hotel director

September 11, 2013 by TravelXena Leave a Comment

Interview with Cruise Director Alastair Crawford on the Jewel of the Seas

Interview with Cruise Director Alastair Crawford on the Jewel of the Seas

When sailing on the Jewel of the Seas this summer I had the change to sit down and talk with who I think is the most cheery Hotel Director ever. Alastair Crawford! Read below to find out more of his interesting background that includes working for a Duke and what his favorite port is.

Where are you from?The U.K. from England, originally from Teesside which is the Northeast of England and now I live down in a place called Milton Keynes 50 miles north of London just straight up going north. I get the best of both worlds now. The city’s on the doorstep but I live in the countryside.

What made you go into this line of work? Did you see yourself doing that when you were a kid?
I moved into the catering hospitality side when I went to university. I did a Hospitality degree. Hotel and Catering Institutional Management it was called back then. I did that and I went to work for a Scottish hotel chain called Statons Hotels. And I went into a training management program with them and then from there I was made into the Assistant Manager and was working in several hotels around Glasgow, Edinburgh…those places in Scotland. Purely by chance I came across an advertisement to join cruises, so I applied for it I went down on a sleeper train for London for an interview and I was lucky enough to get the job. I was quite young in those days that was back in the early 80s and I went to work for P&O and Princess cruises until 1989. Met my wife on board, my wife’s from Mexico we got married, I left at that time.

So I started as a Junior assistant person which is like the front desk on here on the guest services desk when I left I was a deputy person with them which is like the assistant hotel manager,…and then I went onto ferries a few years in the Irish sea, running the hotel services on the ferries. Then my wife said to me it’s time you came home. We’ve got some small children it’s time to come home and back on land. And I went to work for the Duke of Bedford…which is why I live in the South of England now and I worked for him for 15 years doing various roles. Woburn Abbey is the ancestral home of the Duke of Bedford, the park around it and obviously the house is open to the public and everything. He has three championship golf courses, he has a hotel, he has a safari park with everything from Lions and Tigers to Elephants and what have you. In England? In England yes, which is all open to the public, so it’s a big leisure operation that we have there and obviously property and farms and all sorts of other things.

So I spent 15 years there, and then why come back to sea after all of that. I personally was turning 50 and it was at that time that I thought, do I stay and continue to do what I was doing working for the Duke, retire at 65 or whatever or do I do something different. To be honest I was a bit bored in a bit of a rut and I was again just surfing on the internet and came across a job opportunity here. My wife said “go on give it a try, it might give you a new lease on life.” I think she wanted rid of me really (laughs) so I applied for it and over a few months I went through the interview process came back to Miami for interviews, went on the ship a few days for familiarization and they offered me the job role.

That was just over two years ago now. So I joined the organization and as a new hire coming into it it’s quite a big adjustment after all those years away. I’ve been on the Adventure of the Seas those last two years, learnt a lot, really really enjoy it, and now I’m lucky enough to spend my time…2 months on a contract with the Jewel and I relieve the permanent hotel director here when she goes on vacation and then I go back to the Adventure and then I relieve the Hotel Director on there for his vacation. So I have the best of two ships, two different classes. The Adventure is voyage class which is bigger another thousand, 1100 guests in there and that’s the one with the ice rinks and lots of different facilities on the Royal Promenade in the center and then this one’s a little bit smaller a bit more intimate, smaller guests numbers. Both of them are really nice…I love it, I really do enjoy it.

How much time do you spend at Sea?
I do a four month contract on board and then I have 2 months vacation. So it’s not bad at all, and then of course you bring family on…as well. I go to the adventure again in the middle of August. I leave here fly over to the Adventure again in Europe. The week I join my wife and my youngest daughter (are) coming on board for two weeks and then…in September my parents are coming on for a few weeks so it’s nice and it’s not the long flight to pay for them to come out to the Caribbean. That’s lucky.

