As the so-far silent one of the four of us who did the B2B on the PG, I have a couple of brief comments.

First, it was wonderful to meet all of you and particularly wonderful to continue for the 2nd week with Pat and Fred.

For the first week, I at least noticed that the level of service was not up to previous standards. This is understandable I think. The staff on the ship are professional, many having been on the ship from the beginning, and take justifiable pride in their work. And their future was (and is) very much in doubt. So little glitches occured. One small exmaple of many: one morning Wendy and I were being taken out to have breakfast outside at the veranda and as we stepped through the door Manfred turned around and disappeared, leaving me standing there like the dolt that I probably am. He was later apologetic, but ... Then there was the missing course at the PIP dinner at the Pacific Grill. Or the missing turf from the surf and turf course. Or ...

As I said, considering the stress that the staff were under I forgive these minor things. If I were similarly in doubt about my future in my career my effectiveness would suffer worse than theirs did.

Pat's explosion in the infamous Saturday night meltdown, followed by some much milder grumping on my part, I think served as a wakeup call for the staff. As already mentioned by others, for the remainder of the 2nd week, the staff really went out of their way to provide us with service far beyond anything I have ever experienced ever. I think it was not just the gang o' four who benefited: it looked like all passengers were getting the incredible level of service that we were.

The above is just my 2 cents (Canadian).

-- David