Captains announcements

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, molecrochip said:

Captain takes priority over HGM. Its his ship and everyone onboard is a report of his in one way or other.

Totally agree, and thank you for a comprehensive reply.

My point was that if an issue about water temperature in a cabin was so serious that the captain had to be involved,  it would imply a serious management misfunction.

I'm sure many of us have been involved in daily management operational meetings. As a departmental head, you do not want to explain to your boss why a problem is unresolved.

[terrierjohn]

10 hours ago, wowzz said:

Peeps - my comment about wine waiters was tongue in cheek.  They are extinct, they are no more !

Actually on Iona they do seem to exist but in a much more junior role, your waiter takes your wine/drinks order, it is brought to the waiter station by a drinks delivery waiter, and then to the table by your waiter or his assistant. I assume the drinks delivery waiter services several waiter stations, and in a Freedom dining set up it is a continuous role. 

[bobstheboy]

7 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Actually on Iona they do seem to exist but in a much more junior role, your waiter takes your wine/drinks order, it is brought to the waiter station by a drinks delivery waiter, and then to the table by your waiter or his assistant. I assume the drinks delivery waiter services several waiter stations, and in a Freedom dining set up it is a continuous role. 

There are fetchers and carriers not Wine Waiters.

[Fionboard]

1 hour ago, bobstheboy said:

There are fetchers and carriers not Wine Waiters.

Probably cabin stewards!

[Britboys]

16 hours ago, wowzz said:

Peeps - my comment about wine waiters was tongue in cheek.  They are extinct, they are no more !

Indeed - the table waiter dealt with drinks orders on Aurora last summer. My post was in response to a suggestion that this was a post-Covid change but I believe their demise had actually started pre-Covid...

[Mad4WDW]

On 3/8/2023 at 12:54 PM, Interestedcruisefan said:

Our overnight noise problem continued for 3 nights at the start of Arvia cruise. The deck manager came to see me twice and told me he had asked the staff to be quieter when moving cleaning equipment overnight. After the third night my wife packed our cases and went to reception as the deck manager had promised us a new cabin if the noise contienued (Reception were surprised she had already packed!). Next minute she's ringing me from a balcony cabin. We were allowed to keep the keys for both cabins for 24 hrs whilst we confirmed the new cabin was ok. 

 

Nobody moved into our previous cabin the next 10 days. Our luggage labels were sent there and we had to retrieve.

 

what was the problem cabins number?

[wowzz]

3 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Has the subject of tipping ever been discussed in these august forums

Never !

[Harry Peterson]

2 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Never !

Thought not. I’ll start a new thread. Nice to have an entirely new discussion point.

[terrierjohn]

48 minutes ago, Britboys said:

Indeed - the table waiter dealt with drinks orders on Aurora last summer. My post was in response to a suggestion that this was a post-Covid change but I believe their demise had actually started pre-Covid...

I agree the demise of specific wine waiters had started in 2017/8, however the computer ordering of food and drink on Iona now seems far more efficient than the old system even with wine waiters. That is of course when the computer is working, fortunately the down time was very limited on our recent cruise.

[Interestedcruisefan]

7 hours ago, Mad4WDW said:

 

what was the problem cabins number?

5348

 

But the cabins near to us cannot have failed to hear the noise as well

 

We arent complainers. The opposite really

 

3 nights in a row at 2.30am and 4.30am approx. Like clockwork

 

The sound of heavy equipment being moved out and then back in to clean the gym apparently.  For about 2 or 3 minutes at a time

 

Would need to be really deep sleepers to sleep through it. Or totally inebriated 

 

The deck manager knew it was a problem hence why he said he would ask the staff to try and be quieter

 

Although the first night he suggested it might be luggage being moved

 

I assume lots of people in that area must have been complaining

 

At guest services when they gave us a new key etc one of the staff said some people have different noise tolerance to

others

 

Can't imagine how anyone could sleep through it tbh

 

 

Edited March 9, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[Interestedcruisefan]

We were moved to a balcony cabin on floor 10 so I had to break my pledge not to use lifts as I wasn't carrying 2 cases and bags up the stairs!!

[Fionboard]

After three consecutive sleepless nights on Iona I went to Reception to see what was going on. Large queue all complaining of the same problem. Did not bother. Luckily rest of cruise was not too noisy. Seems to be a common problem on the two new ships. 

