A week back at work already...
Door: Linda
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Linda
27 Juli 2015 | Duitsland, Breisach am Rhein
Friday July 24th 2015
Yes, I’ve been at work almost a week again already!
Saturday the 18th I started working again, came onto the ship in the afternoon, put away my stuff and at three pm it was back to business as usual….and it felt like I had never left at all! It’s amazing how fast you can get back to the old routine!
In the group we welcomed on board that afternoon were two couples who had been to Hajenius, a beautiful cigare store in Amsterdam that afternoon. This is where my friend Ann works and they had talked to her about going on an Avalon ship. She told them that she knew me and they asked me that evening if I were the Linda she was talking about….it’s a small world isn’t it!
If you’re ever in Amsterdam go and visit this store, even if you don’t smoke!! It is a very nice building on the outside, inside is all polished wood and glass stained windows!!
This week we have a Dutch Cruise Director, Hendrik-Jan, very nice man, calm and quiet.
On this ship the layout doesn’t match the layout that is shown on the website, I think I’ve mentioned it before. When people book # 301 they have to be moved, because on our ship that is the room for the CRD.
Also this week a couple had booked # 301 and they were moved to # 201. Usually we see on the list that we get from the company that we have to give them a compensation in the form of fruit and wine. This time there was nothing mentioned in the list, so we didn’t give them anything. But when they came on board, they immediately asked if there was another room available on the 3rd floor, which unfortunately there wasn’t.
They were not very happy with this, so I talked to the CRD and asked him if it would be alright to give them some wine and chocolates to lighten up their mood. I didn’t want them to walk around being cranky all week long, that would not help us at all.
Hendrik-Jan agreed, so we put that in the room with a little card and he wrote an email to the office to tell them about it. We got an email back that it was quick thinking on my part and they would sort out why they didn’t get anything in the first place.
Ok when they move a floor down, of course they get some money back, but still. Hendrik-Jan showed me the email they send to the US market and it also said that it was a good thing that I did.
Then a couple of days later I asked the office if I could get a confirmation so I could charge the wine and the chocolates. I got a reply that said that they would only pay for the wine, because I only gave them this compensation because I thought we always did it and I thought we had to……
Excuse me?!? So I wrote them back that I just wanted to make it clear that I did not just give it to them because I thought we always did it. That I gave them the compensation after talking to our CRD about it and getting his approval to do so and that I was merely trying to be friendly and proactive (our motto for this season, the Avalon Way!!!) because these people were not happy at all that they had been moved to the second floor, while the rest of their group was still on the 3rd floor!!!
Man I was not happy!! Here they tell me it was a good thing I did and then they pretty much tell me I acted on my own!!
So I charged them the wine and Hendrik-Jan said I could put the chocolates on his guest account. So it all got sorted out, but it seems that the only ones that have to be in the Avalon Way until we get sick of it, is the people on the ship, dealing directly with the guests and not the people in the office, who are supposed to back them up!!!
You know what the funny part is??! For the next cruise, we also have a couple moving, this time from # 301 to # 302 and guess what?? They do get the fruit and wine!!! I’m sorry, but I think it’s a lot different from moving to a room on the same floor then it is to move a floor down, even if you do get your money back!!!!
I had already asked the office who decides when people get the compensation or not, but the answer I got wasn’t very helpful.
Anyway, Hendrik-Jan thought I was right in sending that email and I think he also send one to the office.
Other than that the week went fine, we had a nice group of people. I was told the group the week before were not so nice at all. Lots of complaints about the tv not working, which fortunately for me, they fixed on the day I came back to work! So now that we don’t have the tv problems anymore, it’s actually kind of quiet!
Speaking of the Avalon Way, every month we get a newsletter to keep us updated on how crewmembers from various ships showed their avalon way. This time there was a piece in it about me. I didn’t know it, but Jayson congratulated me on seeing my name in there. Turns out that Nancy, the CRD I had a couple of weeks before my vacation, mentioned that I went to the doctor with a guest on my break, to make sure they got to the Anne Frank House.
So I send Nancy an email to thank her for that, it is always nice to see your name in a good story! But so far I haven’t gotten an answer from her. In fact I haven’t even heard anything about the stories I read and edited for her. I case she was not happy with the fact that I send them back a week later. O well, she had had plenty of time to send them to me before I went on vacation, so tough luck for her!
We do have a couple of weirdo’s on board though! When we were still in Amsterdam it turned out that they had left some items at the hotel they were staying at before they came to the ship. We had to retrieve a hat, a shawl and a hearing aid…and later on someone came up to the desk saying they had left their sunglasses at the hotel. Upon calling the hotel it turned out that they had also left a camera, which they hadn’t even missed yet! We got it all back for them, but how in the world you can forget your hearing aid is beyond me!!
Last Thursday we got a complaint from one of the guests on the second corridor that there was a cockroach in the bathroom. So our Housekeeper went to the room to check and get rid of it. She knocked on the door 3 times, but no one answered it. So she went back to reception, where the HM called the room to ask them if it was ok that the Housekeeper came to check. They said it was ok, so she went back there. This time they did open the door, but they wouldn’t let her in to check the bathroom. They said that had already killed the cockroach and threw it away….
