JOHN DELANEY LEAVING WINDSTAR

[Barrycat]

I just saw an article on a trade publication that John Delaney is leaving Windstar on Wednesday. That’s pretty quick and pretty soon, he hasn’t been there long.

I think he has done a good job at Windstar but a lot isn’t currently going as planned. Xanterra may need to find someone to blame.

[O2B@Cagain]

https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/news/windstar-president-john-delaney-steps-down-chris-prelog-moves-coo

[sb44]

I guess we can all speculate as to the why. Certainly having two ships out of service at once and probable large cost overruns would contribute to a change of leadership.  From a personal perspective, he was on our ship earlier this month and did not even take the opportunity to say anything to all of us when we were in the lounge for the nightly port talk. A brief "thank you for sailing with us" would have gone a long way. The next sailing, which we stayed on for, was widely hyped on Facebook when the Surf did a partial transit of the Panama Canal but nothing said about a really screwed up itinerary, including 3 days at anchor for the removal of lifeboats, the soldering of equipment with fumes, cancelled excursions, and then allowing very few people off in Panama for a few hours at a pretty hefty expense. There were many angry passengers onboard, one couple demanded to leave, and probably letters written. We still had a good time but there was major grumbling. It seemed that the itinerary was set but nobody ever communicated with operations and the Canal Authority so the ship had to spend days at anchorage to be allowed and approved for passage. And that happened so late in the day that it was silly. Passage itself was $77,000 plus bad will. Most of us on board had already done full canal passages. Then there are the captains who are no longer with the company.  We've been curious about that aspect for the last year. I agree with you that a lot of good things have happened but it sounds as if there are some real problems between the units out of service, cancellations, rebooking, and now a world wide health "crisis". Kind of a perfect storm for them.

[milepig]

I’m 99% sure he’s the guy we overheard at the beach BBQ in French Polynesia asking an underling “How much did this cost us?” Also, stuck with his team and didn’t make any attempt to mingle. They had their own table at the BBQ off to the side away from us. Nice guy. 
 

we all know what “personal reasons” on short or no notice means. 

[dandee2]

https://www.luxurytraveladvisor.com/people/windstar-president-john-delaney-stepping-down

[dandee2]

We don,t know the reason and we should not speculate. He's gone, that's all we know.

[Spanky My]

Jumping Ship so to speak? Based on all the problems Windstar has and will face is likely the reason he is stepping down. A strong CEO would stand up to the challenges and criticisms  in my view. When things tough the strong survive. This may not be the case here.