Cruise Directors

[gjbarkley]

We have been on 13 cruises, and 2 cruise directors really stand out, both on Princess --- Alastair Greener and Tim Donovan. Both were everywhere, worked really hard and were super talented. We would go out of our way to sail with either one of them again!! Tim was CD on our January Grand cruise but was leaving for holiday --- we're looking to see where he'll turn up next!

 

Glenn Barkley

Carnival Holiday (05/86)

Carnival Jubilee(01/88)

Windspirit (12/91)

Sover. of the seas (02/93)

Ncl Dreamward(03/95)

Celebrity Zenith(7/97)

Celebrity Mercury(4/99)

Grand Princess (01/00)

Grand Princess (01/01)

Celebrity Infinity(11/01)

NCL Sun (10/2002)

Grand Princess (08/03)

Grand Princess (01/04)

<

grand princess

 

[CRZINPREZ]

My favorite, is Tim Donovan. He was friendly, professional and alot of fun. A cruise directors job has taken on a more administrative role, in that they are behind a desk, etc.. Tim, really was great.

[hls74]

On the 3/20 Diamond sailing, I don't remember much about the cruise director, but I can tell you a bit about the assistant cruise director. In my experience he was a drunk, and a boorish one at that. Early in the cruise I was up in Skywalkers, making conversation with an attractive woman. He was being loud and boisterous, and drinking heavily, getting in the way of passengers trying to get to the bar. Then, he had the nerve to walk directly between me and the woman I was talking with - and with the loud music, we were already standing pretty close together, so that he had to literally bump me out of the way (he's a relatively big guy) to interrupt my conversation with her so he could try to "pick her up".

 

Later in the week, I heard that a formal complaint was filed against him by one of the passengers, and I don't think I saw him again all week.

 

Harry

 

Diamond Princess 3/20/04

Grand Princess 3/23/03

Voyager Of The Seas 3/02

Ocean Princess 4/01

Grand Princess 4/00

[tpmartin]

Originally posted by PaulieM:

My favorite is Tim Donovan, anyone know where he is today?

 

We sailed with TIm on the Grand in Oct 2002, his wife was onboard with him.

 

Tom M

 

Chandris Brittanis & Gallileo

Celebrity Zenith

Carnival Destiny

Dolphin IV,Dolphin Seabreeze Dolphin Oceanbreeze

RCCL Song of Norway & Explorer of the Seas

Grand Princess & Dawn Princes

 

 

<FONT color=blue size=4>Caribbean Princess here we come!!

 

<FONT color=blue size=4> UNTIL PURE RELAXATION ON THE ISLAND PRINCESS IN HAWAII!!!

 

 

 

 

[APH]

Gene Hackman lookalike Paul Burns is excellent - we've had him twice on the Dawn Princess and he really is brilliant - not only good from an administrative point of view, but also a very funny man - the gameshows onboard were fantastic - anybody from the UK will be able to comapre him to Bruce Forsyth.

 

Paul O'Loughlin was also excellent - it's obvious he's very highly regarded by the company - he's brought out the Royal, Regal, Sun, Ocean, Star and Coral - I also believe he's on the Caribbean at the moment. A member of staff told us onboard the Golden Princess in July that the Company are so desperate for him not to leave them that they keep giving him pay rises!

 

His deputy, Frankie Verroca , was also brilliant - he'll make a superb CD one day.

[CruisingForever]

Is Frankie on the Caribbean with Paul? I enjoyed Frankies sense of humor. Extremely friendly and very outgoing. It makes a passenger feel at home when the cruise staff makes the time to have conversation with you. I didnt see that with Graham.

[aaannnthony]

Don't know much about him, but, my favorite was John Cleland, last year, 18 days San Fran to Tahiti aboard the Pacific Princess(new)!

 

I busted his "chops" daily with questions, comments, etc. daily on his "morning show", and, also when I met him, and his assistant Dan, an Aussie! We had a lot of fun together.

