Letter from a crew member

I never got to meet you sir, I was a former crew/staff member for Carnival Cruise Lines. Suffice it to say I did not know what I was getting into when I applied for an onboard job. Nevertheless I stuck it out for 3 years, crew camarederie is one of the best things that experience has given me. The crew as you know, consists of people from all over the globe. We learn about other cultures and we learned to co-exist, I was grateful to have a taste of that experience, it makes me hopeful that when the world would be much smaller everyone can indeed live together in harmony and Ship life is a great precedent for this. 
I no longer work for you, but my husband does, Varoon Kessop has been of service for more than seven years. When we had a baby the choice to leave his family is just ten times more difficult but his loyalty to Carnival prevailed. It was in fact reciprocated as he was just recently promoted as manager of his department.

This week while onboard the Carnival Destiny, after work hours, as he was standing in line at the Pizzeria, a guest randomly tackled him to the ground. He was dazed of course but what is worst is that this guest accused him of lewd behaviour, going as far as saying he did sexual gesture towards a woman he claims to be his mom, this in fact was not seen by anyone else other than his own gang. The crew members around the area can attest that nothing of that sort happened before the attack. And even if with the remote possibility that some random body gesture that my husband might have made that could have been by a long shot intended to any woman in that matter-as this fact still remains to be proven—This is no justification for the physical attack which occurred. 
As it happens my husband was eventually suspended from work, and as of now has been terminated from the company. He was not given due process, he was actually not given a chance to face his attacker, and in fact was treated as if he was the one who instigated the incident. He was stripped off of his staff rights and is under guard in his cabin like a common ship offender. On the other hand there seems to be no investigation or background check for the attacker, and he still can roam around the ship free to attack any other crewmember if he wants to. Normally I would think that the Ship’s human resource department was created to shield the crew members from incidents like these, but apparently it doesn’t. Apparently any guest who felt like tackling a crew member can do so without having to worry about the repercussions as the ship policy would surely take the easy low road of persecuting the underdogs. My husband asked for a chance to plea his case to the captain or any other official but no one heeded this plea and was simply dismissed.


Is this the fate that awaits all crewmembers? 


Is this the reason why you are all too eager to hire people from anywhere else in the world other than the US so when incidents like this happen you can easily dismiss the crew in favor of your guests?

I understand you are in the hospitality business but in an incident like this is there no protection, not even a consideration for the welfare of your employees? Perhaps you should write this in bold letters for all your application forms: That this company doesn’t give a shit about you if you got involved in any incident with the guests. 
Let me just reiterate the fact that my husband did not initiate the incident, my husband has a good moral standing in your company, you can ask everyone whom he worked with and they can attest that he is not a malicious person. You can ask the Photo Department that he has loyally served for years. He is a good Christian, he is a responsible family man. You can place this reference against the said accusser’s references… But then again nobody bothered to do that. 
I personally will not choose for him to further work for your company, not after this incident, what I ask is a chance to clear his name. If it happened that he punched someone in a drunken stupor I will not be writing this letter. But he didn’t. He is innocent yet he has been treated unjustly. I hope you look into this incident and check the company’s policies and to review how it can protect your employees from incidents like these. I on the other hand will make sure that all the crewmember I know will know how to fight for their rights.

Thank you very much,


Aileen Alcampado-Kessop


Carnival Miracle, Carnival Holiday


AV Staff 2008