William Neugebauer, QE2 Printer/Chief Printer 1996-2003

[williamneugebauer]

Just wanted to take a quick moment to say hi. Name's William Neugebauer and was on QE2 from 1996 to 2003 as both Printer and Chief Printer. Headed over to France in 2003 to finish up the Mary and stuck around there as Chief Printer until 2006.

Hope to see some familiar faces!

[Janice Naylor]

Hi William - Welcome to the Forum.  I look forward to hearing "Stories from the Printing Room!"

Janice

[Peter Mugridge]

Ah... we were passengers in 2002, so will have read some of your products, namely the daily newsletters.  Still have them in fact; they reside in our honeymoon albums.

[cunardqueen]

Welcome onboard William
I would love to hear more about your job and what exactly you did, the time frame etc for printing the menus and daily programmes, ie how far inadvance could you print the menus. How long did they take to print? and the daily programmes what time would you start printing them. I did notice one year they were in colour, but l think this was before the dates you mention.
How many staff did you have in the print shop?
 Cheers
Myles     

[Twynkle]

Hello William - and Welcome on board!


It's great that you have joined us
and when you have time to explore these parts, if you haven't already -
maybe you'll be interested to find this!
https://www.theqe2story.com/forum/index.php/topic,2704.0.html
and
https://www.theqe2story.com/forum/index.php/topic,2054.0.html

There are also more links here with the Print Shop -
just put 'print', 'printing' etc into the Advanced search window above!
I may be incorrect, I seem to remember another crew-member signing in here,
and he too worked in the Print shop - try as I might, I can't find the link at the moment
maybe you'll reach his thread before I do!

Hope that you'll add more, as and when you can.
It sounds as if the Print Shop Schedules were pretty demanding!!

Hope that you'll enjoy the Forum!
Rosie.

[williamneugebauer]

Thanks for the hellos folks. Just to give you a quick and dirty summary:

The Print Shop was unique in that it was staffed almost exclusively by American students after QE2 went to the international crew. The staff, which back in the day went up to four Printers and one Chief was supplied by the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. RIT has an extremely distinguished School of Printing in it's College of Imaging Arts and Sciences. They would do three month contracts as part of their co-op requirements for graduation. Usually it would be a one off contract and there was always fresh blood flowing through the shop.

The Print Shop was (well, technically still is) located on Six Deck, aft of WTD 18 between B-Stair and Crew Stair 5. Numerous paper and chemical lockers were located fore and aft of it, with bulk paper stores in 3 Hold down on 8 Deck. Equipment wise, when I was on board, we had two printing presses, one being a Heidelberg GTO (later replaced by a Heidelberg QM-46) and a small Ryobi duplicator. The Heidelbergs were where we usually ran our high quality work (namely anything with halftones, so the Daily Programmes, Port Highlights, Advertisements, etc). The Ryobi was for Menus, Wine Lists and other text-only work. There was a small dark room from back when we made all of our printing plates with film. There were also three DTP workstations where the Daily Programme was designed as well as the menus and other internal collateral. Hidden away in the back was a small wet bar stocked with a nice selection of drinks supplied mostly by senior officers as thanks for helping them out with unusual jobs. Well, it WAS there until security raided it after an, ahem, incident.

Over the years staffing was reduced from the high of five down to two as technology optimized production techniques. Moving away from film was a gift from god as it was impossible to get people trained in the process anymore. Also, design of the Programme was eventually moved to the Programme Coordinator in the Cruise Staff office and the menus became more and more standardized over the years.

We did contribute to the death of many trees down there and kept those presses humming. But while I NEVER admitted it onboard, it was a cush job as we could always get ashore because most of our minimum daily printing was done in the evening (Newspapers, Programmes and Menus) and we would schedule all the other work for sea days. Plus we had full Public Room privileges and decommissioned pax cabins with stewards. Cabin 5041 was my home for most of that time, and a damn nice cabin IMHO.

Between my time on there and QM2, it was a great decade. We had excellent support from the Cunard management vis-a-vis our unusual staffing situation and they were very supportive in terms of making sure it was stocked with honest to god printing presses as opposed to the junk put in a lot of ships. Honestly, I think we just flew under the radar as we went from Trafalgar to Keverner to Carnival to (god have mercy) Princess. As long as we churned out the work and didn't cause too much trouble, we were taken care of. Still, we had some guardian angels who took care of us and I'm very thankful to them.

Anyway, that's it for now!

[Janice Naylor]

Very interesting William.  Another area of QE2 life I knew nothing about.  Of all the colleges and universities in the world, how did students from Rochester, NY end up on board?  What was the original connection? I live in New York so it's of particular interest to me.  Do you know if students from RIT are still sailing the seas in the print rooms of other ships?  Sounds like a great way to spend a semester!

