Crew Issues.....and disappointment in RCCL

[TX-Cruiser]

Got back from GOS on Friday. She is an aging lady but in good shape for her age. I wanted to comment on the staff. I have sailed over 20 RCCL sailings. There was an odd vibe with the crew on this ship. I couldn't figure it out until our last day when I was having a chat with a crew member (I am being deliberately vague to protect their identity) They were telling us their contracts were being extended, basically without a choice. They are TIRED, many way past their 6 month contracts. (That is the allure of a cruise contract...6 months on....a few months off...the job is demanding) This particular crew member was MONTHS past their originally deadline, with another extension coming. The only way to not be extended is to resign. I just don't get that philosophy (on RCCL's part) and it was very disappointing to hear. They are tired, and sore, and lonely and missing their families. It is psychologically damaging to not have an end in sight, to feel like you are being held hostage. I asked some other crew members about this and they all confirmed it....then it made sense....this crew....way beyond their contract dates feel forced to be there. It was not that they were unpleasant....they just were not happy. There was no joy, no life....it made me really sad and more so as I reflect on the situation. I spoke my peace with RCCL for what it was worth.

[firefly333]

Idk if I was on your cruise or not, I did 4 legs so got to know the crew rather well and complained loud enough I felt like a marked woman. I was glad to get off.

 

I've mentioned a sea day lunch in WJ where first they ran out of meat items then ran out of silverware and napkins, then no place to sit. By 130 pm, they closed the doors and there was a long line to get in. The cafe doesnt open until 3 pm but true the Mdr was open but no other place to eat. The crew was obviously overwhelmed.

 

I had posted prior to may 4 when the ship came from Barbados and used to doing 600 to 800 and then all the sudden it's around 2k? Without really more staff.

 

One of my cabin stewards said to me what do you expect with 70% crew and 100% pax.

 

A WJ worker the last morning said to me she was dreading 500 kids. She said how can we go from 50 kids to 500 this summer and just shook her head.

 

Rcl doesnt have staff to take their place. They claim the visas are not getting approved, it's not a hiring problem. 

 

The little cutie who is diamond ambassador is on a 5 month contact and asked to do 7 months already. And he is only like 2 months into his contract and they are already asking for another 2 months. We loved him but he is thinking and said he hadnt signed yet. Giving himself some leverage no doubt. 

 

I've been saying this since before we got on. Expect staff to be shirt. It's being discussed elsewhere and every time its brought up someone says well I was on in feb or jan out of Barbados and staffing was fine. It's like they dont get it. Its changed. It doesnt matter if staff was fine for 600 pax. 

 

My cabin steward worked every morning from 8 am until well past 1 pm. Every day. 

 

The staff is overwhelmed...is the word I've been using. They cant have the cafe open and the WJ at the same time, no staff. Another poster said lighten up, this was a $252 cruise. I dont know what he paid pp or what he meant .. but I've shut up, but I was glad to get off. People keep telling anyone who complained to shut up. It was a cheap cruise. 

 

I wish I had pictures. My last WJ lunch I went back for cookies. One side had saltines, the other side graham crackers, no cookies left. Hahahaha

 

Ok here is typical line for those who bought specialty drinks and wanted specialty coffee mid morning. To me they shut WJ breakfast early, though the cafe then opened mid morning. But wj had more limited hours. Here is the libe every morning. Some just wanted pastries .. there was one line for coffee, ifmyou just wanted pastries ..same line. One worker for orders and one guy making coffee and getting the pastries al, day. need 2 entry pts. One for just pastries.

 

Edited May 29, 2022 by firefly333

[Mum2Mercury]

Everywhere I go I see "HIRING NOW" signs.  Why should cruise ships be any different?  

How did we as a society get into this situation?  

[1025cruise]

The problem is the US office that handles the Visas for the crew is extremely backed up. If the current crew aren't extended, there isn't anyone to replace them. This isn't just a RCCL problem, all cruise lines are facing this. 

 

I do feel for the crew. They are doing their best under the circumstances.

[bruzin_for_a_cruizin]

3 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

Everywhere I go I see "HIRING NOW" signs.  Why should cruise ships be any different?  

