Pro/con of last cruise before a dry dock?

[Marty845]

I may take a cruise which would be the last cruise prior to a dry dock? Can you give me some pros/cons of this?

[tallcva3344]

I may take a cruise which would be the last cruise prior to a dry dock? Can you give me some pros/cons of this?

 

It will look like two different ships and the crew will be occupied by other thoughts than taking care of you. H

[Phxazzcruisers]

The crew will take care of you whether it is the last cruise before dry dock or the first one after. That is what they are on board to do and the crew on Celebrity is great at doing so. If there is an iteniery that looks good to you do not worry at all.

The ship will look better after dry dock and the bedding and such may be new, but as far as service and food go, you will never notice any difference.

[Desertbelle]

I disagree that the first cruise after a dry docking is normal. We were on a cruise on a ship that had just come out of dry dock and it was horrible. The ship was still under construction, some areas were not available to use until half way into our cruise. The staff was unorganized and acted like it was their first time working on a ship (probably due to having a 2 week vacation and a lot of new crew coming on for their stints)....that also got better as the cruise went on. There was missing carpet, construction smells and sounds. On our ship the engines had been worked on and apparently they weren't allowed to go normal speeds so we had ports shortened and some skipped. Instead of 7 ports on our 10 day cruise we got 4 and a half. There was no internet (which means no other services, such as no television, no atm's, etc.) for 7 days of our cruise. The pool and hot tubs weren't working for the first few days. There were other issues also, and for all of that the cruise line (not RCL) gave us $100 onboard credit. Oh yeah, and we weren't told about any of the missed ports and other services until after final payment and no refunds available.

 

As for before a dry docking, I would think there might be a few signs that changes are about to happen, but for the most part everything should be normal.

[Germancruiser]

I was on baord Connstellation when she did her last cruise right before entering dry dock in Hamburg ( A TA from Miami to Hamburg) ! The crew was as always with X. The ship was clean- as always! I took it because like the idea to sea Connie for the last time in the livery she was built. Well it was one the best cruises ever! Sure after and soon before we left, it was if the were rolling the carpets behind us. The upper sun deck ( all the way up- not the jogging deck) was closed because they laid out the wood for the containers due to arrive shortly before dry dock. After disembarking we were able to watch her actually going into drydock in Hamburg!

So there is nothing to say against a crusie before dry dock.

 

Michael

[amyr]

I've done it both ways, and you shouldn't have anything to worry about. We took the first cruise out of dry dock on Millie several years ago, and that was a bit of a mess. Something went wrong, and right up until we left for the airport for Barcelona there was talk of cancellation. As it ended up, they just lopped off a couple of ports and put us up in Barcelona for a few days. X handled it really well under the circumstances.

 

As for going into dry dock, we also took Connie on an Eastbound T/A right before dry dock (not the major one that Germancruiser above took) and it was one of our best cruises ever. No indication at all that anything was different.

[shipshape sam]

Taken cruise right out of dry dock and ship looked great and there were some things not quite finished, so....... Sounds like a normal cruise when you think about it as things do break in the normal course of life(sailing). We were on Constellation in April/May of this year and automatic wine system was not fully working.

 

Never been on last sailing prior to dry dock, but was on one where dry dock was 2 sailings away. Other than you could see some things that you knew were going to be addressed/fixed/replace, the crew/cruise was great as usual. We knew, for example, that new carpet/varishing was on tap for the drydock process, so overlooked it.

 

Have a GREAT cruise! :)

[dkjretired]

I may take a cruise which would be the last cruise prior to a dry dock? Can you give me some pros/cons of this?

 

Here is a link to a you tube video of the Millie prior to her Solsticazation, it is not pretty. It could be this is an aberrration because the work was so extensive but who knows.

 

[TeaBag]

I was on the same cruise as Michael (last Connie before refurb) and I have to agree that I thought it was great also. We were told they would be pulling up carpets behind us as we got off. I never saw any of this. Incidentally, the first cruise after she was refurbished had Noro.

[ghstudio]

I would avoid both the last cruise before dry dock because they will be getting things ready for dry dock and you may find areas blocked off in preparation. I would also avoid the first cruise after dry dock because inevitably there is unfinished work, undistributed new somethings, and sometimes a number of new crew members. Let someone else shake out the issues.

[shipshape sam]

Here is a link to a you tube video of the Millie prior to her Solsticazation, it is not pretty. It could be this is an aberrration because the work was so extensive but who knows.

 

 

You're right, who knows due to the extent of dry dock changes (solstistizing of M class ships). I have though seen a number of the same issues on a 'regular' sailing, including:

 

roped off areas where work (especially painting) was being done on deck 4, thassotheropy pool jets not working and pool closed, water on jogging track many times including puddling at points along the track. Spin class bikes broke and only 4-5 working. Never seen actual construction taking place like on aft of jogging track in video and I think it might have bothered me some, with the amount of stuff/location of construction taking place.

 

The person making the utube video did have a sense of humor and I liked that and do wish he/she had had a better sailing experience on Celebrity.

