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CRUISE SHIP INTERVIEW:
GIVING IT 100 PERCENT A conversation with Hotel General Manager Errol Bailey by Richard H. Wagner |
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Hotel General Manager Errol Bailey has been with Norwegian Cruise Lines for 32 years. He started on the small Sunward II and has worked his way up through positions of increasing responsibility on ships such as the Dreamward, the Leeward, the legendary Norway and almost all of the ships in the current Norwegian fleet.
There have been a lot of changes in the cruise industry since Mr. Bailey started. The biggest change is that “the ships themselves have become destinations. When I started, you took a ship to get to the destination. Now, the ships themselves have become the destinations because there is so much to do onboard.” There have also been changes in the crews that operate cruise ships. “When I started, it was male dominated. That has changed, we have brought in more females. And we have brought in a lot of younger people. When I started, managers were mostly in their late 30s, early 40s. There are younger mangers in the field now.” “The expectations of the employees are different. They come aboard and in a couple of years they want to see [career] movement There are so many options out there now, a lot of cruise lines are knocking at their doors. Can you imagine, there are going to be 150 new ships in the next 11 years! How are you going to man those ships?” One way Norwegian attracts good crew is by promoting from within. To faciliate such promotions, Norwegian has onboard training coordiantors and classes in management for the crew. “We are looking for managers all the time. So we take middle managers and we train them up so going forward we have people in the pipeline.” Something that remains as important today as it did 30 years ago is service. “There are a lot of things that are beyond our control like the weather. But the service that we provide, that is within our control No matter how much knowledge [a crew member has] or how long they have been with the ship, it is still about service and interaction. You can never know how people are enjoying their vacation unless you engage with them. In the bar, how's your drink, in the restaurant, how is the food, in the spa, if the person came in for a message, it is how was the massage, are you feeling better today? No machinery, nothing can replace that. The ship can beautiful but if you don't have that personalized touch, it is not going to make it. It is the crew that makes [the cruise experience]. We have a good team. We have a friendly group of people, our crew.” “One of the big things for me is getting everybody to log on to the same message - - to be passionate about what they do. People have to have passion about what they do. You have to give 100 percent or don't do it.” “For me, the guest comes first. It is all about the guest. My philosophy is basically, every single thing we do onboard the ship impacts the guests. When my managers come in with a proposal, I always ask, how is this going to impact the guests? Either positive or negative. We want it to be positive. It has to be. When they come on we want to make sure that they have a great time.“ “Guests come first. They keep us in business. They have a choice where they go. And when they choose Norwegian, we want to do our best for them so they say I'm committed to Norwegian and I want to come back to Norwegian It is competitive, we are fighting for loyalty.” |
Cruise ship interview - Norwegian Cruise Line - Norwegian Getaway - Hotel General Manager Errol Bailey