What was the nicest thing a crew member did for you?

My last cruise was back in 2008 on the Sovereign of the Seas. My kids were not yet 6 years old (twin boys) and REALLY picky eaters. So for 3 days my son Thomas ate next to nothing but Watermelon (hey it was better than ice cream) I mean at dinner he did well but breakfast and lunch was watermelon.

This may seem like not a huge deal but Sunday morning there was no watermelon on the buffet (I figured it ate them out of it) . A waiter in the Windjammer saw how bummed he looked and knelt down asking him what was wrong. Thomas sniffed and said that there was no watermelon so he was going to have to have cant-elope and made a face but came back to the table and started eating. The next thing I know here comes the waiter with a HUGE bowl of watermelon placing it in front of Thomas on the table.

Thomas is 11 years old now and still talks about how special it made him feel to have the waiter go out of his way for something as "silly" as some fruit for a kid.

Our first cruise was this past June and we got to know a lovely lady named Krystee on the entertainment staff. Like a lot of the ladies onboard ship, Krystee fell ass over teakettle for my 9 yr old son who is a pint sized Cassanova. :D On the second sea day, my husband was picking Bubba up because he'd asked for a piggyback ride and DH managed to whop his (our son's, not his own LOL) head on a door frame. Well, being the drama queen that he is, our son immediately set up a howling like you'd think he broke something or somebody had been kicking puppies in front of him. Krystee ran over to the bar across the way and grabbed him a baggie of ice and a napkin to wrap it up in.

Before we disembarked, she gave us a piece of paper with her name on it and told me to look her up on Facebook. :) She is such a sweetie!

On our Thanksgiving cruise (Princess), we headed back to our room to check for our luggage. We ran into our room steward who, as always, greeted us by name and with a smile, asked us how many bags we were waiting on. We told him 2, he then told us good, 2 bags arrived and he had put them in our room for us!

On the same cruise (I was traveling with my elderly mother), we had some good size waves rocking us that night and we were up at the buffet. Mom had put a cup of soup on her plate and we bounced, she lost her balance and spilled. The gal at the entrance to the buffet came right over, got mom a clean plate and offered to accompany her through the buffet holding her plate so mom didn't have to worry about balancing herself and the plate - she carried it all the way to a table for her. I couldn't thank her enough for that!!

We had got married on a beach in St Thomas and had booked a specialty restaurant with 7 friends for a meal in the evening.

As we approached the restaurant 2 officers came and escorted us in

The Chef had made us a wedding cake (that we had not ordered or paid for), the HD and Food and Bev Director brought in the band to play, then the photographer. The captain called in for coffee and cake at the end of the meal and they brought us a couple of bottles of champagne too

We were overwhelmed

When we got back to the room, there were all the photographs they had taken at dinner laid out on the bed with a message saying they were complimentary and congratulations

Talk about blown away

Yes we have been back on the cruise line many times since

SO MANY:

Our waiter in the Manhattan Room on the Epic overheard me talk about my love of lobsters, so he brought me a BOWL OF LOBSTERS TAILS!!

My first cruise was on the Carnival Triumph and I had two reasons to go. First was to just get away and relax. Second was to fulfill my Uncle's last wishes and spread his ashes at ssea (Gulf of Mexico).I had permission from the cuise line and when they called to say they were in international waters, two Officers (not regular crew members which would have been great) escorted me and my family to a private (and restricted) area on the aft of the ship and allowed us to have a proper ceremony, taking as much time as needed. And when I mentioned that my Uncle had been a merchant marine in WWII and for many years after, I caught out of the corner of my eye, both ship's officers stood at attention (thought I didn't see, did you guys?). Perhaps it just my imagination but it sure looked that way to me. Later that day I recieved a signed letter from the Captaindocumenting time and position with a nice note of condolences. In my opinion, WAY above and beyond the call of duty.

