S03.E05: I'm Ironing The Captain's Shorts

[Giselle]

Has anyone really complained about Leon's meals? All I recall is compliments. So if the guests are satisfied and saying the meals are great, then Kate is just being bitchy to amp up drama. Ok, so Leon did beef cheeks two charters in a row. Only the crew know that so what does it matter? I think Kate just wants her pal Ben back and enjoys making Leon look bad. I don't see Leon as the type to quit mid-season just because Kate's so nasty to him, so I'm wondering how it is that Ben returns.

 

I think Leon will leave because a guest has a special request and he either ignores it and does his own thing as he tends to do or he sets Kate and the Stews up for failure and thus fails the guests. Or the Captain sees/hears what is going on and hands Leon a ticket.

 

I see Leon as very subversive, one who is disrespectful, who is not a team player and would throw the entire boat under the bus. He does what he wants to the fullest extent that he can and it doesn't matter if you are a paying guest. I don't care how many scenes they show of him talking to his girls, he is not a nice person. He may be a decent chef but he's a disrespectful  prick. 

 

If I am paying this much for a cruise don't give me frigging spaghetti with chili sauce give me Mexican food not a Cincinnati Chili Size (which I love by the way). Don't give me a braised meat dish when I request something grilled. You are not saving the boat any money by marginalizing the guests requests. You're cutting off a source of future income, yours and the boats. If this show were in your resume I as a boat owner would check it out and when I saw what you were doing I wouldn't be hiring you.

 

As far as Kate and the Don Julio, I believe that if a guest requests a liquor or other non-perishable to be on hand just buy it. It won't go bad. If it's not drunk then it is in stock for another guest. How great would it be to expose a future guest to something special if they have never had it before. It could raise you as a stewardess, the boat and the trip experience in their eyes.

[candall]

I've never had the impression that Kate dislikes Leon because of the meals he chooses to make, but rather the unbelievably dickish way he responds when she dares to ask a question about it.

When she "dares to ask a question"?  Oh yeah, I keep forgetting Kate's constant struggle to work up her nerve.  : )

 

 

Maybe Leon's caught on that many of her questions are geared toward the purpose of gathering ammunition so she can sneer at him to the crew and camera.  QEII?  Walmart.

 

Variation in mileage.

Edited September 29, 2015 by candall

[RedHawk]

Kate and Leon are apparently just like oil and water. She seems to be gathering "evidence" that he has possibly never before been a chef on a charter yacht. He claims 12 previous charters, IIRC. Does she go to Capt. Lee at some point and say, "Leon lied about his previous yacht experience." I think Capt. Lee would say, "So what?" unless it was in connection with another egregious action on Leon's part, such as being outright rude to guests or refusing a direct request for a specific meal, including an ingredient a guest said they are allergic to, etc. He's something of a jerk, I'll give you that, but no one else in the crew seems that bothered by him.

[RedHawk]

Rocky is such a ham.

A deviled one, for sure.

[autumnh]

Leon is insufferable.

[Giselle]

A deviled one, for sure.

 

...and canned.

 

If only it were also in the fired sense and not just her shtick.

[ihartcoffee]

I agree!! And, forgive my culinary ignorance, but are beef cheeks just what they sound like - the cheeks of the cow?

I am not a very adventurous eater, and that would probably be something that I would NEVER order in a restaurant - I got the feeling this group of passengers had pretty normal food requirements. They wanted "butterflied filet mignon", which is something that I, even with my unrefined palate, would never order (I'm not a fancy eater, but I do know good steak and how to prepare it, LOL!!). They also mentioned that they ate chicken fingers while they went on land, and just wanted a cheese plate when they returned, so I got the feeling that their focus was more on good/premium alcohol than on fancy, pretentious food choices.

I didn't like it when Leon said "well, I'll give them beef cheeks instead of the filet", and I never liked it when Ben used to mock guests for their food requests. These are the guests that are paying to be on the boat - they should have what they want, not what you think they should have!! If they want to eat Froot Loops for breakfast and Velveeta grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, then you give them Froot Loops for breakfast and Velveeta grilled cheese for lunch. They are paying you to serve them. First rule of dealing with customers - the customer is always right!

Amen! Love this post, especially the last paragraph.

He does later admit its about making the guests happy. But after being a big jerk to Kate for relaying the customer's requests he came off pretty bad. Talk about shoot the messenger, would he have said that with the customer standing there?

I hope he does go, he's unpleasant.

[kassa]

How far in advance did they get the preference sheet?  From what it seems it's the day before, so Kate didn't necessarily have a lot of unused lead time to search out that particular brand of tequila.

 

 

I’m thinking She Who Looks Down Her Nose at the QE2 like it’s a Carnival Cruise to Nowhere took one look at the primary’s photo and decided he’d never know the difference from shelf liquor. I wonder if they get bonuses for coming in under budget on food/drink?

