A little anekdote from my time working on board

You are probably aware that that I used to work on Celebrity cruises, a few years ago I may say.  Here is a little story that I have just remembered.

I used to be the duty free shop Manager and with Celebrity.  Miami inform you of any ‘big spenders’ who have spent a lot on previous sailings and are sailing with you on this particular cruise.  So I had an email saying Mrs Brown (not her actual name) was on my sailing and she had spent a lot on jewelry previously.  So I sent her an invitation to look at my new Emerald collection.

Mrs Brown did come down and was interested in a few items, however she was more interested in my name badge which had my name, my department and which country I was from on it.  She hinted that she would like one.  So I went to our printer on board and asked a favour to print one stating….Mrs Brown, Honorary shop staff from Miami USA.  I presented this to Mrs Brown and she was ecstatic and went off to boast to her fellow travellers about this gift.

At about 11pm I had a call from security saying one of my shop staff was very drunk and causing a scene in one of the bars in the guest area! Without a thought I raced upstairs thinking that one of my staff had broken a rule and was drunk in a public part of the ship.  To my astonishment it was Mrs Brown bragging about the name badge I had given her earlier and another guest had complained about her behaviour!!!

Mrs Brown came to the shops the next day, sheepishly and apologised and spent $20,000 with me.  After it was sorted I had to explain myself to the cruise Director and once the confusion was ironed out he understood but I was told not to do it again.  So all in all I made the sale, I told the Cruise Director who said well done for ingenuity but never again.  I felt like a young Del Boy.

Trust me to get chastised for thinking outside the box haha