Service staff

[Nataly1982]

On our previous sailings my observation was that majority of service staff (room attendants, waiters in buffet) were from the Philippines or Indonesia. Now on our last sailing I thought that vast majority are from India, you barely see 🇵🇭 flag or their beautiful smiles anymore. Is it just me, or has there been a big switch since pandemic? 
 

Officers seem to still come from the same countries,  the likes of the Sweden, Denmark, Croatia, US and also from Asian countries. 
 

 

[9tee2Sea]

43 minutes ago, Nataly1982 said:

On our previous sailings my observation was that majority of service staff (room attendants, waiters in buffet) were from the Philippines or Indonesia. Now on our last sailing I thought that vast majority are from India, you barely see 🇵🇭 flag or their beautiful smiles anymore. Is it just me, or has there been a big switch since pandemic? 
 

Officers seem to still come from the same countries,  the likes of the Sweden, Denmark, Croatia, US and also from Asian countries. 
 

 

on my last sailing in March,  I found that there were more workers from Latin America.  Rarely saw cabin steward,  the waitstaff  in the buffet walk by so fast I can't  read the name tags.  But when talking to bar tenders, most seemed to be from Latin America.  It takes awhile for cruise ships to train new staff, and then send them off on the contracts.  Also, maybe since the pandemic, many workers enjoyed being around family that they could not see, and decided to find closer work..  Pretty soon, technology will replace some of the restaurant staff ( order from a tablet, a robot will deliver to your table, maybe even have robot cooks).If that happens, I bet my cruising days will be over. 

[BirdTravels]

We were on the Escape last week and still saw a lot of service staff from the Philippines. There were a few junior officers that we delt with who were from India. Our cabin steward was from Indonesia. 

 

wrt automated nourishment, we were on the Encore last month and it has already started. The spa was offering IV treatments to get you the required vitamins and nourishment for your busy day onboard or ashore. (I thought of it as a banana bag to help get you over your hangover,,,, but the spa personnel insisted that it was to help revitalize you and for your health). 

[FlGoodShips]

What makes a difference where the staff is from...

ALL of them regardless of country of origin are excellent and always smile and are extremely hard working individuals.

[Sue Do-Over]

Philippines has pretty limited employment opportunities... not a lot of industry or agriculture.  Decades ago, nursing and hospitality training schools were established, with the deliberate goal of providing workers to wealthier countries.  A big part of their GDP is the repatriated income sent home by those workers to their families (some of whom are raising their kids).

An article about getting cruise staff home during COVID tracked the majority of ships back to Philippines.  I'm sure it was a huge shock to their economy to have all those unemployed adults back home for an unknown amount of time. 

(source: graduate course in global health economics)

[boltnut55]

I don't know about less folks from certain countries, but like you on my last Norwegian cruise, I found that they weren't as service oriented as before.  I never saw our steward, buffet waiters would ignore dirty plates piling up even though they were even slowly walking by, etc.  Every night, we heard dropped plates, and the head waiter mentioned that a lot were new, so they were still in training.  Regarding smiling... culturally, I suppose some aren't as gregarious as others... maybe smile after they get to know you but just trying to be efficient.  Or they are new and are still timid about this job.  Some I spoke to had never been on a ship before, and this was a new assignment.  Hopefully in a year or two, things will be back to normal.

[ziggyuk]

Same mix as always on the Star two weeks ago, lots of very good Filipino & Filipina staff.

[RB9643]

 

The wheat and chaff will eventually be separated. We've never experienced "bad" crewmembers, but some are certainly better than others.

 

[NW Pacific]

The Food Republic on the Bliss March this year; ordering was done through a "tablet" on the table.  Not my style at all.  Our waiter was beyond kind and helped us out.  great food. But not my style of dining , especially on a what I consider an indulgent vacation>

[cruiseny4life]

10 hours ago, NW Pacific said:

The Food Republic on the Bliss March this year; ordering was done through a "tablet" on the table.  Not my style at all.  Our waiter was beyond kind and helped us out.  great food. But not my style of dining , especially on a what I consider an indulgent vacation>

I may be wrong, but I believe the tablet ordering system at Food Republic is part of the "atmosphere" of this restaurant and has been from the start. The food is good: some dishes I found mediocre, some I found very good. But, if you don't like that style, then you best head for the other restaurants onboard. 

 

I suppose one could have an "indulgent vacation" on NCL if one's definition of indulgent is to eat a lot of food and drink a lot of liquid. Food Republic's portion sizes (for the a la carte prices) is certainly not indulgent, so there we agree. 

[dexddd]

8 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

I may be wrong, but I believe the tablet ordering system at Food Republic is part of the "atmosphere" of this restaurant and has been from the start. The food is good: some dishes I found mediocre, some I found very good. But, if you don't like that style, then you best head for the other restaurants onboard. 

 

I suppose one could have an "indulgent vacation" on NCL if one's definition of indulgent is to eat a lot of food and drink a lot of liquid. Food Republic's portion sizes (for the a la carte prices) is certainly not indulgent, so there we agree. 

You are not wrong, the tablets were there from get go.  Love FR.  First time on Escape staff walked through how to do things.  Been there four times and great.  Other nice thing sometimes open for lunch which is nice option. 

[mking8288]

When cruiselines, including NCL, began restarting their fleet and recalling "experienced & trained" crew members to return in 2022, from our indirect crew sources - FWIW (not "confirmed") those from India had a hard time getting visas & travel authorizations from US consulate/embassies abroad, with extensive backlog and appointments.  Whereas those from other SE Asia countries apparently didn't have similar challenges.  Some of them, regardless of their nationalities, however, choose to not return in pursuit of other opportunities elsewhere - some switched their loyalty with other "employers" - these came from headhunters and agencies recruiting overseas.  We only sailed twice thus far in 2023 but frankly, didn't noticed any differences among the service members and crew mix onboard the 2 ships ... there is a risk in trying to generalize across the board.  

 

On the Getaway, our steward was on her 2nd contract and still a newbie, working regular cabins as well as Haven suites (outside the "proper")  Our recent Epic steward has been with NCL for 24+ years, servicing only "regular" non-Haven suites.   Both of them are part of the Filipino & Filipina staff onboard, also a good # of them from Indonesia ... and, the "older" ones are still on the job.   

 

Slightly off-topic, the pictorial and interactive tablet ordering system in FR has been there and we have no problems with it - easier to see what it looked like instead of "replying" on the fancy descriptive labels given to certain dishes in other dining venues ... which I shall call, barely short of deceptive at times "nicely as read and sounds good, but when presented - wow, oh mine" 😟 🤔 😉 

[UKstages]

currently onboard the prima. largely, perhaps 65%, filipino staff in customer-facing positions, including cabin attendants, servers and bartenders.