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Cruise Director - Monja Salvati


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Hi Cruisers,

 

We have recently returned from a Mediterranean cruise on the Star Flyer (3/10/2015 - 17/10/2015) which had a Cruise Director named Monja Salvati. In her introduction to the pasengers, she told us that she had been working for Clippers since 2005, but on speaking to the numerous repeaters we met on board, no-one had ever come across her as a cruise director on any of their previous trips.

 

By contrast, we had only done one previous trip with Clippers in 2012, Cruise Director Peter, who quite a few, like us, remembered fondly.

 

The general consensus with people on board was a distinct disappointment with Monja's performance as a cruise director, with suspicions that experience was lacking.

 

Can any of our fellow Clipper Cruisers recall having Monja as a Cruise Director?

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We had her on our September 5th cruise and I thought that she was just ok. Our experience with Start Clippers did not live up to our expectations. It was a nice cruise, we enjoyed the food, the size of the ship, however, we did not feel that the crew were very friendly, we did not get to use the kayaks or wind surf and the sports team was horrible. Shore excursions also were not so great.

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Hi Cruisers,

 

We have recently returned from a Mediterranean cruise on the Star Flyer (3/10/2015 - 17/10/2015) which had a Cruise Director named Monja Salvati. In her introduction to the pasengers, she told us that she had been working for Clippers since 2005, but on speaking to the numerous repeaters we met on board, no-one had ever come across her as a cruise director on any of their previous trips.

 

By contrast, we had only done one previous trip with Clippers in 2012, Cruise Director Peter, who quite a few, like us, remembered fondly.

 

The general consensus with people on board was a distinct disappointment with Monja's performance as a cruise director, with suspicions that experience was lacking.

 

Can any of our fellow Clipper Cruisers recall having Monja as a Cruise Director?

 

How did you like the crew members? I really thought that they would be friendlier than the larger crew ships but found that was not the case.

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We were very happy with the rest of the crew, the captain got a serious cold during our cruise but soldiered on giving a very entertaining Captain's Talk one day.

 

As regards Monja, there were no pre-landing info sessions before any port (except end of cruise), no additional information available for what may be seen other than the arranged ship-based tours (for independent travellers), and in one instance when asked what can we do on shore, we were told "don't know, I've never been here before". Maps for ports were never available until just before disembarkation, and some were pitiful in standard.

 

Monja's one benefit (for the company) was her ability to speak several languages fluently (english, german, french, italian and spanish), which I considered she over-used, when I suspect all the passengers could understand enough english to interpret a ship-board fashion parade! Safety briefings, I have no problem, but surely some judgement could be possible.

 

I'd like to hear others experiences with Monja's cruises.

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Monja was the CD on our Westerly Transat aboard Star Clipper in 2013. What a disappointment! While personally charming she appeared to do little and certainly did nothing to get the two young assistants off their backsides. They were late or 'forgot' most of their tasks. There some hints of a love triangle /scandal!

The excuse for her poor performance was said to be that she had extended her time aboard to allow Peter to be on Star Flyer while initiating the Cuba cruises and that her mother was ill. She wanted 'off'.

Her multi lingual skills which resulted in long repetitive announcements in many European languages was extremely tiresome and unnecessary.

Peter had 'made' our previous trip the year before but he is a 'one off' - no one can possibly do all the things he does so well.

We are doing the Transat again next week in SC but have no idea who the CD will be. Or Captain, come to that. Hopefully the regulars will be there - passengers and crew!!

Anyone know the CD and Captain disposition?

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We were on Star Clipper from Sept 26th. This cruise was affected by bad weather. However we had a great time largely due to meeting some splendid table companions. Our regular table waiter was very good as wasd our room steward.

I think the term Cruise Director for Monica is somewhat misleading as her job did not in any way seem to be the same as Cruise Directors on regular cruise lines. She did not entertain. Her multi language abilities seemed to be her 'raison d'être". This was brought to her attention a couple of times when she insisted in long explanations in German when in fact on several occasions there were no German speakers present. I agree that safety briefings, and the briefings given by the Captain in English explaining what the effect of bad weather would have on our sailing, should have been translated into all necessary languages.