How did we as a society get into this situation?  

Quite simply, when the pandemic hit, industries literally shut down for months/years. Staff were furloughed. Now, two years later, and things are opening up at a fast pace and personel have moved on to other jobs or even other industries entirely. 

 

I read a piece the other day about the airline industry. It suggested that many airlines offered early retirement to much of their pilot roster, and now that travel demand has increased, there is a dire shortage of qualified commercial pilots (one can't just learn how to fly a Cessna and then jump on the stick of a 400-seat 747).

 

There really is no point in complaining about it... it is what it is, and it will be this way for the next few years until things level off again and people find their places again. 

[firefly333]

2 minutes ago, bruzin_for_a_cruizin said:

There really is no point in complaining about it... it is what it is, and it will be this way for the next few years until things level off again and people find their places again. 

That's pretty much what anyone who posts their disappointment gets told. Shut up.

 

I heard a couple who walked out of Mdr after 2.5 hours without dessert and gave up. Another couple walked out of chops after 1.5 hours.

 

I did WJ first night of Mdr. I knew of 2 hour waits. Or someone posts they didnt have 2 hour dinners, as if that makes any complaints invalid.

 

It's better to know and prepare. While it is what it is ... I dont see the harm in making people aware there is a dining issue on this ship. Not one person I talked to said they would book this ship again. Not even one. 

[JeffT237]

This isn't just an issue with Royal, we recently took a Princess cruise to Alaska and it was the same on that line as well.  Overbooked and understaffed and many of the staff were new.  One of the speciality restaurants was closed all week, the buffet appeared to be smaller with less choices and dining service was slow at times.  Our waiter at the Crown Grill had too many tables and no assistance, we felt bad for him.  Having one experience since the start up and reading many threads it appears this is industry wide.  Curious why the cruise lines don't sail less ships right now and sail the popular itineraries/ships more fully staffed.  We were thinking of cruising again at the end of summer, but we will hold off until next spring when we sail the Wonder in March.  Hopefully some of these issues will improve by then.

[cruiselvr04]

If Royal doesn’t have enough crew they need to stop their bookings.   We haven’t experienced this yet but haven’t been back at 100% capacity.  Our cruise this summer will be a test I guess.  We had great service on our 2 cruises since the re start.   On GOS in December and will not be happy if this is still true.
 

[suesnake2002]

3 minutes ago, cruiselvr04 said:

If Royal doesn’t have enough crew they need to stop their bookings.   We haven’t experienced this yet but haven’t been back at 100% capacity.  Our cruise this summer will be a test I guess.  We had great service on our 2 cruises since the re start.   On GOS in December and will not be happy if this is still true.
 

This I agree with 100%   If they don't have the crew don't allow the bookings. Simple supply and demand will push the price of cruises up. Making it financially beneficial for rccl. And customers will recieve the service they are used to. They need to utilize a practical passenger to crew ratio. 

[firefly333]

11 minutes ago, cruiselvr04 said:

If Royal doesn’t have enough crew they need to stop their bookings.   We haven’t experienced this yet but haven’t been back at 100% capacity.  Our cruise this summer will be a test I guess.  We had great service on our 2 cruises since the re start.   On GOS in December and will not be happy if this is still true.
 

I've done 3 carnival and liberty 5 times since start up. What I saw was specific to grandeur. It's much shorter than liberty. 

 

The above is typical...someone will say oh it's all ships .. not like I saw on grandeur. Grandeur is specifically understaffed. ... I did liberty OTS 5 times. And sure they are short but not like what I experienced. .. it's like being dismissed for people to keep saying like most no worse on grandeur.

 

Like I said I heard conversations of people who cruised for months on liberty .. these are not once in a while cruisers who said they would never book this ship again. This is specific to grandeur. It sounds dismissive to say oh its everywhere. No not like what I saw. I talked to the pinnacles and people who have liberty booked for months coming up. People who cruise a lot. This isnt typical. 

 

Believe what you want. I get it there are shortages everywhere and running out of silverware on a sea day is ok, after all shortages everywhere. 

