Post dry dock sailings

Just an FYI as I know some avoid these sailings. We are on the Zaandam, it is several weeks since her last dry dock, I think 5 weeks but can’t confirm that number. I know it’s at least 3 weeks, anyway, they are still installing carpet. Last night we were woken up several times as they recarpeted the atrium. Our cabin is below the atrium, a normally quite place at night. This morning I saw many full rolls stored in a locker on the bow so looks like there is more to come. Genius on HAL’s part, they can have a shorter dry dock and install carpet on a full ship that is generating revenue. Maybe you now have to wait even longer to avoid the dry dock blues.

Oh dear, Kirk. :(

I am sorry to hear this and that it is happening to you and those on board.

Not good at all. :(

That certainly isn't good.

People expect to go on vacation and enjoy themselves. Not be disturbed by work at night long after a dry dock has taken place.

We were the Zuiderdam immediately after dry dock and the library/exploration cafe in the Crows Nest was close for new carpet for at least three days. They were putting down carpet for the entire trip in other areas. We were given a small credit. We were also on another ship where carpet was being laid. We try to avoid ships after dry docks .

On Zuiderdam, 10 days after dry dock, the Crow's Nest was still a mess. Dust everywhere. Housekeeping could not do the job completely.

Jim

.... People expect to go on vacation and enjoy themselves. Not be disturbed by work at night long after a dry dock has taken place.

Absolutely right. But as long as the cheerleaders keep defending HAL and the punters keep paying to vacation in a work zone, the company will keep getting away with it.

Another major disconnect between Seattle senior management and onboard realties for passengers, staff and crew. This example demonstrates they are now officially working against each other. No excuses for doing this sort of drydock work when passengers are on board, and their vacation cabin enjoyment is adversely affected. Ongoing painting is routine at-sea maintenance and a given. But one-time major maintenance projects like noisy carpet installation should not be completed at the passenger's expense.

How many nights did this go on and was the sound any more disturbing than when the ship is required to use the fog-horn, which is also a sleep robbing experience. But that disturbance is required by maritime law. Poor renovation planning is 100% Seattle mismanagement. On our recent Zaandam, there was one night where fog horns had to be blasted every few minutes through out the night.

Only good news is learning the atrium carpet on the Zaandam is getting replaced because it was out of sync with the rest of the nice carpet makeovers in the rest of the ship -- that was completed during its last dry dock.

Seattle - wake up. You are acting like insensitive clowns. You make life miserable for your HAL employees on board due to your totally tone-deaf decisions made thousands of miles away. Please hire more senior management people who actually are familiar with the cruise industry next time. Stop dumping your own mismanagement decisions on the onboard staff and crew, who have to make things okay with the onboard passengers. That is just not fair.

Installing carpet is NOT a drydock job unless they have spare time which is not likely.

I have been on 2 or 3 cruises where carpet was laid overnight.

Disturbing passengers is another thing & you should make a complaint in writing to the hotel manager.

Installing carpet is NOT a drydock job unless they have spare time which is not likely.

I have been on 2 or 3 cruises where carpet was laid overnight.

Disturbing passengers is another thing & you should make a complaint in writing to the hotel manager.

Installing carpet in public areas maybe, but not installing carpet at night directly over passenger cabins is not. What were they thinking? This is a management error. Though if it were heavy sound-proof carpet installed in cabins over the Ocean Bar to keep the heavy thump, thump thump and vocals from penetrating those upstairs cabins throughout the rest of the cruise, I might cut them some slack.

Picking the far more attractive carpet design is a management kudo. Good choices, Seattle. Things are not always bad, but why should the onboard staff be plagued with making things right for the onboard passengers, after the fact when Seattle blunders?

We had our own issue (about 2 years ago) when the Chief Engineer decided it was fine to do major painting near the air intake for the A/C system in our section of the Zuiderdam. It was only after many passenger complaints (it became painful to breath in some of the cabins) that the onboard powers got the message. Dry docks are very expensive. Not only do the cruise lines have to pay the cost of the facility, but they must keep paying the crew, debt service on the ship, plus they lose revenue from not operating a cruise. So there is lots of pressure to get the ship out of drydock and into service, even before its appropriate. Many experienced cruisers no to avoid HAL ships right after drydock.

By the way, we recently were on the Golden Princess the day after she came out of drydock in Singapore. What a shock. Nearly all the work was completed :). But the interesting problem was that the workers (many of whom lived aboard during the drydock) trashed parts of the ship and left a mess for the crew. One crew member told us that workers took just about anything that wasn't nailed down.

Hank

Two weeks after Eurodam left drydock, we found a broken closet-door hinge, a cabin door that you had to

tug to get open or closed, and USB ports that had been installed but never wired... Neptune Suite, even.

Sorry, been off line. After the one bad night, the next night started out bad as they used a machine to remove the previous carpet padding. Luckily in this case it was over by 9:00 pm. The irritating part is the atrium is DEAD during the day. I spoke to the CD, great guy, he said they are doing it to avoid having carpet soiled in drydock. Sounds reasonable but begs the question of how it worked being installed in dry dock for the last fifty years. The guys are still onboard installing, luckily not impacting us but probably others. I am convinced it comes down to keeping a ship in dry dock for a few days versus having her fully (i.e. revenue generating) for that period of time.

Just an FYI as I know some avoid these sailings. We are on the Zaandam, it is several weeks since her last dry dock, I think 5 weeks but can’t confirm that number. I know it’s at least 3 weeks, anyway, they are still installing carpet. Last night we were woken up several times as they recarpeted the atrium. Our cabin is below the atrium, a normally quite place at night. This morning I saw many full rolls stored in a locker on the bow so looks like there is more to come. Genius on HAL’s part, they can have a shorter dry dock and install carpet on a full ship that is generating revenue. Maybe you now have to wait even longer to avoid the dry dock blues.

I was on Zaandam right after drydock - Captain said - All the carpet did NOT arrive in time. So there is an excuse, just not a good one for the suppliers. Ones arranged by Carnival Corporation??

I was on Zaandam right after drydock - Captain said - All the carpet did NOT arrive in time. So there is an excuse, just not a good one for the suppliers. Ones arranged by Carnival Corporation??

Had not heard that one, certainly possible . Funny the CD had a different excuse. We disembarked today and they are still installing carpet.

Had not heard that one, certainly possible . Funny the CD had a different excuse. We disembarked today and they are still installing carpet.

We got a new CD in Vancouver, the one that brought us from Florida [Taylor Sokol] transferred to Noordam there It was about 1/2 ship length to accomplish that.

Your CD was not on right after drydock. I wonder if they amended the story from what Captain told us in Q&A.