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Cruise Directors, why?


weedpindle
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Can someone please explain why some need to know who the CD will be on a particular voyage. Who the CD is means squat to me, I do not book for a particular CD, nor will I not book because a certain CD is on board. The entertainment director is more important, yet nobody ever asks about them.

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A good CD can make a difference in how much "fun" the cruise is. On the other hand, on most of our Princess cruises, I can't even tell you who the CD is and never see him/her doing anything. The one exception was on our first Princess cruise when the CD relaxed and was essentially holding court in the IC area, telling stories of his life on cruise ships. It was a nice guy and an enjoyable chat.

 

On other lines, I've had much more interaction with the CD, but even on those lines, it doesn't matter. He basically make announcements before the shows and a chat on the speakers at noon. I suppose his role becomes more significant when things are not going well.

 

I would guess that they are working behind the scenes to schedule activities, etc.......

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The ET is a relatively new position with Princess. When you’re on a cruise with lots of ports, the CD doesn’t affect your cruise very much. When you’re on a longer cruise with lots of sea days, the CD can make a big difference. The ET is the Manager, doing the planning and managing personnel, the Patter, paperwork, etc.; the CD implements entertainment and activities.

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Can someone please explain why some need to know who the CD will be on a particular voyage. Who the CD is means squat to me, I do not book for a particular CD, nor will I not book because a certain CD is on board. The entertainment director is more important, yet nobody ever asks about them.

 

We do not care who anyone is one the ship , Most important is the destination then the cruise line . Everything else is means nothing .

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the captain of the ship?? - I want him/her running the ship, not smoozing with the passengers...

 

how much time, in minutes, die you personally spend interacting with the captain...?

 

I spent 0 minutes interacting with the captain personally.

 

He showed character and personality over the intercom in his noontime messages. And everyone loved him, there is a thread here where people always try to figure out what ship he'll be on next. Nevertheless.. ;p

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I used to feel the same away about the Captain until I sailed on a ship with Captain Tuvo. He outshined the CD by far! CD isn't a big deal to me and I definitely wouldn't base my bookings on that.

 

Captain Tuvo, currently on Star Princess, was great. I set my alarm to wake up before 1 am to watch the northern lights. Captain Tuvo announced to the ship that the bridge was seeing to the northern lights at 1 am. Spectacular sight to see and so glad my fellow passengers were able to witness it as well. He definitely made the cruise just a bit better. "Buh Bye"

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Correct that the captain's main duty is to be responsible for steering and managing the ship. If he happens to be personable, that's a plus. We once had a comedian who did a spoof of the captain's noon report. "The water is deep. We are somewhere in the ocean. The weather is hot." etc...funny because that's about how most of us feel about the noon reports.....

 

Then there are those rare, amazing moments. On our Panama crossing, the captain was talking about wildlife and said that if you were on deck at that point, to your left you should be able to see several "brown boobies." This is actually a species of bird...but again, on of the comedians picked it up an it became the joke of the cruise.

 

Bottom line--if they have a personality that makes it fun, great. If they do their job...that's what's expected.

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As Pam said, ED is a reasonably new position. In the past we had a CD - J J Ulrich - who was so incredibly bad that a 15 day cruise to Hawaii could have been a cruise to the moon or to Ethiopia or to anywhere. He was absolutely pathetically worthless. (He is no longer with Princess. YAY!) On our most recent cruise we had a new CD who was OK but his announcements were so LOUD that it bothered pretty much everybody. It was extremely annoying. On our 28 day cruise last October we had a relatively new CD - David Clark - who was funny, personable, and made the cruise more fun. I'd like to cruise one day with Matt O'Brien. When he was a deputy CD I told him that he was going to make a fantastic CD and should be promoted. Lo and behold the powers that be agreed and he's now a CD - I think on Royal. He seemed to truly love his job.

 

The CD doesn't make or break my voyage and I would certainly never book (or fail to book) a cruise based on who the CD was going to be. I've never sailed with Captain Tuvo but, based on comments here on CC, would like to do so one day. Again, I would never base my decision to cruise on who was the captain of the ship. (Unless it was Francesco Shettino! Fortunately that won't be a problem for future cruisers.) I think - but could be wrong - that some folks want to know which movies will be playing in order to make sure they don't watch them before the cruise. I could be wrong. That's the only reason I would care what movies are playing and, like the other things listed, the movies certainly wouldn't affect whether or not I booked a cruise. With Princess, the one thing that would likely affect whether or not I booked would be if Island Princess was the only ship sailing the itinerary. I might well choose another voyage in that case.

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Can someone please explain why some need to know who the CD will be on a particular voyage. Who the CD is means squat to me, I do not book for a particular CD, nor will I not book because a certain CD is on board. The entertainment director is more important, yet nobody ever asks about them.

 

 

I for one would like to know because if the CD is one that I am familiar with and liked I anticipate a great cruise .

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Some what agree with above comments, I wouldn't not book a cruise because of a cruise director. As a matter of fact I never even look prior to booking. Same goes with the Capt, some are more vocal and visible than others.

 

Will say that if you have a bad CD you won't forget that cruise. When his staff ask passenger to make suggestions to him because he won't listen to them that is a problem in my eyes. But then again that was hard since he only came out of his office to announce the evening shows.

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I have one reason for wanting to know the name of the Cruise Director. I have hosted many Meet & Greets & like to have that name in advance to address my invitations to our meeting.

Tom😎

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When we cruised with Rich Joseph, he was splendid. He did a great lecture on classic ships, ran trivia games himself, and was otherwise out and about making sure pax had a good time. Staffers said nice things about him. He ran a happy ship. All other things being equal, his presence would be a factor in choosing a cruise. And there are also (to be nameless...OK, it was J J) CDs I'd be happy to avoid for the rest of my cruising life.

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Wouldn’t book a cruise just because Kevin was the CD but think he is the best. We have enjoyed being on two of his cruises.
Completely agree. I hear that Matt O'Brien is awesome too. I was booked on the Royal for last April and was happy when I found out he was on board, but unfortunately I had to cancel. I tend to book far enough out that I would have no idea who is on board anyway.
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I like to know. A good CD can make a good cruise better. But I don't book a specific cruise just because I know a certain CD will be on that ship. Their schedules don't always stay fixed. A lackluster CD rubs off on his or her staff. But we had a lackluster CD on several cruises and still managed to have fun. He wasn't scheduled to be the CD on one of our cruises but ended up staying on board an extra week. He's been promoted to ED of course.

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When we cruised with Rich Joseph, he was splendid. He did a great lecture on classic ships, ran trivia games himself, and was otherwise out and about making sure pax had a good time. Staffers said nice things about him. He ran a happy ship. All other things being equal, his presence would be a factor in choosing a cruise. And there are also (to be nameless...OK, it was J J) CDs I'd be happy to avoid for the rest of my cruising life.

i agree that a good cd makes for a happy staff and the overall 'feel' of the ship is a good one. a bad cd, and yes, i too have had a cruise with a bad cd *cough* jj *cough* and you can certainly tell the difference.

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