During the third day aboard the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection's Luminara, I realized that upon my return my weekends would be occupied updating our rankings of the World's Top Ten Cruise Lines. Ritz-Carlton is now providing the highest service standards in the industry and, in my view, the very best overall experience.
Instead of describing the ship's layout, allow me to describe some specific examples of the kind of service that was occurring throughout the ship as we sailed the Greek islands:
• A passenger was enjoying her cruise except for episodes of serious back pain from a previous injury. She saw the ship's doctor several times. Toward the end of the cruise, her stateroom attendant informed her that everyone aboard was sorry she had not been able to enjoy her cruise pain-free. To compensate, they set her up for five hours in the Owner's Suite, where she and her husband were served a special five-course dinner prepared by the chef just for them.
• One of the guests was older and was walking down the steep gangway rather slowly. When the tender returned, the guest was called aside and privately told that a crew member had noticed he'd found the steps challenging, so they did not want him to have to go up those same stairs. The guest was then escorted through a "secret" door into crew quarters, where he was warmly greeted and "initiated" as a rare passenger who gets to "experience the crew elevator." He was taken to his deck without the need to climb a single step.
• One passenger had a hard time sleeping the first night because the ship did not stock sufficiently hard pillows of the type she preferred. The next day, a friend of hers was standing on a corner in Patmos and noticed a crew member carrying a huge package. When asked if she was shopping, she replied, "Oh, no; we've been looking for several hours for hard pillows of the type one of our guests prefers. But we finally found them."
• One of the passengers discovered that a new friend was celebrating a birthday. She asked if the bar staff could design a nice cup of morning coffee to surprise the birthday girl. Soon afterward she was presented with a beautiful cappuccino adorned with her photo in color, floating in luxurious cream.
• A husband and wife met their cabin attendant, a young lady from South Africa who was on her first cruise assignment right out of hotel school. During a brief conversation, the couple mentioned that this would be their first cruise without the company of their daughter, who was off to college. The cabin attendant asked her name and described members of her own family back home.
That evening, when the guests returned to their stateroom, there were rose petals in the shape of a heart in the middle of the bed. There was also a handwritten note from the cabin steward saying, in part, "Our entire staff is glad that you are here but we want you to tell (daughter's name) that we all miss her and we can't wait to welcome her aboard at some point in the future. Please know we are all thinking about you, (daughter's name). " Next to the note were three teddy bears with the names of the parents and their daughter emblazoned on their chests.
I could have listed many other examples. Decades ago, my small company was founded on many of the principles embedded in the Ritz-Carlton brand. We carry folding credo cards just like they do. But the execution of these incredible service standards is, quite frankly, nothing I have ever witnessed previously on land -- let alone at sea.
Read part 1: Learning something new about luxury cruising