When it comes to making suggestions about how to improve a cruise, passengers are not perceived by cruise lines as a particularly bashful bunch. In fact, most lines get more than their fair share of passengers’ opinions, and some cruise lines really do listen . . . to a degree that might surprise you.
Take the case of passenger David McFarland and Crystal Cruises. A suggestion made by McFarland not only helped bring about an innovative enrichment program that lets Crystal passengers learn about computers, but it nabbed him a great job too.
This year Crystal will have a computer university at sea on most of its cruises, thanks mainly to McFarland.
For 36 years, the retiree had designed and implemented computer languages and operating systems for such companies as IBM and Apple.
He and his wife had enjoyed taking cruise vacations aboard Crystal ships.
Two years ago, during a Crystal Harmony Panama Canal cruise, McFarland did what most cruisers do on voyages with lots of sea days: He chatted amiably with passengers who inevitably asked him about his career. He discovered most passengers were intimidated by the complexity of computer technology.
“Most older folks are scared to death to touch it,” McFarland said.
It struck him that passengers might like the opportunity to explore new technologies in the relaxed, unpressured environment of a cruise ship. McFarland said he subsequently surveyed 50 passengers on the cruise about their interest, and their answer was unanimous: If a class were to be offered, they would attend. So he wrote to Crystal, suggesting the idea for a shipboard computer school.
McFarland said his first attempts to interest Crystal failed to get much attention. But apparently his brainstorm played into a notion that already had been percolating: Crystal’s president Joseph Watters had been thinking along similar lines.
Nothing much happened for about a year; then when McFarland was aboard a Crystal cruise in the Baltic, he got a call from the line’s entertainment department asking him to develop a computer school in time for the Symphony’s world cruise last January. Thus was born Crystal’s Computer University at Sea. McFarland refers to it as the Computer University@Sea (the “@” symbol is ubiquitous in Internet e-mail addresses).
The program’s popularity during the world cruise surprised even McFarland. There was standing-room only in the ship’s 155-seat auditorium for his first lecture. Three hundred passengers signed up just for “Beginning Windows.” During the full four-month sailing and its segments, 1,500 passengers ultimately participated in the classes. The program drew more people than Sunday worship services, McFarland said. Passengers in the initial program sent 10,000 pieces of e-mail in 103 days.
The Computer University’s objective is to give passengers enough familiarity with computers during their cruise that they could return home, buy a computer and start using it on their own, McFarland said. The program was so successful that it will be available on 90 percent of Crystal’s cruises aboard both Symphony and Harmony this year.
The Computer University offers an introductory program and a full program. Passengers can choose courses that interest them and that support their level of computer skills, from introduction to the PC for neophytes to the World Wide Web on the full program. Depending on the length of a cruise, courses will range from “PC Basics” to “How to Create Your Own Home Page.”
Even hunt-and-peck types can learn word processing, McFarland said.
On a 10-day cruise, there typically will be four or five lectures, followed by four one-hour hands-on lab sessions to learn about Windows 95 and e-mail, plus free time in the computer lab during the day for practice. On a cruise with at least six days at sea, instructors also will teach how to do spreadsheets.
Those on extended cruises will get instruction on databases, mail merge and CD-ROMs. Passengers taking Crystal’s world cruise, for example, will get an amplified curriculum, including instruction on surfing the Web, faxing and phoning directly from the PC, preparing taxes with Turbo Tax and using Microsoft’s Flight Simulator.
So far, Internet interaction is simulated. E-mail is collected in the ship’s Local Area Network server (a technology similar to that used on aircraft carriers, McFarland said). Twice a day the server is connected via satellite to send and receive e-mail.
Although the course is free, there is a $3 charge to send or receive e-mail, which makes the Computer University a potentially respectable producer of revenue for Crystal. Lucky for McFarland too: He’s likely to rack up seven months sailing a year aboard one Crystal ship or another. He also is training 35 people to fill six instructor positions per cruise.
Each ship’s computer lab was molded from a storage room that was expanded to include space from an abutting card-playing lounge. The computer room is equipped with 22 state-of-the-art work stations, desktop and laptop computers, a laser printer and a color printer.
On 1998 cruises, two new elements will be introduced: Passengers will be able to rent laptop computers to use in their staterooms, eliminating the need to go to the lab. Private in-cabin instruction also will be available.
Computer University at Sea also will offer something of a computer university at home. Once program participants leave the ship, they will have access to a special Web site that offers additional help and information, answers questions and helps them surf the World Wide Web.
Already the success of Crystal’s program can be measured in meaningful ways. McFarland tells of “a sweet, white-haired octogenarian couple” who were aboard for the entire world cruise. “They always came to class together, sat next to each other, but never uttered a word.”
It wasn’t until after the cruise that McFarland received a two-page e-mail from the husband, and he realized the couple had found the instruction helpful. The husband’s e-mail “had more words in it than he had said during the entire cruise,” McFarland said. “Turns out the gentleman is so hard of hearing, he can’t communicate with friends anymore, but now he communicates every day by e-mail.”
And if the program’s popularity proved the virtue of McFarland’s foresight and perseverance, it also proved you’re never too old to learn. One 82-year woman who had never touched a computer before the world cruise called McFarland over to her monitor to read her first incoming e-mail. It began: “Dear Grandma, Congratulations. Welcome to the 20th Century. . . .”
———-
For more information on Crystal’s Computer University at Sea, call a travel agent.
