Princess Undercover Boss

[1 HappyCruiser]

 

Very little comment about the White Hot Party (thank goodness Princess doesn't do that)

 

 

They do and with wings to. :D

[travlnblueberries]

They do and with wings to. :D

 

I was going to say the same thing, because on the cruises I have taken with Princess they had the party with wings..

[Toto2Kansas]

As many cruises with Princess that we have taken, I have never see the white hot deck party on any of the ships we have sailed. But I don't doubt they may exist on some sailings. My question is, does anyone know the purpose or why the staff wears 'wings'?

[gertz]

Never seen Undercover Boss. But will probably now since wife is recording it. However, did see that other show (promo) on NCL a year or so ago and suspect this one will be just an extension of that one.

Also color me behind the times old man but what is "White Hot Party and what is the Wings"?

[toberman]

Just visited the NCL board to see what they were saying about it

 

I couldn't get past the first half of the show - it quite literally 'put me to sleep'. So, being unable to pass judgment on the 'whole' show, I too went to the NCL boards to see what loyal customers had to say. They have 9 pages (last time I looked) and there were not a lot of favorable comments. Makes me think we are not far off based!!

Every thing I saw was basically what I see every day on the ship... I really thought they could have gone a little more behind the scenes to show us what it's really like to work on a ship... and possibly change a few things that the crew were really having problems with.

Over all.... terrible show. I've watched others where I knew people who worked for the company, and the shows were actually quite informative.

[MichTraveler]

I had seen a few other episodes and had my DH watch with me this time. Very boring. Other CEO's also rewarded the people they worked with, but more importantly they seemed to take action on issues. So no more ice rink. What about the rock climbing contract, opportunity for promotions for existing crew instead of hiring outside (he was hired in 2007), better contract dates, etc.?

As for a job I'd like to see the CEO do

1. stand at the buffet entrance with the hand sanitizer and argue with the passengers who don't want to use it and are "just looking"

2. work passenger services and listen to why folks want to turn off auto tipping

3. work the internet cafe when connectivity is at its worse

4. wear one of the costumes for port photos when it is "pouring rain" or "drop dead hot"

5. serve the free drinks during the Captain's party!

[TimInOhio]

They do and with wings to. :D

 

I was going to say the same thing, because on the cruises I have taken with Princess they had the party with wings..

 

I was aboard Caribbean Princess back in September 2006, and Emerald Princess in May, 2010, and I don't recall seeing or hearing anything about a "White Hot Party." Is this a fairly new event, or (like a lot of Princess things) is it something done on some ships and not on others? Thanks.

 

TimInOhio

[jajohnson]

Having watched all of the Undercover Boss shows, I agree that this was absolutely the worst. It looked staged and did nothing to give any kind of positive presentation of NCL. The CEO did not appear to do any real work, only wanting to talk. Nothing really changed in response to the employees feedback. One thing the stuck out to me was the fact that three of the four employees was American. In my experience cruising the vast majority of employees are NOT American. The show also did nothing to put a positive spin on the show either......if this is typical of what is to come I will probably stop watching. NCL marketing blew it on this one......

 

I am not naive enough to believe that the show is not staged to some degree, at least on past episodes the CEO came across as engaged, interested, and usually took actions to address the employee issues raised on the show.

 

TWO THUMBS DOWN!!!:mad:

[lynwar]

We watched the show as well. Afterward, we decided that there was too much of what we WOULDN'T do onboard-rock climbing, ice skating, water slide. It is geared to a younger crowd, it seems. We were at the White Hot Party on the Norwegian Jewel last year, and it was held inside, in the disco, and it was the staff who did the angel wing dance. I was under the assumption that it was an NCL event first.

I wasn't impressed by the CEO last night. We can all relate to the Dining Room business, though. And, we really don't know how the wait staff does it all, so that was interesting. I was wondering about the crew cabins, as well, as I thought they had bunk beds and more "rugged" accommodations. Maybe not on the newer ships.

 

The show itself has been pretty good. I enjoyed the Chicago Cubs CEO, for example. I will agree that last night's wasn't one of the best.

 

Princess has always been our first line of choice.

Lynne

[CruisinChris]

Lots of interesting comments here; though I must admit I don't really care about what "hard"jobs he should try.

 

WHITE HOT DECK PARTY

Originated and is done on the RUBY PRINCESS. I haven't experienced it on any other ship. It was rolled out on her inaugural and it's identical to what was depcited last night except possibly princess does it better with white drapes around the pool area. I actually prefer it to ISland nite, but now am really unsure if this was stolen lock, stock and barrel from NCL...wings and all.

 

CABIN

 

the CEO muttered something briefly about his accomodation being a lower/economy stateroom. Remember he was posing as a contract worker, or someone trying out for a job. THe contrat workers like extra deck contractors stay in regular passenger staterooms as do musicians and lecturers. That was just an inside stateroom. They could have put him in creq quarters, but its probably in their best interest not to show that. IT's also more respectful for the crew not to intrude on their space.

