Noordams Jason & His Fantastic Four

[boards]

We were on the cruise with Localady and we certainly enjoyed meeting and talking with Jason. Jason would stop and chat with us just about any time we saw him, it was like he knew us before the cruise. He made us feel so very comfortable. This has not happened on any other seven cruises we have been on, including one other Hal cruise. We wish him much success in the future and look forward to cruising him again sometimeand maybe in the "Crow's Nest". eh

[bepsf]

Just sharing my opinion - Didn't expect everyone to agree, but certainly nothing personal about it.

 

I do wholeheartedly agree tho that the others on the cruise staff were great - never a dispute about that.

[ekerr19]

Just sharing my opinion - Didn't expect everyone to agree, but certainly nothing personal about it.

 

 

Brian -

 

I admit that I am also bothered by your statement as well - Jason really went overboard for our group and did a great job arrange certain things.

 

You claim to be speaking on behalf of a new, nameless friend, someone you just met (apparently on our voyage) and cruises HAL "way more than any of us combined." :confused: However, since, I rarely put much stock in nameless, faceless, second-hand commentary, I do think such vague comments about "what others think" are quite unfair; especially in light of our group's positive onboard CC experience.

 

Perhaps you misinterpreted his/her comments...

 

Sorry, but that's just my opinion.

[travelgals]

Keep in mind this is supposed to be a place where one shares experiences-good and bad. No question (20 to 1?) most people would find Jason to be a fine cruise director; he is a pretty face and smiles while walking around greeting people. When all is going well, which it is hoped is most of the time, he is charming. The true test of a CD, in my opinion is what happens when there is a problem-this is where the director's management skills are tested and needed most, and this is where Jason failed miserably- and miserably enough to have ruined several days of our trip until we figured out how to take care of things ourselves. The rest of the staff and crew were just fine and actually quite outstanding- I think Jason should be someone's perky assistant and leave the real management to an experienced person. Enough said, this is my opinion and the actual issue is being taken up with HAL and parent company management. Be warned- if you have a problem, skip Jason and see the Captain or whomever is next in command.

[HeatherInFlorida]

Brian, you absolutely have the right to an opinion. But you came on pretty strong ... so much so that I didn't even realize until this minute that Travelgals was the first to criticize him.

 

It's one thing to specifically criticize someone for something, but it's another to make the broad statement that you did when it didn't even come from your own experience.

 

In the time I've known you, I never known you to be unfair and I've certainly never known you to be nasty. So I just shocked me a bit particularly coming from you.

 

I know one thing ... in my youth I wanted to be a Cruise Director more than anything. Today? Not on your life! Yikes!!!

[torpeedo]

We are big Jason fans! We were part of the Veendamers 14 day cruise which is a long time to interact with a CD if you care to do that. He just went so out of his way to arrange group pictures and host a cocktail hour for us. He acknowledged our group or individuals all the time. After the shows in the evening when he bid everyone goodbye on stage, somehow he just flew down to the exit to personally say goodnight to passengers. We sat near the door and he was always there in a flash.

I have to think HAL must think highly of him to place him on the maiden voyage of the Noordam. Most cruise lines put their best CD's on those ships. Carnival always puts John Heald on their newest ships and he is their super star.

But eveyone has their own opinions about CD's I guess. I just know it's a tough job!!

[serendipity1499]

Wow..I'm shocked!..

 

We had Jason Venner on our Trans-Atlantic "Westerdam" Cruise in November of 2004...We were so impressed with him & consider him to be the best Cruise Director we've ever had on any ship!:) .. In 4 weeks will be on our 12th cruise (6th on HAL)..

 

Jason was personable, funny, had lots of energy & always stopped to chat with passengers..His staff on our cruise, seemed to interact well with him & even kidded with him...

 

Know that it's impossible to be liked by everyone..It's also impossible for us to judge, as we don't know what transpired in your case..But to be fair to everyone, believe you should have made the complaint to HAL & waited for their answer, before you named :( the person that you felt did you an injustice..

 

Also Agree with Heather, that it's unfair to quote third hand..

 

JMHO & to quote another poster "that's why they make Vanilla & Chocolate"..

 

Betty

 

P.S. We are not young & impressionable..We are mature & have a great deal of travel experience..A pretty face & nice smile doesn't always

win us over..

