Crew Drug Testing Outside Oosterdam Dining Room

Just returned from a 7-day Oosterdam Mexico cruise. Before going ashore in Mazatlan I decided to use the spacious restroom outside the deck 2 dining room, only to be chased away by ship security. I saw a table piled with urine sample bottles and saw a lineup of miserable-looking crew, and I realized they were doing drug testing for kitchen and dining room staff. Not only was it in a public area, but they were filling and storing jars of urine outside their dining room. This is not something I would ever expect to see in any restaurant or hotel or any business, certainly not on a ship and dining facility that prides itself on elegance and pleasing the customer (not grossing them out). Having endured the embarrassment and stress of drug testing in the military, I also find it horrible to subject their crew to being in public view during the same experience.

The second big customer fail of the cruise was closing off sections of the outside promenade deck for the entire duration of the cruise, from early morning to evening, surly Eastern European contractors blocking off access without any explanation or supervision from ship officers. I usually walk 10 miles a day around the promenade on sea days, and so I and a lot of other people were irritated and inconvenienced by having to turn around, detour through the ship, and constantly dodge people from the 2-way traffic. Even 15 minutes before the start of the Walk for a Cure, they had two separate parts of the promenade deck blocked off. Then, of course, in any US port the promenade is usually full of ship workers sneaking out to surf on their phones. I guess that since it's not a money-making spot, they have no interest in caring for the comfort and convenience of those like me who choose HAL precisely because of the promenade deck and the opportunity to experience the sea close up on a walk or peaceful rest on a deck chair.

I was on the same cruise, in regards to the promenade they were working on the lifeboats. It was a safety issue. My mom called guest services about the noise.

I had to deal with my walks and detour around the closed areas. There’s worse things in life.

In regards to the drug testing as long as they clean the table and sanitize it, it’s none of the guests business. All cruise lines and hotels do random drug testing on employees.

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Unfortunate that you as a passenger had to witness this. Most embarrassing if you recognize one of the tested dining staff later on during the cruise for both of you.

You'd think the ship security would have done a better job of keeping passengers isolated from the testing.

At least it was in or near a restroom.

I was on the same cruise, in regards to the promenade they were working on the lifeboats. It was a safety issue. My mom called guest services about the noise.

 

I had to deal with my walks and detour around the closed areas. There’s worse things in life.

 

In regards to the drug testing as long as they clean the table and sanitize it, it’s none of the guests business. All cruise lines and hotels do random drug testing on employees.

 

 

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While I do get your point, I can also see where its just not "cool" to be drug testing crew members in a public passenger area. I doubt if you would ever see a decent hotel drug testing their staff at the hotel restaurant rest room.....while guests where eating nearby.

Hank

I was on that cruise as well and it was the worst experience I ever had on a cruise.

They were repairing the lifeboat outside my window the entire cruise. The grinding the last two sea days was unbearable. Starting at 7:30 and going past 5.

I could not spend more than 5 minutes in my room the last two days.

The only time this stopped was for the 5k wall. And that was the only point in the trip that the promenade deck was not blocked for the full circle

I understand maintenance is ongoing. And the Oosterdam is really showing its’ age in some places, but the rooms around this work should have never been sold. Any hotel would have blocked them out.

I would've been..searches for a word and settles on "grossed out". It must have been something they needed to look into ASAP thus the reason for them doing it without much warning..I'd hate to be the person that had to tell people "yeah y'all are gonna have to take a pee test..basically right now".)

The drug testing should of been done in another part of the ship, I'm sure there are places on the crew deck were this could of been done with a little more privacy for both crew & passengers.

Allan

We have been on many ships when the crew blocked off areas to work on the life boats -- normal maintenance.

As to the drug testing -- there are other places where it can be done -- like the infirmary. It really shouldn't be done in a public area.

I wonder if they drug test HAL's president.

 

In regards to the drug testing as long as they clean the table and sanitize it, it’s none of the guests business. All cruise lines and hotels do random drug testing on employees.

