KirkNC Posted September 21, 2012 #126 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Here is a link that should make us feel a little better, it shows how unusual it is for a HAL ship to do poorly as all the others appear to do quite well: http://wwwn.cdc.gov/InspectionQueryTool/InspectionResults.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laminator Posted September 21, 2012 #127 Share Posted September 21, 2012 I'm not Mr. Muzz either, but I can tell you that USPH inspections are unscheduled! In other words, there is no advance notice to the ship's management when the inspectors are going to show at their gangway when in a U.S. port. Thanks Copper. It depends on the type of insepction whether it is scheduled or not. I think, and I am probaby wrong, that it was the Oosterdam I was on. A couple of days before the cruise was over there was a massive clean up effort going on a the seaview bar. I thought maybe one of the pipes or hoses broke. When I asked what was going on they told me they were going to be inspected when they arrived in port. So it may have been a mechaical related inspection. However scheduled or non scheduled, health related or maintenance related there is absolutely no excuse for such a low score. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KirkNC Posted September 21, 2012 #128 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Wow, here is a list of items found on the Veendam: http://wwwn.cdc.gov/InspectionQueryTool/InspectionDetailReport.aspx?ColI=MTgwMDAxMjE%3d-xo0EkEPOm%2bU%3d Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indokiwi Posted September 21, 2012 #129 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Captain: In charge of everything sailing (engines, propulsion, navigation depts) and iirc environmental HM: In charge of everything else I would call on BruceMuzz or CopperJohn10-8 to confirm, but: Hotel Manager/Director - in charge of all hotel operations. This includes food, housekeeping, beverages, front office, revenue outlets, entertainment, etc. (Senior VP) Chief Engineer - in charge of all technical, including propulsion, A/C, toilets. (Senior VP) Chief Officer/Staff Captain - in charge of the navigation department. This includes the sailors (guys who paint the ship and do outside maintenance that we all love SO much when we are trying to relax on deck), navigation department, safety (mustering), security, pest control (and I don't mean us passengers!), etc (Senior VP) Environmental Officer - liaises with all departments to make sure that they are not doing anything bad - like dumping sewage, discarding paint thinner, burning the wrong fuel in the wrong area of the world, etc. (Senior VP) Captain - the CEO of the ship. Has ultimate control and final say-so for everything from stem to stern, regardless of the department. Answers to the head honchos in Seattle (the Board). This is what I gather from all of those Captain Welcome Toasts each cruise and also from general conversation at VIP parties on all of our cruises. Everyone named above are all Senior Staff Officers. **Just an FYI - my sister just got off the Zaandam last Sunday and we were comparing her cruise log to mine and apparently HAL has now changed the names of the officers to reflect what the rest of the cruise industry seems to have. The Hotel Manager is now the Hotel Director and the Chief Officer is now the Staff Captain. Yay, now HAL can be even more like Carnival :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viesczy Posted September 21, 2012 #130 Share Posted September 21, 2012 I read the report, nothing really scary there to me. Some of the best joints to eat barely can pass health inspections. As a species, we're a fairy hardy as evidenced by the 7 billion + of us. We're honestly more in danger from the levels of arsenic in our drinking water, our food supply because of it in our drinking water, the negative effects over fluoridation, our untested for mad cow disease beef supply among many other things. Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Copper10-8 Posted September 21, 2012 #131 Share Posted September 21, 2012 ...................However scheduled or non scheduled, health related or maintenance related there is absolutely no excuse for such a low score. I agree! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opinions Posted September 21, 2012 #132 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Thanks, so much. Gives us a better perspective on the procedure and near impossibly high standards. I don't believe the standards are impossibly high...The majority of ships inspected seem to receive high scores... