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Guest Post: “Honestly it’s truly amazing.” Waiter, Jacques de Kock, Describes His Arrival to 150 Central Park
Oasis of the Seas is home at beautiful Terminal 18 in Port Everglades. Our Sales Force is immersed in its National Sales Meeting onboard. Lots of work continues to take place on the ship’s appearance and facilities. The ship looks fabulous, especially Central Park, yet we had no trouble discussing unfinished items for over 90 minutes yesterday. That’s the nature of this business – there’s always more. We start entertaining in less than 60 hours.
Previously one of our waiters, Jacques de Kock, provided a guest entry about how he came to be a member of the team on Oasis. Apparently he likes doing my work for me as he has authored another entry which I include here. You can be sure we did not put words in Jacques’ mouth, as we could never write anything as ebulliently positive as what Jacques has written. Thanks Jacques.
This is a follow up on a report I wrote about my past 2 years in the Royal Caribbean company.
I explained my career so far and how I managed to get the opportunity of coming to the Oasis of the Seas, using the trainings which the company provided to me.
So I left from vacation on my way to Turku, Finland. I reached Turku, and a RCL representative welcomed me and brought me to the ship. One thing unfortunately the company couldn’t account for was the freezing cold. I reached the ship which luckily has air conditioning though. When I saw the ship I was left breathless. Honestly, this is a architectural masterpiece. Massive yet beautiful. I wish everyone could see it.
I started on the ship and was soon taken to the restaurant where I was set to work [Adam’s note – 150 Central Park]. When we opened the doors I couldn’t believe it. Honestly it’s truly amazing. As we started unpacking everything I soon realized that they went all out on this restaurant. The plates are gold plated, they have a Riedel crystal glass for each kind of wine. The decor is to die for. Even the tablecloths are designed by FRETTE. I can go on and on but then I would leave no surprise. The waiters, which I am one of, have been carefully hand selected, and having the advantage of so many different nationalities and ships, they could choose the best from all the ships with thousands of employees. And guess what, we wear suits. Amazing suits. The wine list was designed by a master sommelier. Now for those that don’t know, I believe there are only about 150 qualified people with that position in the world. This guy is amazing, he can go through any wine list and explain any wine, where it comes from, the taste smell history, and probably he has had some dinner or something with the family that produced it. The company has provided his service to us. We could ask him what we need and he would explain to us. Of course we took full advantage and did about four hours of training a day. I now know things about wine I could never imagine I would.
The food of course is what I would call a piece of art, truly amazing. It is all prepared by a celebrity chef, who’s name I wouldn’t make public yet, I have to leave some things secret [Adam’s note – sorry we already blew the secret, it’s Keriann Von Raesfeld. ].
If I could explain the restaurant I would explain it like I do to everyone else. When you usually walk into a amazing restaurant, usually all things come together in order to make it look nice, in this restaurant, if you look at every individual small and big item, each one is amazing. EVERYTHING! You can truly see that every item was carefully selected and thought about. And it all obviously comes together Unbelievably.
Even the whole ship is so amazing, I was thinking it was going to be beautiful, but not this beautiful. And I am surprised at how they built the ship in a way that, even though it is so massive, it is very personal, everywhere you look there are little places of enjoyment.
We reached Ft. Lauderdale yesterday, and wow, how amazing. We had helicopters all around, media from all across the world, planes, boats. I had goosebumps all over. And to make it more special, they had a plane that said, welcome oasis of the seas, with a banner, on a beach nearby, they made a massive colour script on the sand welcoming us, and when I thought it was over I saw all the hotels we crossed had banners all across the hotels hanging outside the balconies, reading messages, welcome oasis, Royal Caribbean etc. Today we started planting the Central Park, and it is truly incredible. As I am from South Africa, it seems I can just step into the Central Park, and I am at home. I forget it’s a ship.
I really wish everyone could experience this. I am not always sure who to thank. But wow. This is an experience.
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The restaurant does not sound to shabby either.
Originally Posted by *Lars*
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