 

CREW PARTY

I was appalled that they're going to start funding a crew party. First, they didnt allocate much $ for it, and most other lines, esp. Princess have done this for their people for a long time. You can say a lot, but Princess has a great reputation as en employer and doing right by their people in terms of living standards and perks.

 

 

"ICE RINK"

 

I know he said he's new on the job but how could he possibly not have had any idea how ridiculous that rink was??? OR that no one uses it? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

 

AMERICANS

 

NCL has at least one US flagged ship so they have to employ Americans. That's why nobody else has american crew. They're subject to all the US IRS rules and OSHA rules about hours, etc. Very expensive. THey do this to do 7-day Hawaii cruises- being a US flagged ship gets them aroudn the Jones Act.

[west coast cruiser]

I watched it this evening, and it read more like an NCL commerical to me then anything else. I think it was one of the poorest Undercover Boss shows I have watched to date. Very disappointing.

 

I agree, Toto, I fell asleep in the middle of it and I don't think I missed anything and I was looking forward to watching it.

WCC

[kath00]

I watched it this evening, and it read more like an NCL commerical to me then anything else. I think it was one of the poorest Undercover Boss shows I have watched to date. Very disappointing.

 

Totally agree with you! It was a huge 1 hour ad for NCL. Horrible! Sadly, I did not see NCL in more favorable light after the show than before. I just thought it was totally cheesy, like an infomercial. :rolleyes:

 

Katherine

[Times Prince]

Watched this show and was disappointed both in the show and the CEO of Norwegian. I believe I heard the maintenance supervisor say "Yeah you're the CEO and you're STILL fired.", which fit my sentiments entirely.

 

Over the US life of the Undercover Boss show it has gone from observing and making some real change in the operations to companies trying to outdo each other on how sensitive they are to individual employee situations. This show lacked both elements.

 

For instance the Ice Rink deal - the first issue was all the manual labor involved - and use of a simple battery operated rolling lift would have been a process change that would eliminate most of the lifting and carrying. Instead they focussed on what a poor investment it had been because no one used the facility.

 

And the "humanitarian" action of matching Cancer Fund raising IN THE FUTURE for an assistant Cruise Director - rather than matching the $20K already raised seemed really cheap.

 

The family actions consisted of giving families free cruises and/or wedding onboard (a ship's wedding for an obviously deeply religious lady) also seemed really cheap compared with the all expense paid vacations away from business seen in other shows.

 

In terms of ship's life - he was exhausted after one day aboard, whereas real employees often get less than 6 hour blocks of time to sleep, day in and day out. I would have loved to have seen him experience that.

 

He must be a wiz at finance, because he sure wasn't a good people person. I have to wonder whether that show will hurt recruitment of good employees for the next contracts...

[phabric]

I have watched the other Undercover Boss shows and this show did not show how the lower paid employees do they jobs. I would have liked to have seen him do the cabin attendants, laundry room or the porters with the luggage jobs.

 

We were on one NCL cruise (never again) and the White Hot Deck Party is like Princess' Caribbean Night they have one evening.

[mojitoman]

Watched the show last night and have to agree that Norwegian did not do itself any PR favors. Was exceedingly disappointed in the presentation of the show and the CEO.

 

At least when CNBC did its coverage of Norwegian and the cruising industry (Cruise, Inc: Big Money on the High Seas) you were presented with an overview of the industry and the financial decisions involved in a cruise. Undercover Boss was pure fluff.

[Highflyer1]

You nailed that right! I usually don't watch the show but made a special point to last night and was also very disappointed. Guy didn't do any of the real "grunt jobs" onboard. I was impressed with the waitress who recognized him - she really deserved that promotion.

 

Did NCL steal the "White Hot Party" from Princess or did Princess steal it from NCL wings and all?

 

AGREED. The NCL CEO was a concern for me since they are the third largest cruise lines and now we know why. The show really did NOT show what life on the cruise ship, any cruise ship was like. But the observation that many were Americian on the Pride kinda shocked me from the post. Think the show did a poor job with a CEO that I did not think was CEO material. Here is what our company has done with something similar to the Mystery Safeway shopper program. We hire customers to go to our sites to ask for help, make observations with a hidden camera and bring results back. You never know what you will find.

[gertz]

As someone who has never been on NCL and will never be on NCL I just sorta watched it, under duress I might add, for face value.

I think I liked it. It reminded me of the "good fairy" granting wishes.

[Pia1913]

As someone who has never been on NCL and will never be on NCL I just sorta watched it, under duress I might add, for face value.

 

I think I liked it. It reminded me of the "good fairy" granting wishes.

 

As a Princess cruiser with Elite status you are going to be very disappointed. Then again, I will let you judge for yourself.

[BoPippy]

watched it and found it boring!!The Boss barely did anything.Did not depict what the staff really go thru in the run of a day!!!:)