Another week over!
Door: Linda
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Linda
07 September 2015 | Duitsland, Mannheim
Saturday September 5th 2015
Csilla went on vacation on the 29th of August and the entire day was a chaos!! There was no internet connection on the ship that morning and of course we needed it! Luckily we did have internet when Csilla closed the accounts, we always send a file for credit card payments in an email, so that worked. But there was one credit card that didn’t go through, so we had the guests register a new card and then we had to send the file.
Fortunately there was one of our sister ships across the way, the Panorama. So I put the file on an usb stick and send it from their computer.
The first try didn’t work, I used their email address and of course it didn’t match with the file from our ship. So then I send it again using our email address, but then it took forever to get a reply!
I finally called the office in Basel to help me out with this. Turned out that when you send that file, the reply will be send to your computer, which doesn’t help when you don’t have internet! But the Basel office can see if a payment goes through or not, so they checked for me and called me back to say all was fine! Which was great, but meanwhile Csilla had to handle to disembarkation by herself!
She said it was chaos also, because the cabdrivers came 15 minutes before departure time and then waited in the lobby…so next time I’ll have to ask them to either wait outside or come later. (Can you believe it, I really have to ask cabdrivers to come later…usually they’re late to begin with!)
By the time I could do all my reports, half the day was already over! And really the entire morning we did not have any internet connection whatsoever! I had to run to the Panorama again that morning to settle another payment! Not until around 4/5 pm did I receive all the emails that had been send to me already. And still no one knows the exact problem….
Ok, so we started this new cruise with a new cruise director, Barbara Bocz from Hungary. According to what I have been told about her, she’s not really a nice person and I guess that is putting it mildly. So far we are doing pretty good, but just in case we’re keeping our own report about her. Just like what we did when Nancy was here, you never know when something comes around to bite you!
So Csilla went on vacation, Terez came back from hers and so did Katrina, the girl that is going to replace Csilla during her vacation.
Katrina finished what Csilla had started and didn’t have time to finish before she left and when she was done I sat her down and had a little talk with her.
I was a little hesitant to have her as a replacement after what I heard from her working as a Second during my vacation. Csilla had told me that it looked like everything she had been teaching her before I left, she didn’t remember anymore and Csilla ended up doing everything. But Detlef had told me that it was also because of Csilla’s lack of experience as a Senior. So I agreed to give her another change this time, but like I said I had a little talk with her, to prevent a repeat of that time!
First I asked her how she was feeling, because during my absence she had to go the doctor a lot. Something I didn’t want to happen again, because I told her we are a team of 2 people, if she’s not here to help me, I have to do it all by myself. But during her vacation she went to see a doctor and they found out what was wrong with her, so that was settled.
During my vacation she didn’t print any menu’s, which is a Second’s job, so I told her that I wanted her to correct the changes in the menu that Chef tells us and then to print them after I checked them and the Chef says it’s okay to print. The last time she was a Nighty she had helped Csilla out by filling out some things in a record we have to keep of how many wines are served. Something wasn’t right in that, so I explained to her how to do that too.
Then I told her that I had undoubtedly forgotten to tell her something, but that when I remembered I would let her know.
And that happened the Monday after this conversation! I had asked our new HM to tell me his first impression of Katrina and he said that she looked/acted like a little girl and that was my thought exactly! He told me I should say something about that, but I had to think of a way to do this first.
We were sailing at the time, which meant it was not very busy at the desk, so Christian would take over, while I talked to Katrina in the office.
I asked her if she remembered what I had told her on Saturday, if I had anything else I would let her know, well today was the day! So we went into the office and the first thing I did was change the way she was wearing her scarf, it looked ridiculous! Then I asked her if she had any other white shirts, because the one she was wearing looked blue. And I asked her if Csilla had given her her epaulettes to wear on the shirts…but she hadn’t. And then she told me she never wore those during my vacation either…which was another thing Detlef didn’t pay attention to….
