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ALEX F. on GEM

mew1

By mew1,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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Planer's Edge

Planer's Edge

Posted
Posted
Thanks for posting, but boy am I sad, he is the best. Me and my mom met him on the Jewel, and he made the cruise so special for my mom. I am SO SAD.

mew1

 

I would be willing to bet that the next Concierge you encounter will leave a similar impression. I have met a quite a few of them (Anshuman, Carlos, Karan, Anca, Marike, and Ruth) and they are all fabulous.

 

PE

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NoPiratesPlease

NoPiratesPlease

Posted
Posted
I would be willing to bet that the next Concierge you encounter will leave a similar impression. I have met a quite a few of them (Anshuman' date=' Carlos, Karan, Anca, Marike, and Ruth) and they are all fabulous.

 

PE[/quote']

 

I know all these folks and Ruth and Simone, on the Star are our top favorites, but Alex is up there and we are always delighted to see him! We just saw him 10 days ago on the CTN on the Gem and he more than remembered us, though he hadn't seen us in a couple of years-like catching up with an old friend.

 

We know Anshuman and Karan as butlers--Karan was doing the Concierge's job already then so his promotion was no surprise. Marike we only saw asOf that group, we see Carlos as the weakest--I won't say he isn't good, because he's very good, but he doesn't compare to Ruth, Anka, or Alex. Marike we've only seen as the assistent but she did very well.

 

Still, whoever you get you should be very happy with. Remember, each is different and it's a VERY hard job that requires infinite patience and a very thick skin. Your sympathy for their job, even if it's unspoken, will help them help you.

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time2cruise1

time2cruise1

Posted
Posted
I know Alex F. is the concierge on the Gem right now, will he still be there beginning of April? I HOPE I HOPE, If anyone knows, I would appreciate the information.

thanks

mew1

 

I will let you know. I should be greeting Alex around 11:30 in the morning as we board the Gem.

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Tomct

Tomct

Posted
Posted
I know all these folks and Ruth and Simone, on the Star are our top favorites, but Alex is up there and we are always delighted to see him! We just saw him 10 days ago on the CTN on the Gem and he more than remembered us, though he hadn't seen us in a couple of years-like catching up with an old friend.

 

We know Anshuman and Karan as butlers--Karan was doing the Concierge's job already then so his promotion was no surprise. Marike we only saw as Of that group, we see Carlos as the weakest--I won't say he isn't good, because he's very good, but he doesn't compare to Ruth, Anka, or Alex. Marike we've only seen as the assistent but she did very well.

 

Still, whoever you get you should be very happy with. Remember, each is different and it's a VERY hard job that requires infinite patience and a very thick skin. Your sympathy for their job, even if it's unspoken, will help them help you.

 

I just wanted to comment on Carlos. We've been on seven cruises, and would agree that Ruth is at the top. As for Carlos, we rank him right up there with Ruth. Based on only one cruise with him, he definitely has a different style, but the bottom line is great service.

 

An example occurred at the end of the 7 day cruise, when someone in our party of 15 realized she had left her prescription glasses on the headboard of her bed. We found Carlos, who had Housekeeping check the cabin, but the room had been cleaned. The short story was that Carlos assured us he would find and return them, no later than the end of the next cruise. He maintained contact with us, as soon as he located them, and later when he had made arrangements to have them sent to us, the day the ship returned to port the following week. He also handled a few other problems we threw at him flawlessly, in addition to the normal concierge duties. We remain hopeful of sailing with him again.

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mew1

mew1

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I am sure we will have a good time with Lisa, we don't know her, but NCL does do an excellent job with picking the staff. I was just hopping, to get one more chance for my dear mom to see Alex again. You see my mom is going blind in fact she sees little now, is learning all the skills needed now. Well last year Alex really did many small thoughtful things to make my moms 1st cruise amazing. She was at about 80% loss then, so he made sure she had some special sights to remember, one morning he told me where to go to have her see the most amazing sun rise, he came by when we were waiting to eat in Cagney's he told them to take care of her. The staff help her so much, even removed shell and cut up her lobster. It made her memories SO PERFECT. She still talks about it and Alex. I will always be grateful that he made it so memorable for her. And now with her last seeing cruise she ONLY wanted NCL.

You could not even put a price on Alex's wonderful service.

mew1

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Silverspoon

Silverspoon

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Posted

We had Lisa on the Gem. Overall she was pretty helpful when called upon. She didn't offer much otherwise, but we were in an AD & AE, so she might have had more demanding passengers higher up.

 

She did allow us to sit in reserved seating in the theatre, which was nice, since it's only reserved for A4 and up. She also had her assistant make all of our dinner reservations for the week on the first day. We even got a few window seats. Additionally, we called her one day to find out more info about a port, and although the info given wasn't that helpful--I could tell she tried. She seemed new at the time, last year, but maybe not?

