Great Western Coffee Shop

Observing people as they travel.  Something I have learned over the years - watching their ebb and flow around stations and on trains, their groups and interaction, their paraphernalia, demeanour and dress.  The regular with confidence, the irregular more faltering, the heavy luggage traveller not coming back the same day, the family group with spades likely headed for Weymouth.  Some are loving the journey, some are indifferent and for some it's a chore - and much of that feeling is a state of mind and personality rather than anything logical. And with time, individual's views can change or be changed.  I've learned to watch and I watch to learn - lessons on current flows, on opportunities, on what people find sweet and what is sour, and where people need a word to help them in the right direction.

I'm on a cruise ship headed from Southampton on 1st September to St John's, Newfoundland, on 6th. Currently around 48n 27w. About 2700 of us on board – one third crew and two thirds guests who have more or less chosen to be here.  The choice is made as to whether the best part of a week on the ship is considered to be a 76,000 ton cocoon or a 76,000 ton prison - an attitude of mind.

The ship's guests are mostly in the latter third of their lives.  They are mostly in heterosexual couples, with a number of pairs of ladies travelling together and I would hazard to guess they are companions and good friends rather than more than that.  There is a smattering of solo travellers, and a complete absence from observation so far of anyone in the passengers of an ethnic background. Everyone, it seems, is British.

By contrast, the main crew are much younger and as a well-educated guess predominant from the southern far east - ranging from a few with Indian subcontinent origins through to the Philippines. All very polite, all utterly helpful, and typically very much inscrutable as to what they're really thinking; the environment is such that it's hard to reach out and engage and show that you respect them as people, and few passengers try;  certainly I have not seen people being rude to them but it's very much upstairs / downstairs.

Passenger facing officers and entertainment team are perhaps the most diverse of the groupings - officers occasionally seen as the middle managers in white with various pips and stripes; lecture presenters, quiz runners, etc a mixed bunch. Some excellent in a difficult and what must at times be a soul destroying job, and others frankly reading from a script.  The only thing from the "Be Inspired" session yesterday which we chose to go to was the title; people walking out during the presentation.  On the other hand, the lady teaching bridge for absolute beginners is doing an excellent job - in fact we're all going along a bit early today to get another hand in!

But – people – the majority of the people – on here are the passengers.

Evening meals for most are in two sittings, and they're like the two trains at Melksham used to be - too early and too late. So we have elected for "Freedom Dining" - a smaller restaurant where go to the restaurant and are seated at tables of 8 in arrival order.   There are some tables for 2 or 4, but you tend to have to queue for them.

For people watching, Freedom dining is a wonder. Enough people in that "pool" to keep changing over at each dinner, and no dread (as there can be with the more formal system) of having to spend weeks eating with people with whom you have little or nothing in common.

Many people are frequent cruisers - "this is our 25th"... talking boats, comparing what's on offer, and very often highlighting the little things that aren't quite right over the big things that are; a negative bunch at times.  We have learned about many things from banging in the night to unfair redundancy terms at Walsall Council. And we see how people / couples interact with each other – either are good an interacting or find the whole business a bit daunting.   Then there's the interaction between the couples - but that's another long story.   

What this people watching does remind me is that how many different people there are and how few we want to be with long term. Even travelling on previous cruises with Lisa's family, there have been compromises necessary in what we do which have reduced the experience; lovely people all, but not always the people we want to be close to for weeks on end, and it would be a fair bet to suggest they find me a cantankerous and challenging old bugger too.  Lisa and I - thank goodness - are so different; we found each other some 23 years ago and though we are pretty independent and spaced out much of the time at home, on board we live in each others pockets, and even share our internet connection.  And it works ... seems to work so well that we make a wicked pair at bridge (just as we do with history, rail, etc) ... I'm so lucky to have Lisa.

A great summary of life onboard a P&O Cruise Ship Grahame, I can relate to so many of your observations!

P&O have a long tradition of hiring their "main crew" from India and The Philippines. When you do engage with them, you find that their lives are so different from (most of) our own.

As an example, one of the waitresses we got to know on Azura earlier this year was telling us that she was at that time in the middle of a 10 month stint on the ship, then goes home to The Philippines for 2 months, and comes back to the UK to join Arcadia for her World cruise, which departs just after New Year for around 100 days. That was a change of ship and trip she had requested.

……………….very impressive given the demographic!  ;)

Many years ago in NZ I met a young woman from Scotland who had spent a couple of years working on a cruise ship in some customer-facing role (I think she was running a shop). She said that for the crew, the ship was a sort of floating club of "banging in the night"... and in the day and in the smokestack and...

Hope that the fog holds off for you at St John's, Graham. Look out for Humpback Wales in the area, and if you get ashore try the products of the Quidi Vidi brewery!

Indeed, I have heard it said that if you were looking for a "liason" onboard, the crew bar is the place where you're most likely to find it. Strictly out of bounds to passengers, of course.

Many years ago while on holiday in the Canaries my girlfriend and myself spent a long evening on the town with a  chap from Cardiff and his girlfriend. He had previously worked on ( I think) the QE2 in an on board jewellery outlet and he had a few interesting tales to tell although most of them are only vague recollections now, lost in the haze of the advanced state of refreshment I achieved that night.


Other tales of the goings-on by some of the crew of the then Royal Yacht, reported to me by someone who knew one of the crew briefly, are not suitable for recounting on this forum.

In my experience Graham is the height of propriety and will stick to winning hands down at bridge.