So then I told her that when you are working at the Front Desk you need to really be there, to be visible, have an “open” posture. Now it looked she was hiding behind the desk so no one would see her and ask her a question she didn’t have the answer to. I asked her how old she was and she turned out to be 24…so I told her to start acting like a woman of 24, not the little girl who doesn’t know what she’s doing. She’s not very tall, but I asked her if it would be possible to raise her chair a notch, I do still want her to be comfortable in that chair. And then she told me she had the chair low because it’s easier for her to watch the computer screen….and that’s where she went wrong the last time. I remember Detlef telling me that both Csilla and Katrina would be sitting behind the desk, a guest would be there with a question and it would take a couple of minutes for them the realize someone was standing there…now I knew why. So I told her to raise the chair, so she would have to look down on her screen, but still out of the corner of her eye be able to see if a guest was standing there with a question.
We also took a look at how she was wearing her hair…two tiny ponytails like Pippi Langkous…so I told her to either wear her hair in one or use a tiny hairclip to keep it together.
After this conversation I went around to look for a shirt for her, I gave her some of mine I wasn’t using yet. I got her one of my hairclips and we got her the epaulettes to put on the shirt. And she put her chair up!
That evening before she went on her break I asked her what she thought about our conversation that morning. She said it was good to have someone tell her to act like a 24 year old. I asked her what her plans were for the next season, did she want to go and work in the restaurant again or start in FO. She said she didn’t want to go back to the restaurant here, because she can’t work well with her collegues…from whom I understand they don’t really like to work with her either. Plus she’s the Maitre’D’s girlfriend, who she’s got wrapped around her little finger, so of course that doesn’t sit well with the others.
Anyway, I told her that she should show me what she could do and who knows what we might be able to do for her.
I haven’t talked to her about our Nighty leaving yet. Rivercatering, the company that hired us, had already written me an email about how Katrina had done her job as a nighty and I had told them that she did good, but that I wanted to have these two weeks to see how she was doing as a Second. Ok the jobs are different, but it would give me a better opinion to give a definitive answer. They respected that, but later called me to say that after my opinion, they would still need the approval from Lugano. So basically I don’t think it will matter what I say, but we’ll see!
That’s also why I hadn’t talked to her about it yet, but Janos had already talked to the Maitre about it and since Katrina is his girlfriend, I’m sure she already knows. When he told me he had heard about it from the Nighty, I asked him not to talk to her about it yet, but I think he already told her. But we’ll see what happens.
That chaotic Saturday ended with a little twist!!! Of course it was a long day, starting early, hardly any break because I had a new person at my desk and we always stay longer, because guests always come up with questions after dinner. So at around 10 minutes to 10pm, Barbara and I decided that we would call it a day around 10 pm…..literally a couple of minutes after uttering these words, a couple and their mother walked in after having taken a walk outside. Saying she had taken a bad fall and it looked like her wrist was broken, if we could take a look at it…
Well it sure looked like it was broken!! Her wrist was swollen and wasn’t straight anymore. So we got her some ice, I called an ambulance and then I waited for them outside. There are more river cruiseships around us and it helps them to find the right one quicker…but it wasn’t a nice warm summer evening anymore!!
It took a while for the ambulance to get there of course. The ambulance guys were two big dudes with tattoos on their arms and a great Amsterdam-attitude, I loved it!!
They asked the lady all kinds of questions, put her arm in an orange, inflatable sling and they took her to the hospital. We asked them if there was any way to tell if she needed an operation or if they could put a cast around it. They said they would probably put her in the Chinese Fingers as they called it….they explained to me what that was in Dutch, then I told the cruise director and she took the daughter aside to tell her, so as not to scare the older lady before she even went to the hospital!
Chinese Fingers is a contraption where they pull on your fingers and put everything back to a straight line basically….I don’t think you will need any details, just hearing this made me feel it in my arm!!!
So eventually it was a quarter to 11pm when they left….and I asked Barbara, didn’t we say we were going to call it a night around 10pm??? So we’ll never utter those words again, we jinxed it! I was in bed by 11, man what a day!
Luckily she didn’t need an operation and she slept through the whole Chinese Fingers thing. I don’t know what they gave her, but if I ever break an arm, I’m going to be asking for something as strong as she got!
They were back at the ship at around 3am. I told her to ask for an orange cast, but they didn’t have it, she got a nice blue colour. After this trip they had planned a trip to Italy and they were trying to find out if they could cancel that for the older lady. They basically wanted to send her home, so the daughter and son-in-law could continue on. But eventually it was such a hastle, that they decided to just go to Italy together. I mean they were in Europe already anyway, it would be a shame to miss it.