I get real quality time when I’m at home. That’s the bonus. Because I’m not working, I can go and do what I want so i my daughter wants me to go to school and see her rowing or something I can go along and do it. Nothing stops me doing those types of things which is really nice.

So if young person says to you this is what I want to be when I grow up. What would you tell them? What would you suggest?
I would recommend it to anybody I think. Get some experience first, work in a hotel, work in a restaurant, bar, whatever your interest is gain a little bit of experience first before you come. Because on board you’re expected to know, how to give service, how to wait at a table and so on. If you arrive brand new and you have to learn that as well you’re going to struggle. So get some experience first, then come, be prepared.

What’s the biggest difference? You’re working every single day. And unlike let’s say in a restaurant on shore where you have maybe one seating that you do you turn the tables over one, one and a half time in a restaurant, here we’ve got two complete seatings virtually every single meal that you’re doing so volumes are really excessive if that makes sense. Maybe that’s not the right word but massive volumes all the time in what were doing. There really isn’t anything comparable on land. Even a hotel in Vegas or somewhere, they don’t turn everybody over at the same time, they’re not feeding everybody at the same time, people have other choices about where they go for there meal or there drink or whatever. So that’s the difference .

Be prepared for all the things that come on the back of it. Obviously safety’s really important. So all of the people on board have a safety role to do so a lot of the training when people first come on board is all about learning the safety aspects of the ship. Because out staff are expected to act as guides, give instruction out to guests and so on. What to do in an emergency. So they have to be very confident and very adept at knowing what goes on and what is required of them. So there’s a lot of extra training.

What’s Your Favorite Port to Sail out of and your favorite port stop?

My favorite area to sail is probably Alaska. Just because of the natural beauty up there. The inside passage going up from Vancouver up to Alaska itself. Those unspoiled towns like Sitka and everything, it’s just beautiful. My favorite port has to be Sydney in Australia. You know with the Opera house and the Sydney Harbor bridge..it’s awesome going in the views as you sail in are just fantastic.

What ship goes over there?

Rhapsody goes out to Australia and we have some other ships out there as well.

Are there any Trans-pacifics?

Yes, they do because Rhapsody does half of the year out in Australia and the other half in Alaska, that’s probably one of the best ships to go on!

We have other ships out there as well.

What would you say to a passenger who’s on their first cruise? What would you tell them guarantees a great cruise?

Well I think that they should come on board prepared to try things that they don’t normally do. There’s a lot of activities, entertainment and so on, come on immerse yourself in it and enjoy it. A lot of activities they call for guest involvement, passenger involvement. If they’re not involved they don’t get the same experience at the end of the day. There are so many things that maybe as you’re older you wouldn’t try, on the Adventure for example you’ve got the ice rink on board. You know you might not expect in your 50’s to sail the Caribbean and go ice skating but why not give it a try.

It’s taking those memories away with you. What you’ve done. The other thing is always take shore excursions because you come to these places you’re a few hours in port you can just go to the beach, but if you did that at every single port that you’re at what’s the experience you’re getting? You’re not getting any new memories go off and do a tour get into the islands, see what’s behind that port you’re at. And I think you’ve got to immerse yourself in these experiences places as well even if it’s only for a couple of hours. The other thing is relax. If you don’t come on board to relax on your holiday you can wear yourself out. Because everything is done for you, you can really chill have a good time, and take things at your own pace.

Thank you Alistair for taking the time to do this interview. I hope to meet you again on another sailing. 🙂

All Material Copyright TravelXena.com 2013

July 28, 2013 by TravelXena 8 Comments

Royal Caribbean Jewel of the Seas

So readers by now you think that all I do is cruise. I really do enjoy land based vacations, but since I started cruising three years ago, you’d be right. I like my land vacations combined with cruising, cruises are fun and great value for the money, I’ve no intention to stop any time soon. Of my 14 cruises, 12 have been on Norwegian Cruise Line. I’m comfortable there, they’re quirky, I’m quirky, the other passengers are quirky, it suits me and me usually introverted but I’m an extrovert on vacation quirk.