Later that day another guest from the second corridor said that it smelled like someone was smoking something very illegal. So I went down the corridor to check and sure enough!! So I went to the Housekeeper and she went into some of the rooms in the area where it smelled strongest, to find out where it came from. We actually suspected one of the younger guests, but it turned out to be in the room of the people that had complained about the cockroach that morning!!! Not that I didn’t believe her, but I went with the housekeeper and she was right, it really smelled bad!! I had an uncle who smoked all kinds of stuff, so I know what I smell when I smell it!!
Man, so that whole story about the cockroach ws obviously a figment of their imagination, with the little help of whatever it was they were smoking!!
Off course we didn’t find anything lying around and we couldn’t go into their bags, but the smell was obvious. So what to do…I thought that if they were really smoking the fire alarm would’ve gone off, but apparently not.
After this we didn’t smell it anymore so I guess they were done with it already or they were afraid we’d find out after that cockroach story! But it was funny though!
Saturday 25th of July
Last Thursday evening I had dinner with our CRD Hendrink-Jan in the lounge. Michael, our Chef, wanted to make me salmon, but didn’t want to do it while the rest of the crew were eating downstairs in the restaurant. So he said he would have someone bring it up that night.
So there we were in the lounge, joined by two woodcarvers from the Black Forrest. These people always come to give a demonstration on Thursday evening and then the next day people can go to their workshop to see and of course buy some of their coo-coo clocks and nutcrackers.
They only spoke German, so it was a chance for me to brush up on my German! I do have to laugh when I hear Hendrik-Jan speak German though, it sounds like Dutch with a German accent!! Haha Which is good, that way I don’t have to make it sound perfect! We had a nice time and the salmon was really good!
This morning we said goodbye to the old group and this afternoon we welcomed the new group. The disembarkation went well, everyone left and there was no luggage left behind. The weather was really good, so they had put the suitcases outside, so there would be more room in the lobby. For people who order taxi’s with us, we give them a sticker to put on their suitcases with the room number and time of the taxi. Unfortunately the weather was good, but it was really windy and since the stickers don’t stick very well, they blew off!!
Which also wasn’t a big problem, because we always tell people to check and see if all of their suitcases are there, but this time they really had to tel us which ones were theirs! But like I said we didn’t have any luggage left behind, so all was well!
There’s a big French Canadian group and we have a group of Asians on board at the moment. I also recognized some people I had on the Creativity last year, which is always nice!
We are in Strasbourg already, tomorrow will be the excursion to Heidelberg and before I know it another week will be over…
Love
Linda
Yes, I’ve been at work almost a week again already!
Saturday the 18th I started working again, came onto the ship in the afternoon, put away my stuff and at three pm it was back to business as usual….and it felt like I had never left at all! It’s amazing how fast you can get back to the old routine!
In the group we welcomed on board that afternoon were two couples who had been to Hajenius, a beautiful cigare store in Amsterdam that afternoon. This is where my friend Ann works and they had talked to her about going on an Avalon ship. She told them that she knew me and they asked me that evening if I were the Linda she was talking about….it’s a small world isn’t it!
If you’re ever in Amsterdam go and visit this store, even if you don’t smoke!! It is a very nice building on the outside, inside is all polished wood and glass stained windows!!
This week we have a Dutch Cruise Director, Hendrik-Jan, very nice man, calm and quiet.
On this ship the layout doesn’t match the layout that is shown on the website, I think I’ve mentioned it before. When people book # 301 they have to be moved, because on our ship that is the room for the CRD.
Also this week a couple had booked # 301 and they were moved to # 201. Usually we see on the list that we get from the company that we have to give them a compensation in the form of fruit and wine. This time there was nothing mentioned in the list, so we didn’t give them anything. But when they came on board, they immediately asked if there was another room available on the 3rd floor, which unfortunately there wasn’t.
They were not very happy with this, so I talked to the CRD and asked him if it would be alright to give them some wine and chocolates to lighten up their mood. I didn’t want them to walk around being cranky all week long, that would not help us at all.
Hendrik-Jan agreed, so we put that in the room with a little card and he wrote an email to the office to tell them about it. We got an email back that it was quick thinking on my part and they would sort out why they didn’t get anything in the first place.
Ok when they move a floor down, of course they get some money back, but still. Hendrik-Jan showed me the email they send to the US market and it also said that it was a good thing that I did.
Then a couple of days later I asked the office if I could get a confirmation so I could charge the wine and the chocolates. I got a reply that said that they would only pay for the wine, because I only gave them this compensation because I thought we always did it and I thought we had to……
Excuse me?!? So I wrote them back that I just wanted to make it clear that I did not just give it to them because I thought we always did it. That I gave them the compensation after talking to our CRD about it and getting his approval to do so and that I was merely trying to be friendly and proactive (our motto for this season, the Avalon Way!!!) because these people were not happy at all that they had been moved to the second floor, while the rest of their group was still on the 3rd floor!!!
Man I was not happy!! Here they tell me it was a good thing I did and then they pretty much tell me I acted on my own!!