[travelgals]

Serendipity,

Perhaps you did not read my post. Jason did not do his job in my case. I had a problem he said he would solve and he did not. He first made it worse and then when approached again said he would take care of it and did not. He then disappeared. We fixed it ourselves. Never saw or heard from him again (not even CD 101--big smile -everything ok?) There is no conflict or anything for HAL to resolve. I am reporting the incident to HAL and the parent company now that I am home-so that they are aware of it.

 

Your experience with Jason has nothing to do with our issue with him. I have always acknowledged he is a good cheerleader when all is well. I have found him to be inept at problem solving and so hope you never have any problem that needs to be solved under his watch.

[GMoney]

I hope this poor kid doesn't see this. Could you imagine if all of us had jobs that people publicly critiqued?

[HeatherInFlorida]

The likelihood is that Jason will see this. And I hope he will be very happy to read that the vast majority of the posters here think he is terrific.

 

I don't think anyone has missed your posts, Travelgals. You're upset about an incident with Jason and everyone gets that. But that certainly doesn't mean that Jason is a lousy CD.

 

Stuff happens. It's not fun when it's you, but it still happens. Next time it might be me and I won't be happy, but I'll try not to judge someone because they may have dropped a ball.

[the2ofus]

travelgals, I'm a little confused here. As far as I have always understood, the Cruise Director is mainly involved with the entertainment aboard the ship. What could possibly have happened that involved the entertainment staff or activities that impacted your group so heavily?

 

What kind of problem could happen with the entertainment staff that made interaction with a staff member difficult and ruined several days of your trip? How would you be able to judge Jason's management skills and why contact HAL about it? I just don't get it.

[travelgals]

the2ofus

The person involved made a mistake and then compounded the mistake and behaved badly. The person reports to the Cruise Director. I asked the Concierge in Neptune what to do and was told the person reported to Jason. When I went to Jason he confirmed this. I would like the person involved to remain unnamed because as I've said, we resolved it ourselves and this person made an effort to make things right during the balance of the trip, so there is no need for any negative comments there. We are reasonable people. I tried to resolve it in the normal chain of command-meaning Jason, and nicely, to no avail, (he said he would take care of it, but did not) so with time a-wasting on this pricey vacation we finally just fixed it ourselves by going directly to the source and trying to make nice, so we could move on and try to enjoy our trip. (I did not expect to be managing a cruise staff on my vacation- that is from what I had hoped to escape.)

I do hope Jason reads this--perhaps next time he drops the ball he will take the time to drop a note to the passenger "Hope all is going well and you are enjoying your trip, let me know if there is anything I can do." CD 101. Sometimes that is more important than shaking 1000 hands in 10 minutes. It is his attitude (perhaps inexperience) that has motivated me to write, not his error. Everyone makes mistakes. On Noordam- Jason is not the one correcting them.

[serendipity1499]

Quote Serendipity,

Perhaps you did not read my post. Jason did not do his job in my case. I had a problem he said he would solve and he did not. He first made it worse and then when approached again said he would take care of it and did not. He then disappeared. We fixed it ourselves. Never saw or heard from him again (not even CD 101--big smile -everything ok?) There is no conflict or anything for HAL to resolve. I am reporting the incident to HAL and the parent company now that I am home-so that they are aware of it. Unquote

 

I did read your post..

 

the2ofus

The person involved made a mistake and then compounded the mistake and behaved badly. The person reports to the Cruise Director. I asked the Concierge in Neptune what to do and was told the person reported to Jason. When I went to Jason he confirmed this. I would like the person involved to remain unnamed because as I've said, we resolved it ourselves and this person made an effort to make things right during the balance of the trip, so there is no need for any negative comments there. We are reasonable people. I tried to resolve it in the normal chain of command-meaning Jason, and nicely, to no avail, (he said he would take care of it, but did not) so with time a-wasting on this pricey vacation we finally just fixed it ourselves by going directly to the source and trying to make nice, so we could move on and try to enjoy our trip. (I did not expect to be managing a cruise staff on my vacation- that is from what I had hoped to escape.)

I do hope Jason reads this--perhaps next time he drops the ball he will take the time to drop a note to the passenger "Hope all is going well and you are enjoying your trip, let me know if there is anything I can do." CD 101. Sometimes that is more important than shaking 1000 hands in 10 minutes. It is his attitude (perhaps inexperience) that has motivated me to write, not his error. Everyone makes mistakes. On Noordam- Jason is not the one correcting them.