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipity1499 Posted September 21, 2012 #133 Share Posted September 21, 2012 I read the report, nothing really scary there to me. Some of the best joints to eat barely can pass health inspections. As a species, we're a fairy hardy as evidenced by the 7 billion + of us. We're honestly more in danger from the levels of arsenic in our drinking water, our food supply because of it in our drinking water, the negative effects over fluoridation, our untested for mad cow disease beef supply among many other things. Derek Oh Dear...A Friend tells me she heard on our local news a couple of days ago that there are very high levels of arsenic in Rice...:eek: Can't find info about it in the papers though..Apparently they said we should only eat Rice Crispies once a week.. We both enjoy Chinese Food with Rice..I especially enjoy Chinese Fried Rice & we had Rice for dinner last night.. In addition, last week we bought Rice Crispies, buy one get one free @ Publix..Did they know this was going to come out in the media & tried to get rid of their stock? :rolleyes: Am I poisoning DH & myself with RICE?:eek: So, does this mean in our old age, we can no longer eat RICE?;);) Guess that's a good way to loose weight.. Cheers..:)Betty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruz chic Posted September 21, 2012 #134 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Oh Dear...A Friend tells me she heard on our local news a couple of days ago that there are very high levels of arsenic in Rice...:eek: Can't find info about it in the papers though..Apparently they said we should only eat Rice Crispies once a week.. We both enjoy Chinese Food with Rice..I especially enjoy Chinese Fried Rice & we had Rice for dinner last night.. In addition, last week we bought Rice Crispies, buy one get one free @ Publix..Did they know this was going to come out in the media & tried to get rid of their stock? :rolleyes: Am I poisoning DH & myself with RICE?:eek: So, does this mean in our old age, we can no longer eat RICE?;);) Guess that's a good way to loose weight.. Cheers..:)Betty It was on the Calgary news too. I was getting my nails done at the time so I couldn't hear as much as I would have liked too. I eat quite a bit of rice so I'm going to try to limit it more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamaofami Posted September 21, 2012 #135 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Yes. As I understand it, the Hotel Manager is responsible for all kitchen and hotel operations as well as customer service. The heads of Housekeeping, Customer Relations, Beverage services, and all Dining Venues report to them. As I understand, they are also responsible for maintenance of the "hotel" aspects of a ship. When I was on Veendam in June, the hotel manager (think his name was David Woods) was very unresponsive. I'm not sure if he's still on, but, maybe he just doesn't care about Veendam anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sail7seas Posted September 21, 2012 #136 Share Posted September 21, 2012 No, Carol. David Woods is not currently the Hotel Manager on Veendam. Not sure when he left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobpatj Posted September 21, 2012 #137 Share Posted September 21, 2012 I feel very sad for the Veendam and its staff. We enjoyed the ship so much, in the summer of 2011. She's really a lovely ship, just like the rest of the fleet. Hearing "the spotless fleet," somehow doesn't ring true anymore for the Veendam. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CowPrincess Posted September 21, 2012 #138 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Off topic: lorekauf and serendipity1499 here's a link to the Consumers Report report http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/11/arsenic-in-your-food/index.htm On topic: KirkNC thanks for that link. Am very glad this info on the Veendam's score has been made available here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruz chic Posted September 21, 2012 #139 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Off topic:lorekauf and serendipity1499 here's a link to the Consumers Report report http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/11/arsenic-in-your-food/index.htm On topic: KirkNC thanks for that link. Am very glad this info on the Veendam's score has been made available here. thx:). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Kruizers Posted September 21, 2012 #140 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Oh Dear...A Friend tells me she heard on our local news a couple of days ago that there are very high levels of arsenic in Rice...:eek: Can't find info about it in the papers though..Apparently they said we should only eat Rice Crispies once a week.. We both enjoy Chinese Food with Rice..I especially enjoy Chinese Fried Rice & we had Rice for dinner last night.. In addition, last week we bought Rice Crispies, buy one get one free @ Publix..Did they know this was going to come out in the media & tried to get rid of their stock? :rolleyes: Am I poisoning DH & myself with RICE?:eek: So, does this mean in our old age, we can no longer eat RICE?;);) Guess that's a good way to loose weight.. Cheers..:)Betty It was all over our TV news stations and in the newspapers earlier this week. We love rice as well. Don't think at our ages that we will give up eating it. Wonder what the Indonesians