I hosted the crew show again last Wednesday, this time to keep up with the schedule. And it went very well, it was a really fun group to do it for and I got a lot of nice comments on my performance! If I ever get tired of being a receptionist I can always become a stand-up comedian! Next week is Christian’s turn, I’m not going to be around to watch it.
Last cruise we had 4 VIP’s on board, which doesn’t mean they are famous movie starts, but they are here to see what the trip is like, so they can come back next year to charter the ship for a group of people they are bringing.
For me the only problem is, is that when you know they are coming, it always makes you act different around them. You know where you’ve said something and then wonder if you said the right thing.
Anyway, two of them wanted to know if there was any way for them to take one of our bikes out for a spin and then return to the ship along the way.
So we looked at our sailing schedule and the Wednesday would be a good day to do that. We would be in Mainz in the morning, then we would leave around noon for a stop in Nierstein where people would go on coach to take them to Heidelberg and then we would sail on to Mannheim, where we would pick everyone up again.
They had already done some research, but we’ve found them some maps and some traveling details. In the end they decided not to do the whole trip, but start in Mainz in the morning and then meet up with us again in Nierstein.
So we got them the bikes, helmets and a lock. I asked them if they wanted us to make some sandwiches for them to bring along, but they didn’t need those. I was a bit nervous about it, but they made it and they had the time of their lives! They said it was great, they were very happy about it!
So I guess we did good and we’ll see them again next year!
And today the whole group went back home or went to visit some other place in Europe. We had another weird chaotic thing with the taxi’s again. I always send them a list of taxi’s we need, for which cabins and where they are going. First they send me a taxi for a group of people that had arranged their own transfer, which I had clearly mentioned in the email. Then a minivan came to pick up two people, so we bring the luggage and he’s off with them. Then a regular car comes to pick up those people and I have a group of 4 people waiting for the minivan….turned out the guy told me the wrong cabin number…so I had to call them to get a minivan…it was 10:30 am when the last group left.
But anyway, we were able to send them all on their way, no luggage left behind, so we did good!
And the new group is in already too, one more week with Barbara and we’ll get a new cruise director, can’t wait!
Love,
Linda
Csilla went on vacation on the 29th of August and the entire day was a chaos!! There was no internet connection on the ship that morning and of course we needed it! Luckily we did have internet when Csilla closed the accounts, we always send a file for credit card payments in an email, so that worked. But there was one credit card that didn’t go through, so we had the guests register a new card and then we had to send the file.
Fortunately there was one of our sister ships across the way, the Panorama. So I put the file on an usb stick and send it from their computer.
The first try didn’t work, I used their email address and of course it didn’t match with the file from our ship. So then I send it again using our email address, but then it took forever to get a reply!
I finally called the office in Basel to help me out with this. Turned out that when you send that file, the reply will be send to your computer, which doesn’t help when you don’t have internet! But the Basel office can see if a payment goes through or not, so they checked for me and called me back to say all was fine! Which was great, but meanwhile Csilla had to handle to disembarkation by herself!
She said it was chaos also, because the cabdrivers came 15 minutes before departure time and then waited in the lobby…so next time I’ll have to ask them to either wait outside or come later. (Can you believe it, I really have to ask cabdrivers to come later…usually they’re late to begin with!)
By the time I could do all my reports, half the day was already over! And really the entire morning we did not have any internet connection whatsoever! I had to run to the Panorama again that morning to settle another payment! Not until around 4/5 pm did I receive all the emails that had been send to me already. And still no one knows the exact problem….
Ok, so we started this new cruise with a new cruise director, Barbara Bocz from Hungary. According to what I have been told about her, she’s not really a nice person and I guess that is putting it mildly. So far we are doing pretty good, but just in case we’re keeping our own report about her. Just like what we did when Nancy was here, you never know when something comes around to bite you!
So Csilla went on vacation, Terez came back from hers and so did Katrina, the girl that is going to replace Csilla during her vacation.
Katrina finished what Csilla had started and didn’t have time to finish before she left and when she was done I sat her down and had a little talk with her.
