Less Philippine crew

[fellowtraveller]

Has crewing policies for Oceania changed. I notice that on Regatta the numbers of Phillippine crew are much less and replaced by many more from India .I miss them they always give a real buzz to cruising.

[pinotlover]

I believe the cruise lines obtain their crew from where and when they can. India is now the most populous nation in the world, so no surprise about their increased presence.

 

Fwiw, I remember when Oceania had a significant presence of Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans. I don’t believe it was policy change that altered that.

[Harters]

3 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

I remember when Oceania had a significant presence of Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans.

When we did our first cruise with O, in 2017, the crew's name badges also included their nationality. I think I counted over 20 - including one fellow Briton. 

[pinotlover]

Funny story on those old name tags. Thanks for the laugh! 😂

[MEFIowa]

Though that reminds me that on Sirena 11/2022 our Room Steward was from Goa and our Room Attendant was a Filipina. (I lived in the RP at Clark AB in 1990-91. My son, born in the RP in 1990 and now 15 years in the Navy, met and married a Filipina while stationed in N. Japan at Misawa AB. Cosmic karma?)

 

I've found that Security was seemingly dominated by Filipinos on all 4 of our cruises since 12/2021. Lots of Filipinas in housekeeping and in the restaurants. That was true on our recent 20-night B2B on Riviera in the Med (Oct-Nov 2023). 

[ORV]

Someone mentioned and I don't know if it's fleet wide, but they reported the Filipino bands have been replaced by Eastern Europeans. 

[roothy123]

In February on Riviera, there were quite a few Filipinos, including our room steward and her assistant.  They were thrilled the night before we stopped in Manila. We told them to not clean our room the next morning; just go on to the next room. Their families were coming to the port to wait until they could get off the ship. We had been told that there would be over 100 Filipino crew members getting off in Manila, either going home or just meeting families/friends for a few hours. When we left, they was a large group of crew members waiting their turn in the lobby. 

 

[roothy123]

On 5/11/2024 at 10:15 AM, MEFIowa said:

 

 

 

On 5/11/2024 at 10:15 AM, MEFIowa said:

 

Sorry, I managed to really mess up this post.  But see below.

 

On 5/11/2024 at 10:15 AM, MEFIowa said:

Though that reminds me that on Sirena 11/2022 our Room Steward was from Goa and our Room Attendant was a Filipina. (I lived in the RP at Clark AB in 1990-91. My son, born in the RP in 1990 and now 15 years in the Navy, met and married a Filipina while stationed in N. Japan at Misawa AB. Cosmic karma?)

 

 

MEFlowa, was this your room steward from Goa?  He was our steward on our December 2019 Australia cruise.  I think we were on Regatta, but I forget.  Rosario was the best we'd ever had.  He talked about going on leave soon after, and getting married.  I always wondered if he'd come back to Oceania after that.  

 

Personally, I think a lot of the Filipinos are driving the tender boats, and yes, working in the restaurants (and bars).  A few months ago on Riviera, our room attendant was Sharon from the Philippines.  Maybe that's who you had?  Very friendly.

 

Edited May 12 by roothy123

[roothy123]

On 5/11/2024 at 9:55 AM, Harters said:

When we did our first cruise with O, in 2017, the crew's name badges also included their nationality. I think I counted over 20 - including one fellow Briton. 

Yes, I remember that.  But now at least there's usually an announcement at the cocktail party for past passengers about how many nationalities are represented by the crew members.  And then of course we get to hear which countries are represented by the passengers - usually Americans first, Canadians second, and a varying European country third!😄 

[DrHemlock]

18 hours ago, roothy123 said:

But now at least there's usually an announcement at the cocktail party for past passengers about how many nationalities are represented by the crew members. 

Hmmm....there was none such at the repeaters party on our recent Insignia cruise.  Too bad; we would have enjoyed knowing.  We do miss the name badges that included country of origin -- even though the lettering was usually too small to read from a respectful distance so there was that embarrassing moment of leaning in to peer at the person's chest.

Edited May 13 by DrHemlock

[pinotlover]

1 hour ago, DrHemlock said:

.  We do miss the name badges that included country of origin -- even though the lettering was usually too small to read from a respectful distance so there was that embarrassing moment of leaning in to peer at the person's chest.

😂. Exactly! One would think that those proclaimed sophisticated travelers would just ask the room stewards where they were from if they couldn’t read the name tags. Nope face plants to the ummm chest seemed appropriate. It didn’t take that change long to happen! 🙄

[MaryNorCal]

We had quite a few crew from South America on Regatta last summer. My sister is fluent in Spanish which made for much fun.

[Hlitner]

On 5/11/2024 at 12:07 PM, ORV said:

Someone mentioned and I don't know if it's fleet wide, but they reported the Filipino bands have been replaced by Eastern Europeans. 

Just off 5 weeks on the Vista, where we had an excellent Filipino band.

 

Hank

[ORV]

52 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Just off 5 weeks on the Vista, where we had an excellent Filipino band.

 

Hank

And just goes to show that what happens on one ship is not fleetwide. The band on Regatta we were on recently was definitely not Filipino, but not sure what nationality they were. 

[taiwan_girl]

10 hours ago, DrHemlock said:

We do miss the name badges that included country of origin

I agree.  If you can identify the country and know a greeting in the native language, it is always nice.  DH worked in Indonesia for a while (with me tagging along), and since Indonesian is a relatively easy language, I picked up a working knowledge of the language.  Always fun to see the reaction when you start talking to them in their native tongue.

[clo]

6 hours ago, MaryNorCal said:

We had quite a few crew from South America on Regatta last summer. My sister is fluent in Spanish which made for much fun.

Ah, so not from Brazil. They speak Portuguese.

[Harters]

11 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Just off 5 weeks on the Vista, where we had an excellent Filipino band.

Yes, they were really good. And versatile, playing a different sort of set each evening. We particularly enjoyed their "country" evening.