For nothing in the world I would do this job. I don’t have the patience nor the nerves to put up with all the guest complains we receive daily, many of them that make no sense. The funniest complaint from a passenger I’ve heard of so far is regarding the alcohol policy we have onboard. This policy states that no alcohol should be brought from outside, and if the guest insists in bringing it, the security will take it and keep it safe until the guest disembarks. Well, from what I was told, this gentleman comes cruising and brings a bottle of Jack Daniels with him. Of course, the security officer takes it away and puts it safe until the end of the cruise. Next thing our gentleman does is to go straight to the Guest Services front desk and complains. What’s funny about this is what reason he came up to get his bottle of alcohol back. Apparently, his doctor recommended him to drink daily 1.5 oz of Jack Daniels and he needs his bottle otherwise he will get sick. When told he can buy onboard he said he has no money and of course he had no paper from his doctor. Needles to say that he didn’t get his bottle back until the end of the cruise. The human mind can be so creative sometimes, isn’t it?
Anyways, lets go back to our thing. The Guest Services Department takes care of all the guests’ needs. It doesn’t include, as you can see in the picture above, just the Guest Services Officers (regular hotel receptionists), but also the Printer, the Concierge, the Group Coordinator, the International Ambassador and the Guest Administration Officer.
I am going to briefly describe each position as some of you are not familiar with the terms, so…
1. Concierge
The Concierge provides personalized service for our “special” guests. A “special” guest is one who has a few cruises with Royal Caribbean. They can be part of the Crown & Anchor Society, or rated as a Platinum or Diamond guest, depending on how many cruises that guest took with our company. They get free drinks, tickets to the show and many more and it’s the Concierge’s job to make that happen for them. The Concierge is a one stripe officer, meaning that he has to share the cabin, but he makes good money since he gets tipped every end of the cruise.
2. Printer
Well, it’s pretty much self-explanatory. The Printer takes care of all the printed material onboard. He’s a one stripe officer and he makes a fix salary which I am pretty sure is under $2000.
3. Group Coordinator
The Group Coordinator takes care of the organized groups onboard as well as the travel agents that come to visit the ship for the day. The salary is made of a fix salary plus gratuities. This position is a 2 stripe one, single cabin.
4. International Ambassador
Manages the FluentSeas program onboard the vessel to provide language assistance and translation to non-English speaking guests in order for them to understand and enjoy all aspects of the cruise experience.
5. Guest Administration Officer
This position is in charge with the legal part of the cruise. That includes the clearance of the ship in ports, the immigration paperwork of the guests etc. It’s a one stripe position, sharing the cabin, and makes probably under $2000 a month.
6. Guest Services Officer
This is a one stripe position and makes around $1600 a month. They are working on the front desk, handling the guests’ complaints.
All these positions are under the supervision of the Guest Services Manager, which is a 3 stripe position and makes thousands a month.
If you ask me, to get into this department, the easiest way is to apply for the Guest Services Officer. What is most required here is to have a nice personality and look and know at least 2 languages. Once you’re in, you can work your way up, just like in any other department, just like I did.
Labels: money, ship rules |
Hi Oana,
We love your blog and would like to link our site to it so that some of our visitors can take a look:
http://www.WorkOnCruiseShips.com
Let me know if this is okay by emailing me at:
neil@workoncruiseships.com
Look forward to hearing from you
Neil