We were fortunate that for the last few days of our cruise the owner of the company and his wife were on board. They were very charming and joined in dancing etc. We were a little disappointed with the Crew Show which was not nearly as funny as the one on Royal Clipper last year and the same applies to the Fashion Show.

The sailing was certainly exciting, especially watching five crew members, including one of the very young sports team, trying to get a mainsail down which had torn in some very rough weather.

We love Star Clipper but feel that a more multi talented Cruise Director would certainly enhance the experience.

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  • 1 month later...

I am so disappointed to read about this poor cruise director. We are sailing on the Star Clipper next month. Hope she is gone by then. This is our 6th cruise with this line and have been on all 3 ships. Peter was on 2 of our cruises and really made the difference. I wish all CDs could be like he is.

Judi

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We are just back from our christmas cruise with Star Clipper. Peter is actual as cruise director on board. We enjoyed him and the whole cruise and are happy to have already booked our next cruise on Star Clipper for August 2016.

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We are just back from our christmas cruise with Star Clipper. Peter is actual as cruise director on board. We enjoyed him and the whole cruise and are happy to have already booked our next cruise on Star Clipper for August 2016.

 

Well then, you must have been on the same cruise as me! :D

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Well then, you must have been on the same cruise as me! :D

 

Yes, of course. Did you enjoy our cruise as well? We spoke with a lot of people - but I do not remember someone from Texas.

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  • 7 months later...
Has anyone sailed with cruise director Alessandra Paradisi?

 

Unfortunately: Yes, we did; from August 17th to 27th onboard Star Clipper. There she will be replaced by cruise director Peter in just two days.

 

Captain Sergej as well as hotel manager Steve did their utmost to compensate this (temporarily, I'm very sure) 'problem'.

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Thanks for replying. Can you tell me what the problems were? Was the just last week?

 

Yes, our cruise ended last saturday, and there was only one problem on board: Alessandra Paradisi. She is simply no cruise director, nor she is willing/able to act like a cruise director. Her english is mostly not understandable, and her german is much more bad than this. No clear information given about tender services in all ports, no port talks, mixing up times, incomplete and wrong parts of the daily programme, cancelled evening programmes (several days) without notice because she was not prepared... I could write until midnight. At the survey at the end of the cruise, my girlfriend gave her out of a scale from 5 (excellent) to 1 (unsatisfying) a -1.

 

But, we had a wonderful cruise with many nice crew members in all departments. Captain Sergej gave everything to make that an unforgettable, unique cruise and he had even a lot of entertainment talents to show. Hotel manager Steve did some of the announcements as well as the liveboat drill (which couldn't be properly translated into german by Alessandra). Everyone of the crew did everything possible to compensate that there was abviously no cruise director on board. (Correction: No cruise director at all would have been better than this cruise director.)

 

She is the temporarily replacement of cruise director Peter who will come back on board on Sept. 1st.

 

We all (ship was fully booked) took it with humor, because vacation is not the right time to get angry. ;-) By ignoring her, it was a wonderful time. Saturday back home, we already booked our next Star Clippers cruise for 2017 today (and we are sure to have a much, much better cuise director on our next cruise).

Edited by Diddn
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We are doing the crossing from Malaga to Barbados on the Star Flyer in October. Hope your mention that Peter will be back in September will include the crossing. Any idea what other crew members will be on board for the three week trip? This will be our 5th Star Clipper/Flyer trip, and we are so excited to be able to cross the Atlantic on board this beautiful ship. Took years to get our ducks in a row to be able to sail on this one :-)

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Thank you so much for details of Alessandra. We have cruised twice on Star Clipper and only had Peter as the cruise director. It is sad that she was so unprepared, but happy to hear that Peter will be back on board. Sad for Peter has he didn't have an extended break to recharge.

My sister and I are on the Oct 1, 2016 with Star Clipper from Venice to Athens.

Enjoy your next cruise. Kathie Baum

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  • 2 weeks later...

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