Meet the Assistant Housekeeper

Sapri Ali is an assistant housekeeper aboard Eurodam. His brother Syafril also was an assistant housekeeper with Holland America Line in 1985.

While Syafril was working on the old Statendam, he met a lovely American guest. He fell in love, finished his contract, married her and moved from Indonesia to New Jersey. Twenty-nine years later, they are happily married and have two children, Steven and Michael. Steven is working on his doctoral degree and Michael is working on his master’s degree.

Sapri followed in his brother’s footsteps and has been with Holland America for 24 years. His goal is to become chief housekeeper.

He lives in Java, Indonesia, with his wife of 18 years and two daughters, Sarah and Risya. When I was interviewing him, his work phone rang eight times in a span of 30 minutes! Sapri said, “My hobby is work and I make my work fun.”

Sapri told me that his birth name was Syafri Alsa, however he was given the name Sapri Ali at age 7 due to a clerical error made in grammar school on his school diploma that he says cannot be changed by the Indonesian government.