Tom

My first cruise was on the Carnival Triumph and I had two reasons to go. First was to just get away and relax. Second was to fulfill my Uncle's last wishes and spread his ashes at ssea (Gulf of Mexico).I had permission from the cuise line and when they called to say they were in international waters, two Officers (not regular crew members which would have been great) escorted me and my family to a private (and restricted) area on the aft of the ship and allowed us to have a proper ceremony, taking as much time as needed. And when I mentioned that my Uncle had been a merchant marine in WWII and for many years after, I caught out of the corner of my eye, both ship's officers stood at attention (thought I didn't see, did you guys?). Perhaps it just my imagination but it sure looked that way to me. Later that day I recieved a signed letter from the Captaindocumenting time and position with a nice note of condolences. In my opinion, WAY above and beyond the call of duty.

 

Tom

That definitely was a gracious and lovely thing they did and good for you for carrying out your uncle's wishes. God Bless you!

My husband uses a C-Pap machine for severe sleep apnea. When setting up his equipment in our cabin, he broke the hose off the unit that goes to the mask. This could have been a real medical problem. The room steward came by to introduce himself. He asked if there was anything he could do for us and we casually said yes, can you fix this? He said sure, he took off, but low and behold he quickly came back with some heavy duty tape and helped us patch it up to be able to use it. He left the tape in case it came apart. His quick thinking saved our cruise. Not only would I not have been able to sleep wondering whether my husband was breathing but also I didn't have to endure the extremely loud and unbearable snoring.

We’ve done so many cruises it is hard to compliment all the crew that are so wonderful so I’ll give you a few of the ones that stick out. I’ll say, over the years we have become friendly with quite a few crew up to having them come to our home. One crew member literally watched my kids grow up.

Years ago we had a waiter (who eventually became a M’D one of the two restaurants. It was hysterical. We had one in our restaurant and one in the other (Gino). Gino would come into our s and start yelling at our guy that he better treat us well. Our guy would yell back to go to his own restaurant and leave him alone. This goes on every night. We were a table of 10. Another table of 10 was next to us. Finally around the 5th day the guy at the next table comes over and says to me. You know, we get here before you and each and every night you not only get served before us but you actually have guys fighting over giving you good service. What/who do you know? I said, I’m not sure what was going on because this was our first cruise. The look on his face was priceless.

Now, Gino, on a different cruise. We were going to Alaska and the kids were pretty young. My 7 YO son in swimming in the pool. Think back a long time ago to the ships. I’m literally talking the “love boat”. No covered pool. Gino comes up to me and tells me he sent my son (by name) to his room to get changed that he’d been in the cold pool long enough. It was too funny.

Another cruise our old room steward that we had become friends with found out we were on the ship. He tells my kids room steward (we were on a different deck) that if my daughter calls for a club sandwich from room service he wanted to know because he was going to deliver it. Our room steward when he would see me would open the cabin door for me, tell me what they had done and where they were. It was too cute.

We too have had dinner delivered to the room. Our last family cruise the grand kids were young. One night my DS’s kid was sick and DD kids were just not in the mood. Both stayed in their cabins. The head waiter asked where they were. I told him the story and said they’ll be said to miss this dinner, it’s their favorite. It was delivered to their room.

My mother spent 3 days in the hospital. She kept thinking about all the cheesecake she was missing. I called room service and asked for a cheesecake. You mean a piece? No, I want the whole cake. We can’t do that! Well, my mother has spent all of the cruise so far in the hospital and she wants cheesecake. It arrived shortly afterwards.

Every time we sail we bring a photo album. It contains pictures of past crew members dating back over 30 years. We take it two places, the purser’s desk to show around and the M’D to check out. OMG! They love it. Last cruise the M’D kept it, made photo copies and returned it. I asked our Head Waiter if he had seen it. He laughed and said not only had he seen it but so had every server on board. Next was the Purser’s Desk. They were laughing so hard. Can we sent you chocolate strawberries? No. Something we have to do something. Nope, nothing needed.

