Chances of Indonesian Room Steward?

[Naismith]

I am writing this from Indonesia, where I have been living for over a year serving as a missionary for my church.  As a result, I can speak bahasa Indonesia effectively if not quite fluently.

 

I understand that HAL has a training center on a nearby island.  Indeed, although it is in a brick building it is called MS Nieuw Jakarta.  So I imagine a good proportion of workers are from Indonesia?

 

We are returning home to the U.S. next month and headed off on the Zuiderdam in November, so I am wondering, for that ship, what would be the odds of having an Indonesian room steward?  We are looking forward to keeping up the language skills, and it would be a delight to be able to speak the language again.

 

Terima kasih! (thank you)

[Crew News]

My experience and best guess would be 99% since the Room Steward school is located in Indonesia.

[crystalspin]

On HAL, what Roger said.

[jakkojakko]

Only ever had indonesian room stewards on HAL. And all were very friendly.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Same here.  We have only had Indonesian room stewards all the years we have sailed on HAL.

[baggal]

The cabin stewards have an enormous amount of work to do during their shifts.  As much as you have good intentions, they really won't have the time to have an extended chat with you other than a pleasant "good morning" or "good evening."

[SempreMare]

4 hours ago, Naismith said:

 As a result, I can speak bahasa Indonesia effectively if not quite fluently. [...]

Terima kasih! (thank you)

@Naismith, congratulations on learning a new language!

Does Good Day =  Selamat siang ? 

 

@Crew News, how about on Alaska cruises? 

Edited August 10, 2019 by SempreMare

[Floridiana]

HAL has mostly Indonesian crew in the hotel department. If alcohol is involved, Philippino crew handles that. (bar, wine steward) It doesn't matter where the ships sail. Our last HAL cruise was not completely sold out and the dining room crew had sometimes time for a chat.

[sevenseasnomad]

Other than introducing themselves on the first day, we rarely see our room stewards.  While we're out and about, they clean our cabin.  They're very efficient but overworked, sometimes with as many as 40 cabins to take care of; however, any time we run into a steward in the corridors, he always has a smile and a friendly hello.  HAL stewards are the best, IMO. 

 

I miss the days when they didn't have as many cabins assigned, so they could talk to us about home and their culture.  Sadly, that aspect on HAL ships has disappeared because they are too busy.  I would not want to infringe on their job performance by engaging them in an extended conversation.

[SilvertoGold]

Apa Kabar, Naismith? 

 

In the Dining areas, you will find mostly Indonesian and now Thai and Philippino servers. There are more and more Indonesian officers in the Hotel Department, too.

 

Selamat Datung!

[Himself]

All theFillipinos in the restaurants are "wind steward" but if you want another drink other wine, they will get for you. All dining room and room steward are Indonesian. They go into your room when you are away.  I see them all except my room Steward.

[DeeniEncinitas]

Have a wonderful cruise home! I also believe you will have gracious stewards who are Indonesian. All of our years with HAL have been.

Denise😊

[Sir PMP]

The school ran by Joost de Raad is closed (big mistake), cost cutting by the boys in Seattle, but you will get Indonesians in your room and dining room and you will love them, they are the best..

[Naismith]

Thanks so much!  Indonesia has become our second home, so nice to know we will have a taste of that when we cruise HAL.

 

SempreMare, the day in Indonesia is divided differently from USAmerica.  They don't have noon, but rather a time of day around our noon...

 

So the greetings are as follows:

Selamat pagi - morning until 10:30 a.m.

Selamat siang (SEE-ang)- from 10:30 to maybe 2 p.m.

Selamat sore (so-ray) - from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Selamat malam (ma-lam) - after 6:30 p.m., because that's when it gets dark in Indonesia, year round because most of the islands are pretty much on the equator.  (But even on a cruise to Iceland where the sun doesn't set until after midnight, you could still use the evening greeting after 6:30 or so.)

 

Of course I don't intend to distract from the hard work they do (good reminder), but it would be a pleasure to just say those brief everyday things.  When we were on another cruise, one time we said "Selamat pagi!" to an Indonesian we noticed in the hall, and the entire hallway seemed to echo the response.  (Malaysians also use much of the same vocabulary.)

 

Also, if you happen to shake hands with someone when you meet them, which we often do with our room steward the first time, the custom here is to shake the hand and then briefly bring that hand to the heart.  

 

And this coming Saturday, August 17, is their Independence Day (74 years!) so if you are on a cruise then you can say, "Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan!" all day.  Oops, that's long.  Just say "Merdeka!" (mare-DAY-ka) and they will probably grin, raise a fist, and echo, "Merdeka!"  

[Vict0riann]

Very interesting!  We will try it out starting Monday....

[SilvertoGold]

1 hour ago, Himself said:

All theFillipinos in the restaurants are "wind steward" but if you want another drink other wine, they will get for you. All dining room and room steward are Indonesian. They go into your room when you are away.  I see them all except my room Steward.

