1. I wondered how the cruise line can pay 1,000 employees on the ship when there are only 2,000 guests and the prices are so reasonable (cruises can make for inexpensive vacations, because food and entertainment are included in the price). I suppose the employees get free food and accommodations, so all money they earn could be saved, which is pretty huge.
2. Related to point one: about 40-50% (according to a staff estimate) of the staff was from the Philippines. I suppose low wages in that country plus citizens that had good English skills are the combination that caused Norwegian Cruise Lines to hire from the Philippines. There really weren't that many American employees, and most seemed to be in visible PR type positions.
3. I would have hated to be these two people.
These were shots from the 12th deck on our boat, as my wife and I had decided to watch us sail away from The Bahamas. (We had three stops on our cruise, with Nassau, Bahamas being the third.) About one minute after the ship started moving, we saw two people running towards the ship and waving their arms. They missed the boat. They were waving and asking it to stop, but that was never going to happen. This would not be fun. All their luggage (not to mention passports) were left on board.
They likely had to a) get a hotel for the night, b) go to the US embassy in the AM to get a copy of their passport, c) book one-way plane tickets back home, and d) all of this was with none of their luggage, which they'd have to pick back up in New York City after the cruise docked again on Saturday. (This was Wednesday night.) Their vacation was ruined and they had to spend a lot of money just to get back home. There are some times you absolutely can't be late - and this is one of them.
They likely had to a) get a hotel for the night, b) go to the US embassy in the AM to get a copy of their passport, c) book one-way plane tickets back home, and d) all of this was with none of their luggage, which they'd have to pick back up in New York City after the cruise docked again on Saturday. (This was Wednesday night.) Their vacation was ruined and they had to spend a lot of money just to get back home. There are some times you absolutely can't be late - and this is one of them.
4. I read two great econ/business related books on the trip - reviews of them will be posted soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment