Cruise Directors?

[Honolulu Blue]

9 hours ago, Sdancer said:

the Hotel Manager, Tudor Soacat, to whom a cruise director reports to, is seriously incompetent though he is cruising for many years. I came back from Celebrity Eclipse cruise today.

I sailed with Mr. Soacat last year on the Millennium.  He didn't seem obviously incompetent to me, but then again, I only spent 7 days under his care and never directly met him.

[sasset]

Never pay much attention to cruise directors, but, Alejandro is the best and Rich was the absolute worst. 

[Sdancer]

4 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

I sailed with Mr. Soacat last year on the Millennium.  He didn't seem obviously incompetent to me, but then again, I only spent 7 days under his care and never directly met him.

I met him in person a few times  and stand by my honest opinion: incompetent, dishonest, has no shame lying.

 

Edited October 16, 2023 by Sdancer

[Snoopycollector]

We were on Equinox last week and Lewis is the cruise director -- I thought he was funny and personable.  Reminded me (in a good way) of Richard Spacey.

[anskt]

Totally agree about Rich. We’ve been on 3 different cruises with him and never been impressed. The last cruise we were on, I could really detect that he’s just “burnt out” being a cruise director. He’s just going thru the motions now and you can tell he sometimes tries to make it look natural and he’s enjoying his job, but it’s too late for that. Surely, “the corporation” has a place for him to finish out his career other than a position as important as cruise director. 

[SeaWatch12]

1 hour ago, Snoopycollector said:

We were on Equinox last week and Lewis is the cruise director -- I thought he was funny and personable.  Reminded me (in a good way) of Richard Spacey.

Lewis reminded me of Richard Spacey too. Both involved, entertaining and fun. 
Those two and John Grantham were my top three. 
Have never sailed with Sue Denning even though I've sailed almost every Celebrity ship.

[dianef]

Going on the Eclipse next week.Anyone know if the “in famous@ Rich,that people don’t seem to like is still on the ship?

On 10/1/2023 at 8:28 AM, 3girlsmom said:

We just got off today, the Eclipse crew, food & entertainment were all great! 

 

[D. B.]

3 hours ago, sasset said:

Never pay much attention to cruise directors, but, Alejandro is the best and Rich was the absolute worst. 

I have sailed with Alejandro many times and he is by far the funniest and most entertaining Cruise Director ever.

 I was just on Eclipse and as for Rich I could take him or leave him.

 My Experience on Eclipse was all Very Positive.

[3girlsmom]

29 minutes ago, dianef said:

Going on the Eclipse next week.Anyone know if the “in famous@ Rich,that people don’t seem to like is still on the ship?

 

Hi dianef, He told us last month that he was leaving for vacation on Oct. 22nd so unless plans have changed he will not be with us next week.

We've had Rich 3 times over the years and have enjoyed him plus we liked how he adds additional "pop up" shows in the foyer with some of the guest entertainers. Not all CD's do that. 

[Honolulu Blue]

38 minutes ago, SeaWatch12 said:

Have never sailed with Sue Denning even though I've sailed almost every Celebrity ship.

I sailed with Sue on the Summit way back in September 2021.  It was my first cruise of any kind after the restart.  I thought she was all right as a CD.

[Sdancer]

3 hours ago, anskt said:

Totally agree about Rich. We’ve been on 3 different cruises with him and never been impressed. The last cruise we were on, I could really detect that he’s just “burnt out” being a cruise director. He’s just going thru the motions now and you can tell he sometimes tries to make it look natural and he’s enjoying his job, but it’s too late for that. Surely, “the corporation” has a place for him to finish out his career other than a position as important as cruise director. 

Rich made a lot of scheduling mistakes like having two overlaying 45 minutes events just 15 minutes apart at the Grand Foyer and another event with a band not showing up.

 

Rich boasted to me that he had zero complaints in his 27 or 28 years cruising, trying to intimidate me.

He let me know that if I wanted a band (playing in front of the dance floor!) to play actual dance music, then I should be on Holland America, not Celebrity (?!).