 

Maybe instead of Signature of Excellence or whatever marketing garbage they call it now they should say Tables of Piss. They can drug test crew in a crew area out of sight of paying guests.

This is a new low for a declining cruise line.

Crew drug testing should have been conducted in an area that was inaccessible to passengers. Allowing passengers to witness this just confirms that there is a need for crew drug testing. Not a confident thought for some.

Crew drug testing should have been conducted in an area that was inaccessible to passengers. Allowing passengers to witness this just confirms that there is a need for crew drug testing. Not a confident thought for some.

Good point. Even if you are aware that businesses do drug checks, seeing it could make people worry that it's in response to some kind of drug-related incident.

KK has a good suggestion. Why not do this in the infirmary? DH recently needed some bloodwork done, and while we were waiting at the lab, I noticed fliers about the rules for employer-required drug tests. They are serious about "chain of evidence" and avoiding cheating. So there needs to be enough space to organize the process and control the samples. Using the infirmary during off hours would be better than in a passenger area.

Crew drug testing should have been conducted in an area that was inaccessible to passengers. Allowing passengers to witness this just confirms that there is a need for crew drug testing. Not a confident thought for some.

Good point. Even if you are aware that businesses do drug checks, seeing it could make people worry that it's in response to some kind of drug-related incident.

 

KK has a good suggestion. Why not do this in the infirmary? DH recently needed some bloodwork done, and while we were waiting at the lab, I noticed fliers about the rules for employer-required drug tests. They are serious about "chain of evidence" and avoiding cheating. So there needs to be enough space to organize the process and control the samples. Using the infirmary during off hours would be better than in a passenger area.

While I fully agree that this should never have taken place in a passenger area, let me make a few points about maritime drug testing, which has been a part of every crew member's life since the 90's.

First, there are the random tests. Each week, a random selection of crew numbers (the emergency duty number each crew member gets, including #1, the Captain) is sent to the ship, and the crew are notified of the test with no prior notice. Each month, about 10% of the crew is tested, or for a crew of 1000, that would be about 25/week.

Then, there are the post-incident tests. Whenever there is an injury to a crew member that requires more than first aid, or serious damage to the ship or its equipment over $20k in value, every person involved in the incident, everyone working in the area, and the injured party's supervisor (even if off duty) must be tested within 12 hours.

Completing these tests is mandatory, even without any indication or reasonable suspicion of drug use.

Finally, there are the "reasonable suspicion" tests, but these tend to be individual or a couple of individuals, who are suspected of drug use by their actions and behavior.

People must be certified to be able to collect legal drug samples. I am, because if the ship has an accident, I must be the one, as Chief Engineer, to take the Master's sample. There are few onboard so certified, but the Medical staff is, so this type of testing is typically done in the Medical center. I have no idea why this was done in a passenger area.

I feel this whole topic has gotten out of hand. I agree that they could have chosen a better place to do the drug testing, but there must have been a reason for using that area. When you are dealing in an industry where there has to be a quick turnaround, you don’t have the option of sending them off site. You could wait until dry dock, but that would not be random. Might be embarrassing for the crew, but certainly not something that should be viewed as gross by passengers.

As to the maintenance of the lifeboats outside a room, I have stayed at more than one hotel where there was work going on outside my room. Certainly didn’t stop the hotel from selling me the room. They were nice enough to provide me with a note telling me it would be noisy during certain hours. I think they figured that I wouldn’t be using my room all day.

Maury

I am disgusted at the poor judgment used seettting up the testing would be done in such a public space. Crew areas are adequate for whatever testing must be done. . Of course crew must be tested but not in view of guests. I have a sickeng image in my head that I hope disappears before I go to another HAL MDR

I decided to use the spacious restroom outside the deck 2 dining room, only to be chased away by ship security.

Proper security would have stopped you before you could enter the area. Drug tests should be done in the medical center. Privacy should be maintained and nobody should see the sample of anyone else.

Shame about the promenade deck and the noise. The captain offered free drinks to make up for promenade closures on our 2016 Prinsendam cruise.

