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I haven't been on in ages, due to moving across country and job searching, but I'm back with a short, mini sucky story. I could have a bunch more to tell, but they involve my husband and his position on the ship and that would give my identify away to anyone who worked for Princess in the last 6 years. We'll see.
Anyways, it's December and we're cruising in the Caribbean. As anyone who has been onboard a cruise ship knows how many different nationalities, both with the passengers and especially the crew (usually from 75-80 different countries). Anyways, due to having so many cultures all in one space, it is the office's policy that all crew members use "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" or whichever holiday you celebrate so we don't offend anyone. The only time we could stray from this is if a passenger addressed us first with "Merry Christmas", we could reply with the same greeting. If you are overheard saying something else, you can receive a written warning (3 of those and you usually find yourself in front of the Captain and paying your own way home). Each week throughout December, it never failed:
Me: Happy Holidays (in passing while walking on my way to the buffet)
SC: Don't you "Happy Holidays" me. (said sarcastically). I'm an American and we celebrate Christmas. I don't know what y'all celebrate over there in (looks at my nametag, which lists our name, rank and country) Canada, but we are all proud Christians!
***this is usually followed by someone else in their party explaining to them that Americans are in fact NOT all Christian.
Me: Happy Holidays!
SC: What's with all this politically correct bulls#!t? It's "Merry Christmas" or you shouldn't be on this goddamn boat! I'm going to complain about this crap. Who the hell doesn't celebrate Christmas?!?!?!
***ranting all the way to the Purser's desk. If he complained, I never heard anything about it.
I have also witness passenger suckiness when it comes to other people celebrating with holidays. A large portion of the crew celebrates Chinese New Year (lots of crew from the Philippines and Thailand especially) and while they do not address passengers in any way about it, some of them do wear a small pin just under their nametags for the week leading up to it. A lot of passengers will ask about it and will then wish them a happy new year, but this one was super sucky (I heard this story from another crew member who I will call S for this.
A pax asks S what the pin is all about and S proudly explains. The pax proceeds to rant at him for celebrating a "fake" holiday. When S was about to burst into tears, another pax who just happened to be an ex crew member came up (paraphrased from what I was told)
Good PAX: Excuse me, but are you seriously yelling at this gentleman for celebrating his culture's holiday?
Bad PAX: His culture shouldn't matter! He's on an American ship and should act like an American!
Good PAX: Sir, 90% of the crew are not from North America, and over 50% of the passengers are from other countries as well. Why shouldn't we all be allowed to celebrate whatever holidays we want?
Bad PAX: All these "fake" holidays are just excuses for people to be lazy and not work!!!
Good PAX: (to S) S, did you have to work on Christmas, or on New Years Eve?
S: Yes. We don't get days off.
Good PAX: So you don't get any time off to celebrate the "American" New Years, and you definitely don't get time off for your own New Years, correct?
S: No, ma'am. We work 7 days a week for 10 months.
Good PAX: (back to Bad PAX) If you call that lazy, you need a reality check. I'd love to see you last a month on this ship.
By this time about 50 passengers and a dozen or so crew had gathered around. Good Pax got a round of applause and Bad Pax stormed off, probably to try to find someone to whine to about "fake" holidays. Good Pax was known by dozens of crew members (had only stopped working on ships a year before) and didn't have to pay for a single drink the rest of the cruise.
Anyways, it's December and we're cruising in the Caribbean. As anyone who has been onboard a cruise ship knows how many different nationalities, both with the passengers and especially the crew (usually from 75-80 different countries). Anyways, due to having so many cultures all in one space, it is the office's policy that all crew members use "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" or whichever holiday you celebrate so we don't offend anyone. The only time we could stray from this is if a passenger addressed us first with "Merry Christmas", we could reply with the same greeting. If you are overheard saying something else, you can receive a written warning (3 of those and you usually find yourself in front of the Captain and paying your own way home). Each week throughout December, it never failed:
Me: Happy Holidays (in passing while walking on my way to the buffet)
SC: Don't you "Happy Holidays" me. (said sarcastically). I'm an American and we celebrate Christmas. I don't know what y'all celebrate over there in (looks at my nametag, which lists our name, rank and country) Canada, but we are all proud Christians!
***this is usually followed by someone else in their party explaining to them that Americans are in fact NOT all Christian.
Me: Happy Holidays!
SC: What's with all this politically correct bulls#!t? It's "Merry Christmas" or you shouldn't be on this goddamn boat! I'm going to complain about this crap. Who the hell doesn't celebrate Christmas?!?!?!
***ranting all the way to the Purser's desk. If he complained, I never heard anything about it.
I have also witness passenger suckiness when it comes to other people celebrating with holidays. A large portion of the crew celebrates Chinese New Year (lots of crew from the Philippines and Thailand especially) and while they do not address passengers in any way about it, some of them do wear a small pin just under their nametags for the week leading up to it. A lot of passengers will ask about it and will then wish them a happy new year, but this one was super sucky (I heard this story from another crew member who I will call S for this.
A pax asks S what the pin is all about and S proudly explains. The pax proceeds to rant at him for celebrating a "fake" holiday. When S was about to burst into tears, another pax who just happened to be an ex crew member came up (paraphrased from what I was told)
Good PAX: Excuse me, but are you seriously yelling at this gentleman for celebrating his culture's holiday?
Bad PAX: His culture shouldn't matter! He's on an American ship and should act like an American!
Good PAX: Sir, 90% of the crew are not from North America, and over 50% of the passengers are from other countries as well. Why shouldn't we all be allowed to celebrate whatever holidays we want?
Bad PAX: All these "fake" holidays are just excuses for people to be lazy and not work!!!
Good PAX: (to S) S, did you have to work on Christmas, or on New Years Eve?
S: Yes. We don't get days off.
Good PAX: So you don't get any time off to celebrate the "American" New Years, and you definitely don't get time off for your own New Years, correct?
S: No, ma'am. We work 7 days a week for 10 months.
Good PAX: (back to Bad PAX) If you call that lazy, you need a reality check. I'd love to see you last a month on this ship.
By this time about 50 passengers and a dozen or so crew had gathered around. Good Pax got a round of applause and Bad Pax stormed off, probably to try to find someone to whine to about "fake" holidays. Good Pax was known by dozens of crew members (had only stopped working on ships a year before) and didn't have to pay for a single drink the rest of the cruise.
Horray for the Bad SC getting owned on the "fake" Chinese New Year holiday rant!
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