Coco Cay Employees: How Does That Work?

[TheDivineMrsM]

An additional question I have about RCI employees is in regards to the workers on Coco Cay island. Here's an island in the middle of the ocean. There are x number of workers on this island. So they live there so many months out of the year? What is their housing situation? How many days do they have ship passengers visit the island? Every day? Several times a week? Are they RCI employees or not? Because items purchased at the straw market are paid with cash, but we bought a locker and paid using our sea pass.

 

Anyway, what happens if there's a big hurricane approaching, or even a bad tropical storm? Do those on that island have a place to hunker down? Are these workers from many different countries as well, or are the mostly from the Bahamas? The island was gloriously beautiful, but very isolated. I just wondered how that employment situation worked.

Edited August 20, 2014 by TheDivineMrsM

[Clarea]

I don't know the answers to all your questions, but I do know that the straw market people are from a nearby island and travel by boat every day. The other employees that live on the island in permanent facilities that can withstand weather. There is probably a ship visiting 5 out of 7 days on average.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

I know the Disney cast members on Castaway Cay (Disney's island) are required to do one cruise on a ship every x-number of weeks (I forget how many) to do immigration clearance again. I would assume all crew members on ship private islands would have to follow the same immigration protocol.

 

So that would give them the chance to hit Wal-Mart or Target in the port town between docking and leaving.

Edited August 20, 2014 by WrittenOnYourHeart

[PattyG12]

we've seen the bunk houses on Cococay ... Probably 20-30 that live there at any given time. Hurricanes have lots of notice and I'm guessing they could leave with the last ship coming if one was heading there.

[gi_pam]

I think a large number of them come from the ship. The ship's employees (waiters, bar tenders, cooks, pool butlers, etc) need to serve the same number of people whether they are on the ship or Coco Cay, so really they don't need many more employees than are already on the ship.

[leaveitallbehind]

RCI does house a permanent employee staff (on contract rotation) at Coco Cay and Labadee. The housing on Coco Cay for the staff is in the center of the island and easily visible from the center trail. On Labadee it is past the straw market on the far inland side.

 

The staff is supplemented significantly with ship staff on each cruise visit who support all of the activities that day. As indicated the straw market staff comes from the Berry Islands (I believe it is actually Big Stirrup Cay) as clarea indicated which is about 5 miles away and also has a small airport that can handle flights to the US mainland, which is only about 60 miles away. On Labadee the main town for support is Cap Haitien which about 5 miles away and is rather large with an airport and harbor.

 

Both facilities are constructed to withstand storms, which both have in the past. But if significant weather such as a hurricane is approaching they will typically try to evacuate everyone ahead of time. There was an instance on Coco Cay a few years ago where the weather came up rather quickly and the tenders were forced to stop operating, which stranded some of the RCI passengers there at the time overnight with the staff. None were worse for the wear as I understand it.

[reedl]

In 2011 I was at Coco Cay on the Majesty. I happened to meet the woman who was the "head honcho" of the island for RCCL. She had mentioned that there were 9 employees at the time who lived there permanently. The rest of the employees (chefs, etc.) all come from the ship.

 

The people who live there do maintenance, etc. on the facilities and prepare it for the ships that arrive.

 

On our cruise there was bad weather for the previous three weeks which prevent the Majesty from going there. She said that it got rather boring since nobody was visiting.

[Clarea]

In 2011 I was at Coco Cay on the Majesty. I happened to meet the woman who was the "head honcho" of the island for RCCL. She had mentioned that there were 9 employees at the time who lived there permanently. The rest of the employees (chefs, etc.) all come from the ship.

 

The people who live there do maintenance, etc. on the facilities and prepare it for the ships that arrive.

 

On our cruise there was bad weather for the previous three weeks which prevent the Majesty from going there. She said that it got rather boring since nobody was visiting.

I believe the employee population has grown since then, and there are more than 9 people who live there now.

[TBone2K]

Last time we visited Coco Cay we did a boat tour. The guide mentioned that him and most of the other non-RC staff are from a nearby island (you can see it in the distance from the beach) and come over by boat each day. As another poster said, the cooks, bar staff, basically everyone with a name tag is from the ship.

 

I never looked for the accommodation on the island, but they must have more than just the basics in case of emergency. A CD told me a story once of him and many pax and crew getting stranded on the island overnight when their ship had to leave suddenly because of a storm.

[leaveitallbehind]

Last time we visited Coco Cay we did a boat tour. The guide mentioned that him and most of the other non-RC staff are from a nearby island (you can see it in the distance from the beach) and come over by boat each day. As another poster said, the cooks, bar staff, basically everyone with a name tag is from the ship.

 

I never looked for the accommodation on the island, but they must have more than just the basics in case of emergency. A CD told me a story once of him and many pax and crew getting stranded on the island overnight when their ship had to leave suddenly because of a storm.

 

See my post #6. :)

Edited August 20, 2014 by leaveitallbehind

[reedl]

I believe the employee population has grown since then, and there are more than 9 people who live there now.

I will be there this weekend, and will ask someone who actually works there.