Jim Van Fleet out at Royal, 1 down and 2 more need to go.

[Ret MP]

6 hours ago, PWP-001 said:

 

Yes, it's the Captain's call.  It would be priceless to have been able to read the captain on Allure's thoughts and reasoning behind sailing when there was that hurricane, and I wonder if he would have allowed the corporate meteorologist to influence his decision differently.

 

As an aside, as a South Florida resident myself.... our local news LOVES "WEATHER DRAMA"!   Some more than others, as they sample a soundtrack as theme music and try their darnedest for an alliteration such as FEROCIOUS FLORIDA FLOODING.  I mean they practically draw our attention when someone farts too forcefully and kicks up a wind swirl off the coast of Africa.  I appreciate their efforts most when we're in the Cone of Uncertainty and the storm is upon us.  Yes, then they are my companions all my wakeful hours.

 

Hey!  You don't think Royal has decided it's cheaper just to watch our local news at corporate for updates, do you?   Kidding!

Remember this?  I do:

 

https://www.cnn.com/videos/weather/2018/09/15/weatherman-criticized-for-being-overdramatic-hurricane-florence-lc-orig.cnn

[Ret MP]

24 minutes ago, bonsai3s said:

Who, other than the Captain, must be onboard, or it will not sail?

 

* This question was asked at Trivia.(and the answer subsequently confirmed by the Captain)

First correct answer gets a trophy.

The Staff Captian

 

[John&LaLa]

44 minutes ago, bonsai3s said:

Who, other than the Captain, must be onboard, or it will not sail?

 

* This question was asked at Trivia.(and the answer subsequently confirmed by the Captain)

First correct answer gets a trophy.

 

Dr

 

Happened to us off the coast of western India

[John&LaLa]

21 minutes ago, Ret MP said:

The Staff Captian

 

 

Excess baggage😉

[Ret MP]

Just now, John&LaLa said:

 

Excess baggage😉

Probably!  LOL

[Wanna Be Retired]

6 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

I'd guess he was sleeping with Fain's wife

Can I see a photo before I guess?  

[Btank]

On 5/18/2023 at 11:32 AM, not-enough-cruising said:

not to mention every airline in the world that relies on the weather reports available to us all.

• American Airlines: staff meteorologist
• Delta Airlines: staff meteorologist
• United Airlines: outsources meteorology
• Southwest Airlines: staff meteorologist
• Air France: unknown
• British Airways: unknown
• KLM: staff meteorologist
• KAL: Unknown

  

 I kind of have to wonder about the shade being thrown at van Fleet in this thread.  Or, maybe I don't have to wonder.

 

     --bruce T.

 

 

 

[Lane Hog]

On 5/18/2023 at 7:04 PM, Ret MP said:

Is a corporate/in-house weatherman really necessary?  Can the position be outsourced to a 3rd party at huge savings?  I bet "Weatherbug", et al, can provide everything RCCL et al, needs to safely operate in international waters, weatherwise.  

You can't just Google "what are the seas going to be at 9am next Saturday in Galveston" and hope that it's correct. 

My airline uses The Weather Company to provide 24/7 on-site meteorologists in the operations center. I seriously doubt the outsourced meteorologists are cheaper than insourcing would be, but I do know it's easier to approve an operating expense than it is to get anyone to agree to ongoing salary & benefits for someone in relative perpetuity...

[Lane Hog]

4 minutes ago, Btank said:

• American Airlines: staff meteorologist
• Delta Airlines: staff meteorologist
• United Airlines: outsources meteorology
• Southwest Airlines: staff meteorologist
• Air France: unknown
• British Airways: unknown
• KLM: staff meteorologist
• KAL: Unknown

I have personal knowledge of two of those... the lone "staff meteorologist" basically oversaw and signed off on what the outsourced TWC folks were doing as the grunt work.  

[Ret MP]

13 minutes ago, Lane Hog said:

You can't just Google "what are the seas going to be at 9am next Saturday in Galveston" and hope that it's correct.  Not sure what your point is with that.  I don't think that any weather service/forecasting entity can give an accurate forcast of what the seas are going  to be next Saturday, even Jim Van Fleet!

My airline uses The Weather Company to provide 24/7 on-site meteorologists in the operations center. I seriously doubt the outsourced meteorologists are cheaper than insourcing would be, but I do know it's easier to approve an operating expense than it is to get anyone to agree to ongoing salary & benefits for someone in relative perpetuity...