I was a little hesitant to have her as a replacement after what I heard from her working as a Second during my vacation. Csilla had told me that it looked like everything she had been teaching her before I left, she didn’t remember anymore and Csilla ended up doing everything. But Detlef had told me that it was also because of Csilla’s lack of experience as a Senior. So I agreed to give her another change this time, but like I said I had a little talk with her, to prevent a repeat of that time!
First I asked her how she was feeling, because during my absence she had to go the doctor a lot. Something I didn’t want to happen again, because I told her we are a team of 2 people, if she’s not here to help me, I have to do it all by myself. But during her vacation she went to see a doctor and they found out what was wrong with her, so that was settled.
During my vacation she didn’t print any menu’s, which is a Second’s job, so I told her that I wanted her to correct the changes in the menu that Chef tells us and then to print them after I checked them and the Chef says it’s okay to print. The last time she was a Nighty she had helped Csilla out by filling out some things in a record we have to keep of how many wines are served. Something wasn’t right in that, so I explained to her how to do that too.
Then I told her that I had undoubtedly forgotten to tell her something, but that when I remembered I would let her know.
And that happened the Monday after this conversation! I had asked our new HM to tell me his first impression of Katrina and he said that she looked/acted like a little girl and that was my thought exactly! He told me I should say something about that, but I had to think of a way to do this first.
We were sailing at the time, which meant it was not very busy at the desk, so Christian would take over, while I talked to Katrina in the office.
I asked her if she remembered what I had told her on Saturday, if I had anything else I would let her know, well today was the day! So we went into the office and the first thing I did was change the way she was wearing her scarf, it looked ridiculous! Then I asked her if she had any other white shirts, because the one she was wearing looked blue. And I asked her if Csilla had given her her epaulettes to wear on the shirts…but she hadn’t. And then she told me she never wore those during my vacation either…which was another thing Detlef didn’t pay attention to….
So then I told her that when you are working at the Front Desk you need to really be there, to be visible, have an “open” posture. Now it looked she was hiding behind the desk so no one would see her and ask her a question she didn’t have the answer to. I asked her how old she was and she turned out to be 24…so I told her to start acting like a woman of 24, not the little girl who doesn’t know what she’s doing. She’s not very tall, but I asked her if it would be possible to raise her chair a notch, I do still want her to be comfortable in that chair. And then she told me she had the chair low because it’s easier for her to watch the computer screen….and that’s where she went wrong the last time. I remember Detlef telling me that both Csilla and Katrina would be sitting behind the desk, a guest would be there with a question and it would take a couple of minutes for them the realize someone was standing there…now I knew why. So I told her to raise the chair, so she would have to look down on her screen, but still out of the corner of her eye be able to see if a guest was standing there with a question.
We also took a look at how she was wearing her hair…two tiny ponytails like Pippi Langkous…so I told her to either wear her hair in one or use a tiny hairclip to keep it together.
After this conversation I went around to look for a shirt for her, I gave her some of mine I wasn’t using yet. I got her one of my hairclips and we got her the epaulettes to put on the shirt. And she put her chair up!
That evening before she went on her break I asked her what she thought about our conversation that morning. She said it was good to have someone tell her to act like a 24 year old. I asked her what her plans were for the next season, did she want to go and work in the restaurant again or start in FO. She said she didn’t want to go back to the restaurant here, because she can’t work well with her collegues…from whom I understand they don’t really like to work with her either. Plus she’s the Maitre’D’s girlfriend, who she’s got wrapped around her little finger, so of course that doesn’t sit well with the others.
Anyway, I told her that she should show me what she could do and who knows what we might be able to do for her.
I haven’t talked to her about our Nighty leaving yet. Rivercatering, the company that hired us, had already written me an email about how Katrina had done her job as a nighty and I had told them that she did good, but that I wanted to have these two weeks to see how she was doing as a Second. Ok the jobs are different, but it would give me a better opinion to give a definitive answer. They respected that, but later called me to say that after my opinion, they would still need the approval from Lugano. So basically I don’t think it will matter what I say, but we’ll see!
That’s also why I hadn’t talked to her about it yet, but Janos had already talked to the Maitre about it and since Katrina is his girlfriend, I’m sure she already knows. When he told me he had heard about it from the Nighty, I asked him not to talk to her about it yet, but I think he already told her. But we’ll see what happens.
