It isn’t often that cruise passengers encounter a female cruise director so we were somewhat surprised to hear Jaime Dee’s voice over the public address system soon after boarding Carnival Liberty. In fact, over the past twenty-plus years Mel and I have sailed on only two ships with entertainment staffs headed by female cruise directors.While some passengers feel that a cruise director can make or break their onboard experience, I’ve never noticed that it made a big difference in mine. Not until encountering Jaime, that is. Her energy and enthusiasm is positively infectious and she leads the pack when it comes to engaging passengers—it’s been a long time since I’ve seen activities and deck parties so well attended on any ship. She does it fourteen hours a day, seven days a week, and never slows down. She even got me and my bad knees dancing along.
Only twenty-six, metro Detroit native Jaime became involved in theater as a young girl and moved to interactive dinner theater before graduating from Michigan State with degrees in community relations and psychology. Jaime wanted to travel after graduation and—having been on cruises in the past—her mother suggested she go to sea. As a result of her encouragement, Jaime began her journey with Carnival Cruise Lines five years ago as a member of their entertainment staff. On her move up to Assistant Cruise Director, she served on ten ships and was part of the Carnival Splendor inauguration team where I first encountered her. Presently Jaime’s position is Acting Cruise Director on Carnival Liberty and she looks forward to being assigned to her own ship. She’s never forgotten her roots as an entertainer and credits her voice coach Debbie Tedrick with instilling in her a sense of integrity and honor.
As one of three female cruise directors presently sailing with Carnival Cruise Lines, Jaime looks upon her gender as a positive—women are happy to see one of our own in charge. In addition, she enjoys her role as “mom” to crewmembers when they need a bit of compassion and understanding. For others who would like to follow in her footsteps, she says they should let their personalities shine through and answer all the questions they are asked when interviewed. Applicants should only apply if they want to work hard and help passengers have a good experience on their cruise.
Jaime finds it great to reconnect with passengers who’ve sailed with her before and her advice for cruisers to make the most out of their vacation is to be involved. As a rule, I don’t often turn the television on in my cabin, but I tuned in for Jaime’s “Morning Show” on a regular basis while aboard Carnival Liberty to follow her incredibly fun and entertaining interaction with my shipmates.
If you think Jaime looks familiar—as I did—and don’t recognize her last name, “Dee” is short for Deitsch. It was a pleasure to meet with her and hear her story and I hope our paths cross again in the future.
Thanks for sharing a bit of time with me, Jaime, and for posing with my travel kitten Pres!
Photo © CruiseDiva.com
9 comments:
I just finished a cruise (my first) with her as cruise director (CD) (acting or offical? not sure) on the Carnival Pride, on June 17, 2012. I was unsure what her full name was, but after a quick search on Google a day or two after getting back to reality, I found consistent praises about her work.
I also learned through my research that the experience with her is unique. As a result, now I do not want to take my next cruise unless I can be sure she's onboard. Will I? If I must, as I have caught the cruise bug. However, I find myself waiting and following John Heald's blog to see when the Fall schedule will be posted, and of course I will stay tuned for the Spring 2013. John Heald seems like a great guy, too, and I am entertaining the Carnival Breeze for various reasons. I believe he is the CD on that ship.
As a first time cruiser and I guess caught up in the nastalgia, I really did not realize Jaime was just doing her JOB. Frankly, I never knew there were "cruise directors" and she certainly never made it seem like she was doing a job; more like she was just having fun and enjoying her time with all of us vacationers, too.
If you have not cruised with Jaime, definitely keep your eyes open to see if she will be on your next cruise, and if she is, double SCORE! :D
hello shipmate i was also on the carnival pride from July 8th to July 15 and Jamie was loads of fun from the her funny shows at the taj mahal to her morning shows along Gumby it was a wonderful cruise
I sailed on the Pride out of Baltimore July 1-8, 2012, and Jamie was our Cruise Director. What an amazing young woman. She made the time on the ship fun with constant activities and entertainment. Someone in our group nicknamed her the energizer bunny. A good name. Also she was very personable and helpful. A friend expressed a desire to obtain a cookbook that is no longer available on ship. Jamie went out of her way to obtain some of my friends's requested recipes.
Louise
Thank you all for adding your wonderful experiences. Jaime is a treasure!
Best, Linda
We were aboard the carnival dream that was stuck in St.Marteen for 3 days until we flew out. I would just Like to Thank Jaime the cruise director who did a fantastic job with keeping the passengers up to date with the progress of getting us home. She worked above and beyond the call of duty. I hope she is my next cruise directorwhen I sail with the Carnival Cruise Lines
Jaime I love you so before we book our next cruise we are going to call, and see what boat you are on :-) :-) :-)
Thanks Always your favorite , :-). *MARISSA :-) *
Just finished sailing with Jaime on the Dream and she was amazing! She has such great energy and makes every activity she hosts/is a part of enjoyable. I would love to cruise with her again.
I just finished sailing on the Carnival Dream with Jaime as the cruise director, and she was FANTASTIC! She made everything more fun and entergetic, and she was hilarious!
She is an amazing CD on the Sunshine currently. We just returned this morning and wanted to add a comment of praise
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