 

You are out of date.  HAL has brought in Philippinos and Thais for waiters in both the MDR and Lido this year.  When you speak Bahasa, you find out very quickly who's who.

[Crew News]

6 hours ago, SempreMare said:

 

@Crew News, how about on Alaska cruises? 

 

You can count on it. 

 

Most of my Room Stewards enjoyed chatting, especially if you ask about their families back home and about their next contract (ship).  On my Alaska cruise this year, my Room Steward wanted to see the photos that I had taken the previous day.  If you have a Room Steward with lots of HAL experience, you have almost a personal Concierge that can make things happen. 

 

When I embark on a new cruise, I ask my Room Steward if any of my previous Room Stewards (I keep a little notebook of memborable HAL crew) are on board and I have been successful several times experiencing a very friendly reunion. 

 

As most cruisers will attest, near the top their list of what they miss most about cruising is their Room Steward's attention.

 

 

[operakatz]

3 hours ago, Naismith said:

 

So the greetings are as follows:

Selamat pagi - morning until 10:30 a.m.

Selamat siang (SEE-ang)- from 10:30 to maybe 2 p.m.

Selamat sore (so-ray) - from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Selamat malam (ma-lam) - after 6:30 p.m., because that's when it gets dark in Indonesia, year round because most of the islands are pretty much on the equator.  (But even on a cruise to Iceland where the sun doesn't set until after midnight, you could still use the evening greeting after 6:30 or so.)

 

I spent my senior year of high school as an exchange student in Davao City, Philippines. It's interesting some of the language similarities. In Tagalog, there is a word similar to "selamat" - salamat..but it is part of "thank you" (Salamat po (sah-LAH-maht poe). Po is the more formal and appropriate for anyone who is not a close friend or relative. The general greetings throughout the day in Tagalog are:

Magandang umaga (mah-GAHNNN-dahng oo-MAH-gah) - Good morning (2nd syllable is emphasized but rests on the N not the ahh)

Magandang hapon (mah-GAHNNN-dahng hah-PONE)- Good afternoon

Magandang gabi (mah-GAHNNN-dahng gah-BEE) - Good evening

[JeffElizabeth]

Our room stewards seemed to always have the time to talk with us and we joked about how happy they were to be going home at the end of our trip while we wanted it to go on for longer. While most of the servers in the main dining room are Indonesian,  they are not the only nation represented.

[Hlitner]

While we do appreciate the Indonesian cabin stewards on HAL, we also understand they have tremendous demands on their time and little time to socialize.  But DW and I also think the best stewards are the one's you seldom see or hear.  They somehow manage to clean and make-up the cabins while being almost invisible.  On our most recent Seabourn cruise (last week) our cabin Stewardess was amazing.  She (Seabourn uses female cabin stewards) introduced herself on embarkation day and ask a few questions (what time we eat, how did we want our bar stocked, etc)?  For the next 14 days we hardly saw our stewardess but our cabin was always cleaned while we were at breakfast and out for dinner.  She never knocked at our door during the entire cruise (except embarkation day) and our cabin was always spotless.  DW and I have concluded that the best cabin attendants are the one's you never see :).  Consider that if a steward or stewardess stops to chat and socialize it takes away from their time to complete their tasks or extends their own work day.

 

Hank

[whogo]

15 hours ago, baggal said:

The cabin stewards have an enormous amount of work to do during their shifts.  As much as you have good intentions, they really won't have the time to have an extended chat with you other than a pleasant "good morning" or "good evening."

The cabin stewards are too polite to say that they have no time to chat. Talking to other guests is the reason my cabin doesn't get made up until afternoon.

[sail7seas]

On 8/10/2019 at 6:13 AM, Krazy Kruizers said:

Same here.  We have only had Indonesian room stewards all the years we have sailed on HAL.

 

 

 

Ditto,  ditto,  ^ ^     Yes to that   .

 

 

 

 

 

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[sail7seas]

21 hours ago, Hlitner said:

While we do appreciate the Indonesian cabin stewards on HAL, we also understand they have tremendous demands on their time and little time to socialize.  But DW and I also think the best stewards are the one's you seldom see or hear.  They somehow manage to clean and make-up the cabins while being almost invisible.  On our most recent Seabourn cruise (last week) our cabin Stewardess was amazing.  She (Seabourn uses female cabin stewards) introduced herself on embarkation day and ask a few questions (what time we eat, how did we want our bar stocked, etc)?  For the next 14 days we hardly saw our stewardess but our cabin was always cleaned while we were at breakfast and out for dinner.  She never knocked at our door during the entire cruise (except embarkation day) and our cabin was always spotless.  DW and I have concluded that the best cabin attendants are the one's you never see :).  Consider that if a steward or stewardess stops to chat and socialize it takes away from their time to complete their tasks or extends their own work day.