Janice

 

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Great to read your story, and I hope there will be lots more! You obviously managed to stay on board beyond the three months... 

I was once lucky enough to be able to get my camera lens on a very special item from the printshop :


October 2008 by prondis_in_kenya, on Flickr

You might be interested in the first of the comments on the Flickr page too -- did you know Nick Herber while on board?

[Louis De Sousa]

Welcome to the forum from another ex-crewmember, hope you have a good time here.

[QE2 Canuck]

Hi William.... welcome to the forum.... I sailed 8 times on QE2 between 1996 and 2008. I kept every one of my daily programmes and the menus our waiters gave us and I have them all in my travel albums... I still enjoy going back and reading them.... they were always very informative and well laid out. 
Good to hear from you.

QE2 Canuck     Linda C

[williamneugebauer]

Just to answer a few of your comments...

Peter Mugridge: I'm glad you held onto the Programmes. One of the biggest arguments I made about trying to keep out equipment as high end as possible was that I knew people held on to them and they were long lasting reminders of people's voyages. I'm glad you still hold on to them.


Cunardqueen: When I originally started, each days menu was essentially custom. During my first contract, it was my job to go up to the Executive Chef's office and sit down with him as he altered an old menu by hand. I'd then go back below decks and typeset them for all the restaurants and bring him proofs. He'd then tweak them as needed up to several more times as he changed his mind, ran out of ingredients, etc. It was later in the evening they wen't final and were printed. As they went to the menu cycle, it became much less laborious but they did still need tweaking, again, as ingredients ran out, etc. By the time the Mary came out, the chef was supposed to be doing all of his changes in spreadsheets, but it just never worked right. Chefs are chefs and not necessarily good with computers. As for the Programme, it was much the same with. Just lots of running to the Cruise Staff office and then making changes on six deck. One of the biggest challenges was trying to keep them tasteful, because, well lets just say some Cruise Directors had very poor taste when it came to graphic design. Sometimes we won, but depending on the egos upstairs, sometimes we didn't. One of the last things I did before leaving the company was standardize the Programmes and make them fully template based so that they would be consistent in look, feel and function. I honestly don't know if that basic design exists anymore, but I hope it does. As far as the color, we always utilized shells for the Programme that were printed ashore with the various mastheads over the years. When we upgraded from the Heidelberg GTO to the QM-46, we did occasionally do full color as a treat for the pax, but it was a nightmare to do as it really pushed the boundaries of the equipment and sometimes the results were less than ideal. But damnit, we tried.


Janice Naylor: I forget exactly how RIT came into the mix. The general story was that a Cunard executive met someone at the School of Printing and when they struck up a conversation, the Cunard exec lamented about the problems they were having with the union crew in the Print Shop and the RIT person jokingly offered students as a replacement. Apparently six months later the Cunard exec contacted the gentleman from RIT and asked when could the students start. Just one of those things. I really don't know if the students are still out there; let's just say Princess had different ways of doing things.


Isabelle Prondzynski: Ah you snagged a shot of the crew calendar, eh? I loved doing those and being as snarky as I could with them without getting in trouble. And yep, I did work with Nick; super nice guy.

[Rob Lightbody]

Just a wee note to say that i visited the print room last week when back on board, and it is totally untouched.  The farewell posters are on the wall, and christmas cards are still hanging up.  I took a few pics and will post them with the others as soon as i get a chance.

It would be nice to simply put a perspex sheet of plastic over the door now, and preserve the room as it is for history, but allow people to see in.

Great story!

[cunardqueen]

Thanks William for the answers, l remember a visit in the late 80s to the printshop as part of a very unofficial and hurried (so hurried l couldnt get my camera) tour but what l do remember was seeing the old programmes on the wall and thinking what a selection of history was up there.Im pleased that what remains is still there, and as rob says a perspex sheet over the door to preserve it for history, and if "they" ever did behind the scenes tour a fortune could be made.

I have all the programmes/menus (and numerous copies) from my trips since 86 and its quite surprising how much they have changed, and when l consider the ones from my first trip to the last trip the number of activities have vastly increased. There is still a bunch of programmes that have "that" smell which brings the memories back.

It was surprising how or perhaps why the crew calendar wasnt sold (to raise funds for charity) lm sure they would have been an instant hit. l have a snap shot attached of one l saw pinned to a notice board at the crew gangway on the 11th.
Anyway look forward to more stories from the printshop
     

[Pat Curry]

Just wanted to take a quick moment to say hi. Name's William Neugebauer and was on QE2 from 1996 to 2003 as both Printer and Chief Printer. Headed over to France in 2003 to finish up the Mary and stuck around there as Chief Printer until 2006.

