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Current Cruise Director & Activities Manager List


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Just now, rjac said:

So, why are folks so interested in who the cruise director is or isn't? Yeah, nice to know, but, that isn't going to influence me one way or the other when booking a cruise. I look at the itinerary and ship amenities. Or am I being obtuse?:27_sunglasses:

This is a really common question.  I agree with you @rjac, that it would not stop me from booking a certain cruise either, but a good cruise director can make the cruise experience a bit more interesting.  Harmony is our favourite ship to date and our CD was Bobby Brown, who was a bore.  That did not stop us from having a good time.  But then I think of the cruise where we had Tim Connor and some of the funnier moments that I recall all involve him. 

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10 minutes ago, Sabrinaklai said:

This is a really common question.  I agree with you @rjac, that it would not stop me from booking a certain cruise either, but a good cruise director can make the cruise experience a bit more interesting.  Harmony is our favourite ship to date and our CD was Bobby Brown, who was a bore.  That did not stop us from having a good time.  But then I think of the cruise where we had Tim Connor and some of the funnier moments that I recall all involve him. 

To be honest with you, I remember some CDs who were pretty good and some not so good. But then again, I have no idea who they were! As long as my drink package is good to go, they all are OK with me. :3_grin:

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For anyone sailing on the SY group cruise - you will have Marc Walker as CD. He starts 10/23 and will do both the Transatlantic and inaugural season from Miami, through to February 9.

That should be fun! Hoping that they can also fit Abe into the Symphony schedule at some point. Tweeted Royal to say this.

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  • 2 weeks later...
3 minutes ago, Joe01 said:

Just been told that Bobby Brown will be the CD on the SY TA. Will they ever learn? Very disappointing news.
 

I was going to book that sailing. Should I even bother anymore, or should I look into other options?

You should still book it.  Don't let a CD make or break your cruise.  Harmony was my favourite cruise to date and we had Bobby Brown.

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10 minutes ago, Sabrinaklai said:

You should still book it.  Don't let a CD make or break your cruise.  Harmony was my favourite cruise to date and we had Bobby Brown.

I'm still not sure. Several sea days and cold weather require a dynamic CD. If he can't pull off a 7NT Caribbean sailing (bread and butter of cruising), how on earth will he do a Transatlantic on the world's largest?

I was wanting to spend a great deal of time at the Activities as well. 

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12 minutes ago, Joe01 said:

I'm still not sure. Several sea days and cold weather require a dynamic CD. If he can't pull off a 7NT Caribbean sailing (bread and butter of cruising), how on earth will he do a Transatlantic on the world's largest?

I was wanting to spend a great deal of time at the Activities as well. 

What happened to Marc Walker doing the TA?

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13 hours ago, Sabrinaklai said:

You should still book it.  Don't let a CD make or break your cruise.  Harmony was my favourite cruise to date and we had Bobby Brown.

Do you have any recommendations for a replacement cruise? No longer interested in the SY TA if Bobby is CD.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Symphony left St. Nazaire yesterday with 2 CD's, Bobby Brown and Michele Scarpato. Fingers crossed that Bobby will be working behind the scenes and that the guests will enjoy Michele hosting the activities.

Michele will be our CD on our B2B in July - anyone got feedback on him? He was Activities Manager when we sailed Allure in 2015, but I didn't pay enough attention.

 

Amy Tripp is the take out Activities Manager for the Symphony, although Margot van Erck will take over in June. Hoping that both of them are better than Katy McCullagh on Harmony last summer, as I felt that she was very inexperienced.

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On 2/12/2018 at 3:28 PM, Joe01 said:

Rate the CD's whom you have had by this criteria:

  • Fantastic
  • Good
  • OK
  • Bad

Fantastic - Joff Eaton; Abe Hughes; Leigh Xuereb (no longer with RCI)

Good - Jimmy Rhodes

OK - Jerome Sueur (probably good but didn't get enough of an impression); Casey Pelter

Bad - John Blair; Bobby Brown

 

I think my personal favorite cruise director was Luke Arrowsmith! Missing him on RC ships!