 

At my request, we put together a little scenario that a "pax" was necessary to co-host the morning show due to Dan's oversleeping, and unavailability! He allowed me to do the last "morning show", as co-host, before we arrived in Tahiti! It was a lot of fun, and, the pax that watched, and commented, also thought it was an enjoyable change of pace to the regular format.

 

I wish him well!!

[todd-r]

Tim Donovan and Lisa 'from Vancouver' are both currently on the Grand Princess

 

Up next - Pacific NorthWest Coastal!

 

 

Navigator of the Seas - 01/05

Dawn Princess - 10/04

Grand Princess - 11/04 (Cancelled)

Grand Princess - 10/04 (Cancelled)

Island Princess - 05/04

Grand Princess - 10/03

Norway - 10/03 (Cancelled)

Wind Surf - Transatlantic 4/02

[GottoCruise]

John Lawrence was the CD on the Regal (30 day "Mystery Cruise") last March/April - we thought he was terrific!

 

 

PACIFIC PRINCESS Islands of the Pacific Theater

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[mpdahmer]

Does anyone know if Alastair was the CD on the Crown Princess back in April 1992???

 

We also sailed with Graham on the Grand in 2001 (he was great) and will be sailing with Paul O' on the Caribbean next week....will let you know what we think upon our return.

 

Mark D.

 

4/10/04 Caribbean Princess

 

Crown-92; Grand-01...

[relevart]

Alistar Greener is my favorite. Just got back from the Star(which is out of commission for a couple of weeks) and the CD was Frank. Not impressed, the only TV shows he has were canned, generic for any cruise, trying to sell stuff. Alistar made it so much better.

 

Star Princess Bangkok to Venice

[Lofty]

I just returned from the 03/27/04 sailing on the Golden. Graham Seymour was fantastic, a very talented singer and comedien. He said he is moving to the new ship "Carribean" in May. Possibly the assistant Gavin will take over.

[kimbtech]

Although Princess is by far my favourite cruiseline, the best cruise director we've ever had was John Heard. At the time we met him, he was aboard the Carnival Sensation. He was fantastic, always around the ship, and without question, the best. I'd had heard that he had retired, but could be wrong. There needs to be more cruise directors like John. We were on the Dawn in February and although the cruise director was pretty good, I can't remember his name. I believe that says alot. Our cruise on the Sensation was 9 years ago and we still remember the cruise director.

[Princessgal]

I have taken 70 cruises with Princess and my all time favorite is John Lawrence. He is funny, helpful, Mr. personality and a beautiful singing voice too. He is the one who trained Alistair Greener and the voice you hear at the lifeboat drill on all the ships. Alistair is entertaining and Janet is very good. I have been on several cruises with Graham, Paul and Billy and I find they introduce the main show, appear at Island night and are seldom seen any where else. As for Tim he is too loud for me. My favorite DCD is Frankie Verroca and I love any cruise he is on. You can catch him in the movie, I want to hold your hand, about the Beatles appearing on the Ed Sullivan show and he plays a teen picketing the group. His name even appears in the credits at the end of the movie.

[AmyinGA]

We loved Graham Seymour. We found him funny and we did see him a lot. His staff had a lot of energy too. The most visible CD I've had was Neil Roberts. We saw him multiple times each day of our cruise. On our most recent cruise on the Island, the CD was Trevor Bradford. He was a bore. I think all of his jokes came from a Cruise Director 101 manual- not very original. Luckily, Kelly Neil was the Deputy CD. He more than made up for Trevor. We hope that Kelly will be a CD soon. We look forward to sailing with him again.

[cruzfiend]

I have to vote for Graham S. also. He was GREAT. I'm just sad he will not be on the Golden in October.

Aweigh we go
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[shelleybelly]

Tim Donovan, sailed with him on the Grand Princess in June, terrific. All cruise directors should take lessons from this guy.

[lesharona]

My favorite is Billy Hygate, a very talented
gentleman. We are going to be on the Diamond
Princess in Sept, and hope he is still the
CD.

[we really love the Coral]

Our favorite CD is Richard Joseph.

He is always visible, and really cares about the guests.