 

Apples, meet Oranges.  With some exceptions, airlines travel for short durations of time, relatively speaking.  Miami to NYC is what 1.5 to 2 hours.  Forecasting for that should be fairly accurate.  Miami to Panama Canal is what 2 - 3 days by ship?  Biiiiig difference.  I never mentioned air travel or anyother travel entity, just RCCL and I believe it could hold true for the entire cruise industry.  In fact, I believe RCCL is one of a few, if any, cruise companys that has a celebrity meteorologist at the mother ship.  Lastly, I also believe that if negotiated well, a contracted foresting company can be much cheaper than a Van Fleet.  A well established weather entity/forecasting company probably has all the hardware/software and personnel needed to do forecasting throughout the world's waterways.  I believe that all that is really needed to be done is set up communication proceedures, durations, what info is need, and a whole bunch more that I'm not capable of providing.  

YMMV

[Ret MP]

One more point I'd like to make.  How many of you frequent cruisers on RCCL have cruised with James Van Fleet on board and were treated as a celebrity?  I believe I have read a few.  If he's that important to the mother ship, why does he cruise as often as some have indicated on this board and others?  My opinion/answer is that he's just a celeb and/or whitewash to be paraded around the public realm.  I don't know Fleet, not one bit.  He could be a great buy, it really isn't about him personally.  It's about the position's necessity, period.

[coaster]

On 5/18/2023 at 8:01 AM, OCSC Mike said:

I still remember when he was a local weatherman here in Orlando.

Tampa TV WTSP afterwards and it was an ugly divorce. Security had to escort him out according to newspaper accounts here.

[Ret MP]

5 minutes ago, coaster said:

Tampa TV WTSP afterwards and it was an ugly divorce. Security had to escort him out according to newspaper accounts here.

Then he filed suit against the station.  I don't know how it turned out.

[coaster]

13 minutes ago, Ret MP said:

Then he filed suit against the station.  I don't know how it turned out.

Not sure either...Was not a good start from the beginning with Royal hiring him.

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/Ex-WTSP-meteorologist-sued-over-almost-60-000-owed-to-lawyers_170784447/%3FoutputType%3Damp&ved=2ahUKEwiG7veItYX_AhU_RDABHTY_CAwQFnoECBMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1Usarl7uX5jScsbmFbF7kt

Edited May 21, 2023 by coaster

[Lane Hog]

1 hour ago, Ret MP said:

YMMV

You don't get the role of airline meteorology apparently.  It's not about one airplane and one airport. 

 

The outlook for whats going to be happening 48-72 hours from now is more important than whats happening today.  You have no choice but to react to todays weather. You can pre-plan around tomorrow's weather. 

 

Hardly different from marine needs.

[notscb]

10 hours ago, PWP-001 said:

one of the fundamental ways that RCL's lawyers protect the company is ensuring that while onboard, passengers are kept safe so that nothing stupid happens to cause a liability claim

 

I'll fix this for you:

"one of the fundamental ways that RCL's lawyers protect the company is ensuring that the entire operation is built in such a way that limits any sort of liability to the company. "

 

FTFY. If guest safety is a byproduct of their work, then so be it, but it's not their primary focus or reason for employment.

 

For what it's worth, i'm not confused. My use of that phrasing was directed at a particular poster as they were not clear in their view and contradicted themselves several times within their own post and replies.

 

Thanks for checking in 🙂

Edited May 21, 2023 by notscb
clarity

[notscb]

1 hour ago, Ret MP said:

If he's that important to the mother ship, why does he cruise as often as some have indicated on this board and others?

...Because he probably gets cruise benefits as a perk of working for a cruise line?

[coaster]

He loved posting pictures onboard bridges of Royal's ships with officers and his Miami home. Wish him well. Don't wish anything bad on anyone. Just have to take into account history.

[Ret MP]

45 minutes ago, Lane Hog said:

You don't get the role of airline meteorology apparently.  It's not about one airplane and one airport. 

 

The outlook for whats going to be happening 48-72 hours from now is more important than whats happening today.  You have no choice but to react to todays weather. You can pre-plan around tomorrow's weather. 

 

Hardly different from marine needs.