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3 minutes ago, KAA said:

I think my personal favorite cruise director was Luke Arrowsmith! Missing him on RC ships!

Yeah, he left about 2 years ago. Never had him, but seemed like a good CD.

Quite a few CD's have left recently. Any Activities Managers that you could see moving up to CD?

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1 hour ago, Diane.M said:

I have never been on a cruise.. can someone explain the cruise director roll?  I can't imagine they could interact with so many guests.  OR are there multiple Cruise directors...

 

The CD, in short, is responsible for managing all the on board activities for the cruise.  He/she has manages many people and activities so the Activities Manager assists him/her.  A good CD doesn't make or break a cruise but does enhance it if they are fun, active, comical.  They host/lead the major activities such as show intros, The Love and Marriage show, the Morning show, Belly Flop contest, Sexiest man contest, etc. 

There is usually one active CD per ship.  Sometimes there might be 2 during a transition or training.

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1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

The CD, in short, is responsible for managing all the on board activities for the cruise.  He/she has manages many people and activities so the Activities Manager assists him/her.  A good CD doesn't make or break a cruise but does enhance it if they are fun, active, comical.  They host/lead the major activities such as show intros, The Love and Marriage show, the Morning show, Belly Flop contest, Sexiest man contest, etc. 

There is usually one active CD per ship.  Sometimes there might be 2 during a transition or training.

Thank you!!  You helped me understand.  I hope we have a great one for the Symphony of the Seas in March next year

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Guest toodle68

So Mercedes is CD on Adventurer and not impressed so far. All the previous CD’s we have seen have been funny, lot of comic talent. Mercedes has shown none so far, like she is just reading a script. Going to be interesting to see how she runs the love and marriage show since the CD plays a massive part in making that funny. 

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13 hours ago, toodle68 said:

So Mercedes is CD on Adventurer and not impressed so far. All the previous CD’s we have seen have been funny, lot of comic talent. Mercedes has shown none so far, like she is just reading a script. Going to be interesting to see how she runs the love and marriage show since the CD plays a massive part in making that funny. 

Very much like Bobby Brown then. Love and Marriage just doesn't work if a CD has no comedic skills. It's like having a low-rate TV Presenter doing a game show.

Not the first negative review that I have heard of Mercedes. It seems like she is one of the CD's that they employ primarily due to her language skills.

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50 minutes ago, Joe01 said:

Very much like Bobby Brown then. Love and Marriage just doesn't work if a CD has no comedic skills. It's like having a low-rate TV Presenter doing a game show.

Not the first negative review that I have heard of Mercedes. It seems like she is one of the CD's that they employ primarily due to her language skills.

About the love and marriage show...two weeks ago we saw Clo host the love and marriage show.  By the far the funniest one I have ever seen!  Mostly because of her and her jokes.  She is one of the better ones for sure!  If any of you ever have the pleasure of sailing with her or Tim Connor, make sure you attend all of the events.  She even made the Captain's talk funny!

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41 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

About the love and marriage show...two weeks ago we saw Clo host the love and marriage show.  By the far the funniest one I have ever seen!  Mostly because of her and her jokes.  She is one of the better ones for sure!  If any of you ever have the pleasure of sailing with her or Tim Connor, make sure you attend all of the events.  She even made the Captain's talk funny!

Tim Connor is now on the Independence. I've watched both him and Clo do the L&M show and they are both really good. Abe Hughes (whose L&M I saw in person) was hilarious, and then there was Bobby... 

Sorry, but looking at how many great CD's work for Royal, it further confuses me as to why Bobby got SY.

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1 minute ago, Joe01 said:

Tim Connor is now on the Independence. I've watched both him and Clo do the L&M show and they are both really good. Abe Hughes (whose L&M I saw in person) was hilarious, and then there was Bobby... 

Sorry, but looking at how many great CD's work for Royal, it further confuses me as to why Bobby got SY.

Maybe some of these great CDs don't want it?  Clo did mention that she likes the smaller ships.  I have no idea how the process goes to assign a CD to a ship.