 

Instead of publicly humiliating Jason, why didn't YOU write him a private letter & explain you were unhappy because he did not handle the problem to your satisfaction..You speak of the chain of command, & someone making a mistake and you allude to being a Manager yourself..If this is the case you should know that it is unprofessional & improper to correct someone publicly!..You also seem to know a great deal about how a CD should act! Perhaps you should take a course in Management 101 & learn how a Manager should act!

[YankeesFan224]

travelgals

 

If you unhappy send a letter to HAls corporate office. They are very responsive, Every ship has a Ship Services Coordinator they were very helpful for me. I sent e-mails and a hard letter regarding how incrediable Harry "The Bar Manager" and Angie were in making my proposal a once in a lifetime event those two were a class act.

The ship services coordinator always e-mailed me back within a day. She also forwarded my e-mail to there superiors and to them. I also wrote a formal letter to the CEO of HAL regarding how good the above made my moment happen, I have yet to hear back from him yet.

Here is the info

Phone: 800-541-1576

Department Fax: 800-207-3547

Personal Fax: 206-270-6100

Again I wrote a review on my 3/05 crusie on the noordam based on my opinon wich you would have to say was in my opinon not good at all, but I had to do something special for the two the did something so special for me.

If you feel that strong about it go ahead an write those e-mails or letters. I am sure you will get the answer you are looking for.

Dave

[longtimecruiser]

Jason reads the CC boards regularly. He will certainly see all of this about him. Adele

[Karen112999]

I am not here to "bash" Jason. In fact, I have no first hand knowledge of his actions or inactions. But I will substantiate Travelgals complaint, the cruise staff member, under Jason, did act improperly. I was not there for the first indicdent. But I was there the night of the second incident where both her and family members were treated disrespectfully in a very public manner. I also saw her and two other family members attempt to resolve this with the person directly.

I myself was so frustrated by the unfairness that was obvious, the I left and unloaded on the first "uniform" I saw. I believe he was the beverage director. I said to him.. Something has to be done here. You have a situation that is ruining a vacation for an entire family that has purchased 4 cabins on this ship and one of your crew has treated them improperly. I also stated that I don't know, because I was not there, if the initial incident was warranted - and that I did not want to know the details - just tell me there is something I am unaware - and I will back out. The cruise director said -NO - it was not warranted and he was aware of it. My words to him - Just do something about it. I don't know the proper chain - but witnessing this was also affecting my enjoyment.

I left and went to bed. I became aware within the next few days that Travelgals, her family, and the original crew member had talked things out on their own and I assume that they got their apology - which I think was all they were looking for and proper treatment for the rest of the cruise. In fact, I saw this crew member and Travelgals interact positively for the balance of the cruise.

Her only comment, that while Jason is wonderful with "positive" things - he has personality, a great smile, friendly - everything going for him, he needs more skills when it comes to the negative issues. I personally think it would be good for Jason to see this himself and take this to heart. If he is going to improve his skills, he needs to realize his weaknesses and work on them. He needed to do one further action - and it is basic to anyone in management - "was this situation resolved" and "I am sorry that this happened"

No, Travelgals & I never met prior to the cruise - we met on the CC roll call boards and at the CC get together. And yes, she has a great attitude and I believe she and her entire group enjoyed the cruise and made the best of the whole situation.

And Jason, if you are reading this, please learn from this. You have everything going for you.. your youth, your enthusiam, your magnetism, and you are a natural "people person". If you take this as other poster said as devasting - it will prove you need to learn more.

Karen

[boards]

For someone who isn't bashing someone, you have done a pretty good job of it. I am certainly glad that I have not been judged by one incident in the handling of my job the way you all have judged Jason, or I would not have succeeded in my life or job that has turned out quite well. For for private matter you have turned it into to public one and its all a big secret what he did. Well done judge and jury.

[the2ofus]

Karen and Travelgals,
Thank you for taking the time to give a more complete picture of the event, while shielding those involved (other than Jason). I respect that.

It would seem that your major complaint is that he dropped the ball on the follow-thru to make sure the customer was satisfied that the problem had been addressed. I agree that certainly should have happened.

To say he is incompetent as a manager based on this one glitch seems somewhat harsh to me.

[grandsix]

Hi travelgirls: Met you at the CC get together and you are very nice. The original thread was about the Fantastic Four staff with an additional accolade about the DJ. Since all were mentioned specifically by name, it seems unfair to them for you to continue to post vague responses without being specific in your details.

