Getting Away: Train to the Islands
Corrections or additions?
This article by Barbara Fox & Kathleen McGinn Spring was prepared for the August 6, 2003 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Hire With Care
Pay as much attention to hiring as you do to buying
equipment, says Thomas D. Hollmann, a consultant on organizational
effectiveness, management training and development.
“The average cost of a professional employee including benefits
is often around $100,000 a year, and you would like the person to
stay with the company for 10 years, so you are talking about a million
dollar investment. You need to spend time thinking about what the
real job it is you want to fill — what the new person will
do over the next 12 to 18 months.”
The son of a German professor at Princeton, Hollman went to Rutgers,
Class of 1966, and has a PhD from the University of Minnesota. He
was a senior industrial psychologist at General Electric and started
his own practice in 1985. He moved his office in Princeton from 353
Nassau Street to 30 Harrison Street last month. (Mainsail Associates
Inc., 609-430-1300; www.mainsailassociates.com).
If as an employer you are worried about getting too many resumes,
write your ad or job postings so that you get only a few resumes,
the right ones. “Most people stress the positive. Instead, describe
the job in very challenging terms with some of the difficulties and
problems that the new incumbent would have to face. That helps unqualified
people screen themselves out,” he says.
What most interviewers look at is a job screen, the ability to do
the job. Hollman also advocates using a quality screen. “As you
get a person’s history, you are sensitive to these areas.”
Results orientation : willingness to make sacrifices toget a job done, to conform to the culture of the workplace, to reportto a client effectively.Analytical ability : both quantitative and qualitative,which can include planning, intuition, street smarts, and drawingaccurate conclusions from incomplete information.Initiative.Innovation: coming up with not just new ideas but usableideas, and having the ability to sell that idea to other people.Interpersonal skills.”All selection and promotion decisions should enhance theorganization,” says Hollman. “Maintaining the status quo shouldbe looked at as a step backwards.”— Barbara FoxTop Of PageGetting Away: Train to the IslandsSo, you’re dying for a summer break, have no plans yet,don’t want to spend a fortune, and would really rather give the wholeairport thing a rest?Consider taking the train to the islands.”It’s been 30 years since cruise ships docked in Manhattan year`round,” says Colleen Robinson, owner of West Windsor-basedcruise booking franchise CruiseOne (www.cruiseone.com/crobinson).In the past, it was possible to catch a train in Princeton Junctionbetween June and September, take a cab to 55th Street, board a cruiseship, and take off for Bermuda. The choices have expanded, and continueto do so, says Robinson. A whole raft of new ships, among them thebiggest and fastest, and also the smallest and most exclusive, aremaking New York City their home port.Thanks to new, faster ships, it is now possible to sail out of NewYork Harbor in the evening and be in warm waters the next morning.Reaching the Bahamas, let alone making it deep into the Caribbean,used to be impractical from northern ports because travel time wasso long that there would be scant time left for snorkeling. Thanksto expanded horsepower driving the superliners, New York to Caribbeancruises are now practical — and seeing demand, cruise ship operatorsare responding with more and more offerings.In a conversation during the last week in July, Robinson says, “Asof today, Norwegian Dawn, a brand new ship, has extended to November2004.” The ship first berthed in the Hudson in May, offering cruisesto Florida and the Bahamas. Extending its range, it is now booking10 and 11-day trips to what Robinson terms “the deep Caribbean”in January and February.The Carnival Legend, a new superliner with no fewer than four swimmingpools, is heading south from Manhattan this summer too, and the luxe RadissonSeven Seas Navigator is adding a twist to the New York/Bermudavacation by extending the cruise to include a stop in Virginia.The newcomer that excites Robinson the most is Royal Caribbean’s Voyagerof the Seas. “It’s the largest ship in the world,” she says.”It has ice skating, a roller blading track, a rock climbing wall,a mini golf course. It’s an absolutely phenomenal ship.” Thissuper-ship has announced that it will sail into New York next May,and stay through October to ferry vacationers on 9-night Caribbeanand 5-night Canadian vacations. “Formerly these ships were availableonly from Florida and San Juan,” Robinson says of the new offerings.Why the increase in New York cruise traffic?”A lot of it has to do with 9/11,” says Robinson. “A lotof people don’t want to fly.” But there are other reasons, aswell. “When