That chaotic Saturday ended with a little twist!!! Of course it was a long day, starting early, hardly any break because I had a new person at my desk and we always stay longer, because guests always come up with questions after dinner. So at around 10 minutes to 10pm, Barbara and I decided that we would call it a day around 10 pm…..literally a couple of minutes after uttering these words, a couple and their mother walked in after having taken a walk outside. Saying she had taken a bad fall and it looked like her wrist was broken, if we could take a look at it…
Well it sure looked like it was broken!! Her wrist was swollen and wasn’t straight anymore. So we got her some ice, I called an ambulance and then I waited for them outside. There are more river cruiseships around us and it helps them to find the right one quicker…but it wasn’t a nice warm summer evening anymore!!
It took a while for the ambulance to get there of course. The ambulance guys were two big dudes with tattoos on their arms and a great Amsterdam-attitude, I loved it!!
They asked the lady all kinds of questions, put her arm in an orange, inflatable sling and they took her to the hospital. We asked them if there was any way to tell if she needed an operation or if they could put a cast around it. They said they would probably put her in the Chinese Fingers as they called it….they explained to me what that was in Dutch, then I told the cruise director and she took the daughter aside to tell her, so as not to scare the older lady before she even went to the hospital!
Chinese Fingers is a contraption where they pull on your fingers and put everything back to a straight line basically….I don’t think you will need any details, just hearing this made me feel it in my arm!!!
So eventually it was a quarter to 11pm when they left….and I asked Barbara, didn’t we say we were going to call it a night around 10pm??? So we’ll never utter those words again, we jinxed it! I was in bed by 11, man what a day!
Luckily she didn’t need an operation and she slept through the whole Chinese Fingers thing. I don’t know what they gave her, but if I ever break an arm, I’m going to be asking for something as strong as she got!
They were back at the ship at around 3am. I told her to ask for an orange cast, but they didn’t have it, she got a nice blue colour. After this trip they had planned a trip to Italy and they were trying to find out if they could cancel that for the older lady. They basically wanted to send her home, so the daughter and son-in-law could continue on. But eventually it was such a hastle, that they decided to just go to Italy together. I mean they were in Europe already anyway, it would be a shame to miss it.
I hosted the crew show again last Wednesday, this time to keep up with the schedule. And it went very well, it was a really fun group to do it for and I got a lot of nice comments on my performance! If I ever get tired of being a receptionist I can always become a stand-up comedian! Next week is Christian’s turn, I’m not going to be around to watch it.
Last cruise we had 4 VIP’s on board, which doesn’t mean they are famous movie starts, but they are here to see what the trip is like, so they can come back next year to charter the ship for a group of people they are bringing.
For me the only problem is, is that when you know they are coming, it always makes you act different around them. You know where you’ve said something and then wonder if you said the right thing.
Anyway, two of them wanted to know if there was any way for them to take one of our bikes out for a spin and then return to the ship along the way.
So we looked at our sailing schedule and the Wednesday would be a good day to do that. We would be in Mainz in the morning, then we would leave around noon for a stop in Nierstein where people would go on coach to take them to Heidelberg and then we would sail on to Mannheim, where we would pick everyone up again.
They had already done some research, but we’ve found them some maps and some traveling details. In the end they decided not to do the whole trip, but start in Mainz in the morning and then meet up with us again in Nierstein.
So we got them the bikes, helmets and a lock. I asked them if they wanted us to make some sandwiches for them to bring along, but they didn’t need those. I was a bit nervous about it, but they made it and they had the time of their lives! They said it was great, they were very happy about it!
So I guess we did good and we’ll see them again next year!
And today the whole group went back home or went to visit some other place in Europe. We had another weird chaotic thing with the taxi’s again. I always send them a list of taxi’s we need, for which cabins and where they are going. First they send me a taxi for a group of people that had arranged their own transfer, which I had clearly mentioned in the email. Then a minivan came to pick up two people, so we bring the luggage and he’s off with them. Then a regular car comes to pick up those people and I have a group of 4 people waiting for the minivan….turned out the guy told me the wrong cabin number…so I had to call them to get a minivan…it was 10:30 am when the last group left.
But anyway, we were able to send them all on their way, no luggage left behind, so we did good!
And the new group is in already too, one more week with Barbara and we’ll get a new cruise director, can’t wait!
Love,
Linda
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