When the American Queen is rechristened on the Mississippi River this week, the paddlewheeler's passengers will be treated to a nearly lost piece of Americana. But the starring roles will played by a crew that represents the potpourri of culture and diversity that lines the banks of this country's great inland waterways.
Having an all-American staff "was one of the things we decided was absolutely necessary," said Jeff Krida, CEO of the Great American Steamboat Co., which purchased the American Queen from the federal government last year.
Memphis-based Great American refurbished the paddlewheeler, which was built in 1995, and is now unveiling it for the first time since it was taken out of service following the demise of Majestic America Line in 2008.
To staff the 436-passenger ship, Great American hired 174 full-time crew members and put an additional 86 people on retainer to accommodate vacation rotations. With the exception of one crew member from Scotland, the crew all hail from the U.S., and of those, two-thirds hail from either Tennessee or Louisiana.
Coming out of a recession that left many of the country's labor force without work, it wasn't difficult to find applicants.
"The crappy economy didn't hurt any," Krida said. "There are some people who are really hungry for some good jobs. These are good jobs with good benefits."
Indeed, the company received many more applicants than it had jobs to offer. While only 40% to 45% of those hired had previous experience in the cruise or hospitality industry, experience was not Krida's priority; he believed that if the company hired genuinely nice people, they could train them for the rest.
"We hired based on upbeat, positive attitudes," said David Kish, who headed up the hiring process. "We felt with the training that we could develop skills."
Krida said the goal was to instill the crew with good hospitality requisites, such as making eye contact, saying "please" and "thank you," using guests' names and anticipating what they want.
In short, said Krida, "All the little things that our target audience wants, hopes for and expects."
Once the crew was hired, Marc Mancini, a travel industry consultant, was tapped to head the training program. Mancini worked to bring the crew up to speed in terms of what to expect once the ship sets sail and its first passengers step onboard with the level of expectations that $500 per diems create.
Those same high per diems are what enables Great American to pay for its American crew's wages and benefits.
Mancini said that "the biggest challenge ... is that the kind of person taking this cruise is kind of upscale. The average person who works here has never seen that. They've never had the opportunity to deal with and communicate with this kind of upscale traveler. We're trying to get across the demographic and the psychographics of the guests that are coming on."
For example, the average crew age is 30, while the average guest's age is 60.
Mancini had actually sailed on the American Queen a couple of times in its previous incarnations, so he knew a thing or two about the kind of passengers a paddlewheeler attracts. That helped answer staff questions such as "What do these people expect?" and "How can you serve their needs?"
"I tried to make them realize they've had more contact with this kind of person than they think," Mancini said.
As the training program evolved, so did Mancini's goals for the crew. He said he began with the idea that the crew should be an integral part of providing every passenger with a unique and unforgettable experience. But in the end, he realized that there was another crucial goal for the crew to keep in mind: The memories they were creating were not just the passengers' but their own as well. After all, he said, the American Queen is a unique travel product, a time machine designed to take both the crew and passengers back to a romantic era when riverboats plied the length of the Mississippi.
"These people have stories," Mancini said. "My waiter today was a sixth-grade teacher who was laid off during cutbacks. I just finished a training session with an ex-heavyweight champion. All we have to do is transfer [their skills] to what they're doing now. As a trainer, I'm not starting from zero or showing people how to be nice. They already generally are."
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