There are only a handful of Cruise Directors who remember the old days, the 90s when they, like me were Cruise Directors learning the ropes and learning a ship language that most of today’s team would not understand. And so after our conference call today I spent a few minutes talking with Steve and Kirk and ummmm……………well that’s it really because we are really all that’s left of the old guard. We are also the only CDs who do not moisturize or wear underpants with a designer label on them. As we wandered down memory lane we talked about one name we used for guests and I thought I would share it’s history with you, something we used back in the late 1980’s and early 1990s. Yes, we used to call you passengers not guests but there was also another name. It started way before I joined in 1987 has been lost as the years have come and gone. This name is derived from the times when we used to have theme nights in the dining room. This would involve a menu matching the uniform the waiters would wear and included Caribbean night, Italian night and one night, normally the second formal night ( before the name change to elegant night) with a New Year’s Eve theme. Now this included the waiters singing Old Lang Syne and no expense was spared in creating a brilliant party atmosphere in the dining room. Well…….ummmmm…..yes actually it was spared because all we did was hang four balloons above each table and each place setting there would be a noise maker and……..a hat. Every guest had a hat. It was one of those small cone-shaped hats with sparkly bits on them and guests would put them on as soon as they sat down. What was remarkable was that every guest would put the hat on…….every single one. I know because remember I used to work in the dining room as a wine steward. Yep, the dining room was full of guests in cone shaped hats blowing their noise makers. But once dinner was finished the guests would leave the dining room and head to the shows, the bars and their cabins (not their staterooms, as I have to call them now)…….still in their cone-shaped hats and would continue to wear them all night long and many would wear them the next day of the cruise as well. And so for a few years back then in the days of the male nightgown contest and beer drinking competitions……..we called the guests……..cone heads. It was a term of endearment and one made in the spirit of fun and in jest…………mostly. These days you are guests and we are not crew………we are team members. How things have changed and how few if the team remember the days when guests would wear cone shaped hats at the midnight buffet as we served up a delicious meal of ribs and beans………or beans and bones as we called them. So as we will be talking about the future this week and your brand new Carnival Vista with many new and exciting spaces both inside and outside of the ship I thought I would take you back 30 years to how we used to be. OK, time to finishing packing. I have a very early morning as I head to the airport and our flight to New York City. I will write from there and I will post all the news so many are anxious to hear and be back answering your questions next Tuesday. Goodnight.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 20:35:05 +0000
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