Cruise Ship Ice Skating Rinks Suck, and Other Lessons from 'Undercover Boss'

January 3, 2011 at 10:36 AM | by JetSetCD | Comments (0)

Did you catch last night's episode of Undercover Boss? It's no matter if you didn't, because the show's basic formula went down again, that of teaching a CEO to take a second look at their company from the position of the menial jobs. This time, Norwegian Cruise Line's CEO Kevin Sheehan boarded a couple of his ships, including the newest—the Norwegian Epic—to discover things, like exactly how difficult it is to lead a line dance. He may have learned enough to make some changes in the company, but we learned quite a bit too, like...

· Cruise ship ice skating rinks suck. Sheehan kept complaining that he was breaking his back while helping to set up a fake ice surface on the ship's basketball court. The puzzle piece-like rink, which gets sprayed with an gross oily solution once put together, then attracted not one passengers to come skating. First off, that's because it looked like crap and second off, who wants to go ice skating when you're outside in tropical weather? It just doesn't give you the warm fuzzies like a good ice skate should. The only cruise ship ice rinks that works are real, indoor ones, like you can find on a few Royal Caribbean ships. We've personally witnessed those packed to the occupancy limit.

· There are more non-minorites working onboard ships than you think. What's the misconception about cruise ship staff again? That they're all from third world countries, with the exception of the officers? While it may be true to an extent that many of the service positions on ships are held by those from developing areas , Undercover Boss seemed to partner up with regular Americans, with the exception of the Indian waitress. Sure, the staff featured on the show were vetted beforehand, but sometimes it's nice to remember that there are people out there who could be working at a bank or a restaurant on land, but are actually driven to be a cruise director or head waiter.

· Ship dance parties are universally corny. White feather wings? Blacklights? Line dancing? Oh boy, maybe it's a good thing we've avoided all dance nights like the plague on every cruise we've ever been on. Personally we find cruise directors to be annoying to all ends, so it was gratifying to see that once CEO Sheehan had gotten the "White Hot Dance Party" off and line-dancing, that the passengers quickly took it over and turned it into a party less awkward than how it started. It makes you wonder if the heavy themes are even necessary.

Agree or disagree? Let us know what else you thought of the show in the comments below.

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