How Many Understaffed HAL Ships Have You Sailed On

[mcrcruiser]

We saw this on Koningsdam  for 12 days during December  .Long Lines in the MDR & long wait times for food  .Lido ,dirty tables  had to ask they be cleaned   2600 pax & 975 crew

 Name the ship & your experience 

[OlsSalt]

-0- understaffed HAL ships.  

Over 600 days sailed.

[mcrcruiser]

25 minutes ago, OlsSalt said:

-0- understaffed HAL ships.  

Over 600 days sailed.

Which sups have you sailed during your  600 days ?  .If you are talking total days sailed that is not what this   thread is about . We read a post about Rotterdam being under staffed  .Seems to us this is more prevalent than not at this time since covid pretty well is over  . 

[CruiserBruce]

17 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

Which sups have you sailed during your  600 days ?  .If you are talking total days sailed that is not what this   thread is about . We read a post about Rotterdam being under staffed  .Seems to us this is more prevalent than not at this time since covid pretty well is over  . 

There was just a discussion on another thread that at least some of the staffing issues are due to problems acquiring work visas.

[mcrcruiser]

5 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

There was just a discussion on another thread that at least some of the staffing issues are due to problems acquiring work visas.

Well  then did the cruise lines have those problems  before ? That is really not a good excuse for poor service  on any ship  ;as lives could depend on trained staff  not just their day to day  duties .  I wonder how the cruise lines would react  to people cutting down the tips  because they are not  getting well served  ?.There  will come a time if this continues , that people either will not cruise  or those who can afford luxury lines will be the only cruise population left 

[Laminator]

17 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

Well  then did the cruise lines have those problems  before ? That is really not a good excuse for poor service  on any ship  ;as lives could depend on trained staff  not just their day to day  duties .  I wonder how the cruise lines would react  to people cutting down the tips  because they are not  getting well served  ?.There  will come a time if this continues , that people either will not cruise  or those who can afford luxury lines will be the only cruise population left 

They were not trying to bring in thousands of workers at once. This is the equivalent of industrial areas where there alot of workers. The shifts are staggered by the various companies so there is not traffic gridlock at 3pm everyday. The enormous demand for Visa's has created gridlock. To many applying at once. This is not that hard to comprehend.

 

Edited February 9, 2023 by Laminator

[mcrcruiser]

There are hard choices that the cruise lines must make   if they can not staff the ships correctly  . One such choice is to sail less  ships until they can man them properly  or  hire  people from any free country wiling to work hard  for the tips & subsistence  that the lines pay  . Train them on the ships along with existing staff , These people would not receive full pay until totally on their own working full shifts  

[mcrcruiser]

3 minutes ago, Laminator said:

They were not trying to bring in thousands of workers at once. This is the equivalent of industrial areas where there alot of workers. The shifts are staggered by the various companies so there is not traffic gridlock at 3pm everyday. The enormous demand for Visa's has created gridlock. To many applying at once. This is not that hard to comprehend.

 

Then the lines need to hire where the visas as not bogged down .but ,this is not my concern nor should be any body who pays top dollar for their vacation. If the cruise lines can not meet the demand they need to idle some ships until they are capable of meeting the  demand .  

[FlaMariner]

I've never known the staffing levels on any ship I've ever sailed.......but......

 

We've sailed on 4 HAL cruises since the unpleasantness (October 2021 to December 2022) and we have not experienced any issues regarding lack or quality of staffing.....All great cruises.  

 

One was a maiden TA voyage (Rotterdam) and one was a Thanksgiving cruise full of folks (dinner in the MDR did take a little longer though on Thanksgiving because everybody showed up in the MDR for their turkey).  The other two were Caribbean jaunts. And the staff is just as great as usual.

 

Looking forward to our next cruise next month....no matter the staffing level.  

 

Enjoy the journey.....

[Laminator]

3 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

Then the lines need to hire where the visas as not bogged down .but ,this is not my concern nor should be any body who pays top dollar for their vacation. If the cruise lines can not meet the demand they need to idle some ships until they are capable of meeting the  demand .  

So let's cancel several cruises that are booked for the next 6 months. That won't disappoint several thousand clients. The vast majority of cruisers are just happy to be on a ship. They are willing to put up with a few issues. 

[mcrcruiser]

2 minutes ago, Laminator said:

So let's cancel several cruises that are booked for the next 6 months. That won't disappoint several thousand clients. The vast majority of cruisers are just happy to be on a ship. They are willing to put up with a few issues. 

 There is more than a few issues going on  .Settle for less then get less 

[MAVIP]

2 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

 

 Name the ship & your experience 

3 cruises on ms. Rotterdam VII in 2022. And the answer to your question is: None

[Mary229]

24 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

There are hard choices that the cruise lines must make   if they can not staff the ships correctly  .

And cruisers have to make their choice.  Customers can’t run the business but they don’t have to give them their money either 

 

These are not travel visas these are work visas and they are required.   The problem is on the US side

Edited February 9, 2023 by Mary229

[Mary229]

3 minutes ago, ldtr said:

Lets see how you like the staffing in land based hotels and the cut backs in services that many have when you the land based driving trip that you have been touting.

Good point.  The national parks are having the same issue.  For years they have hired young people from all over the world.  Those people couldn’t get visas either.  

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

Have been on 3 HAL cruises since the restart - 2 with 60% passenger capacity or less so if there was less crew, it was not noticeable. The 3rd one in December had more passengers than HAL's capacity figure and seemingly less crew. Although I did not notice it. And it didn't bother me. These days when you travel, you have to make the best of it and move on. 

