Day 67: Meet Shai & Gede - Room Stewards

Meet Shai & Gede. This crew vignette is long over due. Our room stewards are the first line of contact on a daily basis with us to the rest of the VIking experience. Shai and Gede both great us in the morning with smiles, asking if we had a nice sleep, and did there was anything we needed. We wander off to breakfast and magically when we return our stateroom is clean, fresh towels, clean mirrors, our bed is made, the mini-fridge is restocked. I am pretty sure they have a lot to do with this daily feat of magic.

In the evening our beds are turned down and they always ask us if there is anything we need throughout the day. We can’t thank them enough for watching over us each and every day. Let me share with you what we know about Shai & Gede.

Shai we will be leaving us on March 2nd, we will miss her, the end of her 7th six month contract with Viking. She is from the Philippines, is the oldest of three girls in her family. She graduated in Hospitality Management with plans to stay with the ship life for 3 to 5 more years - holding a vision of starting her own business in the future. When asked what does she like to do when she is home - Sleep and rest was her first answer. I think we can all agree it is a well deserved rest. From there she likes spending time at the beach and on restaurant outings with her family.

As we talk with many of the crew while they like their jobs here on the Neptune and with us their Neptune family; As Dorothy says, “There’s no place like home.”

Gede, is from Indonesia and lives in a small village where a crystal clear river runs through it. Gede and his family visit this river often. As he talked about this place, I saw it in his eyes and with his smile - it must be wonderful to give him this much happiness as he talks about it to us. Their culture is different from ours - his father has four wives, and Gede is the fourth child - of four total. His other older siblings have passed, He is provider for his family and you can see he has a deep commitment to them. He has graduated from Hotel Management, plans on doing more ship contracts in the near future.

Shai, Gede, and the many other room stewards onboard the Neptune - all take very good care of us - we can’t thank them enough.Okumaya devam et