you take a plane,” she points out, “you losea day of your vacation on either end.” Maybe more. A vacationerwho gets up at 4:30 a.m. to allow enough time to get through security,spends a few pre-flight hours guarding take-on luggage while entertainingtoddlers and teens, and encounters even low-end flight delays mayneed at least one more day to unwind after the plane lands.Consider the alternative. Get on a train at 10 a.m., catch a cab toa West Side pier, take an elevator to your cabin to drop off yourcarry on bags, and then take another elevator to the pool. After securinga deck chair, get a fruity drink, and splash around for a few hoursbefore moving to a forward deck to watch the Empire State Building,Chelsea Piers, Battery Park City, the Statue of Liberty, and the VerrazanoBridge slowly recede into the distance.”It’s instant relaxation,” says Robinson.Robinson strongly urges vacationers to book well in advance. But forthose who have not done so, there are some amazing last minute deals.A good place to find them is website icruise. Its URL is the somewhatstrange www2.i-cruise.com, but just typing “icruise” intoGoogle brings it up. The site is showing a seven-night Bermuda cruiseon the Pride, a Carnival superliner, starting at $510 per person foran inside cabin and just over $730 for a cabin with a private balcony.These prices do not include port charges or taxes. A disadvantageof sailing from New York, Robinson points out, is high port taxes.When all is said and done, this cruise in the least expensive cabinwill come to about $800 per person, unless there are further pricecuts, which there well could be. Prices on this same cruise in mid-Julycontinued to slide, dropping week by week.Among the many search options on icruise is a search by departureport. Plug in New York and the month you want to leave, and a completelist of cruises from the city pops up. Click on any one for more details.Another outstanding cruise website is CruisesOnly, at www.cruises.comWhile it is not as easy to search as icruise, this site has at leastone very cool feature. About one-third of the way down on its menu,on the left-hand side of the home page, there is an icon for “360degree Ship Tours.” Click on a ship and a menu of IPIX (360 degree,revolving, interactive pictures) choice comes up, showing detailsof every class of cabin, every restaurant, every swimming pool, andevery other public space.A third good cruise website is that of Arthur Frommer travel, at www.frommers.comIts extensive cruise information and links include breaking news,great deals, detailed destination guides and ship reviews.Even with all of the cruise help available on the Internet,many travel writers suggest that the last step, the actual booking,is best done through a travel agent, preferably one specializing incruises. Robinson says that she, like many of her colleagues, monitorscruise prices and obtains money back for his customers if cruise linesdrop their prices as sailing date approaches. In addition to competitiveprices, travel agents can help vacationers decide from among a growingnumber of cruises.Some ships have outstanding child care programs, while others arejust learning about how to keep kids happily busy. Some ships makea big deal of dining, requiring formal attire on two or more nights,while others offer casual options, including a plethora of small come-when-you-wantrestaurants. Some ships have extensive fitness facilities and longstretches of decks for walks under the stars, while others have justa few pieces of equipment and jogging tracks that resemble squirrelcages. Some ships offer most passengers a private balcony, while othershave no balconies at all.Choosing a ship does not end the questions. Far from it. There caneasily be 14 classes of cabin on each ship. Is it worth the moneyto get a balcony? Will an inside cabin feel claustrophobic? Theseare questions Robinson hears all the time. And then there are questionsuninitiated cruisers never think to ask. They can be small things,but they add up.Helping Robinson to untangle the options is her husband, Frank, asemi-retired electrician and part-time travel agent, who, says hiswife, “Loves to be on a boat. He doesn’t care if he ever leaves.”Also supplying unique insight are the couple’s children. Jackie, whois nearly 18 and is preparing for a role in Dracula at the KelseyTheater, has been on 17 cruises. Her sister, Kristen, soon to be aseventh grader at the Grover School, has been on 14 or 15. The pairare experts on shipboard kids programs, and, says their mother, giveRoyal Caribbean high marks, and also like Celebrity and Princess.Cruising from New York can really cut vacation stress for parents,says Robinson. “There’s no whining,” she says. “No draggingkids through airports.” Once onboard a ship with a good children’sprogram, it’s smooth sailing all around. “The parents can enjoythemselves,” she says. “When my kids were little, they leftdinner before