Now for sure I know it’s a Sea Day, and this is the unplanned one as were supposed to be on Nosy Be (pronounced No’ see Bay), Madagascar. The previous evening the captain announced the change in plans, and the Cruise Director declared that we were in a stepped up sanitation protocol as a couple of more cases of Acute Gastroenteritis (AG) had been reported.
Since then, those had been the hot topics of conversation amongst the passengers. Wisely, therefore, Leslie the Cruise Director invited us all to attend a Q&A with Captain Maroje Brajcic Master of M/S Insignia, General Manager Damien Lacroix and Chief Engineer Nedyalto Tonchev in Insignia Lounge at 11:00am. This is a smart move, as the only things on a cruise ship that spread faster than a virus are rumors, especially among the indulged and cossetted passengers of a luxury cruise ship.
Let me set the table for this Q&A. Leslie Jon has also announced the format: guests are requested to submit questions to him prior to the beginning of the Q&A. I submit my six questions in writing (which all have to do with ship operations), and other guests line up to verbally give their question to Leslie ten minutes prior to the event. He is the moderator, and will ask each participant the specific questions. This will ensure that many questions get answered in the 45-55-minute event, and that all guests get equal access to these three officers.
Now, before I proceed, let me just mention this: General Manager Lacroix has been trained in Hotel Management, and is very comfortable before an audience of passengers. Hell, dealing with the guests is one of his jobs, and he is very, very good at it. His English is flawless, and he has an easy, bright demeanor.
The other two officers, on the other hand, do not deal with the customers, do not possess the language skills that constant interaction with them would polish, and, frankly, would rather be on the bridge running the damn ship than taking questions from the passengers. But it comes with the territory, especially under these changing circumstances, so they are there.
The three officers are seated in chairs on the stage, each with a microphone. Leslie is at a podium to their left. He begins by introducing the three gentlemen, and then says that there are two topics that everyone is interested in and so we will start there.
First, he asks the captain to discuss the reasons for not going to Nosy Be. As the captain begins to answer, someone in the back of the audience yells “Please stand up!”, so he does just that. He goes on to carefully explain that the winds and wind-driven currents slowed the ship down significantly, and the choice had to be made. He spends five or so minutes on the subject, considers the explanation complete, and stops talking.
Now things start to get away from moderator Leslie. People in the audience start shouting questions at the captain, and he feels compelled to answer them. A couple of these “armchair admirals” (my term for the know-it-alls) challenge his decision, suggesting that, by God, he should have known about this problem ahead of time. Another of these navigational know-it-alls refers to Admiralty Charts that the captain should have known about, and why didn’t they speed up the ship. The captain keeps repeating and apologizing. Finally he says, and I paraphrase “I did what I did because my primary responsibility is the safety of the passengers.” With this statement, he receives loud applause from 95% of the audience, who are cringing in embarrassment at the antics of the half dozen pompous jerks the captain of this ship, with his over thirty years of experience, has just had to put up with.
By now, General Manager Damien has taken over answering this question. A couple of more out-of-order questions and then he says, with a smile, we are done with this question. Leslie then asks him to go into the reasoning behind the changes taking place on the ship with regard to AG (Acute Gastroenteritis). The number of cases of AG has increased and they are now putting in place what we find out from our steward is called the OPRP, a United States CDC-mandated set of enhanced sanitation procedures that kick in in stages as the number of cases increases (or ramps down as they decrease, of course). OPRP stands for Outbreak Prevention Response Plan. All these changes – most of them having to do with food and food utensil handling, as well as scrubbing every handrail, elevator switch, etc seemingly every 10 minutes – will not inconvenience the passengers, and the brunt of the extra work required to carry out these procedures will fall on the staff.
Again, some in the audience yell out questions – stupid questions, I might add. (Example: “Is the pool safe?”) Those of us who politely followed the request to present questions prior to the Q&A are being upstaged by the need to respond to the shouters, until finally Leslie insists that we go on to other questions, which we do. I am pleased to note that two of my questions were among the ones chosen: Q: How much fuel does Insignia carry and how long will it last? A: 1,000 tons and how long it lasts depends on speed, currents, wind and so forth. Q: How does the staff receive their impeccable training? A: The company chooses only those they feel have had either prior experience or the initiative to have gone to school. Then they are trained onboard during an actual cruise, and they go through a three-month probation where their performance is carefully evaluated.
Finally, Leslie has to call a halt to the proceedings because, as he puts it, these three senior officers have a ship to run. I will say that 90% of the audience members are polite and respectful, and there is unanimous agreement that it was a delight to see the twerps put down – by the audience!
Ahhh. Now that I have this off my chest, I will move on to another event. The previous evening, we had dinner with Brain and Barbara O’Dell. Brian is a very outgoing, generous soul, and he invited Steve to smoke one of the Cuban cigars he had acquired in Cape Town (I think that’s where it was). We decided on 4:00pm in the smoking area near Waves Bar on Deck 9. I agreed to buy the scotch (Brian’s preferred accompaniment to a fine cigar), and Cathy agreed to go too.
By the time we got there, Brian was there with some of his cigar buddies. One guy had to leave right away, and I am ashamed to say I don’t remember his name. The other two I do remember were Cy from Roseville CA and Rich from Allentown PA. We spend about ninety minutes there smoking, talking and consuming alcoholic beverages. It’s a grand time. Both Rich and Cy had been to Pitcairn’s Island (another one on our bucket list) and told us a bit about that. Cy had admitted to a bit of the AG when he boarded the ship in Cape Town and was quarantined (along with his unhappy wife) for 24 hours in his stateroom with crackers and juice. He said “you can’t leave your room because they take away your cards!” Sounds like a good prevention plan to us…and everyone was disappointed that we were not able to go to Madagascar. But a bit relieved to miss The Plague 😉
It is agreed to have dinner with Brian and Barbara in the Grand Dining Room, and perhaps Pat from Toronto will join us. Back in their stateroom, Steve and Cathy watch an absolutely beautiful sunset taking place (the picture that leads this post is one of that sunset). As we meet at 7:00pm, we find out that Pat has another table of friends to be with, so it’s us four, who inevitably enjoy each other’s company. As much energy as B & B have, I think they actually follow our lead after dinner and retire to the stateroom. This has been a bit of an eye-opening day as far as shipboard life is concerned. I’m sure they’ll be more….