Each & every night I would find him outside the show lounge saying good night to the passengers. It became an evening ritual to razz Rich a little after the shows. He always responded with a good hearted smile and always had something witty to say.

What I appreciate most about Rich is his ability to let his staff shine. Most CD's have the entertainment revolve around them in a giant ego fest. You will find Rich at all the big events, but it is not uncommon for him to introduce the activity or show, and then pass the microphone off to an Assistant.

We have booked the Island this summer in Alaska as Rich will be aboard, and it will be our 5th cruise with him.

One final note, his Ship history lecture is a not to be missed presentation. Here his love for ships and people really shines through.

This winter on the Coral, one a Christams cruise with very demanding and sometimes RUDE passengers, I asked Rich how he kept his good humor and continued to smile. He replied "Stan, I love my job, I feel I have been truly blessed to have this career, and the ones that are not smiling are a good challange to turn around" - I agree with AlainBob that Rich is "simply the best" and we have 60 cruises to compare!

Stan

[tracyweiss64]

I was just on the Dawn Princess last week (4/4-4/11) and Alistair was on our ship. He was leaving the Dawn Princess on the 11th and I think he was going to the Caribbean Princess. I just saw him today on the Travel Channel on a cruise special. He was definitely alot of fun!!! I only hope he is still around when we go on our next cruise. He had a great staff on our cruise (Scott, Kevin, Gavin, Marion,and Jane). They had great chemistry!!!

[WendyG]

I can tell you the worst CD was Simon something on the Sun in Nov. He was so unimpressive I don't even remember his last name. That cruise was BORING! Island night was a joke, no pub night, very disappointing. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]

I thought Graham was taking over in July? (the caribbean) someone on here mentioned May.
I wonder which it is?

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=008000&cdt=2004;7;24;17;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img] until the Caribbean Princess!



Sovereign of the Seas 8/98
Premier Seabreeze 4/99
Norwegian Wind 4/00
Norwegian Majesty 4/01
Holland America Volendam 11/01
Grand Princess 4/02
Carnival Fascination 5/02
Costa Atlantica 11/02
Golden Princess 3/03
Explorer of the Seas 7/03
Sun Princess 11/03

[ssbeagle]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Second seating:
I am amazed no one has mentioned Chris Nichols, he is the best. We had him on the old Pacific Princess and the Tahitian Princess. He was everywhere.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I agree with you about Chris Nichols. He was by far the best CD on any of our 18 cruises we have taken. Janet Edwards was also very good. Graham Seymour was just plain wacky and not too involved with the pax. I am hoping we will run into Chris again on one of our cruises. He has the best singing voice of anyone I have heard and he's pretty good with the jokes too. I hope he's back on the Tahitian in November.

Grand Princess
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Tahitian Princess
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[spongerob]

I've never really paid a lot of attention to the cruise directors until running into Graham Seymour on the Golden Princess. He's an amazing fellow, kind of like a young Robin Williams. He's almost too quick to follow. He is hilarious, though, and even his video ship's tour is a riot to watch. I'm sure the Italian officers are looking forward to his transfer.

Ciao!

Coming up:
Caribbean Princess Apr 3/04
Golden Princess Apr 10/04
Tahitian Princess Oct 14/04

[Toto2Kansas]

I have to admit that Janet Edwards did not impress us very much. She seemed to be OK in person, but her TV morning show was enough to wear on our nerves. She just tried too hard to be funny and it just is not in her. She is OK at the shows and other activities, but I would never go out of my way to sail on a ship she was on again, in fact, it might help us decide which ship to sail on if she was the CD on one of them, we would probably pick the other. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] Just our opinion of coarse.

[img]http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/tier/smilie_hund1.gif[/img]
Tahitian October 14th,2004

[mringenoldus]

Does anyone know who the CD will be on the May 14 Sun Princess - I thought I had read that there was to be a director change just prior to our trip.

CCL Holiday 2000
CCL Elation 2001
CCL Pride 2002
CCL Ecstacy 2003
RCL AOS 2003
Sun Princess May 14 2004!!