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Who's your favorite Holland America cruise director?

loveandcruises

By loveandcruises,
in Holland America Line

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RuthC

RuthC

Posted
Posted
Since we're on the subject, what ever happened to Rick Spath?

Rick left to go to the Mouse eons ago. (I last saw him in '97 on the final cruise of the Rotterdam V.) I lost track of him a long time ago, but believe he left them after several years, too.

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Vic The Parrot

Vic The Parrot

Posted
Posted
Rick left to go to the Mouse eons ago. (I last saw him in '97 on the final cruise of the Rotterdam V.) I lost track of him a long time ago, but believe he left them after several years, too.

 

 

 

Guess everyone moves on to bigger, and better things.

 

 

Thanks Ruth! :)

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serendipity1499

serendipity1499

Posted
Posted
This thread dates back to May, ancient history.

 

Yea, so ??

 

 

 

And your point is ....

 

Like Vic I don't understand your point either Typhoon..:confused:

There is no rule on CC which states an old thread can't be resurrected..If you object to old threads & consider them ancient history, why not just ignore them, rather than

making a snide remark?;)

Many of HAL Guests cruises are impacted by the CD, as they interact with him/her on a daily basis..

Our cruise is never impacted by the CD as we don't join in the daily games etc..

However of all our Hal cruises, I've enjoyed Jason Verneer & Peter Daims the most during the show's..We've never cruised with Susan Wood, so can't vote for her..There have been several, which I don't like at all, who will remain anonymous.. I don't believe it's fair of anyone on CC to name & post unkind remarks about an employee who can't defend themselves here...;)

.

I would be interested in knowing how many of the CD's mentioned on this thread are still with HAL..Wonder if Copper (John) or DBA might know.._

JMO..

Cheers....:)Betty

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gainesvillegatorgirl

gainesvillegatorgirl

Posted
Posted (edited)

I wouldn't name a name even if I remembered it, because I'm sure he meant well, but let's just say the cruise director on one of my cruises didn't seem very used to seeing college-age girls on family trips. Many free alcoholic drinks (that I wasn't quite old enough to drink) and some attempts at physical contact I don't think he would have tried with my mother. I'm a bit ashamed to admit I put up with the latter to get more of the former... in his defense, he dragged himself away at crew curfew, but made sure I knew he wasn't happy about having to do so. Looking back, this was probably all fairly scandalous for a HAL cruise!

 

Edited to remove a possibly identifying detail... he really was a nice guy.

Edited by gainesvillegatorgirl
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Max2003

Max2003

Posted
Posted
Kinda surprised no one has mentioned Bruce Alan Scudder, former musical director on HAL, turned cruise director. Been on several of the long voyages

 

Is this the "Bruce" that was aboard the Prinzendam in 2004?? That "Bruce" was great. I don't recall his last name. We saw him later on one of the "S" class ships when he was hastily moved in to replace a CD who left prematurely. ;)

 

My vote for the overall best is still David Lawton ex of the Rotterdam in the 80s.

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Randyk47

Randyk47

Posted
Posted

Maybe we're really outsiders here but we don't care who is the cruise director. I doubt, in fact I know, I couldn't name one of our HAL CD's. We're not into the organized entertainment on our cruises and I can only remember doing one putting tournament and going to a total of 3 shows. In some ways the best CD's for us are the ones who aren't making a lot of announcements and just go about doing their jobs in a transparent kind of way. This is not at all to say that those who appreciate and know CD's are wrong or whatever, it's just not our thing. Actually the one CD we do remember was a fellow off of the old Celebrity Galaxy. The only reason we remember him was that a few cruises after our cruise he fell on the steps to the stage and suffer a very serious head injury. I don't follow Celebrity so I don't know if he was ever able to return to work.

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Cathy-CA

Cathy-CA

Posted
Posted (edited)

Certainly agree about Thom Faulkner. He is a great guy and responsive to guest comments. He is the only cruise director who has ever taken up my suggestion of making the Lower Promenade no smoking during "On Deck for the Cure". It always irritates me as a cancer survivor and walker that people are out there smoking during the event. It is not unreasonable to have it be no smoking for the roughly one hour of the walk and if alerted to this, I think most smokers are considerate enough to avoid it. On our last cruise, I mentioned this to him and he put a notice in the daily program and made an announcement before the start of the event, as well.

Edited by Cathy-CA
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VermeulT

VermeulT

Posted
Posted

I will only say that a cruise director should be able to properly announce the name of his ship.

Mine was not named after a fruity drink!!! Its named after a point on a compass!!

Sure - he wasn't Dutch and might have problems with phonetics but.... CIDER DAM it ain't... I would have been less irriatated if he called it South-er-dam.

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Copper10-8 "Live from...." Rare

Copper10-8

Posted
Posted
I will only say that a cruise director should be able to properly announce the name of his ship.

Mine was not named after a fruity drink!!! Its named after a point on a compass!!

Sure - he wasn't Dutch and might have problems with phonetics but.... CIDER DAM it ain't... I would have been less irriatated if he called it South-er-dam.

 

Ciderdam actually comes pretty close for non-Dutch speakers, Meneer Vermeul. I have heard worse pronounciations plus the "ui" (onion) is not an easy one unless you're Dutch/Belgian/South African

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Kween Karen

Kween Karen

Posted
Posted

Bruce Scudder was FABULOUS on the Grand South Pacific Australia New Zealand Voyage this fall. He is friendly, efficient, very talented, available....I can't say a bad word about him. Teamed up with hotel manager, Henk Mensink, it was an unbeatable combination (in my opinion!) I am HOPING that they will team up again for the fall 2011 Grand Asia!!!

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MemoryMerchant

MemoryMerchant

Posted
Posted

Just cruised on the Statendam in October/November and couldn't believe...we actually enjoyed a cruise director for the first time. Lizabeth Knight, a big gal with a hugh personality added class to the cruise which was a wonderful holiday of 28 glorious days. Liz is one of the few who, once knew your name, would use it evertime in greetings and conversations. This "Challenger" guy was, to us, a ZERO! Sorry, folks.;)

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VermeulT

VermeulT

Posted
Posted
Ciderdam actually comes pretty close for non-Dutch speakers, Meneer Vermeul. I have heard worse pronounciations plus the "ui" (onion) is not an easy one unless you're Dutch/Belgian/South African

 

Mevrouw, Alstublieft.

 

I give you that not everyone can manage foreign phonetics. I could take Zider Dam. But again, this is the cruise director of the ship. He doesn't need to speak Dutch - he should be able to say the same of the ship - IMO.

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