Does a captain make a difference? Yes. We think it does. Let’s be honest the captain is ‘the boss’ or ‘the manager’ and we’ve all had good and bad ones! Without realising it the captain has had an impact on your cruise whether you met them or not.
The reason why i’m writing this post is our last cruise on the sky princess with captain Michele Tuvo at the helm. he’s a favourite with princess regulars and its clear to see why! he set the tone for the whole ship and it was clear the staff enjoyed working with him as their leader.
It’s one of the first cruises that I’ve felt the room light up when he walked into the room; not only the passengers, but the crew too People are genuinely please to see him. Tuvo or ‘Captain Bye Bye’s’ daily briefings were warm witty and always signed off with ‘Bye, Bye!’ – his catch phrase that always brought a smile to everyone’s face.
In person he’s just as charming, again to passengers and crew, he takes the time to talk, stop for pictures and he genuinely checks on each member of crew he passes. He's warm and authentic and he wants to make a difference, not just drive the ship. If felts as though the ship’s crew warmed to him, felt supported by him, and wanted to do their absolute best by him. This in turn rubs off on us the guests and elevated our cruise experience – you can’t package that and sell it!
I’m not sure if it was the long year of Covid-19, the inability to vacation or holiday, but when Captain Tuvo made his goodbye PA I genuinely welled up. I never want to step off a ship, but I really didn’t when we arrived into Southampton!
Captain Kate Mccue needs no introduction, if you don’t know her, where have you been?! The way Captain Kate approaches her role is outstanding and infectious onboard, on Instagram and tiktok! Its clear Kate loves her job and is very proud of the position she’s in; however, she doesn’t let it go to her head.
She’s down to earth, fun, adventurous and playful, she makes you want to cruise, hell, she makes me want to be on her crew! Her bridge team and wider crew have fun at work; that’s what it should be about. Just like Captain Tuvo it rubs off on the crew and it rubs off on us, the passengers.
It’s clear her team respect her, and she leads by example; she’s also not afraid to get her hands dirty to help her team, no matter the rank or role. She goes beyond (see what I did there?) for her crew too – check out how she helped a member of her team get engaged!
Above all Kate is a role model for everyone out there with a dream, every little Girl or Boy that dreams big, dreams to be different, Kate shows us we can do it.
Kate, you make us want to cruise Celebrity, you also make us want to be your friend! Keep doing what you’re doing. The same can be said for most Celebrity Captains from our experience, especially Captain Tasos (Pictured), with his incredible sense of humor; in person and throughout his daily announcement’s. He’s also guilty for starting the crew vs. passengers water volley ball matches!
On the flipside we’ve been on cruises where the crew are disengaged and won’t go that extra step. The following day we met the Captain and it all became clear…
The long and short of it – Captain Kate, Captain Tasos and Captain ‘Bye Bye’… Thank You and keep doing what you’re doing!