The distance from Rosyth, Scotland to Ijmuiden, Netherlands is 383 nautical miles, and, because we didn’t leave Rosyth until 10pm, today is a sea day. As Rosyth was a substitution from Leith because of the events going on in Edinburgh, Ijmuiden is a substitute for our original port of Amsterdam. We were all advised by letter that the reason for this change was “due to reduced water levels that are impacting the operation of the locks that provide access from the open sea [i.e., the North Sea] to the Noordzeekanaal.” Not a big deal, but it adds a fifty-minute bus ride from our new dock location to the city of Amsterdam.
Because there was really nothing memorable that we did on this sea day, we are taking the opportunity to introduce some of our favorite staff members. As anyone who has taken a cruise on Oceania will tell you, the staff is superbly trained, invariably friendly and totally professional. And the staff to passenger ratio is 1 staff member for only 1.5 passengers, a very low ratio in the cruise industry, especially on this cruise as there are only 500 passengers.
As we have mentioned before, we make a point of responding in kind to the friendliness the staff offers us. Every staff member has a name tag with their first name on it, and their position as well. We make sure to use their name when we see them, and make an effort to memorize as many as possible. We look them in the eye, ask where they’re from and pass along compliments when warranted (which is almost always). As far as we are concerned, they are generally more interesting than our fellow passengers. On this voyage, there are staff members from around 50 different countries, with the most coming from the Philippines, Indonesia, Serbia and Croatia.
The first one we will talk about is Gorica (pronounced Gor EET’ sah), who is the Dining Room Manager. She is the person in the photo above that begins this post. We’ve mentioned her on previous posts, because she is one of the hardest working crew members we have ever seen. She is everywhere on our ship where food is served to guests (as passengers are referred to by Oceania). We see her all the time, and have had the pleasure of striking up a friendship with this remarkable young woman.
The friendship really blossomed because of an exchange Cathy had with her when we were in the Shetlands. Every staff member gets an opportunity to go ashore every few days for a couple of hours. We’ve gotten in the habit of asking them if they have been ashore in one port or another. Cathy asked Gorica what she liked to do when she did go ashore. Gorica shyly answered that she liked to visit grocery stores. Cathy immediately responded “Me too! You learn a lot about a place by doing that.”
For the rest of our cruise, she made a point of stopping by our table (obviously we saw her in the dining venues, given her job). She made a delightful difference in this cruise, and we would adopt her as our third daughter if we could!
The two beautiful women in this photo are Nina and Tina. As you can see by the way they’re dressed they are sommeliers (wine stewards that have undergone training in order to become extremely knowledgeable about wine). They are identical twins and they are from Serbia. Nina is the one on the left (with glasses), and Tina is on the right.
We met Nina early in the cruise. A few days later, a woman that looked just like her came to our table, but the name tag said Tina. Steve figured she was just having fun with us guests by wearing a name tag with a different name, but Cathy said “I think there are two of them, because I saw them standing together.” And sure enough, she was right. The next time we met Nina, we told her we had solved the mystery. They admitted that it is fun when people discover that there are two of them, and the novelty of it is a fun conversation piece in the Grand Dining Room. Their personalities are very different, of course, but both of them are equally personable and professional.
The young lady with the million-dollar smile that you see below is Rita. She works in Destination Services as a supervisor. We met her on the dock in Kristiansand, Norway. We were trying to get back to the ship, but were completely lost. It was large container port and there was another cruise ship there. A real biggie. Also a huge tourist area with lots of shops and restaurants in a tightly packed are. After twenty minutes of wandering in frustration – we could see the ship but couldn’t get back to it – we finally retraced our steps from the tour boat we had been on and found a dock that looked promising. A guard – not from Oceania, we might add – barked at us to produce our ship card. As we did that, this guardian angel in an Oceania jacket came up to us and asked if she could help. Yes, please! And so she led us across one dock, through a building and the on to the dock where Sirena was.