I figured this was coming.  You are comparing a business that has hundreds/thousands of flights a day traveling to hundreds of different locations a day and their Corp meteorologists aren't celeb window dressings vs a cruise line that has 25 or so vessels a day on the move, much more if you look at the entire industry.  But, most cruise out of the same locations and go to the same locations using virtually the same routes.   Cruise lines try to predict storm movements weeks out as it may take a week or more for the cruise line ship to get to the destination.  The captain has to make decisions much further in advance than a pilot or it's Corp HQ has to.  I'd assert that a cruise line doesn't need as much real-time corporate weather info as a pilot does that is going, say from Chicago to Hawaii.  Therefore, a 3rd party forecasting entity can handle weather just fine and cheaper.  For example (and yes, it is a simplification): If an airliner is going to Hawaii and a storm that could impact a safe landing, that is forecasted to be there at about the same time as the airliner is scheduled to be their the flight will probably be canceled or seriously delayed.  On the other hand, a ship leaving from LA on the same scheduled time as the airliner was supposed to be leaving, will probably sail.  And all that information is available on the local TV station or on NOAA or other free sites.  And I haven't mentioned the vast amount of weather equipment/hardware/software that is available on today's modern ships.  There are so many other variables, too. I think that cruise lines can do just fine without a Celeb Corp Weather guy.  And other than the cost of a third party, that's my point.  This is not about airlines but I will say that Airlines probably need a non-celeb orchestrator of all the weather entities available to them, especially the big box airlines.  I have never been on an airplane that has introduced the Corp Weather guy as a celeb or anything else, for that matter.  I can just hear it now, "Ladies and gentlemen we are lucky to have James Span our corporate weather meteorologist, in the forward cabin, formally from WBRC in Birmingham, AL. Let's all give him a round of applause".  <that was just for the fun of it.  

 

Edited a couple of my errors

Edited May 21, 2023 by Ret MP

[PWP-001]

6 hours ago, notscb said:

 

I'll fix this for you:

"one of the fundamental ways that RCL's lawyers protect the company is ensuring that the entire operation is built in such a way that limits any sort of liability to the company. "

 

FTFY. If guest safety is a byproduct of their work, then so be it, but it's not their primary focus or reason for employment.

 

For what it's worth, i'm not confused. My use of that phrasing was directed at a particular poster as they were not clear in their view and contradicted themselves several times within their own post and replies.

 

Thanks for checking in 🙂

Thank you for splitting hairs with me.

 

I can only look forward to the next corporate staff cutting and the ensuing multi-page discussion here.

[bucfan2]

7 hours ago, notscb said:

...Because he probably gets cruise benefits as a perk of working for a cruise line?

Perhaps...but how much does he tip above and beyond?  And does he get 2x daily room cleaning, regardless of cabin category?

Edited May 21, 2023 by bucfan2

[BND]

I just saw a post by CD Mitch who said Royal is looking for a new meteorologist.  So, where did it say they were eliminating the position which is what I saw in the original post?   

Edited May 21, 2023 by BND

[Biker19]

10 hours ago, Ret MP said:

He could be a great buy

RCI doesn't think so.

[John&LaLa]

11 hours ago, Ret MP said:

One more point I'd like to make.  How many of you frequent cruisers on RCCL have cruised with James Van Fleet on board and were treated as a celebrity?  I believe I have read a few.  If he's that important to the mother ship, why does he cruise as often as some have indicated on this board and others?  My opinion/answer is that he's just a celeb and/or whitewash to be paraded around the public realm.  I don't know Fleet, not one bit.  He could be a great buy, it really isn't about him personally.  It's about the position's necessity, period.

 

He joined us on Wonder for inaugural. Very personal and outgoing. That being said, it won't bother me that he is now not joining us for the voyage around the horn as they were planning

[Wanna Be Retired]

11 hours ago, Ret MP said:

One more point I'd like to make.  How many of you frequent cruisers on RCCL have cruised with James Van Fleet on board and were treated as a celebrity?  I believe I have read a few.  If he's that important to the mother ship, why does he cruise as often as some have indicated on this board and others?  My opinion/answer is that he's just a celeb and/or whitewash to be paraded around the public realm.  I don't know Fleet, not one bit.  He could be a great buy, it really isn't about him personally.  It's about the position's necessity, period.

When we were on Liberty of the Seas during Hurricane Harvey they put him on the ship in Miami and he sailed back with us to Galveston.  I recall his insistence that we had this “window of opportunity “ to leave the ship and let the new cruisers on when the causeway was under water and the port was closed.  We sat in Galveston for some time before we left and headed to Miami.