[Interestedcruisefan]

33 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

After three consecutive sleepless nights on Iona I went to Reception to see what was going on. Large queue all complaining of the same problem. Did not bother. Luckily rest of cruise was not too noisy. Seems to be a common problem on the two new ships. 

It's clearly a problem under their control as they could change the times they did cleaning of certain areas if the complaints became a major issue to them. Or find somewhere else to store the cleaning equipment away from cabins

 

I would have thought

 

We gave  them chance to rectify. They chose not to rectify and just moved us instead

 

It was staff making the noise moving equipment and they chose to allow it to continue despite the complaints

 

Seems strange but I guess it's their choice 

[Fionboard]

Cannot be staff moving equipment in the middle of the night on lots of different decks! 

[Selbourne]

On 3/8/2023 at 6:20 PM, molecrochip said:

No. There is a chain of command. There is at least two grades of people between reception staff and the HGM. Issues get escalated through the grades until they reach the appropriate person. A water pressure problem would probably be dealt with by the lowest of those grades who will contact engineering to resolve.

I get what you are saying, but in organisations with ‘ranks’ and ‘chains of command’, hierarchy can sometimes cause senior people to become aloof and ‘too important’ to deal with the people who pay their large salaries. 
 

When I was working I was in a role that was more senior than a P&O’s ships captain, let alone a General Manager. On occasion, customers would get frustrated that an issue hadn’t been resolved adequately and would find out my name and write to me at head office. Unlike Paul Ludlow, I actually read these complaints and whilst I would obviously delegate the complaint, I always asked for a brief summary of the resolution so that I knew that it had been dealt with. Occasionally, if we had really messed up, I would contact the customer personally which often shocked people but was always appreciated.

Edited March 10, 2023 by Selbourne

[carlanthony24]

59 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I get what you are saying, but in organisations with ‘ranks’ and ‘chains of command’, hierarchy can sometimes cause senior people to become aloof and ‘too important’ to deal with the people who pay their large salaries. 
 

When I was working I was in a role that was more senior than a P&O’s ships captain, let alone a General Manager. On occasion, customers would get frustrated that an issue hadn’t been resolved adequately and would find out my name and write to me at head office. Unlike Paul Ludlow, I actually read these complaints and whilst I would obviously delegate the complaint, I always asked for a brief summary of the resolution so that I knew that it had been dealt with. Occasionally, if we had really messed up, I would contact the customer personally which often shocked people but was always appreciated.

A noise complaint would go from Reception to House Keeping Deck Manager also passed on to Reception Manager, Customer Service Manager and Hotel General Manager. They will see everything that happens and then liaise. Most of the time it was the Customer Service Manager dealing with room swaps and  over seeing the complaints making sure they were dealt with correctly.

[wowzz]

5 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Occasionally, if we had really messed up, I would contact the customer personally which often shocked people but was always appreciated.

I assume you also contacted the relevant manager and let them know that they had messed up !

 

[FangedRose]

On 3/8/2023 at 9:24 PM, jh1809 said:

Ah yes, that's another change post-Covid: no more specialist wine waiters.

They were being phased out pre-covid. My last pre-covid cruise didn't have them.

[Mad4WDW]

On 3/9/2023 at 11:11 PM, Interestedcruisefan said:

5348

 

But the cabins near to us cannot have failed to hear the noise as well

 

We arent complainers. The opposite really

 

3 nights in a row at 2.30am and 4.30am approx. Like clockwork

 

The sound of heavy equipment being moved out and then back in to clean the gym apparently.  For about 2 or 3 minutes at a time

 

Would need to be really deep sleepers to sleep through it. Or totally inebriated 

 

The deck manager knew it was a problem hence why he said he would ask the staff to try and be quieter

 

Although the first night he suggested it might be luggage being moved

 

I assume lots of people in that area must have been complaining

 

At guest services when they gave us a new key etc one of the staff said some people have different noise tolerance to

others

 

Can't imagine how anyone could sleep through it tbh

 

 

Our friends had a terrible problem with noise in their cabin on deck 15, they had a balcony cabin that was one of the ones on the end of where the cut in was if that mades sense. Deck manager also offered them a different cabin to use in addition to the one they had! Lots of people around them also were moved