He was full of such an uncalled for hate to me that it took me by surprise and made me wonder how he was able to hold his job.

I guess that he thought that he could get away bulling a woman.

Edited October 16, 2023 by Sdancer

[Woody14]

22 minutes ago, Sdancer said:

Rich made a lot of scheduling mistakes like having two overlaying 45 minutes events just 15 minutes apart at the Grand Foyer and another event with a band not showing up.

 

Rich boasted to me that he had zero complaints in his 27 or 28 years cruising, trying to intimidate me.

He let me know that if I wanted a band (playing in front of the dance floor!) to play actual dance music, then I should be on Holland America, not Celebrity (?!).

He was full of such an uncalled for hate to me that it took me by surprise and made me wonder how he was able to hold his job.

I guess that he thought that he could get away bulling a woman.

Sounds like we need a whole new thread set up about Rich.   I have no experience with him but it sounds like it could be a great read.

[sasset]

Maybe it's burn out, but our experiences with Rich were about 10 years ago, maybe longer, two cruises. Guess he's been burned out for a while.

[Keys Kathy]

I miss Arlo!

[nikel]

Anybody know who is on the Apex for the next month ?

[Jim_Iain]

On 4/2/2023 at 11:14 AM, SeaWatch12 said:

Does Celebrity still print the Who is Onboard sheet anymore? I don't recall seeing it the last couple of cruises. 

A couple of the ships are printing them but definitely in the minority.   Usually you have to dig deep on the TV to see the staff.

[Sdancer]

1 hour ago, sasset said:

Maybe it's burn out, but our experiences with Rich were about 10 years ago, maybe longer, two cruises. Guess he's been burned out for a while.

A bully is a bully, burn out or not :(.

[emmas gran]

Sorry but this thread got very personal calling someone a bully. You should have addressed this on board!!

[Sdancer]

7 hours ago, emmas gran said:

Sorry but this thread got very personal calling someone a bully. You should have addressed this on board!!

I did! I talked to Marie Batista, the Guest Relations Director, and Tudor, the Hotel Manager, and got nowhere - “it was a misunderstanding”.

I told Rich himself too.

Sorry, I will let it go, will not post about it again and will try to forget about this unfortunate cruise😊.

 

Edited October 17, 2023 by Sdancer

[doghog]

20 hours ago, D. B. said:

I was just on Eclipse 

 My Experience on Eclipse was all Very Positive.

We were also and agree. 

[Keys Kathy]

1 hour ago, Sdancer said:

I did! I talked to Marie Batista, the Guest Relations Director, and Tudor, the Hotel Manager, and got nowhere - “it was a misunderstanding”.

I told Rich himself too.

Sorry, I will let it go, will not post about it again and will try to forget about this unfortunate cruise😊.

 

What ship is Rich on? We haven't seen him in years

 

[doghog]

7 minutes ago, Keys Kathy said:

What ship is Rich on? We haven't seen him in years

 

Currently the Eclipse. 

[Beanb41]

On 4/3/2023 at 6:23 AM, SeaWatch12 said:

I don't believe there is anywhere to find out who is working on any given ship now or in the future. 

There used to be a CC member who posted a detailed spreadsheet for each Celebrity ship senior staff. I believed the CC member got in big trouble after a while. It was probably an invasion of privacy of all those employees shown on the spreadsheet. 

I have had my favorite cruise directors, unfortunately they no longer sail with Celebrity as they left the business. 

I think.it was more of a Covid thing when it stopped. Pax updated the table . It was very interesting to see who was whatand where. Shame  it's gone

[NutsAboutGolf]

The most memorable CD I've seen was a couple of years ago, Eddie was the CD while Pete was the AD.  Eddie was scheduled to be moved to another ship while Pete was promoted to CD when Eddie departs and was shadowing Eddie.  They were always together, always doing announcements together, answering questions together, and sometimes didn't get along.  Just overall fascinating basically having two CDs each doing 50% of the work