Doug commented on my last post that the Europa - should that now be You'reOpeless? ;o) - didn't reach the dockside in Diego Suarez. One assumes that they transported passengers to the quay by tender in that case, otherwise why stop there.
Having been away this weekend can anyone confirm that the ship definitely called at Nosy Bé? If it did then maybe it's a sign that the furore caused amongst their paying customers for having missed Madagascar altogether on two successive cruises has seeped through a few thick Costa skulls and that they've realised, too late for us, unfortunately, that you can't fool all the people all of the time.
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Yes the ship! did stop at Nosy Be. Did you notice that she arrived very late in Tamatave even going at 20 knots!
ReplyDeleteDoug
The political situation is more stable in Madagascar now, hence the Europa are able to make the stops as promised. Docking in Tamatave has always been this late, but of course, it's no excuse for not informing passengers ahead of time, that the itinerary no longer includes Comorros.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the continuous furore that you guys are making. Perhaps it'll kick the management into some awareness....
an onboard crew
To be fair to Costa the arrival time was exactly as promised to us on our cruise, i.e at 2pm local time.
ReplyDeleteIf you're a Costa employee can you give us any anonymous insights about what sort of an employer they are? To a passenger's eye they seem to intimidate their staff and pay them poorly - how else could we interpret our experience on Europa?
I may work for Costa onboard (not in the service dept)but I don't agree with them, not practising what they preach. It's true that those at the highest are untouchable, hence those at the lowest of the ship's hierachy suffer in silence. Some are even ignorant of the bigger picture; many are working solely because wages in Euros are bigger pay packets than in their own countries. Having said that, some of the crew had previously worked on other reputable ships but they're not as well paid. The current dollar situation is obviously at a disadvantage. So, the crew working on the service side usually keep mum and work, and try to stay out of trouble. I'll ask fellow colleagues about the gratiuties part but I suspect it's true too.
ReplyDeleteThe crew who have it worst are those who you don't see. They slough through in exhaustion behind the crew only doors, doing the dishes, cleaning up the mess, moping floors, etc. My heart goes out to them but alas, when asked about their work, they're just happy to be working.