What does it take to be the Hotel General Manager aboard a cruise ship?

Holland America Line is celebrating 150 years of service. Mr. Mustafa is the hotel general manager on board the New Staten Dome. He started his career as a waiter and has worked in various positions in the cruise industry. He is responsible for all aspects of the hotel operation and guest satisfaction. The demographics of cruising guests are changing, with more Europeans, East Europeans, Asians, and families. Holland America offers new programs like pick-up ball, Tai Chi, and walk-a-mile. They are also expanding their itineraries to include longer cruises. Starlink internet is being implemented on their ships. The fees for guest use are comparable to what people are paying now. Holland America is environmentally conscious and takes measures to protect the environment. Mustafa predicts that cruising will continue to grow with bigger ships and more family cruising options. The following interview was recorded on June 22, 2023, on board Holland America's New Staten Dome, and is a copyrighted production of the Colorado Communications Group. Enjoy. 150 years at sea and no end in sight, your moment attack is next. Holland America Line is celebrating its 150 years of service in 2023. Mr. Mustafa is a hotel general manager on board the New Staten Dome. Mustafa, briefly give us a little bit of your background and responsibility of a hotel general manager. I started 28 years ago as a waiter on a Cunard cruise line. So this is where I built my career, actually becoming restaurant operation manager, and then on the Cunard, from Cunard I moved to a Norwegian Cruise Line 99, which Norwegian Cruise Line bought the ship from Cunard, so they decided to take all the crew members there. I also decided to transfer to the Norwegian Cruise Line, this is where I worked 20 years on the Norwegian Cruise Line, which is all the positions, restaurant manager, food and beverage director, on board marketing assistant general manager, and general manager of course. And 2017, I got an offer from Holland America, then I moved here, so here I am. So this is basically my background, hotel management, I'm from Turkey, and here I am, this is basically my background. So what are your responsibilities on board? Actually I'm responsible for everything, every aspect of the hotel operation actually, and as well as the guest satisfaction, and crew staffing and scheduling on board, and then basically everything besides the driving or taking care of the engine department. You're doing everything, but that doesn't float. Exactly, yeah. And what do you see about the changing demands of the cruising guests? Well, of course now the demography is changing, we get clientele from all over the world now, we get a lot of Europeans, East Europeans, and then Asians, we get clientele, a lot of families, also now kids, you know, cruising, and then, yeah, because when I started working on the ship 28 years ago, we didn't see any kids cruising at that time. But it has changed over the 28 years, or last 20 years, and now we can tell more ships around the world, mega ships, and then we have the guests coming from everywhere, all the countries, so you can sometimes go up to 65 different nationalities on board, cruising from all over the world. You were talking about new programs, what type of new programs is Holland doing? New programs, when you talk about new programs, we have different entertainments, more to come, and we also have pick-up ball now, we introduced pick-up ball as in Holland, America, now we are in partnership with the pick-up ball, and it's well-received by our clientele, and then we receive great feedback for the pick-up ball, we do a lot of tournaments actually, and it's fun. And I'm reading in the schedule that there's Tai Chi? We have Tai Chi in the morning, and we have walk-a-mile in the morning, when you wake up in the morning, we have nice walk around the ship, we call it walk-a-mile, and then after following that program, we have Tai Chi, it's nice and quiet in the midship pool deck, we have good attendance as well, it's a good event as well, Tai Chi. Holland America is expanding their itineraries, what can you talk about that? Oh, itineraries, you know, Holland America is well-known by our destination, so we visit many countries, more than others, and now we are focusing more on Grand Wedge, longer cruises as well, so 2024, you can see more longer cruises also, and this is very popular, it's well-liked by our clientele. And speaking about the future, the Starlink is coming to Holland America. It is, yeah, now our first pilot ship was Conningstown, and we received great feedback, so it looks like our company is happy with the speed of internet of Starlink, and then our plan is to implement for the rest of the fleet by the end of the year, by the end of the year we should have all our ships Starlink. The fees related for guest use, is it comparable to what people are paying now? Absolutely, I mean, it's nice to stay in touch with your family, especially when you're at sea, and send nice pictures home, or call them, or do the video call, show them where are you, what program you're in, watching nice movie by the pool, or having nice sunset, you know, watching the sunset, and share your good time you're having on board with your loved ones, that's I think great, I mean, guests get internet, you know. Holland America has been known to be very environmentally conscious, how do you address that here? Oh, we are, environmental is our main priority, we do a lot of adjustment, actually, for example in the cafeteria, we don't have all this individual plastic sachet, or papers, you know, we avoid straw, for example, plastic straw, we go away all these things, whatever can fly overboard, you know, from the open decks, we don't have them, so we are very conscious about the environmental saving, or protecting our environment, of course, definitely. From your standpoint of hotel general manager, where do you see cruising going into the future? The future, I think we're going to have more and more bigger ship, and more and more family cruising with us, you know, and then for the whole industry, I think ships are getting bigger and bigger, and then more guests start, more people are actually cruising, they find it's more convenient having vacation, a cruise, than going somewhere, a resort, or a hotel, rent a car, going out for dinner, and you have everything on board. So it looks like cruising is now better than ever. For Your Moment in Tech, this is Jay Melnyk.