So when group opinion for what was to be a group cruise one year ago said that we were to go on Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas, I was only marginally excited I have to admit. …”Bbbbut” (sob) I said. “What about Freestyle dining, ’cause I don’t eat eat with weirdos, only quirky folks.” I said, “I want to go to the White Hot Party” I said and finally a “Oh all right.”

Well a year later it was a relief to find out that I had nothing to be concerned about. While I still think that more personality gels more with the freestyle cruising concept I’d certainly go, and look forward to going on a Royal Caribbean cruise again. In fact I even bought future cruise credits.

Some Differences Some Similarities

Despite being an introvert, I put forth an effort to be outgoing when on vacation and I actually think that being around people I don’t know can be a nice thing for brief periods. That doesn’t extend to eating with strangers however.

On Norwegian, freestyle dining is the norm. When you’re hungry you go and eat. You can eat alone, with whomever you came with or with a group of strangers if there’s an open table. There are also way more specialty dining options on Norwegian.

On Royal Caribbean, you pay the daily service charge ahead of time for what is called “My Time Dining” if you want to arrange to eat by yourself of with the group you came with you should arrange this ahead of time with you travel agent or the line itself if you booked directly though them.

My preference: Norwegian. The lines for My Time Dining were long at the time that I went to eat (after 8pm) so I in fact asked to be seated with the women that I was traveling with. They actually had a table to themselves, so it worked out.

When I sail again on Royal Caribbean if I am traveling solo/sola I will probably request assigned seating at a table for 1. If I’m traveling with others, I’ll request a table for us only. As that seems like something fairly easy for them to accommodate it seems a simple solution.

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Besides the dining aspect, they’re a good deal more alike than they are different. The entertainment around the ship is similar. I can’t comment on the shows because I was too busy to ever go see one, but I certainly plan on catching on the next time around.

The crew, staff and officers are just a friendly and the officers are fairly equal in visibility.

I have 5 great interviews coming up with the following members of the Jewel of the Seas.
The Captain, The Staff Captain (who is a woman – girl power!), the Hotel Director, The Cruise director and the Food and Beverage director, all really cool people, but I yes I favor Kate McHue Staff Captain because without trying to sound cliche she’s pretty awesome!

Highlights

The Centrum. It’s in the middle of the ship, it’s easy to find and many activities take place there. Thumbs up! The 70s party was a blast and I like the thought of it being where everyone can get to right away and join in. The downside is that the area on the Centrum floor isn’t large, but in some ways that just adds to the fun of the chaos that is dancing for all the world or at least ship to see. It’s a great place to be if you’re trying to meet up with others, or simple sit quietly sipping on a coffee taking a glance up to reflect on the majesty of these huge vessels.

What I did

Dancing on the Pool Deck
Oh sure they do that on most cruises, but it’s fun! After standing there watching people do latin line dancing Dennis the cruise director decided that I wasn’t going to get away with standing on the sidelines. I found out when Elvis on the CD team told me “you with the camera, come here” Oh dear. Handing the camera and iPad over to Dennis I got up and shook my booty with everyone else and guess who got pretty good photos of it!

Thanks for the photos of me dancing Dennis!

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Laid around the Solarium on the pool deck. Laid around the Solarium on the pool deck. Laid around the Solarium on the pool deck. So comfy! And the best (strongest) Margaritas!

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Behind the scenes tours of the Galley, Theater and Bridge. If you’re new to cruising or just interested about what makes your trip special they’re worth doing. It also gives you a chance to ask questions of those that help make the sailing a smooth and enjoyable one.

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Dinner with the F&B Director Tony Fitzsimmons. Delightful and charming with over 55 years at sea! I’ll tell you more about him when I post the interview he was kind enough to give.