Years ago when the kids were little we had done a repositioning cruise when the old Regal Princess had done it’s first Alaska cruise. We started talking to the Staff Captain not really knowing what the position meant. We kept running into him all over the ship. Well, about a month later I want to meet up with some of the crew to take them for a city tour. I ask the girl (16 if she was a day) how to get on the ship. It’s never done she says in a snotty tone. Okay. I have my 13 YO daughter and her friend and my 8 YO son. Then I see my friend. He comes over says hi and I ask him who I have to know to get on the ship. Now, I didn’t really realize his position. Just thought he was an officer and funny. Follow me he says. He takes me to the 16 YO and tells her to give us a pass to get on the ship. She refuses and says it’s against policy. He says “GIVE THEM A PASS”. She looks at me and asks for our picture ID, like a driver’s license. I explain to 16 YO that my minor children don’t drive so no picture ID. He again tells her, give them a pass. Finally she gives us the pass. He says, follow me. Off we go. He makes crew back up to let us on. I run into the cruise director and he asks how we got on because he had tried to get his cousin on and was told no. I told him I just asked that guy. He says, do you even know who that is. No, who is he? The second in command. Ooops.

The cruise that we had the most done for us would be when my brother, daughter and I sailed 12 days in the Med. My DD flew in later with all my formal luggage and hers. The luggage was lost. It wasn’t really lost it had a great adventure all over Europe. My DD literally had the clothes on her back. One of the JAPs lent her underwear and clothes. Another passenger lent her shoes. The crew was so amazing on helping us. Free laundry. Room steward comes and says we’ll have it back in 24 hours. My DD looks at him and says, ummmm, I don’t have other clothes to wear so I guess I can wear this bathrobe that long. He takes her clothes to the crew wash, removes crew clothes, washes hers and has it back to her in around 2 hours. It was another love boat and that is a small ship. It didn’t take long for us to be known. We wore the same clothes to dinner every night. We did get our suitecases on the 10th night. By then we were part of the comedy show. A guy stands up on a sea day at Bingo and yells…. Look there is a taxi pulling up and he’s got 2 suitcases. My daughter jumps up! Where? Laughter all around. We were made part of the morning show. Film crew asked us to do another stint that included the Captain. We got a free trip to the doctor – where he eventually bought us a drink in port. It turned our pretty fun.

What a wonderful thread! So fun to read all of your stories.

I'll add a silly one of my own from the other side.

In 1999, I did a couple short contracts as a YC on NCL.

My very first week as cruise staff, I worked with the teens (my co-worker was sick that week so it was just me and a ton of kids!). I had the best group. They were all so much fun, so sweet and we had a blast together. I was 21-22 at the time and I worked with teens age 14-18. I stayed in contact with some of the girls for a time afterwards, sending pictures from the cruise, etc.

Anyway, on this cruise we had a formal night and also a semi-formal night. One at the beginning of the cruise and one at the end of the cruise. The dress up night at the end of the cruise, we all met in the lobby to take pictures. Some of the boys (the 14-15 year olds) were acting weird so I moved closer to one of their big sisters (or aunt or maybe mom) and she said, "They are all hoping to get a picture alone with you". I laughed and said, "of course we can do that". She got a smile on her face and said, "I don't know if you realize this or not, but they are all planning to go back home and tell their friends you were their girlfriend on the ship." Apparently this had been talked about and they were trying to figure out how to make it happen. I tried not to laugh out loud and made my way back over to my boys. Trying not to be too obvious about it, I made a point of posing with each boy with our arms around each other with our heads tilted together and gave my best "girl in love" smile to the camera. ;)

No, this wasn't the nicest thing anyone has ever done as a crew member, but it was a fun memory that this thread reminded me of. :) Thanks for the walk down memory lane!

I wish I had a copy of one of those photos. I hope they all had fun, but I know I certainly did, they were such a great group of cruisers!!! :)

We fell in love with a young woman from the Philippines when she worked at the thermal suite on Celebrity Mercury. She was so attentive even though she had a very badly sprained wrist from lifting heavy wet towels 14 hours a day. We became friends on FB and are still in touch many years later.