 

I guess one has to assume there is a possibility if the sailing is the last one prior to dry dock since watching the utube video. I would think that most dry docks are cosmetic in nature, not adding cabins.

 

Thanks for the link! :)

[tallcva3344]

Here is a link to a you tube video of the Millie prior to her Solsticazation, it is not pretty. It could be this is an aberrration because the work was so extensive but who knows.

 

 

We are on the Millie in Aug and heard ahead of time that the ship was in rough condition. I did not hesitate to book once I knew about the upgrades. I guess that is why it took three weeks for the changing of cabins as well as a cleanup, verses the normal cleanup for a week. I admit my experience was on Carnival on a pre drydock situation with staff. H

[rae8836]

We were on RCI Radiance of the Seas immediately before her major 'refresh'. They were loading material and containers on the ship at the last two ports which was an interesting process to watch. The containers and supplies (rolls of carpet and such) were stacked on one of the aft upper decks but didn't really block off much. Hallway ceilings were opened up so that new WiFi cable could be installed which obstructed hallway traffic at times but again not a major issue.

 

Generally speaking, there will be some preliminary activity occuring on any cruise just before a refurb/overhaul. Sometimes that's really interesting - other times it does get in the way.

[Sascol]

I would avoid both the last cruise before dry dock because they will be getting things ready for dry dock and you may find areas blocked off in preparation. I would also avoid the first cruise after dry dock because inevitably there is unfinished work, undistributed new somethings, and sometimes a number of new crew members. Let someone else shake out the issues.

 

I could not agree more.

[Northern Aurora]

While we have never been on a ship on the first cruise immediately following a dry dock, we were also on the April 2010 Constellation transatlantic from Miami to Hamburg.

 

It also for us was one of the best cruises we have ever taken, despite the concerns some of the passengers had regarding flight disruptions caused by the Icelandic volcano (The Constellation received Sky news coverage, and I always find Sky a little overly dramatic. Some of the news coverage implied that it would take weeks for airlines to resume operating normally.).

 

We saw little extra work on the Constellation during the actual crossing, only the normal maintenance we observe on each cruise. At our first port in Europe we did have some engineers and other folks board, and then were aware of some of the prep work for the dry dock. This was essentially seeing folks with blueprints and other plans discussing issues such as the upgrade in the sound system. There was also an interesting session in the theater in which the captain and senior officers did a presentation on the dry dock plans and then answered questions.

 

The Constellation crew and staff were excited about the dry dock. Once we arrived in Hamburg they all were given a day off, and then stayed on board to help. For example, one of our waiters told us he was going to help with the cleaning.

 

Since we were staying in Europe and did not have an early flight we were among the last group of passengers to disembark. As we were leaving workmen were boarding to begin. We have a great photo of the tenders leaving the ship scurrying off. The afternoon of the day we docked in Hamburg we took a harbor tour, and the little harbor boat went right by the Constellation. We have several wonderful photos taken from the water looking up at the Constellation raised in the dry dock.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Here is a link to a you tube video of the Millie prior to her Solsticazation, it is not pretty. It could be this is an aberrration because the work was so extensive but who knows.

 

 

My sister was on this cruise. She said the drydock prep did not affect her experience one bit. It looked to me like the video person was looking for ugly stuff so he/she could sing the praises of HAL. Whatever.

[A Sixth?]

Here is a link to a you tube video of the Millie prior to her Solsticazation, it is not pretty. It could be this is an aberrration because the work was so extensive but who knows.

 

 

We were on the last cruise of the Summit before she went to dry dock and the slide show link you have there is identical to the Summit experience.

 

We had a good time, but would NOT book another "Last cruise before dry dock" again.

[tallcva3344]

We were on the last cruise of the Summit before she went to dry dock and the slide show link you have there is identical to the Summit experience.

 

We had a good time, but would NOT book another "Last cruise before dry dock" again.

 

If the ship was anything like the video, I totally disagree with the "under construction" policy. I would have been offended, especially if I was taking some first time cruiser friends and telling them how great Celebrity was. I have always thought Celebrity was a notch above RCCL.

 

Looking at this you can spin this anyway you want, but you can tell that Celebrity did not mind exposing passengers to construction sites whether it bothered you or not. That is not classy. This should have been done in drydock. Period! H

[FLACRUISER99]

I may take a cruise which would be the last cruise prior to a dry dock? Can you give me some pros/cons of this?

I don't know of any Pros.:eek: Lots of cons, the major one is they sometime start working on what the have to do during drydock and often store lots of the material they need in normal public areas. My advice is to avoid these cruises.

[happy cruzer]

If you want the cruise to be typical and are annoyed by closed areas and pre construction work (think dust/noise in that area), I would not risk it. Not all will be have a problem but probably at least half of the cruises will have an impact of some kind.

 

I got a great deal on a cruise pre dry dock which made it easier to accept the small inconveniences. But at regular price it would have been annoying. If you pay full fare, you expect to get full amenities.