From then on, we saw her as we were beginning almost all of our excursions. Rita was the Oceania person out by the buses making sure everything was in order. And the next day she called us by name. We were mystified as to how she knew who we were, because we hadn’t introduced ourselves at the meeting where she guided us. When the picture you see was taken, we asked her. At first, she said “That’s my job.” But after we pressed her for a better explanation, she told us she was the Destination Services manager and when she was processing some excursions she saw our pictures and said “I know them!” She is a sweetheart, and we really hope to see her again. We think she’s from the United States.
Below is Cathy standing with our very favorite dining room staff person, Andy.
We remembered him from a previous cruise in 2019, and we are pretty sure he remembered us. He is that kind of friendly, professional and happy person that always brightens your day when you see him. We believe he has some seniority because he seems to direct some of the other staff, but he does it so unobtrusively that you wouldn’t notice unless you watched him work for a few minutes. He is married to Suzanna, who is the Food & Beverage Manager. More about her below.
This next person is Andy standing with Mary Ann, a maitre d’ in the Grand Dining Room (among other jobs she has on the ship). This is another person that just brightens your day every time you see her. By the end of the first week, she knew our names and stateroom number, information she needs to have as she logs you in to the GDR. She is from the Philippines. Every time we see her puts us in the right frame of mind for our meal.
As we have said, the entire staff handles themselves as the professionals they are. Here is another one that stands out for us. Her name is Anchalee, and she is from the Philippines. We saw her all the time in the Grand Dining Room, and she stands out because of her height and slight build.
She truly ingratiated herself with us one morning at breakfast. When we are first seated, the first question asked is whether we want coffee and juice. When Anchalee came to our table to ask, she said “Cappuccinos for both and prune juice for Mr. Knight.” Yes, she actually remembered how we start out every breakfast in the GDR. We were flattered … and impressed. She serves dozens and dozens of guests every day, but she knew what we liked without even having to ask.
Our last photo is Suzanna, the Food and Beverage Manager who is married to Andy. As many of the managers do, she will introduce herself to guests during meals and ask if we need anything from her. The first time she came to our table, we weren’t aware that she was married to our favorite waitperson. The second time, we most certainly did and mentioned it to her. From then on, she went out of her way to say hello when we saw her.
The most interesting “sighting” of Suzanna was when we returned from our excursion in Amsterdam. As we walked toward the ship, we noticed dozens of pallets of provisions on the dock, as well as two Eimskip containers. As we got closer, we saw her, clipboard in hand, checking them over. We stopped to say hello and explained that our profession was freight transportation and so we were drawn to all this activity. (Cathy even told her “And we know how to drive forklifts, too!”)
Despite her being very busy, she was gracious enough to talk with us for a few minutes. We found out that these two containers – one of them from Barcelona – were supposed to have arrived in Reykjavik, Iceland on August 15th. The ship had sailed on the 16th, but the two containers hadn’t arrived. They were then diverted to Ijmuiden (Amsterdam) and, a month late, have finally arrived. Suzanna’s job is to make sure the stuff that was sent is actually there.
What a nightmare that must be for the Food & Beverage Manager. When Steve asked her why two entire containers wouldn’t cause major problems, she told us they have extra provisions onboard, and they buy locally when they can. He would have liked to have a long conversation about this subject, but he could tell she didn’t really want to get into details about ship operations.
We found that to be universal with Oceania employees, and we believe that they are trained not to discuss them. Our theory is that Oceania feels that we should not even think about such subjects. In fact, they do not give any tours of the bridge, the kitchens or any of the mechanical departments. We are “guests” and they work to keep the “hotel” part of the ship (i.e., the dining establishments, the staterooms, the bars and lounges, the activity areas and the shops) the only areas we know and leave the “ship” and other infrastructure unseen by us. It makes sense to them, but these would be fascinating areas to tour and learn about.
As always, we are ready to go to bed by 9:00pm. And, as is so often the case, the sunset is spectacular. So, we will finish this post with a few photos of the ever-changing one taken between 7:30 and 8:30pm. First are photos of the most important industries in the North Atlantic taken at the same time:
Tomorrow our tour starts at 8am, so that is our excuse du jour for going to bed so early.
