Cruise Directors

[julinue]

Questions

1. How important are they to your enjoyment of the cruise?

2. Who is/are the one/s you've liked the best?

3. How can you find out who the CD is on your cruise?

[Karynanne]

They usually have no impact on my enjoyment of my cruise. I seen very personable cruise directors, and some that lacked basic social skills....and it really didn't effect my experience whatsoever. JMHO.

 

Karyn

[goldminer1951]

A good cruise director can add to your cruise in may ways. They usually come to your Cruise Critic Connections Party. They are a wealth of information about your cruise, the ports, and the ships. They greet you when ever you bump into them. They introduce the entertainment each night and convince you to participate in that bingo game:rolleyes: . Basically, they add some fun and a personal touch.

 

As far as a favorite CD, I think the CD on our last cruise (Galaxy 8/05) did a great job. I will probably butcher his name, but I think it was Stuart Turnbull, from Vancouver, BC., and a Catalina sailor. Sorry if I messed up his name.

 

I see people sometimes mention the CD's name in their cruise reviews, but CDs do move around within the fleet.

 

'Miner

[Buckeye Geo]

Miner:

You were real close the CD was Stewart Turnbull. He was our CD on Mercury 4/17 Mexican Riviera Cruise. I think is scheduled to be back on Galaxy for their Med season. You were right he was very good.

[Andy]

Hi Everyone !

 

IMHO, the Cruise Director is an important element of your Cruise.

 

Celebrity has outstanding Cruise Directors. Some of my current favorites include Allan King, John Howell, and Don Fluke.

 

One of my all time favorite Cruise Directors was Jim Cannon. He continues to be missed.

[catmand]

To say they don't really affect our cruise AND follow that with the CD on our last cruise was great.............................................is that a dicotometic sentence? And, is dicotometic a real word?

I enjoy seeing an energetic personable "down to earth" CD much more than the Schmaltzy Lounge Lizard Guy" who was on our first cruise.

[chessbriar]

IMHO, the Cruise Director is an important element of your Cruise.

 

Celebrity has outstanding Cruise Directors. Some of my current favorites include Allan King, John Howell, and Don Fluke.

 

One of my all time favorite Cruise Directors was Jim Cannon. He continues to be missed.

 

Andy,

 

You are aboslutely right about the importance of the CD. So much of what they do is not seen or noticed by the passengers. They are the ones managing every aspect of the entertainment to the shows at night.

 

We have talked with CDs fighting with equipment problems to illness in staff to problems guest entertainers. There job is to ensure the passengers don't notice the complications that may arrise.

 

Other good ones not mentioned, John Challenger now back with HAL and Dave Cole now with Princess. I'm thrilled to be sailing with Dave on the CB in October.

[m steve]

were cruise directors on my recent trip from Oz on Princess Diamond. They had an early morning tv show that repeated 3 or 4 times and everyone got to know them as well as entertainers, bar tenders and other crew. They really stood out and made the cruise more fun. Most cruise directors incl. those on X seem only to be on the pa system touting bingo, art auctions and Diamonds International. They don't seem to mingle with the passengers and only mc stupid pool events.

The school in Canada that produces cruise directors (they all seem to be Canadian) should hire Dan (Canadian) and Frankie (Pa.) to teach their classes. They were always smiling, mingling w/guests in the bars and seemed to be having a great time which helped others do the same.

[Cruise or Lose!]

Co-CDs? I've never heard of that. On each of my previous cruises, there was only one person who held that position.

[C 2 C]

The CD is extremely important on our cruises. We just love the trivia component that Celebrity provides. Because we cruise B2B so often we always ask the CD and their activities staff to provide new questions for the second cruise. Most of them also like trivia if they came through the ranks. My favorite and most supportive have been Dru Pavlov (Millennium 2001, Galaxy 2004, Mercury 2006) Shawn Cavanag (Zenith 2004, Galaxy 2006), Allan King (Century 2005). These three also ran their own evening trivias. Allan King also is a great entertainer and we love his evening "groaners". Nick and Simon Weir were also great at CC get togethers. John Howell on Summit last November was fine to talk with but was otherwise invisible on our cruise. He had an assistant who was responsible for activities staff and was not supportive of "trivial" items. There are many others but I can't put names to their faces. Some CDs are too busy to mix with passengers or remain hidden in their offices. On one HAL cruise the CD would not provide any activities and for a number of years we would call to make sure he was not on a cruise we wished to book. Celebrity has a great bunch of CDs. On Voyager in April we never saw one.

