derbylane

Stumblefoot, I may be confused--which I often am--but didn't you have dinner at Dinner by Blumenthal in London. How was it? Meeting friends in Sept and they have made reservations

I did meet Steve in Australia this past Feb and stunned that he is departing SS. Apollo Management seems to be stripping SS top management. This is not a good sign. Hope it stops.

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I must admit to being a touch disappointed to read some whom appear to have claimed to have been discussing with SS staff how they like their boss. Why on earth do they think it is their business? :confused:

 

I find it odd, but sadly not surprising. My opinion is that the discussions are entirely inappropriate and disrespectful and even if true, are inconsequential. I do not believe good staff will ever have this conversation with passengers, only bad staff. If they were working for me I probably would have fired them.

 

Anyone who has genuinely managed people of varying degrees of performance - will know that effective managers will be demand and expecting managers to improve their performance and will be sometimes monitoring and seeking improvement, and consequently make themselves unpopular. Anyone who has genuinely mentored and coached and managed managers will be highly suspicious of the effectiveness of any manager who is either universally liked or universally disliked. Excellent managers demand excellence, and they therefore often make themselves unpopular.

 

I am surprised that anyone thinks it is somehow bad or surprising or wrong or negative that he is good when meeting customers and disliked by some staff to me means that he is doing an excellent and balanced job, and I think self indulgent bad-mouthing him in this ignorant way is inappropriate.

 

Jeff

My old boss at harvard, may years ago, would say explain it in one paragraph, what the hell are you talking about?

It is not easy to justify receiving paper tags for your luggage, like they send on carnival or HA , it is simply classless. SS has recently hired too many people from second class cruise lines and masked third class amenities as innovative digital wonders. It is the loyal and dedicated staff that keeps me going back, without the them I would be on SB in a second.

Contrary to 50 Oregon, we always leave a staff tip to butler, and prior to butlers, the stewards. We also realized that leaving an overall crew tip was important and leave nothing less than $500 for 7-9 days and up.

sorry, but lots of staff will be happy he is going, they probably can not wait and will have a celebration when he retires.

You seem irrational, what was your point? File a suite, what do you get?

I do not think that is true. A cruise ship is subject to admiral laws of the ocean, if the line grants you a refund, that refund is the choice of the cruise line, not any international law of the sea.

Just spent 2 months on the ship and had an outstanding time. It does however need a dry dock to freshen the chairs in main dining room and some suites.The staff is remarkable, reminding me of the old times on Cloud. The hotel directors and captains are the best SS has to offer. We will be on Whisper for 30 days in Sept and then on Shadow for another 30 days in Fed and would be on Spirit in a second but it is sailing in the wrong place (s) for us at this time. Simply love Spirit.

s

Deck 5 is just perfect, main dining is one floor below, bar out side your door. Just did a long cruise on Spirit. Wonderful ship, the best crew on all of SS. The family celebrated ss 20th on the ship.

Hi Duct Tape,contest over hope you are both well.It is a shame that a genuine held view cannot be expressed without unnecessary sarcasm as to where we are coming from.Interested to see the Spirit was approx 25% full on the voyage referred to which says it all.Do SS need another Spirit ? Economic sense suggests not.Hope we can all continue to enjoy the excellent service SS provide on whichever ship suits each individual's requirements.

I know people who have switched from SS to SB for just that reason!

Smoking on SS is out of control and the staff should put a stop to it. The pool bar is like a snake pit, you walk away smelling like a stale and offensive pile of dry old garbage.

We are coming from 600 + and love the SS staff,Cloud,Wind,Shadow and Whisper.

Bring flippant , does not change the fact that the staff of Spirit is consistently good and caring and as loving as those on Cloud or the other Ships.

For the first time since leaving Cape Town the weather is less clement. Its still 80c but overcast, some rain and a middling swell. At last a little rock'n'roll to sleep to.

 

Tomorrow is Devils Island, the first land since Ascension and now 8 straight days at sea.

Hope the weather does not become more clement, god forbid.

One Spirit is one too many why build another or is it further evidence of the repositioning of SS from quality to quantity .Hope not!

We just finished 64 days on Spirit with 150 other cruisers and had a wonderful time, Where are you coming from? We have 500 plus days and love the staff and ship

s

Wow, what are you talking about?

We have booked the Singapore cruise and the one before that which commences in China. Really looking forward to it; especially the Burma stop. We did a holiday cruise on Spirit a couple of years ago and had lots of fun. We did see 2 extended families on board. The children and young teens were polite and engaging. I have found, on past cruises, that kids on SS are generally able to fit into an adult world. I am a SS fan though, so my observation my be through rose colored glasses.

Thanks for taking the time. That is great. Wonderful review of the voyage so far. Now I am to the tv to watch the Patriots!

See you in LA Fred and Van. Unfortunately Paolo gets off in LA.

See you at the Montage.

Enjoyed your comments very much. We join the Spirit on the 22nd for the LA to LA trip. If I am not being too pushy, should you run into Paolo would you wish him a wonderful new year from Fred and Van. By the way one of SS best bar tenders is Frederick at Panorama. Thanks WS.

You are right! Thanks for clarifying! That is of course the most important fact! :D

 

However clear the exits were, obstructing the aisles at sea didn't seem right at all.

 

Thanks.

 

:)

We were not at sea.. My partner sat beside the owners wife, a very beautiful woman, i was across from the owner, they were just happy with the event

That made me laugh.

Rachel highlights the problems with nature.We did the cruise before Rachel last year.So the day before Rachel arrived in Churchill we saw several polar bears whilst cruising the river looking at the Beluga whales.Two of the bears were close to the water and the zodiacs got pretty close.

No quarantees with nature.

Really good point! We were on Sil Exp for 3 weeks from middle of Jun to 1 wk of July and never saw a Polar bear. Thousands of Puffins (sp) though. People on board were wonderful, so it made up for the lack of bears.

Why only American customers ?There are so many no go areas in the world today the cruise business is bound to suffer.In addition to Ebola in Africa who would want to commit to a 2015/2016 booking incorporating the Black Sea ports,Turkey, anywhere in the Middle East,Russia,India,Korea,Hong Kong,China or any other potential flash points? We are due to visit St Petersburg on a 2016 Northern European cruise but still plenty of time to reconsider but hope it won't be necessary.On our Amazon cruise October/December a year ago the Lady lecturer went ashore in Belem and was attacked in knife attack with robbery of a bag as the motive.She thankfully recovered after many stitches to facial wounds.It is sad when so many wonderful destinations around the world are off limits now.

I find what you posted not to be true. I have examined reports of attacks to ships personnel and find nothing to confirm what you have reported. Please report facts to let us know.

Why do you keep telling us that you are doing an "over 26 day cruise" should we send you a contribution? I think you need to get over it.