Who picks guest entertainers, corporate or cruise director?

[MisterBill99]

On our recent Panama Canal sailing on Infinity, our CD Luigi (who I strongly disliked) made a claim that he had worked hard to book a particular guest entertainer (who we ended up hating, but that's not the point). Anyway, I was wondering if the CD actually has anything to do with which guest entertainers are booked on a given sailing or if corporate does it and this was yet more BS from Luigi. I'm leaning towards it being corporate.

Edited November 1, 2018 by MisterBill99

[Orator]

Yes, the CD can request certain entertainers, but the final decision who goes where is up to Celebrity. Some CDs have more pull than others.

[Luvcrusn]

It's been my understanding that it's a combination of both. Corporate makes certain entertainers available and CDs may request from the available acts. Some CDs do seem to have more pull than others.

[cruisestitch]

I remember being re-routed due to bad weather, ending up in New York City but not on the days originally scheduled.  The CD claimed credit for getting some entertainers to fill in the broken schedule.

[Luvcrusn]

LOL! I remember a similar occurrence on a Royal Caribbean cruise. We skipped Nova Scotia completely due to 70 mph winds and the cruise director claimed credit for scheduling the entertainer for that evening even though we never docked anywhere for an entertainer not already aboard to join us! Maybe the CD thought we were imbibing too much to notice that his claim didn't made sense.

[mrsgoggins]

If it’s correct that some CDs have more say than others, I think Alejandro must have a lot of pull if our recent cruise was anything to go by!  It was a 12 night Mediterranean and we had 4 cast performances and 8 guest entertainer nights.  Apart from an unfunny comedian and a magician we didn’t go to see, the entertainment was great IMO.  Jayne Curry, the Overtures, Stevie Bor etc.  Gilly and the Girl were the brilliant acoustic duo on the ship.  Definitely my favourite entertainment from all the cruises we have done.  So good job Alejandro if he did have a hand in it!

[Zoedokey]

Can I ask what you didn’t like about Luigi?

[yoj13]

On an Eclipse cruise, the entertainment was simply dire and Sue Denning was the CD.  Because of the number of complaints at the time, she did say, she had no choice in the guest entertainers and  that they are,  apparently,  sent from Head Office.  So who is right and who is wrong, the decision is yours!!

[Luvcrusn]

Well this thread has cleared up the mystery. When the entertainment is good, it's a credit to the cruise director and when it's lacking, it's the fault of corporate! Perfectly clear.😜

[rkacruiser]

1 hour ago, yoj13 said:

On an Eclipse cruise, the entertainment was simply dire and Sue Denning was the CD.  Because of the number of complaints at the time, she did say, she had no choice in the guest entertainers and  that they are,  apparently,  sent from Head Office.  So who is right and who is wrong, the decision is yours!!

 

Sue Denning was my CD on Celebrity Eclipse and she was an excellent CD!

 

Based upon my cruising experience, the entertainers booked prior to the cruise are booked by whomever in the Corporate Office.  On longer, somewhat "exotic" cruises, i.e. a world cruise, the CD may have the ability to book local entertainers when they are in a port, particularly if it is an overnight stay for the ship.

[grandgeezer]

6 hours ago, Luvcrusn said:

It's been my understanding that it's a combination of both. Corporate makes certain entertainers available and CDs may request from the available acts. Some CDs do seem to have more pull than others.

 

This is exactly what the cruise director on the Allure of the Seas said last week during the Q&A session with the Captain and some of his staff.

[MisterBill99]

On 11/1/2018 at 5:44 PM, Zoedokey said:

Can I ask what you didn’t like about Luigi?

 

Since you asked, here is what I put in my online survey:

 

I was not at all happy with Cruise Director Luigi. He does not convey the “modern elegance” vibe that you advertise for the cruise line. His tag lines like “I can’t hear you” to get more applause for performers showed what a phony he was since he did it at one point when the audience was already on their feet cheering. His “give me a xx,000 person hola!” line was stupid, as were his ugly pants and dance when he came out at the start of shows. He ruined Liar’s Club for me with his stupid comments (he should have had actual officers like the captain doing that like I’ve seen on other Celebrity sailings). During the marriage game, he obviously was not paying attention to the responses because halfway thru he said “we finally got a correct answer” when there had been several others before that (and like at other times, made it more about himself than the participants). He may be an appropriate cruise director for Royal or Carnival or maybe even shorter Celebrity sailings with a younger crowd. He was not an appropriate cruise director for our sailing. And in speaking to other guests, my opinion was shared by many others. I hope to never see him again on another of my Celebrity sailings.

 

And lest you think it was just me, I found the following in a review posted here on CC for my cruise:

 

The cruise director, Luigi, was substandard in my opinion. His presentations were annoying at times. His “I can’t hear you” every night after the entertainment was sophomoric at best. I have cruised for years and Luigi was one of the worst. Again, just a personal opinion, but I have over 30 cruise directors to compare.

Edited November 4, 2018 by MisterBill99

[miched]

On 11/1/2018 at 6:34 PM, yoj13 said:

On an Eclipse cruise, the entertainment was simply dire and Sue Denning was the CD.  Because of the number of complaints at the time, she did say, she had no choice in the guest entertainers and  that they are,  apparently,  sent from Head Office.  So who is right and who is wrong, the decision is yours!!

 

Just helps to prove why I don’t like her.   We commented to her about how great some of the guest entertainers, and lounge groups were and she took credit for having them.   

 

Like that old joke that if you like me my name is...    if you don’t then my name is .. 

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