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Just now, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Maybe some of these great CDs don't want it?  Clo did mention that she likes the smaller ships.  I have no idea how the process goes to assign a CD to a ship.

Anthem is barely small. Symphony is the next step up. Tim Connor worked on the Oasis Class for nearly 2 years as well. I think that most CD's would be happy to get the new ship, with a few exceptions.

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Just now, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Yes, sorry i wasn't more clear.  She was comparing the size of Anthem to the other ships she's been one and said that she likes the smaller ones.

I know that she likes the Radiance Class ships, but if she is on Anthem, I can't see why she wouldn't like Symphony.

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3 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I am really hoping that when I go back on Harmony next March that Bobby isn't there again....

I cancelled my plans to do the Symphony TA when I got told that he would be CD. Hopefully he won't go back to Harmony, and once SY gets to the US, he is moved to a small ship, where he would be better suited.

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1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

About the love and marriage show...two weeks ago we saw Clo host the love and marriage show.  By the far the funniest one I have ever seen!  Mostly because of her and her jokes.  She is one of the better ones for sure!  If any of you ever have the pleasure of sailing with her or Tim Connor, make sure you attend all of the events.  She even made the Captain's talk funny!

 

31 minutes ago, Joe01 said:

Tim Connor is now on the Independence. I've watched both him and Clo do the L&M show and they are both really good. Abe Hughes (whose L&M I saw in person) was hilarious, and then there was Bobby... 

Sorry, but looking at how many great CD's work for Royal, it further confuses me as to why Bobby got SY.

We probably have not been on as many cruises as you guys, but Abe Hughes is the best we have had by far. Not only was he really funny, but was just a mound of energy. I truly don't think he sleeps---he is all over the ship all the time. At the time we saw him, his AM was Chris Hopkins-also fantastic, but I think Joe01 said he is no longer with Royal. On the other hand, other than hosting events we never saw Casey Pelter even once. Abe's morning show was terrific, Casey's was boring. We have no recollection of other CDs we have seen, which makes Abe stand out even more.

This has been posted before, but when you have a chance check out Abe's L&M game on Harmony. It's the entire show-about 45 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhOQjdBBhYs

 

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30 minutes ago, Skid said:

 

We probably have not been on as many cruises as you guys, but Abe Hughes is the best we have had by far. Not only was he really funny, but was just a mound of energy. I truly don't think he sleeps---he is all over the ship all the time. At the time we saw him, his AM was Chris Hopkins-also fantastic, but I think Joe01 said he is no longer with Royal. On the other hand, other than hosting events we never saw Casey Pelter even once. Abe's morning show was terrific, Casey's was boring. We have no recollection of other CDs we have seen, which makes Abe stand out even more.

This has been posted before, but when you have a chance check out Abe's L&M game on Harmony. It's the entire show-about 45 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhOQjdBBhYs

 

I had Casey on Serenade in 2013 and thought the same. I felt as if his Staff were running the show, and I had issues with some of his scheduling of shows (1 show per evening at 10.30pm for many evenings during summer holiday cruise). He was sometimes funny, but the Morning Show was dull. He seemed to lack the charisma needed to pull off a solo morning show (most CD's do it with their AM). Casey's wife had a daughter recently so he has moved to a land based job for Celebrity.

I agree with everything you said about Abe, but what I really liked about him was that he really wanted to make an impact on the guests' experience and make sure that they had as good a time as possible. He did go the extra mile as a CD and should have been selected for Symphony. Bobby was the opposite. 

Chris was great, but he left because there was no space on the CD schedule. They really should have promoted him to CD. He was fantastic as an Assistant on Anthem in 2016 whilst John Blair and his wife were the CD & AM and neither were good.

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Guest toodle68

This is the first cruise we have been on where there is an evening with no main show. Not sure why. Normally we highlight a dozen things to do and see but struggling tonight. 

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Guest toodle68

So, after 5 days, I can confirm (for us) that Mercedes is the worst CD we have ever seen. She even managed to kill the funniest show on the cruise, The Love and Marriage show. Just. Terrible.  Sorry to those who like her, but she has zero comic talent and zero interaction with the audience.

