What happens to the crew during dry dock?

[Sacto Rick]

I'm just curious. The Grand goes into dry dock for 12 days in December and I was wondering if they make the whole crew take forced vacations or if they keep them busy doing other things. I wouldn't think they would let all their contracts come to an end and hire new.

Anyone know?

[JVilleGal]

Depends on how long the dry dock. Often the crew does deep cleaning, helps haul soft goods off and onto the ship. If it's longer some have a chance to go home.

 

 

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[CruiserBruce]

Most stay on the ship and work. They feed the construction workers and the crew, and clean and work.

[kdooley]

We were on the Royal one week before the recent 2 week dry dock in Sicily. They had a seminar with one of the ships female officers from the bridge and one of the male officers from engineering. They were explaining how everything worked and how they had 4 hour shifts.

 

At one point, someone asked them how they handled their personal lives on board the ship.

 

They blushed and admitted that they were married to each other and planned to spend the 2 weeks in Sicily as their long overdue honeymoon!

[chengkp75]

Those near the end of their contracts can leave early if the want.

 

Most of the non-technical work done (i.e. the hotel refurbishments and upgrades) are not done by shipyard workers, but by specialized sub-contractors, who will live aboard the ship. Even for a simple "refreshing" of carpets and such, there will be over a thousand contractors living onboard. Those folks need to be fed, so the galley staff continue to serve meals in a few guest dining venues. The contractor cabins will get some housekeeping services (not daily beds made), so some cabin stewards continue with their normal duties. Most of the contractors are working to too tight a schedule to perform grunt labor, so the crew will empty cabins of furniture to allow carpet renewal, and then replace the furniture, take upholstery to wherever the upholsterers have set up shop, and return it afterwards, clean up after the contractors nightly, take trash and demo material to dumpsters, and even provide fire watch for shipyard welding operations. This is where a crew member is stationed in the space where cutting or welding is taking place, and also on the other side of the steel bulkheads or decks, and watches that the cutting/welding operation doesn't start a fire, and have a fire extinguisher if necessary.

 

Typically, the work day decreases for crew in drydock, down to around 8-9 hours/day, but the work is different than their normal duties, and in many cases more physical.

[Sacto Rick]

Those near the end of their contracts can leave early if the want.

 

Most of the non-technical work done (i.e. the hotel refurbishments and upgrades) are not done by shipyard workers, but by specialized sub-contractors, who will live aboard the ship. Even for a simple "refreshing" of carpets and such, there will be over a thousand contractors living onboard. Those folks need to be fed, so the galley staff continue to serve meals in a few guest dining venues. The contractor cabins will get some housekeeping services (not daily beds made), so some cabin stewards continue with their normal duties. Most of the contractors are working to too tight a schedule to perform grunt labor, so the crew will empty cabins of furniture to allow carpet renewal, and then replace the furniture, take upholstery to wherever the upholsterers have set up shop, and return it afterwards, clean up after the contractors nightly, take trash and demo material to dumpsters, and even provide fire watch for shipyard welding operations. This is where a crew member is stationed in the space where cutting or welding is taking place, and also on the other side of the steel bulkheads or decks, and watches that the cutting/welding operation doesn't start a fire, and have a fire extinguisher if necessary.

 

Typically, the work day decreases for crew in drydock, down to around 8-9 hours/day, but the work is different than their normal duties, and in many cases more physical.

 

 

Thank you for your very informative answer!

[CruiserBruce]

Thank you for your very informative answer!

 

The rest of us who answered....no thanks....

[JVilleGal]

The rest of us who answered....no thanks....

 

 

LOL ;)

 

 

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[Hlitner]

Its UGLY! They work hard....very hard...and its not a lot of fun. Many of the crew (especially cabin stewards) clean, clean, clean. The lucky crew members might get assigned to "fire duty" which means they shadow contractors who might be working with tools that could cause a fire (such as soldering, welding ,etc) and might standby with a fire extinguisher or even a fire hose. What is UGLY for the crew is that depending on the type maintenance...they ships A/C may not function properly (if at all). A crew member friend of ours told of a dry dock in the Bahamas....where the entire HVAC system was down for several days. The crew quarters were not habitable...so many of the crew ended up sleeping on deck or in passenger cabins that had a balcony door.

 

Hank

[chengkp75]

We were on the Royal one week before the recent 2 week dry dock in Sicily. They had a seminar with one of the ships female officers from the bridge and one of the male officers from engineering. They were explaining how everything worked and how they had 4 hour shifts.

 

At one point, someone asked them how they handled their personal lives on board the ship.

 

They blushed and admitted that they were married to each other and planned to spend the 2 weeks in Sicily as their long overdue honeymoon!

 

Frankly surprised that the engineer would get the time off, as engineering is probably the busiest people on the ship during drydock. I know that by the end of a shipyard, I have a haunted, furtive look about me, and I flinch whenever my name is called.