Edited May 29, 2022 by firefly333

[bucfan2]

11 minutes ago, cruiselvr04 said:

If Royal doesn’t have enough crew they need to stop their bookings.   We haven’t experienced this yet but haven’t been back at 100% capacity.  Our cruise this summer will be a test I guess.  We had great service on our 2 cruises since the re start.   On GOS in December and will not be happy if this is still true.
 

Cruise lines in general most likely won’t take your advice, as they have plenty of lost income/potential bankruptcy concerns.  If anxious about issues in these times, might not be best for ya to cruise in 6mo….wouldn’t expect it to be any better then (IMO…don’t expect it any worse….cruising in these times w/ our expectations has been awesome). 

Edited May 29, 2022 by bucfan2

[cruiselvr04]

I’m not canceling.  Got a great rate for a suite and not letting it go.  Hoping by then things will be a bit better. 
 

I know Royal has moved crew around now to open all the ships and I’m sure the little girls get a bit ignored for the big ladies.  

[TexasRon]

Thanks for the specifics on the ship.  Helps set expectations for our coming trip when we read various reviews and compare information.

 

Maybe it is time for some of us to not cruise or skip certain ships, but my plan is to cruise with modified expectations…and a long memory of how they were or were not met…and then decide how to move forward.  I am not so invested in being a certain level that switching lines, should one of a similar type perform markedly better during this challenging time, is not a good option.  

We like short cruise right now and Galveston is close, so it would be sad if the ship is not a good experience overall.  I’m okay with some turmoil in service but not a failure.

 

 

[MommaBear55]

Just did 20 days on Anthem and the crew and the service were amazing. Maybe the staff the bigger ships better? One of the things we do to help the cabin crew is to only get a tidy once a day. The only real glitch we had was the day they ran a fire drill for the crew during breakfast, so there was no one to clean off tables. 

[JeffT237]

20 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

It sounds dismissive to say oh its everywhere

My apologies, I understood the title of the post to be RCCL not ship specific to the GOS, I took the liberty to add my recent experience with Princess to add to the discussion and to gauge what is going on with RCCL since our next cruise is on the Wonder.  

Edited May 29, 2022 by JeffT237

[Mum2Mercury]

45 minutes ago, 1025cruise said:

I do feel for the crew. They are doing their best under the circumstances.

Agree.  We as passengers can help a little by going out of our way to be kind and undemanding.  Ask them for minimal service in the room?  

[nelblu]

I've been on 4 since the restart and the last one was on Anthem's Easter sail.  I did not find any staff issues, however the 1st 3 were at 40-45% capacity.  Anthem was at 80% withs some 1,200 children.  One thing that I noticed was the layer of staff in the MDRs.  When you check in there these folks in gray jackets, then there are the Maitre Ds in black suits, followed by the Head Waiters and then finally the Waiters and assistant Waiters.  IMO, lot's of staff and this was the 2 restaurants on the 4th deck.  Don't know if they had the same on the 2 restaurants on the 3rd deck.

Edited May 29, 2022 by nelblu

[Mum2Mercury]

38 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

That's pretty much what anyone who posts their disappointment gets told. Shut up.

We can recognize something's not ideal /we can be disappointed about something ... and still be excited about going on our cruise.  

[Jimbo]

This is what happens when you bring to many ships into service to fast. It was bound to happen, Royal knew issues were coming. They are fine with it. They just should have lowered cruise fare's with less capacity until they got things under control with their work force. They know exactly how many crew they know to run a ship correctly.

 

It's  a shame because some first time cruisers will never sail again with Royal because of this.

[Mapleleafforever]

If only the staff knew just how much power they collectively have. It's way past the time to have some kind of cruise staff Union, better working conditions and wages for all. 

 

I don't like hearing about people being forced to stay on or not come back.......reeks of servitude. 

[Another_Critic]

59 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Ok here is typical line for those who bought specialty drinks and wanted specialty coffee mid morning. To me they shut WJ breakfast early, though the cafe then opened mid morning. But wj had more limited hours. Here is the libe every morning. Some just wanted pastries .. there was one line for coffee, ifmyou just wanted pastries ..same line. One worker for orders and one guy making coffee and getting the pastries al, day. need 2 entry pts. One for just pastries.