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31 minutes ago, toodle68 said:

So, after 5 days, I can confirm (for us) that Mercedes is the worst CD we have ever seen. She even managed to kill the funniest show on the cruise, The Love and Marriage show. Just. Terrible.  Sorry to those who like her, but she has zero comic talent and zero interaction with the audience.

Any chance you can find out how long her contract is? We sail Adventure in May. Based on your opinion, sure hope she is gone by then. Hopefully you are enjoying your cruise despite the lack of a good CD. Thanks!

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4 hours ago, toodle68 said:

So, after 5 days, I can confirm (for us) that Mercedes is the worst CD we have ever seen. She even managed to kill the funniest show on the cruise, The Love and Marriage show. Just. Terrible.  Sorry to those who like her, but she has zero comic talent and zero interaction with the audience.

Precisely how my experience with Bobby was. I was in too good of a cruising mood when on the ship and didn't actually realize how bad his L&M was until the one from our sailing was published on YouTube - 

I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I could have done a better job than him with that show.

It is beyond me as to why RCI have CD's who have no comedic talent. Surely that is part of the job?

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Guest toodle68
9 hours ago, Skid said:

Any chance you can find out how long her contract is? We sail Adventure in May. Based on your opinion, sure hope she is gone by then. Hopefully you are enjoying your cruise despite the lack of a good CD. Thanks!

I do not.  It we are having a great time regardless. A great CD adds something, but can’t take it away. Well, except the love and marriage show, she totally killed any fun or enjoyment from that show. 

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4 hours ago, toodle68 said:

I do not.  It we are having a great time regardless. A great CD adds something, but can’t take it away. Well, except the love and marriage show, she totally killed any fun or enjoyment from that show. 

What was her L&M like? Did she just ask questions and move on? There are so many opportunities for laughs at that show, and it is a PG13 type event, so a bit of inappropriateness is perfect. 

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On 3/24/2018 at 3:34 PM, Lovetocruise2002 said:

The CD, in short, is responsible for managing all the on board activities for the cruise.  He/she has manages many people and activities so the Activities Manager assists him/her.  A good CD doesn't make or break a cruise but does enhance it if they are fun, active, comical.  They host/lead the major activities such as show intros, The Love and Marriage show, the Morning show, Belly Flop contest, Sexiest man contest, etc. 

There is usually one active CD per ship.  Sometimes there might be 2 during a transition or training.

They also do a morning program on TV.  Why are most CD's men????

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2 minutes ago, Lindsay said:

They also do a morning program on TV.  Why are most CD's men????

I would think that it takes a while to get to the title of CD.  Most women would have to juggle that and family which I can't even imagine (as a mom and wife myself).  They have to be away from their families for months at a time.  Perhaps a lot of women put their family first and drop out of climbing that CD ladder?  I'm just guessing here.

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10 hours ago, Joe01 said:

Precisely how my experience with Bobby was. I was in too good of a cruising mood when on the ship and didn't actually realize how bad his L&M was until the one from our sailing was published on YouTube - 

I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I could have done a better job than him with that show.

It is beyond me as to why RCI have CD's who have no comedic talent. Surely that is part of the job?

I could only watch 5 minutes.  BOOOOORING.  Snooze-fest.

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3 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I would think that it takes a while to get to the title of CD.  Most women would have to juggle that and family which I can't even imagine (as a mom and wife myself).  They have to be away from their families for months at a time.  Perhaps a lot of women put their family first and drop out of climbing that CD ladder?  I'm just guessing here.

I don't think any of the female CD's have children. A few are married though. 

Some male CD's do have children (Marc Walker springs to mind), but the majority of CD's and AM's don't, so it isn't as hard. I do know that we had an Activities Manager on Independence in 2012 who left about a year after to start a family, so never made it to CD. Casey Pelter (CD) also took a shoreside job recently as his daughter is only 5 months old and presumably he wants to spend more time with her.

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