So I charged them the wine and Hendrik-Jan said I could put the chocolates on his guest account. So it all got sorted out, but it seems that the only ones that have to be in the Avalon Way until we get sick of it, is the people on the ship, dealing directly with the guests and not the people in the office, who are supposed to back them up!!!
You know what the funny part is??! For the next cruise, we also have a couple moving, this time from # 301 to # 302 and guess what?? They do get the fruit and wine!!! I’m sorry, but I think it’s a lot different from moving to a room on the same floor then it is to move a floor down, even if you do get your money back!!!!
I had already asked the office who decides when people get the compensation or not, but the answer I got wasn’t very helpful.
Anyway, Hendrik-Jan thought I was right in sending that email and I think he also send one to the office.
Other than that the week went fine, we had a nice group of people. I was told the group the week before were not so nice at all. Lots of complaints about the tv not working, which fortunately for me, they fixed on the day I came back to work! So now that we don’t have the tv problems anymore, it’s actually kind of quiet!
Speaking of the Avalon Way, every month we get a newsletter to keep us updated on how crewmembers from various ships showed their avalon way. This time there was a piece in it about me. I didn’t know it, but Jayson congratulated me on seeing my name in there. Turns out that Nancy, the CRD I had a couple of weeks before my vacation, mentioned that I went to the doctor with a guest on my break, to make sure they got to the Anne Frank House.
So I send Nancy an email to thank her for that, it is always nice to see your name in a good story! But so far I haven’t gotten an answer from her. In fact I haven’t even heard anything about the stories I read and edited for her. I case she was not happy with the fact that I send them back a week later. O well, she had had plenty of time to send them to me before I went on vacation, so tough luck for her!
We do have a couple of weirdo’s on board though! When we were still in Amsterdam it turned out that they had left some items at the hotel they were staying at before they came to the ship. We had to retrieve a hat, a shawl and a hearing aid…and later on someone came up to the desk saying they had left their sunglasses at the hotel. Upon calling the hotel it turned out that they had also left a camera, which they hadn’t even missed yet! We got it all back for them, but how in the world you can forget your hearing aid is beyond me!!
Last Thursday we got a complaint from one of the guests on the second corridor that there was a cockroach in the bathroom. So our Housekeeper went to the room to check and get rid of it. She knocked on the door 3 times, but no one answered it. So she went back to reception, where the HM called the room to ask them if it was ok that the Housekeeper came to check. They said it was ok, so she went back there. This time they did open the door, but they wouldn’t let her in to check the bathroom. They said that had already killed the cockroach and threw it away….
Later that day another guest from the second corridor said that it smelled like someone was smoking something very illegal. So I went down the corridor to check and sure enough!! So I went to the Housekeeper and she went into some of the rooms in the area where it smelled strongest, to find out where it came from. We actually suspected one of the younger guests, but it turned out to be in the room of the people that had complained about the cockroach that morning!!! Not that I didn’t believe her, but I went with the housekeeper and she was right, it really smelled bad!! I had an uncle who smoked all kinds of stuff, so I know what I smell when I smell it!!
Man, so that whole story about the cockroach ws obviously a figment of their imagination, with the little help of whatever it was they were smoking!!
Off course we didn’t find anything lying around and we couldn’t go into their bags, but the smell was obvious. So what to do…I thought that if they were really smoking the fire alarm would’ve gone off, but apparently not.
After this we didn’t smell it anymore so I guess they were done with it already or they were afraid we’d find out after that cockroach story! But it was funny though!
Saturday 25th of July
Last Thursday evening I had dinner with our CRD Hendrink-Jan in the lounge. Michael, our Chef, wanted to make me salmon, but didn’t want to do it while the rest of the crew were eating downstairs in the restaurant. So he said he would have someone bring it up that night.
So there we were in the lounge, joined by two woodcarvers from the Black Forrest. These people always come to give a demonstration on Thursday evening and then the next day people can go to their workshop to see and of course buy some of their coo-coo clocks and nutcrackers.
They only spoke German, so it was a chance for me to brush up on my German! I do have to laugh when I hear Hendrik-Jan speak German though, it sounds like Dutch with a German accent!! Haha Which is good, that way I don’t have to make it sound perfect! We had a nice time and the salmon was really good!
This morning we said goodbye to the old group and this afternoon we welcomed the new group. The disembarkation went well, everyone left and there was no luggage left behind. The weather was really good, so they had put the suitcases outside, so there would be more room in the lobby. For people who order taxi’s with us, we give them a sticker to put on their suitcases with the room number and time of the taxi. Unfortunately the weather was good, but it was really windy and since the stickers don’t stick very well, they blew off!!
Which also wasn’t a big problem, because we always tell people to check and see if all of their suitcases are there, but this time they really had to tel us which ones were theirs! But like I said we didn’t have any luggage left behind, so all was well!
There’s a big French Canadian group and we have a group of Asians on board at the moment. I also recognized some people I had on the Creativity last year, which is always nice!
We are in Strasbourg already, tomorrow will be the excursion to Heidelberg and before I know it another week will be over…
Love
Linda
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