[usha]

:D Jim Cannon is my all time favorite Celebrity cruise director. That guy remembered your first and last name from years prior; he was just amazing.

 

:rolleyes: Princess had a pretty wild CD on Golden named Allister (can't remember the last name). He and his assistant had a morning show on the ship TV that was really funny, although a lot of the humor was a little too R rated.

 

:) HAL had a great CD on Oosterdam named Dane Butcher. He was young, funny, personable, and wow, was he cute! His assistant Kat was a very likeable and lovely young lady; they made a great team.

[AzureLaRoux]

On the Zenith we had Jeff Potts as the cruise director and Natalie as the Activities Co-ordinator. I only saw Jeff on the telly doing interviews with various employees. (Spa personnel talking about specials, Natatlie talking about the activities of the day, Flo (Kid Club Director) about the kids events) He also did the presentation on disembarkation and I think he did the PA announcements.

 

Natalie was seen in various places and sent me a t-shirt when an activity had to be canceled. It took me a bit to figure out the connections because I saw more of Natalie than Jeff. Jeff, as the CD, co-ordinates the on-ship events but Natalie plans the bingo and parties. Art Auctions are planned by the Art Director, Wine events by the Head Sommiler etc.

 

Our cruise director was very important but not in an obvious way. I was impressed with all the on ship events going on while we were in port. My last cruise there were only a handful of things schedule while we were in port. So you either got off the boat or hung around in your room/on deck.

 

I do have to say that the only PA announements I heard were for the lifeboat drills, announcements that we could disembark in port and during disembarkation when they were looking for specific people. Art Auctions and bingo were not announced over the PA. Which I enjoyed.

[Drew B]

Hi Everyone !

 

IMHO, the Cruise Director is an important element of your Cruise.

 

Celebrity has outstanding Cruise Directors. Some of my current favorites include Allan King, John Howell, and Don Fluke.

 

One of my all time favorite Cruise Directors was Jim Cannon. He continues to be missed.

 

It's a shame that I only got the worst side of John Howell. As the CD on the 5/7/06 Summit sailing, he was (for me at least) the WORST thing about the cruise. Prior to the pod problem acting up, I found him to be cheesy but okay. After the problem, I found him to be a condescending, sullen, petulant jacka--!!!

[Andy]

It's a shame that I only got the worst side of John Howell. As the CD on the 5/7/06 Summit sailing, he was (for me at least) the WORST thing about the cruise. Prior to the pod problem acting up, I found him to be cheesy but okay. After the problem, I found him to be a condescending, sullen, petulant jacka--!!!

 

Hi Drew !

 

I am sorry to hear you feel that way about John Howell. I have sailed with him a few times, and he really does a great job. While I cannot offer any excuses for your feelings, it is quite possible that John had a ton of issues to deal with, once the pod problems arose. I dont think any of us can fully understand what a CD has to deal with, once severe problems arise. Perhaps that is why you didnt have a good opinion of him.

[lesliehr]

On our Galaxy cruise in March of 2002, our Cruise Director was Simon. We thought he was great, and saw him EVERYWHERE on the ship. My kids were particularly enthralled with him. At one of the evening shows he played the piano and sang "Let It Be" (very well I might add). To me, he added much to our cruise experience.

 

Debbie

[Marge Barge 2006]

CCL is no longer my cruise of choice. It was at one time. Back in the days of Scott Petersen, Ray Carr, Julian Bersch and several others that are no longer working as CDs for Celebrity. Although I find Celebrity CDs to be nice, I find that they are being held back from being themselves by the head office. I've cruised with their entertainment manager on one occasion and even had a converstation with him. I find him to be the most self centered and egotistical person I have ever met. In fact, I met him when he went back as a fill-in CD for a cruise and he all but disappeared. I may have seen him one other time on the cruise. How about that for setting an example. I haven't cruised with Celebrity since. It is a running joke in my office now whenever someone is thinking about cruising with Celebrity.

 

Marge

[C 2 C]

It is a running joke in my office now whenever someone is thinking about cruising with Celebrity.