 

Hank

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Naismith]

So we just got back from our cruise and wanted to report on our interactions with the Indonesian crew.  

 

We had only been back in the US for 5 weeks when we went on the cruise, so the language was still pretty fresh in our minds. (We had been serving as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 18 months, so this was our treat vacation after a hard job.)

 

Yes, our room stewards were Indonesian, so all our interactions with them were in that language.  But I had not expected the many other contacts we would make.  

 

On the first day, our waitstaff on the Lido was Indonesian and we asked which island.  It turned out that she was from our same island, and of the tribe of many of our friends so we could even greet her in the tribal language.  She asked what part of town we had lived in, and it so happened that our last apartment was on a major street, so we told her and mentioned it was near a popular durian restaurant.  She teared up.  We hadn't realized it was her first contract and she had only been out two months!  We asked for a quick photo to try to cheer her up and get on a more positive track.  We saw her several times during the cruise.  On the last day at lunch, I asked a waiter where he was from so I could thank him in the appropriate language.  He was Filipino, so "Selamat" worked.  That same waitress happened to walk by and he pointed, "But she is from Indonesia."  The young woman retorted, "So is she!" indicating me.  Nice compliment.

 

One morning at breakfast in MDR we were chatting with the staff who seated us, who turned us over to an Indonesian waiter.  When we were doing the usual seating and chatting but in Indonesian, many of the waitstaff in that corner of the dining room took a few steps over to hear us. It was like a magnet and those closest talked with us until tablemates joined us.

 

The first gala night my husband wore a dress shirt and tie.  When he realized the loosened standards, he wore a batik dress shirt to the second gala night.  A batik dress shirt is not just in the traditional cloth pattern (my icon is an example) but also has the buttons hidden under a placket and a border at the bottom.  It is meant to be worn untucked.  This is what the ambassador or their president might wear to a formal function.  It was astonishing how many people reacted.  Apologies that waiters serving at other tables looked up to wave and compliment, both on the way in and the way out.  Heading back to our room that night, one of our stewards also remarked and said it must be from a certain city.  "No, we got it in Jakarta," my husband said.  The steward said he didn't believe it and wanted to see the collar.  I realized he meant the tag, and I pulled it out.  Sure enough, it was from the city he had named, although purchased elsewhere.

 

Once we started ordering in Indonesian, the waiters were ruthless about only speaking that language to us.  But it was a good exercise.

 

Early one morning, I was walking on the Promenade deck.  I watched a crew member clamber up rungs, but then let go his hands to be handed a bucket.  I called out for him to be careful!  They could have been offended at my questioning their competence, but they took it with the motherly concern with which it was intended.  They thanked me.  And as I continued to walk down the deck, I was greeted in Indonesian by other crew who had heard.

 

On Panama Canal day, after entering Lake Gatun, I wanted a few minutes to catch up on email (we had not purchased ship wifi) and chill.  I agreed to meet my husband at a certain place on the promenade deck.  When I got out there, they still had a station serving Panama rolls.  I gave in to temptation, and had my second of the morning.  But I asked the server for only one, in Indonesian.  "Not two?" he responded in that language.  I retorted that I would become fat if I ate two.  A while later my husband walked onto the deck, and they also offered him rolls or coffee.  He responded in Indonesian that he was satisfied.  They told him that his wife must be over there and pointed to me.  

 

I don't know if my husband had been talking to a lot of people, or if crew were sharing that there was this weird "bule" couple who could speak the language, but as the week progressed I was greeted by more and more folks in Indonesian, who I didn't remember meeting earlier.  One night as we passed the Lido Bistro line, someone called out good night to us by name.  We turned and waved but I wasn't sure who had said it.

 

Beyond the language, our perspective on living in that country also made for some interesting conversations.  We talked with one young woman about her work schedule.  She had five hours in the morning, then a rest, and five hours in the evening.  That sounds like a long day to a USAmerican.  But when we heard, our eyes got big and she smiled and nodded.  We realized that it is an easy job compared to what she might be doing at home.  We have Indonesian friends who work 12+ hour days, 7 days a week, in conditions that are much less safe, with no prospect of time off ever, and risk being fired if they are sick for even one day.  So yes, cruise ship work is very appealing for Indonesians.

 

We were there on Halloween, and were impressed that one of the carved pumpkins was a Bali mask.  

 

Not sure when cruising will fit our vacation plans again, but it was a definite plus to be around those Indonesians.  

[Roz]

Thank you for taking the time to report back on your experience.  Sounds like you had a good first cruise on HAL.  HAL's crew is one of their big pluses, IMO.  And kudos on tackling another language as adults.  I took 5 semesters of Russian as an adult.  Not easy but worth it.

Edited November 16, 2019 by Roz