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…explored the ship and a whole lot of relaxing. Because that’s what vacations are supposed to be about. Who knew laying in bed, snacking and watching Skyfall could be so much fun!

Would I go back on the Jewel of the Seas?

Heck yeah! I had a great time on the ship, lots of activities, really nice people that work there and the ship is really beautiful. There is glass everywhere. The elevators, the coffee shop, all over. You can always have a great view of what’s happening without having to go far.

All Photos and Written Material Copyright TravelXena.com 2013 ©

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May 29, 2013 by TravelXena 2 Comments

Norwegian Breakaway – Ice Bar Meet and Greet Cabin Crawl

Norwegian Breakaway – Ice Bar and Meet and Greet & Cabin Crawl

Here are three events to take part in on the Breakaway as they’re either fun, informative or all three.

The Ice Bar…brrrrr there’s a reason that it’s called Norwegian Cruise Line! Joking! The Svedka Ice bar on board is one of two at sea, the other is on the Norwegian Epic. True to it’s word after donning a warm cape and gloves given to you by the attendants prepping you for the experience you go into a world of ICE! Ice walls, ice chair, even ice cups that hold your liquor. It’s a cute experience and a ‘cool’ place to get photos.

The Meet and Greet

NCL has such personable people working for them, I really enjoy going to the M&Gs to some of the people that work really hard to make the ship run smoothly for all of our safety and enjoyment.

Currently these are some of the officers on the Norwegian Breakaway

Evans Hoyt – CaptainDenis Prguda – Hotel Director (Denis was recently promoted to Regional Vice President with Norwegian Cruise Line)
Sean Wurmhoeringer (Current HD)
Sonja Sommeregger – Assistant Hotel Director
Ivanov Martin – F&B Director
Marites Sonza – Executive Housekeeper
Jose Contreras – Beverage Manger
Joseph Boyle – Guest Services Manager
Anil Chinthapattla – Executive Chef
Luiza Andrei – Restaurant Manager
Julie Valeriote – Cruise Director
Veronica Manabat – Group Services Coordinator
Etienne Saladin – Group Services Coordinator

Cabin Crawl

These are usually arranged by passengers who have attended the Meet and Greet but of course otehr passengers can do so as well. Just make sure not to have too many people in the halls. Try to limit the amount to 20 or less and the time so as not to disturb others traveling and the room stewards trying to make sure that each cabin is tidy.

Attending a cabin crawl allows you take a brief look into what other stateroom layouts are like, hopefully helping you decide on where you’ll stay the next time you book a ship of that class.

January 2, 2013 by TravelXena 2 Comments

Norwegian Jewel December 2012 New York Florida Bahamas Part 4

Day 6, 7 and disembarkation on day 8

Day 6 – Second Day at Sea

I left the door to the balcony slightly open in order to take in a bit of sea breeze while sleeping buy the time I woke up in the morning the wind had kicked up quite a bit, signaling of course that we were actually on our way up North.

I slowly washed up and got dressed and by 11:00 we walked over to the Java cafe where I had an Cappuccino Aroma and started to catch up on writing about this trip.

Noon meant that it was time to have lunch at our favorite spot, Tsars. Vietnamese Summer Rolls and Portobello mushrooms for me again along with Shrimp Caesar salad.

Next up was an interview with Captain Lars Bergstrom. I’ll be posting that soon. Captain Lars is a very pleasant welcoming personality and the kind of person one looks forward to meeting again. So it was nice to have the chance to get to know a little more about him.

We had a table near the window that evening in Tsars and we could see that the waves were quite high! It was fascinating to watch and was indicative of what we would see the next day as we continued sailing along the Atlantic coast.

Food rave: And as much as I love, love, love creme brulee, there is a Pecan Pie adorned with chocolate Ice Cream in Tsars Dining Room that will make you smile for days. It’s delicious times 2 and worth trying when it’s on the menu.