On an Alaskan cruise with Princess we mentioned to a woman from Thailand that we would be moving there in a year. She offered us her house to rent when we arrived. It didn't happen because of our decision to not drive a car or scooter and the house was too far from transportation.

The crew love to exchange FB and LINE info and do keep in touch. It is really nice to dream of seeing them again. We have made many contacts this way.

On our 1st cruise, Ncl, I became very seasick on night we departed. Stayed in room from sat night until monday am....my hubby was just fine and was out in buffet eating. A staff member noticed him alone several times, and inquired where I had gone to? When he told her, she immediatly gathered up crackers and green apples, telling him the staff swear by them for seasickness! It worked like a charm! When I finally ventured out, she was waiting to meet me, and checked in w me every day! Took pics together and shared emails at the end of trip!!

My parents went on a cruise to Mexico around a decade ago. One night before arriving in port at Mazatlan, they asked their waiter what places they should visit. The waiter mentioned his favorite seafood restaurant and made a remark that he was going there too the next day and that he and my dad should share a glass of wine. When my parents arrived, the waiter wasn't hadn't shown up, but right before they were leaving, the restaurant owner came up to them with some wine and said that a friend had called him to make sure my parents got a glass of wine. Simple gesture but definitely meant a lot. :)

Ours occurred before we even set foot on board the ship!

First cruise Ensenada to Hawaii on the Celebrity Millennium. They bused everyone from San Diego to Ensenada to board the ship (thanks PVSA). As you checked in at the SD pier you were given tickets with your bus number. We were number 11. Anyway, they start announcing numbers and people began boarding buses. Everyone was milling in the same general area waiting for their number to be called. Once they called 10, those of us on 11 moved up to be checked onto the next bus. My wife and I were first in this group. We noticed a man and woman working their way through the throng of people behind everyone(pushing, actually), until they were immediately in front of my wife and me. I just smiled and laughed lightly. This was our first cruise and I wasn't going to let anything change my happy mood. Apparently my smile and laugh caught the eye of the woman from Celebrity Cruises in charge of letting people through the line. She smiled and opened the line for boarding. When the two line jumpers started to rush by, she asked them to please wait as these people were first. They turned several shades of red as my wife and I walked past, thanking this wonderful Celebrity Cruises staff person. She said, "you're welcome, and have a wonderful cruise!"

Thus began an amazing cruise. We were hooked!

My first cruise was our honeymoon, and my booking was under my maiden name. So at first we were called Mr.Wallace & Miss Keenan, when we told our room steward that we were on our honeymoon, he called us Mr & Mrs Wallace. He even was able to change our little room tag and everyone else that greeted us called me by my married name. Our room steward was amazing in so many other ways. Oh and our server reconized that my husband is left handed and set his flatware to reflect that. We really appreicate those little things that really mean so much.

This was on the Costa Fascinosa in June 2012 <3 :)

)

 

No, this wasn't the nicest thing anyone has ever done as a crew member,

Having been a 15 year old boy at one point, I can tell you this certainly ranks up there. :-)

Looking hot or cute.

I was unable to physically go to and from the fitness center on my last cruise .The Hotel Manager offered me the opportunity to use the Crew's gym .

I was unable to physically go to and from the fitness center on my last cruise .The Hotel Manager offered me the opportunity to use the Crew's gym .

That really is nice of them!

We took our kids on a Disney cruise. My youngest son loves crab legs. They had them on the buffet at lunch one day but we were off on shore excursions or something. At dinner we told our waiter and his helper of our son missing crab legs. The next night he had a bowl full of crab legs in front of him. Then the waiter cracked and removed the meat from every single one of them. Our wait staff was awesome. One night at the beginning of the cruise, before we go to know them really really well, we ordered our food and then everyone switched places at the table. At first they were confused but then played right along with it and just gave people food and let us figure out who ordered what.

