters for the kind welcome aboard the ship...er I mean board. If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to ask me via the thread or for more personal questions, you can PM me. :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sail7seas Posted May 19, 2012 #17 Share Posted May 19, 2012 First thing we can teach you .... :D CruiseCritic does not have a PM feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruise staff Posted May 19, 2012 Author #18 Share Posted May 19, 2012 First thing we can teach you .... :D CruiseCritic does not have a PM feature. Well I`ll be damn.....:p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waihekean Posted May 19, 2012 #19 Share Posted May 19, 2012 What is a PM feature?:o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted May 19, 2012 #20 Share Posted May 19, 2012 What is a PM feature?:o Instant message on some boards but not on here ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruise staff Posted May 19, 2012 Author #21 Share Posted May 19, 2012 What is a PM feature?:o It means private message or as my honorable poster above states instant message that only you and the receipient share. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waihekean Posted May 20, 2012 #22 Share Posted May 20, 2012 Thanks, interesting;) So it is not like facebook then that other people can see it too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thom524 Posted May 20, 2012 #23 Share Posted May 20, 2012 I very much appreciate the kind words. It is funny how many times you have people saying thank you to us at the front desk after helping them solve their problems. Lets just say I can count with my ten fingers...;) I can't believe people are that rude. We have been lucky and haven't had to avail ourselves of the services of the front desk very often but when we do I always say thank you even if the problem has not been resolved to my satisfaction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momoftwinteens Posted May 20, 2012 #24 Share Posted May 20, 2012 As someone who has worked with the public in one form or another for over 25 years, I can honestly say I appreciate how difficult your job must be. Welcome to Cruise Critic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waihekean Posted May 23, 2012 #25 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Hello Cruisestar, of course I welcome you to the board too and I hope you are having a great holiday. As someone that works with the public as well "what has been the most ludricous question/issue you had to deal with"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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