 

One thing that really bothered me, is that, when we disembarked the ship one of our bags was missing and she just left us to be taken care of by the porters (who are not NCL employees.) 2 1/2 hours later when the porters still couldn't find our bag, she wouldn't take our phone call!!! NCL customer service finally got it to us about 1 1/2 weeks later--another passenger had taken it home with them!:eek:

 

That was pretty bad. I know she was busy with the new passengers, but I thought she could at least take our call and try to put our worries at ease.

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Prada Cowboy

Prada Cowboy

Posted
Posted
We had Lisa on the Gem. Overall she was pretty helpful when called upon. She didn't offer much otherwise, but we were in an AD & AE, so she might have had more demanding passengers higher up.

 

She did allow us to sit in reserved seating in the theatre, which was nice, since it's only reserved for A4 and up. She also had her assistant make all of our dinner reservations for the week on the first day. We even got a few window seats. Additionally, we called her one day to find out more info about a port, and although the info given wasn't that helpful--I could tell she tried. She seemed new at the time, last year, but maybe not?

 

One thing that really bothered me, is that, when we disembarked the ship one of our bags was missing and she just left us to be taken care of by the porters (who are not NCL employees.) 2 1/2 hours later when the porters still couldn't find our bag, she wouldn't take our phone call!!! NCL customer service finally got it to us about 1 1/2 weeks later--another passenger had taken it home with them!:eek:

 

That was pretty bad. I know she was busy with the new passengers, but I thought she could at least take our call and try to put our worries at ease.

 

Lisa and Alex are the same Caliber! The best NCL has to offer!

Sorry to hear about your luggage, but just imagine she is responsible for over 200 Guests, after the Guests are off it is the work of the Pier personell she can assist a bit, but honestly they are NOT allowed anymore to work at the pier by US Laws!

 

YES ALex will move to the Pearl in mid of March and Lisa will be back on her GEM.

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Prada Cowboy

Prada Cowboy

Posted
Posted
I see that mid-March has been mentioned for Alex on the Pearl...but does anyone know an exact date/sailing?

 

If we sail in mid-March, and Alex isn't on the Pearl yet, will it then be Erika?

 

It looks like March 14 there will be te change from the Gem to the Pearl!

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Sam The Cat

Sam The Cat

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Posted

GF andI had Lisa on the Spirit a couple of years ago. We were in the owner's suite and she did all she could. Even stopping by to say Hi when we had a few people in for drinks one afternoon We can not wait to see her since we have a photo of her when she stopped by.

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Tomct

Tomct

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We had Lisa on the Gem. Overall she was pretty helpful when called upon.

 

. . .

 

 

One thing that really bothered me, is that, when we disembarked the ship one of our bags was missing and she just left us to be taken care of by the porters (who are not NCL employees.) 2 1/2 hours later when the porters still couldn't find our bag, she wouldn't take our phone call!!! NCL customer service finally got it to us about 1 1/2 weeks later--another passenger had taken it home with them!:eek:

 

That was pretty bad. I know she was busy with the new passengers, but I thought she could at least take our call and try to put our worries at ease.

 

 

We had a similar problem debarking from the Gem last year. Claudio was the concierge, and he did the same with us. I too realized he would be focused on the new passengers coming aboard, but they should have some means to oversee the recovery of the lost bags, so long as the impacted party is still waiting and had not yet filed a lost baggage claim.

 

Claudio advised us that they usually show up, and that we could either leave and it would be sent to us, or we could stick around to see what happens. Because we had souvenirs in that bag for our grandkids, and we preferred to be on the scene to oversee what might be happening, we opted to remain for awhile. Claudio noted a “lonely” bag next to ours that belonged to someone he had escorted off. That gave us hope they might have "ours" and would eventually call looking for "theirs". To make a long story short, the guy made it home to NJ, realized what happened, got my cell phone written on my bag tag, and informed me he was the “idiot” with my bag. By the time he returned the bag, nearly 3 hours had elapsed and it was 12:30 pm. The staff at the pier could not have been more helpful and supportive, including NCL staff, the stevedores, and especially support staff from Cruise Link, Ltd., who were there to assist passengers arriving and departing. One very important lesson to note: Though NCL provides an area on your luggage tags for “Home Phone”, you should also consider including your cell phone. It surely saved us further grief, and got the bag back to us much sooner that it would have been otherwise, and importantly, allowed us to meet up with our grandkids that day with souvenirs in hand!!

 

The bottom line to me was that we should not have been left hanging. Though the concierge had other duties to perform, someone should have been assigned. One issue I had was that since we were among the first to debark, I did not want to then have to fight the 2000+ passengers behind us to get through customs, etc. carrying the bags we did have. Claudio had said he would take care of that, but by the time we got the call about our bags, he of course was gone. Though most passengers were also gone, there was still a backup, and we were fortunate that our stevedore understood our situation and was able to get us through in an efficient manner. I'm clearly not blaming Claudio, as he did a nice job on board, but the "system" should not have let us fall through the cracks.