Day 7 – Third Day at Sea

Another late morning, ah how I love those. The ship was moving quite a bit now, thankfully neither of us are really effected by sea sickness, here and there I’ll feel a little off, albeit nothing major. JP the Magician shared a tip and that’s to put some sugar under your tongue and suck on it. Sure enough it seems to work for motion sickness.

We went to the buffet for lunch and said hello to Felix Esprit the Restaurant manager on the Jewel and Angelito Santos the Executive Chef. Both of them have done a great job because the food style and flavor of the meals that we had on board was very good and simply delicious. There’s a Tilapia meal that I’m looking forward to tasting again the next time I’m on board when Chef Santos is there. One of the reasons his style of food prep ranks high with me is that I feel fish and seafood in general should be well done. I don’t want to have to send it back and ask to have it cooked further. If it’s juicy on the inside I’m not going to touch it. The fish dishes on the ship always had the right touch of moisture and were easy to eat and flavorful just as I like it. If only all places made seafood in this fashion.

Felix was very kind and treated my sweetie and I to dinner wherever we chose that evening. Since Le Bistro is my husband’s favorite I went with that one. We had a chance to have some of our favorite dishes twice as a treat from NCL, first from my Platinum Latitudes status and the second from Felix. What a nice happening on vacation! Thank you Felix!

After we dined we went to the question and answer session with Brenda Kaye the Hypnotist, Jean-Pierre Parent the Magician and Comedian and the acrobatic couple Celia & Julien.

Right after the Q&A I sat down with JP to do an interview with him for my travel blog. It was interesting, insightful and of course funny! If you haven’t already looked at it, you can check it out here.

About an hour after that we went to Stardust theater for the Officer Profile, it was then moved to Spinnaker Lounge before starting so we went upstairs 6 flights (yes we walked, staircase climbing was out major exercise for the week.) and made our way to the front with cameras ready. Captain Lars Bergstrom, Hotel Director Hugo Vanosmael, and newly appointed Chief Engineer Tihomer Hirdalo. The Chief Engineer for our sailing was Terje Bjerkan from Norway but he was not at the profile.

Afterward Captain Lars was nice enough to take photos with the crowd that swarmed him for photos after. It was pretty cute, there were a lot of young kids that were thrilled with the chance to have a picture with the man that runs the ship.

It was my chance to grab a photo with Hotel Director Hugo Vanosmael. I’d heard a lot of good things about him on the Cruise Critic board and they are true. He’s a very approachable HD.

After the officer Q&A in Spinnaker lounge we decided to stay so that I could take photos with Cosmo and Wanda from the Fairly Odd Parents. Yes I was the only big person standing there for a photo that didn’t have a little person with me. :p

That evening we said our goodbyes to Rocelle our lovely room steward from the Philippines. A kind personality and a friendly disposition we really enjoyed meeting and getting to know her. Hopefully we’ll see each other again on a future voyage.

Day 8 – Disembarkation Morning

After a week of fun, sun, food, and people it was time to go. Never easy to leave a place of comfort and entertainment we nevertheless woke up finished packing and left stateroom 10520. It was a nice comfortable room that we’ll miss having. We’d originally booked a room in a different category grade, but were very nicely upgraded into the balcony room. Thanks Norwegian Cruise Line!

Since Hurricane Sandy still effects Pier 88, the immigration process getting off the ship was basically taken care of on the ship. We waited about 35 minutes on this line before being able to see one of the 3 immigration officers on board. Probably a bit shorter than what the wait would have been outside, and thankfully in the warmth. I would recommend that different color tags are called spaced apart a bit more to prevent the congestion, but in the end there would be a long line anyway either on or off the ship, and I can only imagine how much tougher it must be for the crew to prep for the next wave of passengers when hundreds of us are still on the ship, so kudos to them for all of their hard work.

We’ve nothing but good things to say and great memories of our end of the year cruise on the Jewel and are happy to have had a chance to cruise on her again after a year and a half. We’re Looking forward to cruise number for on her…perhaps this year.