Crew Welfare Fund

[flygod]

Hi all,

 

Not long back from a 18 day Tahiti cruise - and wanted to mention the Crew Welfare Fund. It's there to help the entire crew, and our gift was prompted by an aside from the hotel captain in another conversation that last Christmas there wasn't very much money in the fund for small gifts for the staff working away from home and families. (Don't worry, the problem was solved - everyone had a Happy Christmas!)

 

On the last day, I went to reception and asked how I could donate. The staff looked amazed that I even knew about it, and said no problem: they had a form and it could be charged to our shipboard account. When I filled in $300 - for an 18-day cruise - they seemed amazed! We then had a letter of thanks from the Hotel Captain, a visit from her to say we had made 110 people very happy, and a few hours later the Captain, as she passed, stopped to say thank you too! 

 

Now, I hadn't told my wife I was doing this, so - with all this attention - she was then asking: What on earth have you done? After explaining, she was saying maybe I should have given even more, after all $300 was less than $3 per crew member and less than $15 a day.

 

(You have to remember, I am Scottish and she is Spanish, so tipping is not an engrained part of our culture.)

 

So the background to our cruise:

 

It was not easy sailing! With bad weather, the first announcement on board was that all the port stops were changing for the following week. Then we skipped a port because of the weather!

The week after, one of the engines broke down, so we had to miss another port! And it rained a lot!!

 

So the entire crew was fantastic, despite all the hassles these changes were causing them. The ladies on reception, having to rebook and rebook and rebook excursions - the ship's ones and the ones we'd booked ourselves. And dealing with stressed passengers! The kitchen crew: the deck BBQ was going to be rescheduled inside, then it was postponed for a day, the beach BBQ changed at the last minute etc etc. The engine room crew having to strip an engine and fix it. Many of the crew unexpectedly being unable to send messages to their families because we were at sea and not in port.

 

That's why I felt tipping the chefs, waiters or our cabin attendant - hi to Rusi, you are a star - was not enough. Everyone's happy when the sun shines, it's the rain that causes the strain! Yet with all that strain, the whole crew were simply fabulous.

 

So if you have a spare $50, pop it in the welfare fund.

 

 

[Misty Morning]

Thanks Flygod for bringing the Welfare Fund to everyone's attention.  We will make sure to contribute to it in the future 

 

[Pudgesmom]

The fund helps the crew in so many ways. On a cruise many years ago, a large photo was posted on an easel of a very long time crew member who passed away at a relatively young age with a wife and small children at home. The family was very dependent on this employee’s wages and donations on that cruise went to his family.

Edited October 11, 2023 by Pudgesmom