will do as their diet includes a lot of rice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Kruizers Posted September 21, 2012 #141 Share Posted September 21, 2012 US Public Health Service has only about one dozen inspectors in the USA.They are flown to major US Ports to perform the inspections on about 200 cruise ships annually. They also travel to the major shipyards in Europe and Asia to inspect newbuilds and offer advice on safer ways to design and build cruise ships. Thank you Bruce. I learned something hew today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkacruiser Posted September 21, 2012 #142 Share Posted September 21, 2012 The greatest concern of mine in reading the CDC report was how frequent it was mentioned that senior staff was present at the time the violation was taking place. Makes me wonder how well trained some of the "senior staff" are. If they are truly "senior", i.e. having been on the job for many years so that they should know the rules and expectations, then, and I truly hate to say this, they need to be put ashore, permanently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sansterre Posted September 21, 2012 #143 Share Posted September 21, 2012 As I said before, there will be another CDC in a month or so. I have no doubt the ship will then score extremely well :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisinjudy Posted September 21, 2012 #144 Share Posted September 21, 2012 **Just an FYI - my sister just got off the Zaandam last Sunday and we were comparing her cruise log to mine and apparently HAL has now changed the names of the officers to reflect what the rest of the cruise industry seems to have. The Hotel Manager is now the Hotel Director and the Chief Officer is now the Staff Captain. Yay, now HAL can be even more like Carnival :( So the Hotel Manager is no longer the HotMan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisin'girl Posted September 22, 2012 #145 Share Posted September 22, 2012 Question for those who sailed on Veendam in mid-August or anyone who knows. Who were the Captain and Hotel Director then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sppunk Posted September 22, 2012 #146 Share Posted September 22, 2012 Question for those who sailed on Veendam in mid-August or anyone who knows. Who were the Captain and Hotel Director then? I was on the sailing that took place the day of this inspection. Captain: Marco Carsjens Hotel Manager: Douglas Hernandez Cruise Director: Dan Bernbach Executive Chef: Dean Carosella Carsjens and Hernandez had bern on around 2 months at this point iirc from the Cooking with Stripes Q&A. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irisheileen Posted September 22, 2012 #147 Share Posted September 22, 2012 HAL Corporate senior management and the Veendam management team should hang their collective heads in shame. If anyone recalls, within my recent Veendam Review, "the good the bad and the ugly", I was told by the Hotel Manager, Douglas Hernandez that the officers "must have had a lot on their minds" when they didn't acknowledge us. Now I know what they were so distracted by: the upcoming Inspection! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valley Girl of VA Posted September 22, 2012 #148 Share Posted September 22, 2012 This is all very interesting to me as my husband was a 31 year officer with the USPHS. I never knew that they did the cruise inspections but he was quite knowledgeable about it. He inspected other areas as well as writing the HAACP protocols in his area for FDA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruzin Terri Posted September 22, 2012 #149 Share Posted September 22, 2012 If anyone recalls, within my recent Veendam Review, "the good the bad and the ugly", I was told by the Hotel Manager, Douglas Hernandez that the officers "must have had a lot on their minds" when they didn't acknowledge us. Now I know what they were so distracted by: the upcoming Inspection! But the inspection was unannounced, so how could they be distracted about an "upcoming" inspection? Just askin. Terri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irisheileen Posted September 22, 2012 #150 Share Posted September 22, 2012 What strikes me as odd about this situation is that normally it is not a surprise inspection. The crew knows ahead of time. That gives the crew the time to tidy everything ahead of time. And they still had a such a poor mark. Is it possible that the crew is simply tired of hearing all of the complaints. We sailed the veendam aug12-Aug 19th. By the end of the cruise Fire drills etc were being performed. We talked to one of the spa staff while she was "on duty" for the drill and she said that they were being inspected ( I think that is how she described it) and that she was nervous to be able to answers questions etc. They had a limit of how many wrong answers would be acceptable. Must have been the same inspection? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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