Cruise Diary page 5 of 5
Monday 5th October 2009
By Steve Read
→ Video Version Available
They must be doing something right...
TOWARDS the end of every cruise, every passenger receives a questionnaire to fill in about the service they have received.
And at the disembarkation talk, usually hosted by the cruise director, we're all urged to ignore the boxes marked Poor, Average and Good and put all our crosses in the one marked Excellent.
These CSQs (Customer Service Questionnaires) are then studied by everyone in authority. The cruise lines take the results very seriously - I've known heads to roll if a particular department regularly fails to score well.
So I'm delighted that OCEAN VILLAGE has reported hitting 90 per cent or more in "overall cruise enjoyment" for the last 23 consecutive weeks.
That's a record - not just for Ocean Village but for all of the brands operated by Carnival UK, including P&O, Princess and Cunard.
More specifically, telly chef James Martin's onboard Bistro scored 93.9 per cent, the ship's kids club scored 92.8 and the crew for 96.3.
I hope Carnival are saying thank you ... perhaps by putting a few quid behind the crew bar.
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Who took the jam out of your doughnut, Captain?
THE captain of the QUEEN VICTORIA threw a wobbler during a news conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, when he was asked what I reckon was a reasonable question.
Captain Ian McNaught was proudly telling the assembled hacks about the great service, the ambience and the "grand ocean liner experience" aboard his ship, on her maiden call to the city.
But then one asked: "How environmentally friendly is this vessel?"
Capt McNaught snapped: "I'm not even going to go there. No." Then he stormed off, turning to add: "You should know better than that!"
All very odd, especially as the Queen Victoria has all the latest gizmos to reduce pollution to an absolute minimum.
It reminds me of when, a few years ago at the launch of VOYAGER OF THE SEAS - then the biggest cruise ship in the world - I asked the boss of Royal Caribbean about the crew facilities.
"Ah, the 'slave ship' question," growled Richard Fain. "It's a good job there's a table between us, Steve..."
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