 

Marge

 

You don't cruise with Celebrity because you were turned off by a CD but you take the time to logon the Celebrity site for your 3rd post. Are you here to annoy or enlighten?:confused: And your office thinks it's funny... Nurse Cratchet won't be amused.:eek:

[excitedofharpenden]

I agree with how 'miner said it. The cruise directors we have had have been generally good. Julian Bersch was ok, Susan Woods was the best. She really made a difference at our CC party and was always visible and friendly, without being over the top. When she stood by the door at the end of the cruise saying "cheerio" and that she hoped to see us again, I really felt like she meant it, even if it was just some patter.

 

I'm a great believer in the correct attitude at the top having an effect all the way through the ship, even if it is not always self evident. Galaxy 2004 was a very happy ship (I'm sure Buckeye Geo would agree) and that was in no small part due to the officers and senior staff onboard.

 

Phil

[Cruise or Lose!]

Marge...if you don't like Celebrity and don't cruise with Celebrity, might I suggest you not post misinformation on the Celebrity boards?

[chessbriar]

CCL is no longer my cruise of choice. It was at one time. Back in the days of Scott Petersen, Ray Carr, Julian Bersch and several others that are no longer working as CDs for Celebrity. Although I find Celebrity CDs to be nice, I find that they are being held back from being themselves by the head office. I've cruised with their entertainment manager on one occasion and even had a converstation with him. I find him to be the most self centered and egotistical person I have ever met. In fact, I met him when he went back as a fill-in CD for a cruise and he all but disappeared. I may have seen him one other time on the cruise. How about that for setting an example. I haven't cruised with Celebrity since. It is a running joke in my office now whenever someone is thinking about cruising with Celebrity.

 

Marge

 

You do realize CCL is Carnival Cruise Lines. Please refer them to X as opposed to The C word.

 

Ray Carr was working for a hotel in Mexico for a while. Julian was let go for poor performance.

 

Why haven't you cruised with X, because the entertainment manager was egotistical? He's not even a regular on the ships. What was his name? If he was working as a CD, he'd be known by the members on these boards.

[Drew B]

Hi Drew !

 

I am sorry to hear you feel that way about John Howell. I have sailed with him a few times, and he really does a great job. While I cannot offer any excuses for your feelings, it is quite possible that John had a ton of issues to deal with, once the pod problems arose. I dont think any of us can fully understand what a CD has to deal with, once severe problems arise. Perhaps that is why you didnt have a good opinion of him.

 

Well, the captain had a ton of issues, too, but he still managed to make [some of] us feel respected. John chided us like we were children and really seemed to insult our intelligence. He was the ONLY crew member I disliked. Obviously, this was not his best moment, but sometimes it is in times of trial that we see a person's true character...

[excitedofharpenden]

Julian was let go for poor performance.

I'm sure it must be a difficult job to do at the best of times. On show for so much of the time. It doesn't surprise me about Julian Bersch. Perhaps it's like a trader in the stock or foreign exchange markets. You end up burning yourself out.

 

We had a program in the UK called "The Cruise" following Galaxy in her innaugural year. Doug Jones was the CD then. I understand he was well respected and has gone on to bigger and better things.

 

Phil

[chessbriar]

I'm sure it must be a difficult job to do at the best of times. On show for so much of the time. It doesn't surprise me about Julian Bersch. Perhaps it's like a trader in the stock or foreign exchange markets. You end up burning yourself out.

 

We had a program in the UK called "The Cruise" following Galaxy in her innaugural year. Doug Jones was the CD then. I understand he was well respected and has gone on to bigger and better things.

 

Phil

 

What really makes it tough is if you are married and your parnter is not sailing with you other than a week here and there. I think that's part of what burnt him out.

[Ma Bell]

Many of us who have sailed with John Howell on a number of cruises have found him to be wonderful, kind and compassionate. I'm sorry to hear that you felt that way. Those of us who sailed with him in March to Hawaii found him outstanding.

[Marge Barge 2006]

That was another forum in another line. I can't say that I want to be Ray Carr (my husband wouldn't be too peased), but I would like his sense of humor and personality. He was so good with my two boys when we last cruised with him. They still bring him up. Anyway, the questions was asked who I thought was the best and I can truly say that there is/was none better. Different strokes for different folks. Have a great day.