Will Cunard staff come back ?

[transatlantic fan]

How many cruise staff do we think will come back after a year away from the ships.

Surely most, if not all will have now found employment at home.

Would take a lot of training to get new staff up to speed, along with the white star training.

A good friend of mine who was a senior member of staff has a new job outside of cruising,and has no intention of going back.

[newjoisey]

There is a huge turn over of staff ,i can recall a cruise with strong asian crews,another european then back to asian,then african.  What the question should be is cunard still going to train the new staff like they always used to......that imho is what made the staff special ....the training and vetting 

[transatlantic fan]

They haven't trained like they used to since Qe2 left service.

It now seems its learning on the job, and it sometimes shows , unfortunately. 

[mcloaked]

Not entirely true!  Last year on QV there was a number of staff in the dining room who were being trained up for service on the new ship when it enters service - so they were being trained alongside experienced staff. Presumably others will have been trained on the other two ships also. I believe it wasn't just in the dining room.  I am sure that Cunard will already be planning their return to service, not only the crew but also the new protocols that would make cruising possible again, especially as the programme of covid vaccination is now beginning to roll out, and some time during the middle of next year or towards the autumn hopefully quite a lot of people will have been able to get vaccinated - that will be a game changer.  Hopefully the crew will also be in line to be vaccinated, and then the world and cruising can start to move to the post-pandemic era - it won't be quick but at least it is beginning to roll in. I am sure we will all be happy when we can get back on the ships and move forward - it will take time before things can ease a bit - but even if we have to do much more sanitising than before this year, that might not be a bad thing!

[Essiesmom]

If there were jobs available to them at home, they wouldn't have been on a ship at all.  We took the Behind the Fun tour on a Carnival ship, and part of it took us through the crew dining room, and the officers dining room.  They said that the new staff train in the officers mess before going to the MDR, etc.  EM

[mcloaked]

Cunard has extended their pause for QE and QM2 to around the end of May 2021 - though QV was already paused to mid-May - and the QV pause end date hasn't changed.

 

Simon Palethorpe has a video with this announcement at:

 

https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/contact-us/travel-health-advisories
 

I expect that most crew will be delighted to be able to return to their work on the ships once the pandemic is under control and will be just as enthusiastic as we passengers are to get back aboard.

[navybankerteacher]

While a few with wider skills and other opportunities may not come back, the fact is that many are from areas with few other opportunities - and COVID is unlikely to have improved options in their home countries.

[ace2542]

On 12/8/2020 at 8:45 PM, transatlantic fan said:

A good friend of mine who was a senior member of staff has a new job outside of cruising,and has no intention of going back

Please say it is not Declan! I love that guy. 

 

It is unclear who will come back. Are the english ones for instance on furlough a job protection scheme from UK Government which has been extended till march. They do work on ship sailing from Southampton I don't know if they would qualify. They may all be invited back who knows.

 

I think Phil O Laughran if I am spelling his name correctly was retiring anyway. Amanda may not fancy coming back either she was onboard our last sailing. It will be sad not to see the old faces. We know most of the English ones at least from the last 4 years or so cruising and they know us. I doubt we have the time to make new relationships up again. I doubt my father has that many trips left in him to be fair.

[ace2542]

21 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

While a few with wider skills and other opportunities may not come back, the fact is that many are from areas with few other opportunities - and COVID is unlikely to have improved options in their home countries.

But you have to consider how they have been treated. Not by Cunard maybe I am don't know. A lot of the below decks staff where locked on these ships for months even the English ones on some lines not Cunard. People killed themselves because they could see no end to it. But as you say Covid may have hurt their options.