Just disembarked from Mariner

[PaulaJK]

& I'm not certain, even for myself. In part, I think it's because we've grown accustomed to seeing the Capt around plus when he is out & about and greeting/smoozing w. folks it seems to add a cozier feel to the experience.

If everything had been super on this cruise, I probably only would have shrugged and felt that the Capt. had a different style. Since--to me--the cruise seemed to lack management/supervision in some spots, I began to wonder if this was a from the top down sort of issue.

[Iamboatman]

There are two schools, neither of which is wrong...they are just different.

 

Some are of the old, romantic, approach where speaking with the captain is an honor and tied to the traditions of the sea. Some are of the "He's the guy that drives the boat" approach.

 

When I started out in this business a luxury cruise rep said, "A passenger on Line Y will pay $399 for an inside cabin and expect the captain of a 2000 passenger ship to greet him at the gangway with a white-gloved waiter holding a chilled glass of champagne for him. It will never happen. A guest on Line X will pay $3,999 for his suite on an intimate ship, not expect any of it...but will get it all."

 

As you can see, that rep was only partially right. Some pay for it, expect it and don't get it. Myself...it isn't really a big deal.

[OrpingtonT]

The last few posts, in my view, display good common sense. Like Paula, I had wondered whether the staff discipline might have been stronger had the Captain or Staff Captain been visible. Capt Guillou greeted us when we emberked and in Skagway, for example, he came to wave guests off on the White Pass Railroad excursion.

 

(Mariner was safely tied up at the time. ;) )