 

So if the tip is $1500 per employee, that's pretty good money for their effort.  And no income tax on those envelopes full of cash.

 

 

They still owe the tax no matter where they made it, and they’d be stupid not to declare the income after accepting it on national television.

[Bruinsfan]

Aren't taxes for things like that dependent on the laws of the Cayman Islands (where the yacht is registered) rather than the home countries of people working on it?

[biakbiak]

Aren't taxes for things like that dependent on the laws of the Cayman Islands (where the yacht is registered) rather than the home countries of people working on it?

Nope, US citizens still have to pay income taxes when working abroad unless they are out if the country for more than 300 plus days days, I forget the exact number, but my dad missed Christmas twice when working abroad because coming back to the states would have put him over the number for the year. All of the participants except for Leon and Emile live in the states for most of the year. Plus they are all being paid by Bravo.

Edited October 2, 2015 by biakbiak

[Liberty]

..... Plus they are all being paid by Bravo.

 

How much do they receive per episode?

 

Very difficult for me to believe:

1) they all receive the same amount of tips, 

2) someone receives $500/day in tips for work as an interior or exterior employee,

3) that for $500/day in tips they do not find better employees,

4) that an interior or exterior employee would quit a job that paid $500/day in tips,

5) that the primary guest carries around $15000 in cash

6) that Rocky could have received a $1500 tip and then needed people to pitch in to buy shots at the bar a day later.

 

So my thinking is that the tip amounts that Captain Lee distributes are Bahamian magic.

Edited October 2, 2015 by Liberty

[BogoGog24]

I don't think it's really that hard to believe. Capt. Lee stated in the first episode of the season that they all share the tip and many workplaces do that as an incentive to work harder so that there aren't any hard feelings that a deckhand earns less than a stew, etc. Now obviously their actual salaries are different (Kate would obviously get a higher salary than Amy and Rocky, for example).

Also if the primary knows they need to leave a tip at the end, of course they would make sure to bring enough cash on board with them. I've noticed that they get the tip in Bahamian money or whatever it is, so perhaps the primary goes somewhere off camera and exchanges it or draws from their account. Not really that difficult to believe. And knowing Rocky, she probably misplaced her tip or just didn't bring enough money with her to the bar.

I don't think it's been revealed how much they get paid by Bravo but it can't be much. It was revealed awhile ago how much the Vanderpump Rules cast gets, I forget the exact amount, but it rose over the course of the seasons, so by season 3 they were getting paid more than in season 1, and I think some of them got more than others, depending on how important (I.e. dramatic and exciting) they are to the show. They certainly get paid enough for what they're doing but it's not astronomical amounts of money (first season I believe was $5000 per episode) so I expect Below Deck cast gets a similar amount or less.

Edit: Just found the VP Rules article- in season 1 they made $5000 for the entire season, not per episode. Season 2 it was raised to $3000 per episode, then for season 3 it was $5000 per episode, although that might be what secondary characters get, as a primary cast member stated they get more than that. I could only find estimated salaries of Below Deck and that's what they'd get paid for their actual job, not by Bravo. Couldn't find anything about what Bravo would pay them, but I imagine it's similar to VP Rules or less.

Edited October 2, 2015 by BogoGog24

[turbogirlnyc]

I don't think it's really that hard to believe. Capt. Lee stated in the first episode of the season that they all share the tip and many workplaces do that as an incentive to work harder so that there aren't any hard feelings that a deckhand earns less than a stew, etc. Now obviously their actual salaries are different (Kate would obviously get a higher salary than Amy and Rocky, for example).

Also if the primary knows they need to leave a tip at the end, of course they would make sure to bring enough cash on board with them. I've noticed that they get the tip in Bahamian money or whatever it is, so perhaps the primary goes somewhere off camera and exchanges it or draws from their account. Not really that difficult to believe. And knowing Rocky, she probably misplaced her tip or just didn't bring enough money with her to the bar.

I don't think it's been revealed how much they get paid by Bravo but it can't be much. It was revealed awhile ago how much the Vanderpump Rules cast gets, I forget the exact amount, but it rose over the course of the seasons, so by season 3 they were getting paid more than in season 1, and I think some of them got more than others, depending on how important (I.e. dramatic and exciting) they are to the show. They certainly get paid enough for what they're doing but it's not astronomical amounts of money (first season I believe was $5000 per episode) so I expect Below Deck cast gets a similar amount or less.

Edit: Just found the VP Rules article- in season 1 they made $5000 for the entire season, not per episode. Season 2 it was raised to $3000 per episode, then for season 3 it was $5000 per episode, although that might be what secondary characters get, as a primary cast member stated they get more than that. I could only find estimated salaries of Below Deck and that's what they'd get paid for their actual job, not by Bravo. Couldn't find anything about what Bravo would pay them, but I imagine it's similar to VP Rules or less.

I'm guessing much less than VP Rules. The ratings for VP Rules is probably higher.