 

To Bruce and Jville, thank you. :D

[Bill B]

I know the 'tip pool' is collected and distributed separately on each ship for each voyage.

 

Are the crew who receive a very low monthly salary (and most of their wages from the tip pool) compensated for loss of the pool while in drydock?

[CruiserBruce]

This has been discussed around Cruise Critic several times, but as there are very few actual employees here, never have heard an official answer.

[CruiserBruce]

Frankly surprised that the engineer would get the time off, as engineering is probably the busiest people on the ship during drydock. I know that by the end of a shipyard, I have a haunted, furtive look about me, and I flinch whenever my name is called.

 

To Bruce and Jville, thank you. :D

 

Chengkp75, we appreciate that, and all the great info you provide.

 

Then there is the now silent Sacto Rick....;)

[chengkp75]

I know the 'tip pool' is collected and distributed separately on each ship for each voyage.

 

Are the crew who receive a very low monthly salary (and most of their wages from the tip pool) compensated for loss of the pool while in drydock?

 

At the very least, the crew are guaranteed a minimum wage by international law. Now, not to antagonize the "DSC never goes to the crew" crowd, let me state this as a hypothetical. IF they were paid the DSC, then without that during drydock, their pay would fall below the mandated minimum, so the line has to pony up the difference. Their wage is still less than the contracted rate for the contractors, so the crew labor even paying the difference in DSC, is considered to be "free" labor.

[Ando]

What happens to the crew during dry dock???

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/c1/22/ba/c122bacd104618f3a918b8af67a3dd1f.jpg

 

They also "Come back new" :D

[satxdiver]

What happens to the crew during dry dock???

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/c1/22/ba/c122bacd104618f3a918b8af67a3dd1f.jpg

 

They also "Come back new" :D

 

rofl

[aladin553]

They stay on board and cook for the workers at dry dock. They run exercise drills pretending to cruise.

 

 

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[Esprit]

When my daughter worked for Celebrity she was aboard Constellation when it had a two week dry dock in the Bahamas.

 

She was part of the activities team working directly for the cruise director and as it was mid contract she had the choice of coming home. She thought it would be fun as most of her ship mates were staying on board. It wasn't!

 

She was assigned fire duty overlooking the refit workers. She was bored stiff and couldn't wait to have passengers back on board. The nearest town was a cab ride away and they were told never to travel alone once off the ship.

 

On the plus side she got some amazing pictures standing underneath the ship. They even had a crew picture including the captain and officers taken with the huge propellers either side.

[Sacto Rick]

The rest of us who answered....no thanks....

 

 

I thank everyone who responded to this.:)

[Sacto Rick]

Chengkp75, we appreciate that, and all the great info you provide.

 

Then there is the now silent Sacto Rick....;)

 

I'm not sure what you meant by that but I don't always hang out online all day. I was curious as to what happened with the crew during dry dock. I asked the question and received many good responses.

 

Did I break any protacol?

Edited November 13, 2016 by Sacto Rick

[beg3yrs]

 

Did I break any protacol?

 

No, not at all. It was a good question.

[pablo222]

At the very least, the crew are guaranteed a minimum wage by international law. Now, not to antagonize the "DSC never goes to the crew" crowd, let me state this as a hypothetical. IF they were paid the DSC, then without that during drydock, their pay would fall below the mandated minimum, so the line has to pony up the difference. Their wage is still less than the contracted rate for the contractors, so the crew labor even paying the difference in DSC, is considered to be "free" labor.

 

It is my understanding that 3-4 years ago, the tip pool was

'smoothed', to allow money to continue to be distributed to those in the

pool during drydock.

(be holding back some during the rest of the time)

 

It is also my understanding that the reason for having multiple

ships combined in a pool is so that the tips are averaged, and the

company doesn't have to make up any minimum amount.

[cruisequeen4ever]

Some crew stay onboard to continue their normal jobs, some stay onboard to do alternative jobs related to the dry dock like keeping watch, and others fly home for a break. I have heard that on their time off they have fun partying it up wherever the dry dock takes place. Sometimes they stay in a hotel one or more nights there to get a break. I would say that mainly applies to fun dry dock locations, not remote industrial areas.

 

 

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[Bill B]

It is also my understanding that the reason for having multiple

ships combined in a pool is so that the tips are averaged, and the

company doesn't have to make up any minimum amount.

 

They're not. There is a separate pool for each voyage on each ship.

[pablo222]

They're not. There is a separate pool for each voyage on each ship.

 

I'm sorry. This is not correct.

 

I noticed that some of the contract information you posted previously

is very out of date.

 

But, there is no way to prove or disprove anything on cruise critic.

 

You could say the sun rises in the east, and someone

would disagree with you.

 

Then, someone else would ask -- does this mean the sun rises in the

west on all princess cruises...

 

So, if you want to say one pool per ship, per voyage ... knock yourself out.

Edited November 13, 2016 by pablo222