dessert to rejoin their group, and they stayed until10 p.m.”All is not bliss with a New York sailing, however. “On weekends,with four ships in dock, it can be chaos,” says Robinson. Thisis especially so for debarking passengers in competition with thousandsof their shipmates for a cab. There is a way around this bottleneck,however. Instead of heading for the taxi stand, take the elevatorto the street, walk a block or two away from the piers, and then haila cab. Anyone with the discipline to pack light (hey, it’s the islands,how much do you need?) could just take to the new walkway along theHudson on foot, and hoof it back to Penn Station.There is parking available on the piers, for about $20 a day, andthe parking lot could be a good option for anyone traveling with fourchildren and/or a trunkload of formal gowns.For the ultimate in vacation relaxation, though, try the train/shipconnection. No car, no plane, no hassles. Really, it feels like beatingthe system.Top Of PageNew in Genetics at RutgersRutgers will be home to a new genetics resource forscientists worldwide intent on solving the hereditary puzzles at thecore of such diseases as diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, andkidney disorders. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestiveand Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), a unit of the National Institutesof Health (NIH), has awarded a five-year, $9.3 million contract tocreate the genetic repository.”We are interested in studying genetics of the many diseases thatNIDDK investigates,” Jay Tischfield, Duncan and Nancy MacMillanProfessor of Genetics, and chair of the department of genetics atRutgers, said in a prepared statement. “Rutgers’ repository willnow enable investigators around the world to conduct population andfamily-based research on the genetic bases of these painful and debilitatingafflictions.”The Rutgers University Cell and DNA Repository (RUCDR), of which Tischfieldis scientific director, will collect, maintain and distribute celllines and DNA for the NIDDK from human populations worldwide. Consistentwith NIH initiatives that mandate the sharing of human biomaterialsand research data, the new repository will provide researchers opportunitiesto collaborate internationally and study common pools of subjectsto find genes that predispose individuals to such diseases.The NIDDK award comes on the heels of a $22.6 million cooperativeagreement award to Rutgers from the National Institute of Mental Health(NIMH) for a similar project in support of research into the geneticsof mental disorders. Rutgers is now the genetic repository and resourcefor four NIH institutes: NIMH, NIDDK, the National Institute on DrugAbuse (NIDA), and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism(NIAAA).Established in 1998 on Rutgers’ Busch campus, the Rutgers cell andDNA repository supports NIH and privately funded charitable researchon mental diseases; disorders such as heroin, cocaine and tobaccoabuse; diabetes and obesity; and aging and longevity. In these effortsRUCDR produces from 1,200 to 1,500 cell lines per month, approximatelyfive times as many as any other research facility.Top Of PagePlease DonateThe Stony Brook Millstone Watershed is sponsoring a car raffleat this year’s WatershedFest, to be held on October 4. The organizationhopes to sell 1,200 tickets for $50 each. The prize is a 2004 HondaCivic gas-electric hybrid car.The Watershed, promoting its prize, says that the car, which has abattery as well as a fuel-efficient gasoline-burning engine, gets48 miles per gallon.To purchase a ticket call 609-737-3735 for directions to the Watershed’sPennington office, or log onto the non-profit’s website, www.thewatershed.org.Top Of PageCorporate AngelsThe MTAACC Empowerment Fund, an initiative of the MetropolitanTrenton African American Chamber of Commerce, together with RiderUniversity, presented awards to participants in a two-and-a-halfweek entrepreneurial program on Tuesday, July 15. Participants were12-year-old Trenton public school students who learned how to startand run a business. Each student came up with a business idea andsupported it with a business plan.The New Jersey Association of Realtors , through its educationfoundation, has awarded 20 scholarships totally $27,750 to studentspursuing careers in real estate related fields.The education foundation was established in 1969 and provides scholarshipsto members of the New Jersey Association of Realtors and to membersof their families. To date, $344,100 in scholarship money has beenawarded.Starbucks stores in New Jersey have collected 32,000 books forthe Boys and Girls Clubs of New Jersey. The community-driven effort,geared toward giving children the books they need to get started ona lifetime of reading, surpassed its goal by a large measure, bringingin twice the number of books that the coffee house chain sought tocollect.Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