[HeatherInFlorida]

[quote name='boards']For someone who isn't bashing someone, you have done a pretty good job of it. I am certainly glad that I have not been judged by one incident in the handling of my job the way you all have judged Jason, or I would not have succeeded in my life or job that has turned out quite well. For for private matter you have turned it into to public one and its all a big secret what he did. Well done judge and jury.[/quote]

Exactly the point. Very well said, boards. There was no reason to bring this here since there's no story ... just some people's reaction to what they perceive as "unfairness". And I'm not questionning that something happened, but I've never seen a thread tear apart one staff member on a cruise like this ever before.

Most everyone here seems to think Jason is a terrific CD with excellent people skills and they enjoyed him.

What we really need here is Paul Harvey;) .

[travelgals]

Thank you Karen for your support on board and here.

I did not start this thread, only responded with a different opinion to the Jason lovefest. I have no recollection of the other "fantastic 4".

My criticism is that in his management capacity Jason did not solve the problem I had. It is not about an apology.

I was the guest, not the manager and we were so miserable we wanted to leave the ship.

I had to solve the problem myself (actually with hubby, the voice of reason) if I had any hope of salvaging the family vacation.

Even after we solved it, Jason probably could have redeemed himself if he had even just checked in with us at any point during the remainder of the trip (a week), but he did not and so I could not let "Fantastic Jason and his fab 4" pass without comment.

The positive comments from all on this thread deal with Jason's meet and greet duties and I have agreed with them. The comments are not from those who have had problems successfully solved by him. I am critical of his management skills. Therein lies the difference.

I thought this was a place to post both positive and negative experiences.

I've made my point as clearly as I can, nothing more for me to say on this thread.

[blue whale]

Good morning, one and all.

We did have an excellent vacation, and my husband and I enjoyed meeting all of you who sailed with us as CCers on the Mar 15 Noordam. We appreciate the thoughtfulness of Grandsix who took the time to commend the activities of those who served him and others of us so well.

Jason, you remember, came to our CC party and spent time talking to many of us. Later he took the time to call me to see if we could arrange a picture. Unfortunately, due to my not going around during the party and getting everyone's cabin number, I could not set up a photo shoot. But Jason made the effort to contact me. The next time anyone sets up a CC party, someone should make a list of people and their cabins. But thank you, Jason, for your efforts on behalf of our CC group. We appreciated it.

As retired educators who taught many young people at the university level for years and years, we have to say that we were really impressed with Jason's skills: his ability to address a large group in complete and interesting sentences without notes and without resorting to the "you guys," "like," "you know," forms of expression so prevalent today; his overall friendliness; his follow-through attitude; his well-groomed appearance; his respectful manner toward senior citizen-types such as we are.

We also have to commend the two members of the staff who ran the trivia without any problems. They, too, knew how to project their voices, respect others, and yet retain control in a situation that can get "touchy."

So, thank you to these wonderful young people. They deserve a round of applause. And thank you Grandsix for saying here what we also believe. It was a pleasure meeting you on the cruise and hope to see you again on our longer cruise and around town.

[ekerr19]

[quote name='boards']For someone who isn't bashing someone, you have done a pretty good job of it. For for private matter you have turned it into to public one and its all a big secret what he did. Well done judge and jury.[/quote]

Boards -

I couln't agree with you more! If the nature of incident were truly horrible enough to warrant such harsh, biting criticism; let alone accusations of ineptitude, this certainly is not the forum in which it should have been addressed!!!

I find it very difficult to stay silent on this subject because it seems grossly unfair to me that only one person (or two if count support from a friend who has no first hand knowledge) gets to make these veiled accusations and tell their side of things - though I think that no one (I know I don't) really wants to hear anymore about it - the whole one-sided nature of this bothers me greatly.

When a simple [I]"we experienced an unforunate incident that we felt was improperly handled by the staff - the issue was compounded with a lack of follow through and should have been handled in a much better manner"[/I] we get accusations of gross negligence and extraordinarily harsh and negative comments that potentially may impact a bright, charming (and obviously well-liked) young man's career!

This is completely unfair, in my opinion.

My final thoughts on the subject are this -

In over 100 days on HAL ships - I have never, and I repeat [B]never [/B]- seen any staff member, crew member or officer treat a passenger rudely. I have seen many rude, obnoxious, demanding passengers (drunk and sober) that had to be dealt with by the staff, the staff never exhibited anything less than professionalism. I have the utmost respect for them and the jobs they do - it can't be easy dealing with so many passengers each day.

Because of this, I am using my own experience as the guideline in judging the veracity of this poster's claim.