In regards to the drug testing as long as they clean the table and sanitize it, it’s none of the guests business. All cruise lines and hotels do random drug testing on employees.

When its done in a public space and a passenger stumbles upon it, it does become their business. Like Chengkp75 said, this is part of ship life for the crew. However, it should not be done in public.

I am disgusted at the poor judgment used seettting up the testing would be done in such a public space. Crew areas are adequate for whatever testing must be done. . Of course crew must be tested but not in view of guests. I have a sickeng image in my head that I hope disappears before I go to another HAL MDR

I agree! And since I will be cruising the Oosterdam in April I am not pleased.

Drug testing has no business being conducted in the passenger ( or crew ) dining areas. IMHO.

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Just returned from a 7-day Oosterdam Mexico cruise. Before going ashore in Mazatlan I decided to use the spacious restroom outside the deck 2 dining room, only to be chased away by ship security. I saw a table piled with urine sample bottles and saw a lineup of miserable-looking crew, and I realized they were doing drug testing for kitchen and dining room staff...........

Could you amplify this a bit more - were you allowed to enter this room and then chased away?

Or were you not allowed to enter (closed off to the public) and just happened to see inside once the door was opened. I can see using this particular location, simply because it has so many stalls and lots of open space and is often very underutilized by passengers for the volume of space it provides.

Maybe there was a medical emergency going on in the sick bay at the time. Maybe there was an incident in the dining room area that needed an immediate testing so this was the more appropriate location for the convenience of the staff being tested. Lots of missing information here.

Hope you can clear up this important detail. But if this area was not closed off to the public while this was going on, then indeed this is not acceptable practices at all.

Hi rj42- I was also on that Oosterdam cruise and my wife and I both walked around the deck several times. It was no problem at all to simply make a u-turn when we got to the work area. The work area was only about 50 feet long and retracing our steps in a clockwise direction was not inconvenient at all. That is not a "fail", but doing work that could not wait until drydock. I found the ship to be in excellent condition, not "showing her age", and don't want others to visualize a rundown ship. And why make the negative comment about crew on their cell phones in U.S. ports, when the only U.S. port was San Diego where we started and ended our cruise? If you were in their shoes and away from your family for ten months, wouldn't you call when you had the opportunity? Inside crew quarters, the cell signal may not be strong enough, so yes, they may be on an outside deck.

As for the drug testing issue - you were all the way aft on deck 2 when the dining room wasn't open. I agree this was odd that this was happening in a public access area, but you were in the least busy public area on a port day. An explaination from the ship staff would be helpful.

...

Completing these tests is mandatory, even without any indication or reasonable suspicion of drug use...

Mandatory industry wide testing is implemented because of a demonstrated use of drugs in the industry. Past employee performance in the industry is a great indicator of future performance. Plus, of course, the drug test results.

Give HAL feedback regarding these things. Potential reduced use of the promenade tips the scale in favor of booking your next cruise with another line - no resentment, it's just cut and dry, a factor holding a certain weight when choosing your next ship. Maybe they can't adjust, maybe they could but at an unacceptable cost. But they should appreciate the FYI.

With the other issue, I tend to think there's a story behind the location they opted to do the testing in. They must not have had the usual options.

Mandatory industry wide testing is implemented because of a demonstrated use of drugs in the industry. Past employee performance in the industry is a great indicator of future performance. Plus, of course, the drug test results.

Actually, maritime drug testing in the US was brought about by the Dept. of Transportation for all modes of transportation, land, sea, and air because of a train accident caused by an engineer on drugs. The international requirement grew out of the ILO's Code of Practice for physical exams to determine the health and fitness of mariners, and by extension to determine the mariner's health from use of drugs and ahcohol. There is no documented evidence that mariners use drugs and alcohol in any higher percentage than the overall world population.

The drug testing should of been done in another part of the ship, I'm sure there are places on the crew deck were this could of been done with a little more privacy for both crew & passengers.

Allan

Yes, the staff captain or whoever was in charge of this should have confined it to crew decks.

Reflects badly on leadership on the ship.