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TrinaLC

TrinaLC

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I think it is unrealistic to expect that a Concierge would have responsibility for helping a departing passenger with luggage problems. There is a system in place for all passengers, and at that point a suite passenger just has to deal with the system.

 

It is far more important that the Concierge handle the hundreds of incoming passengers and I'm sure that is what they are expected to do as part of their job.

 

(Can you imagine what we'd hear if embarking suite passengers had no concierge service because he or she was having to hand hold a passenger who had a missing bag? especially since there is precious little they can do about it?)

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WhenIsOurNextCruise

WhenIsOurNextCruise

Posted
Posted

Tom,

I'm sure that was a frustrating experience. However, if I understand your complaint, I'm not sure that NCL should be expected to assign a person to help you for 3 hours because another guest walked off with your luggage. Claudio tried to assist you, but he could not possibly have hung around for 3 hours as he had a large number of new passengers who needed his attention. And I don't see that you were "left hanging" as it was entirely your decision to chose to wait for your luggage to show up. Getting through customs without help is something we all have to do occasionally. Plus the stevedore did a great job as did NCL crew in the area - so I really don't think NCL deserves your complaint.

 

I'm really glad it worked out well for you and I know your grandkids appreciated the souvenirs.

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Silverspoon

Silverspoon

Posted
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Unless you are in this situation, where you literally "just" got off the ship and your luggage is no where to be found...you wouldn't know how desperate you can become just to talk to "someone" that actually works for NCL.

 

During the weekend when most ships disembark, NCL's customer service is not open, even by phone. There are no NCL employees at the disembarkation port's luggage area. They seperate the embarkation and disembarkation areas and you cannot access the NCL employees. (We tried.)

 

Nobody could even tell us what NCL would do next...the porters had no idea what to tell us--as they didn't work for NCL. We just filed a lost baggage claim, which would be forwarded to NCL at a later date.

 

The concierge, Lisa, refusing to take our call was what we felt was bad service.

 

Tomct,

You are lucky that passenger was kind hearted enough to bring you your bag...the NJ passenger who made off with our bag refused to bring it to us--even though she lived a short drive from NYC. She was very difficult and we were afraid she might not return our luggage at all. (We did leave our cell phone number on our bag--she just called us when "she got around to it".):rolleyes:

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BikerAl

BikerAl

Posted
Posted
I think it is unrealistic to expect that a Concierge would have responsibility for helping a departing passenger with luggage problems. There is a system in place for all passengers, and at that point a suite passenger just has to deal with the system.

 

It is far more important that the Concierge handle the hundreds of incoming passengers and I'm sure that is what they are expected to do as part of their job.

 

(Can you imagine what we'd hear if embarking suite passengers had no concierge service because he or she was having to hand hold a passenger who had a missing bag? especially since there is precious little they can do about it?)

 

I have to agree. The ground staff is responsible once on US soil. In fact, the concierge is normally restricted, by Homeland Security regulations, from entering the baggage area. We had a missing bag upon returning to Miami in December. An NCL land based employee helped search, and found it in the wrong color zone.

 

Al

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WhenIsOurNextCruise

WhenIsOurNextCruise

Posted
Posted
Unless you are in this situation, where you literally "just" got off the ship and your luggage is no where to be found...you wouldn't know how desperate you can become just to talk to "someone" that actually works for NCL.

 

During the weekend when most ships disembark, NCL's customer service is not open, even by phone. There are no NCL employees at the disembarkation port's luggage area. They seperate the embarkation and disembarkation areas and you cannot access the NCL employees. (We tried.)

 

Nobody could even tell us what NCL would do next...the porters had no idea what to tell us--as they didn't work for NCL. We just filed a lost baggage claim, which would be forwarded to NCL at a later date.

 

The concierge, Lisa, refusing to take our call was what we felt was bad service.

 

Tomct,

You are lucky that passenger was kind hearted enough to bring you your bag...the NJ passenger who made off with our bag refused to bring it to us--even though she lived a short drive from NYC. She was very difficult and we were afraid she might not return our luggage at all. (We did leave our cell phone number on our bag--she just called us when "she got around to it".):rolleyes:

 

I do understand how awful it is not to be able to find your luggage and how helpless you feel when no one seems to care. And I don't really have an opinion about Lisa not returning your call, other than I'm sure you were disappointed.

 

However, Tom said he was getting help from the stevedores and NCL's ground staff. He was disappointed because his concierge abandoned him during his 3 hour vigil - and did not send someone to sub for him and get Tom and his luggage through customs. Sorry, I can't agree that he has a legitimate complaint against the concierge or NCL. He CHOSE to wait the 3 hours. The ground staff tried to help. It turned out that the gentleman returned his luggage. And the stevedore got him through customs.

 

Once you are off the ship, you are back in the real world where stuff happens and you just have to deal with it without a concierge. No one cares if you were in a suite or not. I hope they gave Tom the same attention and service they gave everyone else with similar issues at disembarkation.

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