This has been my experience on 7 pre-COVID Grandeur cruises and 1 post-restart Enchantment cruise.  I don't recall ever seeing more than 2 people working (or separate lines) at Cafe Lattitudes.

[orville99]

We have done 10 cruises on RCL since the restart. The first one was the second week they were sailing, and the last two were the last two weeks of April. There have been staffing and provisioning issues with every one. However, we have also had the opportunity to have sit down knee-to-knee frank conversations with everyone from the Hotel Director to the executive chef, to the head of restaurant operations, to bridge officers and they all have said the same thing. Regarding staff, they all said it is not so much that they are short staffed, but that they are struggling to find enough skilled front of the house positions like chefs, wait staff, etc.. They also have the same issues on the Marine side of the house where it has been difficult to get all of those people back. For the behind the scenes staff, getting people hired from countries where there is still significant CV impact or lack of in country agents to do the screening is slowing that process down as well.  One other thing we discussed was that because of all of those difficulties, and the order in which the ships came out of shutdown, they were dealing with staff that may have the skill to do the job, but also had to learn a completely new ship dynamic.

 

One thing we never heard from any of them was excuses. They all admitted that they were struggling to make it all work and that they both saw and understood the frustration it was causing for the passengers.

 

One other comment we heard from everyone on the restaurant side of the house was that after an 18 month shutdown they were still having difficulty reestablishing and stabilizing their shoreside provisioning partners so they were having to do a lot of last minute menu substitutions and limiting the number of restaurants that were open so they could "stretch" the supplies they were receiving and reduce the waste from underutilized venues.

 

Over those ten cruises, it has been slowly improving across all of those issues, but now that all of the ships in the fleet are back in operation, it will still take time to get back to where they were pre shutdown.

 

[firefly333]

16 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

This is what happens when you bring to many ships into service to fast. It was bound to happen, Royal knew issues were coming. They are fine with it. They just should have lowered cruise fare's with less capacity until they got things under control with their work force. They know exactly how many crew they know to run a ship correctly.

 

It's  a shame because some first time cruisers will never sail again with Royal because of this.

i still believe the issue is this particular ship was doing 600 to 800 pax out of Barbados and was doing fine. Then it arrived in texas and rcl didnt have extra staff to put on this ship. Plus any new crew had to isolate. Lol our captain was in isolation so we didnt see him until the 3rd leg at the tier party for pictures. 

 

It's because this particular ship jumped from 600 to 800 pax to close to 2k and probably 2k this summer literally overnight. They did pull the may 13 and may 18 bookings from rcl website and cut them off .. so I think they are aware of omgosh . .we have no extra staff to move to grandeur. I didnt realize I was the first out of texas until after I booked but I did see this coming.

 

Go and enjoy, just be aware. Choose meal times more carefully. Go before 1230 for lunch for instance. Not saying this ship isnt good, just rcl jump pax more than double, almost triple literally overnight. You should expect issues. Hopefully they will improve.

[FamilyCruiserUK]

The cruise lines are suffering or should i say experiencing the same as the airline industry..covid shut them down and they had little plan to ramp back up. They had to cut costs during covid and retire/lose crew. I dont think (although dont know how) the airlines and cruise companies expected people to very quickly want to fly or sail. To that end trying to train and hire staff has caused major issues. With the airlines you see it in the papers and is more high profile. Cruising not so much.

I dont know what the answer would have been to stop it happening apart from limit sailings and passenger numbers, untill more staff are avilable.

 

[johnjen]

1 hour ago, Mum2Mercury said:

Everywhere I go I see "HIRING NOW" signs.  Why should cruise ships be any different?  

How did we as a society get into this situation?  

At least, in MY area where I live, this applies. During the pandemic, a lot of people simply walked away, mostly fast food, service industry who weren't making a good living. Ever since, the quality of every restaurant we used to go to has DWINDLED to where we don't eat out any longer. 

So here is what happened. All of these former employees during the pandemic suddenly found a huge market open for professional jobs, office work, etc. So they took on some training, went back to school, and are now earning better money.

I predict that the service industry (cruise ships apply) are going through a nightmare right now because of the pandemic in keeping employees retained because they're moving on into higher paid jobs where people quit.