NCL’s undercover CEO makes changes after TV “demotion”

I‘m not a big fan of cruises, in case you haven’t noticed. But I am a fan of Kevin Sheehan after his appearance on the CBS show Undercover Boss.

NCL’s chief executive went undercover and performed several menial jobs, including laboring for hours to set up a fake ice skating rink.

Now he’s taking those lessons to heart after returning to the executive suite. Among the changes he’s made is getting rid of the ice skating rink, according to the Miami Herald.

As a landlubber, I have to wonder what an ice skating rink was doing on a cruise ship in the first place. But never mind. Point is, Sheehan didn’t flee to the safety of NCL’s headquarters. He did something.

Another encouraging change was adding $100,000 to the crew enrichment program, which pays for activities, events and entertainment for crew aboard each ship.

Cruise lines have a reputation for exploiting their workers, particularly those who perform difficult, menial labor and who aren’t subject to U.S. labor laws. There’s a whole cottage industry of attorneys in Miami who specialize in seeking compensation for foreign nationals who are injured or abused on the job. There shouldn’t be.

I wonder what would happen if the CEOs of Royal Caribbean and Carnival did the same thing? Would that result in more compassionate bosses, if not happier employees? And would there be a trickle-down effect to consumers?

Idealist that I am, I think the answer is “yes.” And absolutely, travelers would see some benefits.

But I seriously doubt we’ll be seeing any more cruise CEOs on the show for a while.

Oh, if you’re wondering about airlines — here’s Frontier’s CEO from last season of Undercover Boss.

  • Erika

    Two thumbs up for Kevin Sheehan! Since I’ve never been on a cruise – and therefore have no experience to draw from – I have a question for other readers. If you have been on an NCL cruise before and have or will be soon taking another one again – have you noticed a difference?

    On a side note, if I ever plan on taking a cruise in the future NCL will be at the top of my list. I appreciate it when leadership takes the attitude of “I won’t ask my employees to do something I haven’t tried myself”.

  • Raven

    When cruise lines keep their promises to keep kids out of adult areas–no more poopy babies in whirlpools–I will cruise again. When I witnessed a diapered baby in a 105 degree spa, I alerted three employees on the deck plus a purser later in the day. Nothing was done. The same gross family was back there the very next day, poopy baby and all.

    Needless to say, I doubt I will ever cruise again.

  • Steve

    I read A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by the late David Foster Wallace and decided I’d never take a cruise. Reading this blog definitely hasn’t changed my mind.

    “Another encouraging change was adding $100,000 to the crew enrichment program, which pays for activities, events and entertainment for crew aboard each ship.” I wouldn’t really call that “encouraging” if it’s meant to improve working conditions for the crew in any substantive way. For one thing, I don’t know how many crew members NCL employs, but even if they only employ 5,000 that amounts to a value of a whopping $20 per employee. (I wonder what percentage of the company’s profits that $100k amounts to, or for that matter what percentage of the CEO’s compensation that $100k amounts to).

    Besides, if we’re talking about real exploitation and abuse here (as opposed to just a difficult career), it wouldn’t matter if he threw $100 *million* into crew entertainment and activities. If basic working conditions are such that crew members are being exploited, nothing short of fixing them is worthy of praise.

  • Boje

    I have been on 2 NCL cruises, and both times the service was completely underwhelming. After the first cruise we complained to the company and they gave us a $200 on board credit on a future cruise. After our 2nd cruise we decided to never cruise with them again. The main dinning room food was terrible, they did that so you would go to their “cover charge” resturants. I felt nickle and dimed at every single opportunitiy and when we decided to remove our cabin stewards tips after our room wasn’t cleaned for 3 days in a row, they purser’s desk made us fill out 3 forms and wait in line for over a hour as punishment. I’ve had much better service on Carinval and Princess. NCL boo on you.

  • Sarah Di

    I’ve always found the employees on Carnival to be very friendly and happy. I’ve also found the service to be excellent and I’ve literally seen employees cleaning up where there was no mess to be seen. Of course, if you haven’t actually cruised, you don’t really know what it’s like nor can you complain about it imo. It’s not a vacation for everyone, but you don’t really know until you try it. Myself? I’m going through withdrawl because I want to go again and had so much fun last time.

  • Ed

    Personally, I think that *EVERY CEO* of *EVERY COMPANY* should perform the jobs of those in the trenches just to remind them where their paychecks and massive bonuses come from! The rarified air breathers in their ivory towers insulate themselves from the rabble who slave away at their jobs and they celebrate each other with congratulatory slaps on the back for a job well done on the golf course, yet has no idea what is required by the trench-workers to give them the luxuries they demand!

