Would your cruise have less problems with an American crew?

[LAFFNVEGAS]

I can not imagine an American working seven days a week 10-12 plus hours a day on the wages that cruiselines are paying.

 

Actually there are many Americans working those kind of hours 7 days a week, they are called those working on commission. Your Dining Room Steward is kind of like that in a way. The gratuities/Tips are his commission. There are many occupations where people make only commission and will work 12 to 14 hour days and often work more than 7 days in a row. I myself am on 14 days straight but granted maybe two of those days I only worked 5 hours while the others I worked 12+

My 34 yr old son is a food server and granted the US laws do make some restrictions but for the most part food servers in many restaurants in Las Vegas to not pay that high of a wage and they do work for tips. Their hours are not drastically different than those of food servers on ships. They will work a 4 hours shift, then be off another 3 or 4 hours, then turn around and work them another 5 to 6 hours, then turn around and do it all over. Then yes sometimes the 40 hours total gets in the way and they just send them home.

[Coanteen]

I was formerly a recruiter for NCL America.

We compiled a list of questions for waiter applicants.

We put together the 10 basic questions we thought any good waiter should be able to answer.

They were very basic food, wine, and service questions for a good restaurant.

Examples-

 

What is the primary white wine grape of Burgundy?

How do you prepare sauce hollandaise?

Where was Cesar Salad invented?

Which is served first, cheese course or dessert?

Why is a tenderloin so tender?

What is the groove on the side of the salad fork and the end of the fish knife for?

What is the only good reason the wine steward gives you the cork before tasting the wine?

Explain Appellation Controllee.

 

We tested these questions with our waiters on NCL's international ships. As expected, most of them knew the answers.

So off we went on hiring fairs around America.

We decided that any waiter applicant would first be given this list of questions to answer.

If he was able to answer all 10 questions correctly, we would take him to the next step of the interview.

 

To our great surprise and chagrin, we couldn't find a single American waiter applicant who could answer even one of the questions correctly. At first we rejected them all. Our Corporate bosses were quite alarmed that we could not find a single knowledgeable waiter to hire.

They instructed us to dispense with the questions and just hire anyone who was "pleasant".

 

Holy :eek: I have never worked in food service, I barely ever cook and no one on earth would call me anything close to a wine expert, but I know the answer to 4 of those off the top of my head.

[Taxguy77]

american crews would have a union and that would end it all! the work rules would be a game changer.

 

Crews have unions now.

[grand isle joe]

Holy :eek: I have never worked in food service, I barely ever cook and no one on earth would call me anything close to a wine expert, but I know the answer to 4 of those off the top of my head.

 

Run.....Run as fast as you can!!!! You might be "Shanghied" into NCL...a fate worse than death!.................;)

[spookwife]

Safer with an all American Officer staff:

 

Hmmmm

 

google

 

Ehime Maru/USS Greenville

 

USS Guardian

 

USS San Jacinto/USS Montpellier

 

Nationality is no indication of professionalism or ability to react well when things hit the fan.

 

Ethnocentrism... how quaint.

[Keith1010]

I would think more problems.

 

Keith