Guide shares the Happe- ness of travel

 

 

Editor’s Note: This is the 29th in a series of stories researched during Don and Nancy Harrison’s 50th Wedding Anniversary cruise from Sydney, Australia, to San Diego.  Previous installments of the series, which runs every Thursday, may be found by tapping the number of the installment:   1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28

By Donald H. Harrison

AT SEA, Aboard MS Maasdam – Shore excursions are an important profit center for cruise lines, and if profits were their only motive, one supposes they would work hard to sell group excursions, while discouraging independent travel.  However, this is not the case aboard Holland-America Line’s Maasdam, where one well-trained employee, David Happe, is specifically assigned to brief passengers, both in lectures and in one-on-one meetings, about opportunities awaiting them on shore if they decide to tour on their own.  It’s a job that involves a lot of research on Happe’s part, in person, in libraries, and on the computer.

During a cruise segment between French Polynesia and Hawaii, I had the chance to sit down with Happe to learn his background as well as his methodology for scoping out a port.  He was graduated from Concordia College in Austin, Texas, and for a while worked in the pizza industry in his home town of San Antonio, Texas, before signing up for a 10-day course in Denver, Colorado, from the International Guide Academy.  “They teach you the basics of tour management,” he said.  “There are different scenarios—how to handle passenger concerns, or emergencies that come up, or how to do practical types of organization and routing.”  With the certification that he had successfully completed the course, Happe was hired for the summer season by a tour company in Skagway, Alaska.  With that experience under his belt, Happe  in 2010 next went to work for Holland-America Line in its on-board excursions department, which sells the shore excursions to passengers.

“I did another season of Alaska on the ships, and did three contracts with them,” Happe recalled.  “I went to four different continents, and that was the first time I ever went to Europe, South America, and Africa, so that was quite a great experience.  Then I got off ships for a few years, and in 2015, I came back as an EXC guide (EXC being an abbreviation for excursions) for independent travelers.  I started in Asia and since then I’ve done all seven continents and probably 60 to 70 ports up to this point.”

When he researches a port, or lectures aboard the ship about what to do and see, “the way I try to go about it, is how will the guests see it?  So, I try to find out where we will dock, what is around there in terms of services, what the facilities are like, what the transportation options are from there, and from there I try to put together where the sites are – that is how I put the puzzle together.  Essentially, it is trying to imagine how the guests would go about their day.”

While Happe must rely on the Internet, published guide books, other ESC guides, and email correspondence with port and tourism authorities for those ports that he hasn’t visited before, “there are quite a few places that I have had previous experiences in my travels.”  When he gets off a ship, “I will jump on a sightseeing tour, or I will go on a hop-on, hop-off bus, to get a feeling of where everything is.  I also ride public transportation to get an idea of the small details of it.”

Much of what Happe learns goes into the computerized files that he stores on his iPad.  He avoids keeping a lot of paper notes because of airline weight and luggage restrictions that he must observe when flying from home to ship, or back.  However, in conversation with him, it became obvious that he also has a retentive memory.  I asked him about his impressions of San Diego, my home town and a frequent port of call for Holland-America ships, as well as about his impressions of the Israeli ports of Ashdod and Haifa.

He was upbeat about San Diego’s attractions, many of which are quite close to the B-Street Cruise terminal where the Holland-America ships typically dock.  “San Diego embodies Southern California, but it is different from what many visitors expect,” Happe said.  “When people think of Southern California, they have a mental image of Hollywood and Los Angeles.  San Diego is a place that is easier going.  It is a smaller city, yet a city with a lot of history.  I like to talk about the military influence in San Diego, the fact that the city is a crossroads of culture being on the Mexican border, and I also tell them about the beaches, about Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, the Gaslamp Quarter, the USS Midway, the Star of India, and such world-class entertainment venues as Sea World, the San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park.”

He added that visitors to San Diego “are pleasantly surprised by the easy-going vibe, and the accessibility of places to the cruise ship.  They like the idea that they are able to get around easily, that they can enjoy authentic cuisines from around the world, and that they don’t have to go up to Los Angeles to have that experience.  Those passengers who venture to La Jolla and the beach areas are very pleasantly surprised.”

I asked if many passengers venture across the U.S.-Mexico border to visit Tijuana.  He responded that few do, primarily because they know that the ship has a set sailing time and they are afraid of long border waits.  Less so than before, but nevertheless a factor, he said, are fears that there is violence in Mexico and that they might not be safe.

We also spoke about Israel.  From the port city of Ashdod, visitors can take a two-hour bus or taxi ride to Jerusalem, there to see such sites as the Temple Mount, the Western Wall (Kotel), and the Old City, with its market stalls.  From the port city of Haifa, one can visit the beautiful gardens of the Baha’i Temple, or perhaps explore such biblical Christian sites as the city of Nazareth, he said.

Depending on the political climate at the time, he said, he may or may not recommend that visitors go to Bethlehem, which is located within the Palestinian Authority.  “We watch the news,” he said.  “If matters are on the lower end of tension, we definitely recommend that visitors go to Bethlehem, but if things are in a rough state, then we discourage passengers from doing that, but to instead stay on the Israeli side – just for safety reasons.”

He commented that Israel’s security “is very straightforward; they don’t mess around.  If they see someone who seems a little bit different, they will take him aside.  Israelis live their daily lives; there is not an aura of being under siege.”

During his contact periods with Holland-America, which typically run four to five months, Happe has been assigned to different ships on the fleet.  I asked if it were true that different ships have different “personalities.”

“There is a different feel for every ship,” he responded.  “The smaller ones feature a more tight-knit community than the larger ones.  It also depends on the destinations, which provide the vibe for the ship. … Maasdam is a very determined ship.  She is an experienced ship [launched January 1, 1993].  She shows her age a bit, but she doesn’t stop going.  She goes to some of the best places, the best itineraries, and she has a pride about her, taking people to and from those places.  Few other ships I think could match that kind of pride.  She is a wanderer and has no regrets about that.”

Seeing the world was Happe’s initial reason for wanting to join the Holland-America staff.  Once aboard, he learned of another very special attraction.

“One of the best parts of coming to sea is the fact that we work with people from all over the world, and really see each other as people. We put aside our differences to make the best possible experience possible for the passengers.  On the Maasdam, there are perhaps 20-25 different nationalities, and we get along with each other.  We are not divided by our differences.  We all are here with the same goal and mission.”

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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com