  • BucksterSF

    This should be mandatory for all senior management. Unfortunately most will never know wht their front line people really do.

  • Edmond

    @Erika – Your words, grammar, syntax, etc. makes me believe you are an NCL pr plant. No offense to you, and I may be wrong but I think you are trolling for feedback.

  • Thomas

    Perhaps the labor laws are different and the pay scale is better in Europe. I’ve taken 3 cruises out of the Americas, and they all sucked! I was on one through Greece and Italy last year and it was wonderful, no kids, incredible service, etc.. So what are we doing different over here?????????

  • Steve

    @Sarah Di: “I’ve literally seen employees cleaning up where there was no mess to be seen.” Personally, I wouldn’t consider that a positive. Of course I’d want a clean ship, but after a certain point an overly-obsessive attention to detail signals to me that something’s not right. As to the friendliness and happiness of the crew, I’m glad they were friendly and pleasant but I’d argue that it’s impossible to judge whether they’re happy, or what goes on behind closed doors.

  • Sarah Di

    @Steve. I was there and I can assure that it wasn’t an obsessive attention worthy of worry that something’s not right. It was merely the crew keeping on top of keeping tables cleaned off and wiping down empty tables. It’s an attentiveness to detail that I wish more restaurants would employ. More than likely, there was one crumb on the table that the employee decided to wipe off.

    I would also venture to guess that you haven’t talked to a crew member about their families, where they live or anything else. I know full well that employees are paid to be friendly, but I’ve also had conversations with crew members enough to know when they do actually like their jobs and living conditions. Typically, if a ship’s crew is really unhappy, they don’t make it a big secret and most guests can tell.

  • http://www.eurotravelholidays.com Holiday in Europe

    Fair play to Sheehan. Like the poster above said, all CEO’s should do this. I have been on cruises in both Europe and America and in general the ones in Europe are better but you pay more.

  • Mike Z

    What I find very humorous is that the show is nothing more than an hour long commercial for the company. they show the best employees with teh best sob stories so that at the end everyone can feel good about seeing these employees get rewarded for their behavior.

    The only honest shows I have seen were from season 1 when the Hooters CEO went undercover and met the manager who degraded the girls. Most others shows did show some shortcomings, but they all pointed out how wonderful the employees were and how great the service they offered was.

    I remember one epsiode where the CEO gave like $2k to some charity in the guys name. Damn, the guy just helped with a 1 hour commercial and all the revenue that will bring and you don’t even compensate the guy. (rolls eyes)

  • Vivi

    Sheehan has his work cut out for him and I hope he suceeds. It is good that he now has first hand experience of what the crew do and how they live, however, $100k isn’t going to make that big of a difference with the number of crew they employ.

    I’ve cruised more than 20 times in the last 5 years, the first two cruises on NCL. The first NCL cruise was very good but the second one was horrible, bad food, the ship was visibly dirty, cabin locks didn’t work properly, safes in the cabins didn’t work, people had brown water coming out of the taps, the crew were overwhelmed by the complaints and were nasty or indifferent to passengers whether they complained or not. That is why I’ve never sailed on NCL again but I still hope for the sake of the crew employed by NCL that Mr. Sheehan continues to improve their working conditions.

  • http://www.thearticlesstore.info/ jackson

    i like it…keep posting stuff like this…

  • Kathie Coull

    Thomas, Will you please tell us the name of the European cruise company? After reading one horror story after another, we’ll never cruise a US-based (even if not US-flagged) line. But learning about the others is great.
    Sorry this reply is so late; we’ve been moving back to the US.
    Cheers, Kathie

  • Lenore Greiner

    Well, the cruise lines stopped dumping their trash into our oceans, so stranger things have happened.

  • Thomas

    NCL is the worst of the three major cruise lines, and FREE
    STYLE really means opportunity to WAIT IN LINE.

    I can express my opinion, since in have been on several NCL
    cruises,,,,, and inpsite there short comings cruises in general
    are great ,,,, but do have problems. i do believe CARNIVAL
    is your best deal.

    NCL is making improvements but still need some revamping.
    There Hiawaii cruise ship is a very pretty ship,,, but service
    is really still poor,,, but improving. I have used the PRIDE OF
    AMERICA twice,,,, but only because there is no others that
    start on the island and tour around the islands. First time
    was rediciously poor and during the period of only AMERICANS as crew members,,, but like I said thery are improving.

    I am a cruiser having nearly 30 under my belt.