Did she have a bad experience? I've no reason to doubt that something happened that obviously caused her to become this upset.

Are these comments warranted in this forum? No, this is simply not the place to address the matter.

I hope everyone will consider how completely unfair this is to the other persons involved in the incident and how potentially damaging even unsupported claims against others can be.

Over the years we have made some fantastic friends in cruise staff, production cast, singers, dancers, musicians, etc. - and have always enjoyed meeting them. :) They do a fantastic job and work very hard.

[Karen112999]

I think you are all misreading what both travelgals & I have posted. I know for myself, I highly praised the fantantic 4, especially Brandon & David who I had alot of interaction with. I also said really nice stuff about Ana & Billy who I noted did not have too much time with but it was all pleasant. I also said some very nice things about Jason and I stand by them. I did not "bash" him and if you are reading that into it, you are reading it wrong. I even acknowledged how nice he was to attend our CC group meeting and in my other dealings with him. I also clarified that I was not a part of any dealing that Travelgals had directly with Jason. Only that I witnessed one of the incidents that brought this all about, I stated exactly what I saw first hand. I do take offense that people are misreading it as bashing and I wonder how you would feel if a staff member publicly embarrassed you. My comments to the "uniform" never even mentioned Jason's name - just the situation I witnessed. I have no idea if my comment to the "uniform" had anything to do with the change from the crew member that offended a guest....I doubt it, but if it did, I am glad I did it.

I am sorry, but when I saw something really wrong, I stood and said so. When I read this post and saw Travelgals - whom I will state is a Victim - stand alone - I will also put my two cents in. Sorry if that is wrong, but that was the way I have been all my life.

Maybe everyone is so used to people complaining about every little thing..that is not the case. This was a case of public embarrassment and in my opinion - discrimination for whatever the reason was. No one involved has been able to answer that even Travelgals... Her question was never answered by anyone - Why my family - did they do anything to deserve it??? And the answer was always NO. And yes it boils down to some people have really bad days - AND the offender did make good on his bad behavior so Travelgals did not make him as an issue as he did the right thing. And I will add in all my conversations with Travelgals - all she wanted was for someone to acknowledge verbally that her & her family was wronged and an apology from the offender. She got her apology from the offender - but no HAL rep ever said to her - Sorry about what happened. I am in a customer service industry - Insurance - and I am a bit surprised that no one in management verified this was resolved.

In all of my cruises - I have been asked - Are you enjoying? Is your room OK? Service plus. So it is such a turnaround for a cruise.

Please, please read the entire posts with all the details before making up your minds that we are being so unfair and bashing him. I know I was NOT.

I will add that I would cruise again with Jason & the Fantastic Four although a few are moving on shortly. If I had the opportunity to see him again - I would say to his face everything I have said here. He has everything going for him - just needs some more experience in dealing with some negative aspects of dealing with people. I am sure this will not be his last time dealing with "staff" or "guests". We all have bad days - right?

Karen

[HeatherInFlorida]

[quote name='travelgals'].........................
My criticism is that in his management capacity Jason did not solve the problem I had. ..................
.........................
The positive comments from all on this thread deal with Jason's meet and greet duties and I have agreed with them. .......................
I thought this was a place to post both positive and negative experiences.

I've made my point as clearly as I can, nothing more for me to say on this thread.[/quote]

First and most important, you have not made a point at all. No one knows what the problem was. And please, at this point don't tell us. It was clearly a personal family matter and you were offended or embarrassed by treatment whatever that may have been.

That it should ruin your vacation to the degree that you wanted to get off the ship leaves everyone here scratching their heads wondering what these cruise staff members could possibly have done.

Lastly, most of us here just don't think of the CD in a management capacity or a problem solver.

I think it's very nice of Karen to stand up for her friend. But unless there was a physical attack involved, the words used here about this man are out of line. Anything less than that does not warrant this kind of continuous bashing.

Now you're using words like "victim" and "discrimination" ... a whole new twist. But still, except for Travelgals and Karen, no one here knows what actually happened. So there is no way you can get support! You can't just throw out the words "I was wronged" and think people are going to go to bat for you.

So take the actual event to the powers that be at HAL and deal with it. And whatever it was, put it behind you and move on.

And, Karen, people do read all the posts. No one is misreading anything. It's all clearly stated. If you read this thread without your background knowledge you might understand why your friend is not getting support here. There is simply no story ... no "he said she said" ... just "I was treated badly".

There's another side to this story and it isn't told here.