Jorge Caeiro, Maitre d’ Hotel on Silver Cloud, keeps staff and diners happy. “He makes you want to keep coming back to Silversea,” says Betti and Marvin Haven, who have cruised more than 300 days on the luxury line.
Saturday, when Silver Cloud docked in St. John’s, Antigua, Hotel d’ Maitre Jorge Caeiro did something he often does in port: He ran — for 10 miles.
In fact, Caeiro says that if you were to look at a Silversea 2012 catalog, which lists more than 450 destinations worldwide, it would be difficult to find a port where he has not laced up his running shoes and gone out for a jog. For the past 27 years, running has given Caeiro inspiration and energy for a job that can be very demanding.
Heading out for a run when Silver Cloud docked in St. John’s, Antigua, the ship’s first port of call after six days at sea.
“When I have decisions to make or if I’ve had a stressful evening, I put on my shoes and shorts and off I go,” he says. ”When I come back, the stress is gone and the decisions have been made. I think on my feet. If I am at a computer, I have to force myself to think. It doesn’t feel natural. Big decisions require a run.”
His route is nearly always the same, along the water, so that it’s easy for him to find his way back. When Silver Cloud is at sea, as it was during the six days we spent crossing the Atlantic, Caeiro runs on the upper deck, after his shift in the Restaurant.
Fit as a fiddle, despite the temptations aboard a cruise ship. “Running gives so much energy,” Caeiro says. “Sometimes people think it takes away energy, but it’s actually the other way around.”
Well-suited for his job, Caeiro says he was born with a gift: the joy of giving. “It makes me feel good when I do something that people appreciate,” he says.
He’s viewed professionally as being extremely attentive and accommodating, appreciated by his staff and by Silversea guests. ”He makes you want to keep coming back to Silversea,” says Betti and Marvin Haven, who have cruised more than 300 days on the luxury line.
Caeiro comes from Portugal, where he grew up with parents who were deaf. He started work at age 14, a self-made man. ”All of my life, my hands have been full with work,” Caeiro says. “But I’ve always done it with a sense of goodwill. Running has given me the energy and the strength to do so.”