Hope to see some familiar faces!

Hi William.  You might remember my face   You printed it a few times on the Daily Programmes when Dominique and I were doing Curry demos and Guest cheffing. 

You modestly say your job was cushy.  Your job with just one assistant (Rochester IT student as I recall) required a huge amount of skill. I used to visit your six deck printshop to find you working all hours to get the enormous amount of print out on your cute little Heidleburg.  Being a Mac user and the ship on PCs always created a problem with my menu and recipe sheets, but you had a magic programme to convert them, no fuss, remember .  I have not found anyone else who could do that. 

Do you recall our scoops together in the F'o'c'st'e Club.  You told me a lot about Rochester IT and Heidlebergs. 

Where are you now?

Pat

[williamneugebauer]

Rob: I'm glad that it's been relatively unmolested. It was a great place with a lot of wonderful memories!

Cunardqueen: We almost always entertained pax visits submitted through the Purser's Office, and I'm sure they still do if you check on any of the newer ship. Shame they didn't do that calendar for charity, probably because we viewed it as noting more than silly. Though had I still been on board I would have blocked it, even for charity. I was strongly grounded that stuff for crew was for crew only. Nothing got my hackles up like pax enjoying things that were crew only: ie crew bars and the such. i was less than impressed when I would see pax in the crew and Fo'c's'le. 99% of the crew couldn't enjoy the pax life, so I thought it was only fair that the reverse be true. But off my soapbox...

Queet-two:Pat I do of course remember you and I was always appreciative of your curry dinners in the Fo'c's'le Club. It was always very generous of you and your times on the world cruise always seemed to go down well with the Pax. I currently live in the beautiful city of San Francisco, still in printing of course, for a large health care company out here.

[Michael]

hi there, interesting story this as my very first job on the QE2 in 1973!it was to take the punch hole tapes as they came through from the radio room at night and run them down to the printers! It was amazing to see all this tape produced into the Daily telegraph and I'll have to dig out stuff and see if I can find a copy which we printed out! How its moved on with a blackberry in my hands! We had no tv, most of us had short wave radios to listen to the world service, mainly for the sports round up! We had to book calls to home as it was ship to shore and then you couldnt guarentee you got a link! many a time the call was lost to home! but I was lucky as I knew the radio operator and he used to get me a line most times.

[Lynda Bradford]

Fascinating story of the world of the printshop onboard QE2.  Did you ever think that all the programmes, menus that you were producing would become treasured possessions of the passengers? 

I can remember seeing a family at the airport having to offload programmes as their cases were over the limit for an international flight.  The children were particularly upset but I am sure that between a family of four some of their keepsakes went home with them. 

[Andy Holloway]

Bill,

I remember you well and some of those little 'scally wags' you had down in the Print Room with you over the years on QE2 & QM2. We won't mention the Print Room Parties though!!!

As an aside i remember that Vistafjord/Caronia also had 'proper' printers onboard as well, but only one. Trying to remember their names now but Diane, an American, and Pete, a S/African come to mind.

Your crew calendars were a 'must', especially the WC ones and 'John Hancock's Bar tips!!  Still have many both in print & electronically.

When i was serving my 'penance' with both Princess - spits on floor! - and P&O Australia i tried, unsuccessfully, to get their Crew Office to do similar but to no avail, they always had some excuse or other for not doing it, despite it being very popular with the crew members i showed them to.  Ah well, their loss....

Have you still got your 'Van Dyck' type beard?

[cunardqueen]

I can remember seeing a family at the airport having to offload programmes as their cases were over the limit for an international flight.   

It was and still is always surprising just how much weight all the paper things added to your luggage, menus daily programmes, newspapers, brochures, Art sales and flower promotions flyers. Iv only recently thrown out heaps of paper items that l wondered why on earth l had kept them so long. Till receipts from 1988 which shows QE2 on the top. 

On the Farewell trips l recalled seeing a menu holder outside a cabin in the bin, the stewardess was near so l asked her if it was being thrown out, it was and l asked could l have it. there followed a discussion  about QE2 , voyages, whats happening, where she was going. She ended up keeping some things for me. which only added to the already overloaded luggage.
The best was Maria , my cabin stewardess from many years ago, a jaunt round the med she always had a few extra programmes each day along with other things  which where were left in my cabin each day .
Or a box of QE2 postcards from someone in the Pursers Office

On a MSC Melody fly cuise in 2005 they printed the daily programmes in 5 languages, now did l really need all these programmes ?   or yet about 80 baggage labels in many different colours .