Our families keep coming back so your families can keep enjoying our lake cruises
A family friendly summer means something different to everyone. To some people it means a family vacation, and to others it means a summer job. Here at Lake Geneva Cruise Line we have families who choose to work with us over the summer to make sure your family has the best time on their summer vacation with us.
What makes our crew and legacy so special is our dedication to keeping it in the family. We focus on family in the summer as much as you do, because we know how important family is. This season, of our 126 employees almost 70 of them have a current or past family connection to someone who works or has worked with us.
HIRING FAMILIES
We pride ourselves in hiring family members of current employees because we know great employees with great customer service and work ethics run in the family.
“Over the years we have pretty much always hired the family members of current employees without too much question. In almost every case it has worked out that they are good,” says Ellen Burling, Assistant General Manager of Lake Geneva Cruise Line. Oh and Ellen’s three children have all worked or are currently working with us too!
This season, we have 13 sets of siblings, 12 sets of parents and children, one grandfather and grandson pair, one family who has an aunt with a niece and nephew working here (and their parents have also worked here), and one employee whose parents met while working here.
“It helps that they have some frame of reference of what we do before they even start,” Burling said.
FAMILY FEATURES
Now while we have several amazing families, as we’ve mentioned, we’d like to feature two families who are working with us this summer!
The Handel Family
Barb Handel has more longevity with Lake Geneva Cruise Line than almost every other employee. In fact, she started working here years before her now adult children, who all work for the cruise line, were born.
Barb’s first season was 1989 when her name was still Barb Lynch. She married John Handel in January of 1990 and since then has had three children who each started to work here when they were old enough to do so. Katie (28), Maggie (24), and Connor (19) have all worked in many capacities from ticket sales, to tour guides, to mail jumpers, to caterers and more. Maggie and Connor still work full time during the summer and Katie fills in when needed. Katie works full time for Kohl’s. Maggie is a middle school teacher and Connor will be a sophomore at UW-Madison.
“We hope Barb and her family will stay around for many years into the future. They are the most reliable, hardworking family at the cruise line,” Burling said.
Pollak Family
The Pollak family is amongst the “newer” family groups at the cruise line, having just started working here in 2017. Tori and Robert (RJ) were hired in the spring of 2017 and worked through that season. Their mom, Roberta, started that fall after school started and we were short on help. All three have come back and worked the last two seasons.
Roberta works from the beginning of the season in the spring through the winter for the Santa Cruises along with several other jobs, including being a substitute teacher. This fall RJ will be a junior at Williams Bay High School and Tori will be heading to Stanford to start her freshman year.
We’re very proud to hire and work with some amazing families from the Lake Geneva area. We know that they, along with all of our amazing crew members, will make sure YOUR family has a great time on any of our cruises.
Raby Family
The Cruise Line family with the most members is the Raby family, and they hope to add more to the crew soon! Adante Raby, Marcus Raby, Jordane Torres-Raby, Zach Torres-Raby and Melissa Raby (not pictured) all currently work for the Cruise Line. We love that this family has chosen to work with us, and that several younger family members hope to join the Cruise Line family in the future!