Cruiselin Worship and Scorn (but Consider the Variables)

[woodofpine]

It's interesting how people judge cruiselines on these forums. Bigger lines probably handle 20,000 - 30,000 pax a week with 5,000 - 10,000 shipboard crew. I'd say they deliver pretty consistent results. But the one thing they can't control is us. In that way, I'd say the lines are far more consistent than their customers.

 

The line can't control our incomes, our losses, our family turmoils, our employers and employees, our health... all the things that condition our disposition on arrival and during our cruise. There is only so much the cruise can do to alter that disposition. Crewmen can identically serve one MDR table and get kudos for exemplary service and a table next door where passengers are having the 'worst cruise ever' simply because they've hit a psychic rough patch and are having the worst time of their lives (or an 'off' period).

 

When passengers return they opine about the cruise and how the cruiseline 'performed', all well and good. Yet as often as not it reflects how we performed.

[tom_uk]

It's even worse than that. How many crew members do most passengers have regular interactions with during the cruise? There's their room steward; two waiters at their table; and the sommelier. They may or may not see the Maitre'd. Then they'll find a bar they feel happy in and they'll probably see the same two or three staff there, and at the coffee shop. Say, a dozen. It doesn't matter if there's a crew of 1200 or more, if a couple of people are having a bad week and their work performance drops, and they happen to be in the 'regular contacts' for a group of passengers - that will be the memory those passengers take away.

 

That must give the cruise lines nightmares: billions of dollars of investment in ships, millions of dollars on things like marketing, crew training & selection, but in the end it comes down to a dozen or so people....