On our first family cruise, our daughters were 8. Our waiter had 4 tables to serve but we were the only ones that showed up for dinner each night. Galen would get our meals quickly and then chat with us while braiding the girls hair each night. One evening one of the girls ordered icecream which came with a cookie. The other ordered jello which did not. She asked Galen if she could have a cookie too. Well, from then on each night after dessert he would bring an entire tray of cookies for them to take to their room in case they needed a midnight snack. They were so excited to carry them in the elevator each evening with everyone questioning why they were so lucky.

On another cruise, the girls were 14. If you have had teenaged girls, you know they can be a little messy leaving clothes everywhere. Our cabin steward told me that i was on holiday, and not to argue with them about it and then proceeded to pick up, fold and place their clothes a clear bag each night. Her extra tip was well worth it!

On our recent cruise, our regular dining room waiter would come find us at lunch each day and tell the person serving us our food preferences. One day he said to make sure we didnt eat too much since it would be formal night for dinner. When i mentioned that i was looking forward to the key lime pie, the waiters looked panicked because it was no longer served. I guess the look of dissapointment was too much for them. Next thing i know the dining room manager is on the phone to the chef ordering a custom made pie for us for the next evening. Yummy!

A few years back on the Voyager Of the Seas, (possibly the Mariner, but I think it was the Voyager), we went to see Derek Lewis do his show at the pub after dinner on the last night of the cruise.

If you've ever seen Derek's "Adult Day Care at Night" you know that this involves Kamikaze Kareoke (this means that he picks the song and you don't know what it is until it starts playing).

In any event, he records all performances, and for a small fee, he will burn a CD for you on the spot. Well, I smashed it (at least, that's how I remember it) and I sprung for the $10 CD of my amazing performance.

But then, I forgot to take it with me. Because we had talked previously and I had told him that we closed down the dance club most nights, he figured that was where we were, and he showed up at the dance club to deliver my CD to me personally. He didn't have to do it, but what a nice guy!

BTW, if you're ever booked on a cruise where he is performing, go see the show. It is unique and a ton of fun!

Norwegian Dawn last week. The crew couldn't help but notice that I always carried around lemon water in my blue NCL bottle. I explained to one young Romanian man that lemon water was a detoxifier that helped me feel full (After drinking myself silly and stuffing my face for a week, my weight stayed exactly the same!!!). After that, every time I stepped into the Garden Cafe he would have another batch of lemon water ready for me.

I think he liked me just a little too much. ;)

I have so many instances of fabulous service but these are my top two. In September the air con was leading me to lose my voice and I got worse by the day. I arrived at the martini bar on deck 4 celebrity silhouette and a barman called me by name, said no ice for you, disappeared and came back with green tea with honey and lemon and asked me to take care of my throat.

The other blew us away. We got married on the beach in st thomas and just booked a specialty for 7 of us. We hadn't paid the ship for anything else. Ncl brought in a group to play, took photos and left them on our bed complimentary, the head chef made a 4 tier cake for 30 people, the captain came for cake and coffee and the hotel director and f&b had arranged everything as a surprise - all because 2 guests brought a cake knife set as a present that was confiscated and they'd asked to have it on the table and said why.

Yes we've been on ncl many times since

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On our very first cruise we had to travel from Hawaii were we lived to LA. We had to leave our house early afternoon and then fly the 4 or so hour flight and arrived really really early in the morning. Our shuttle wasn't ready yet since it was about 5 in the morning so we waiting the USO for a while rested. When we finally got in the ship we explored and had some fun. Dinner time came around and our son was just 2.5 at the time and was extremely exhausted. He couldn't help himself anymore and fell asleep at the table. My husband caught his head right before it hit the table and his plate. We thought dinner for us was done too at this point since he was completely asleep but no, the wait staff was unbelievably amazing! They brought 2 empty chairs with arms out and lots of table clothes and made a bed for our son right there in the dining room beside us. He slept and we ate and enjoyed our first meal. The next day we made it to dinner and our son was wide awake and good to go, we checked in and his food was being put on the table right as we walked up, no waiting for his food at all! This was a Disney cruise about 5 years ago.