 

In October 2021, I took A Tauck Canyonlands Tour of Arizona and Utah and as with Tuck you stay in the best hotels available. The visa problem reared its ugly head and hotels were grossly understaffed. The fine dining restaurants were closed, and we ate out of Styrofoam boxes sometimes. Did those of us on the tour complain? No. We were just glad the National Parks were open, and we all had a good time. You have to go with the flow.

 

I think HAL is not the only cruise line with this problem. 

[HALcruiser2001]

How are we as cruisers supposed to say if a ship is understaffed or not?  The only thing to go from is crew to passenger ratio.  Everything else is subjective.  

[FrankieSue]

1 hour ago, mcrcruiser said:

There are hard choices that the cruise lines must make   if they can not staff the ships correctly  . One such choice is to sail less  ships until they can man them properly  or  hire  people from any free country wiling to work hard  for the tips & subsistence  that the lines pay  . Train them on the ships along with existing staff , These people would not receive full pay until totally on their own working full shifts  

The staff on cruise ships already word harder than most other jobs, having to work for (on average) 6 months at a time, for 12 hrs a day, 7 days a week, without the security of being re hired when their contract end after 6 months; so in your opinion, how do you define “willing to work hard”.  As for “train them on ships alongside existing staff and dont pay them full pay while training” I would remind you that the biggest problem cruise lines have to live with right now is recruiting… People who worked on ships pre pandemic remember how cruise lines let them down during the pandemic and how they often were left stranded on ships, without any pay, for months before being able to go home.  Cruise ships have to regain employees confidence and more so their loyalty to the brand…. And your suggestion certainly will not help achieve that… so while cruise lines work on those issues of recruitment , training and loyalty, we, the passengers must remain kind, patient, and very respectful of those that are willing to leave their homes and families for 6 months or plus at a time, in order to pamper us…. Those are my thoughts on this subject.

[Alfisti]

2 hours ago, FlaMariner said:

I've never known the staffing levels on any ship I've ever sailed.......but......

 

We've sailed on 4 HAL cruises since the unpleasantness (October 2021 to December 2022) and we have not experienced any issues regarding lack or quality of staffing.....All great cruises.  

 

One was a maiden TA voyage (Rotterdam) and one was a Thanksgiving cruise full of folks (dinner in the MDR did take a little longer though on Thanksgiving because everybody showed up in the MDR for their turkey).  The other two were Caribbean jaunts. And the staff is just as great as usual.

 

Looking forward to our next cruise next month....no matter the staffing level.  

 

Enjoy the journey.....

 

Was onboard Rotterdam for the Thanksgiving cruise and it was great.  The ship was definitely busy (lots of families) but we still had a great time. 

 

Some people just have it in them to complain - no matter what happens its generally a negative perspective.  Some people complain that water takes 15mins to get, others get water from the beverage stations and go on enjoying vacation 😅

 

 

 

 

Edited February 9, 2023 by Alfisti

[MereBooty]

We were on the Koningsdam soon after you and it did not appear to be short staffed although some of the MDR waiters appeared to be in learning mode still. January 2023. 

[vicd1969]

Maybe it is a US-visa thing or maybe it depends on which area in the ship you are hanging out at. Summer in Europe on Rotterdam - no noticeable crew staffing issues, though I was in Club Orange. Best wait staff ever for me on a HAL cruise. November (before the infamous Thanksgiving cruise) on Nieuw Statendam - no issue with cabin attendants or pool area, but anytime MDR service was inconsistent and one time the only reason why we didn't walk out was that the buffet was going to close soon. 

[aliaschief]

More doomsday postings! The cruise lines we have cruised post pandemic have all reported staff shortages due to many former cruise members  found new careers and there are backlogs on visa processing for veterans.  We have been told that on Scenic, Azamara and Holland. That also results in rookie crew members that need to learn the standards.

If you’re cruising, expecting it will be just like 2015 you may be disappointed. 
There continues to be supply shortages, some cutbacks etc. 

I will let you in on a little secret! We still had a great time. Sure we noticed some changes. You just need to not set your expectations so high that they can’t be reached.

If you don’t like how a cruise line is running then try a new one. 
Hal is a great cruise line and we have enjoyed close to 500 days cruising with them. Our issue was we were getting rather bored with repetitious same onboard scenario. So we have dipped in other lines but still have some Hal bookings.

We all have choices.

 

[robotpony]

Thanksgiving felt understaffed (> 100% guest capacity), but we never felt undervalued in that we had reasonable service even if it wasn't the best we have had on HAL. We've seen this same problem with a number of our favourite hotel chains, like the Fairmonts we stay at (where all services are still coming back up to pre-lockdown levels). Most of the Fairmonts have recovered their groove, but are still sometimes struggling with sourcing food consistently.

 

Post-Thanksgiving HAL was a stark contrast, and service was close to as good as we've seen (90% capacity). August was also fine, but that cruise was only at 60% or something.

[ChinaShrek]

3 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

Then the lines need to hire where the visas as not bogged down .but ,this is not my concern nor should be any body who pays top dollar for their vacation. If the cruise lines can not meet the demand they need to idle some ships until they are capable of meeting the  demand .  

Who is really paying top dollar for HAL cruises right now? With all of the free cruises, FCCs, and discounted cruises people are sailing HAL quite cheaply. I am willing to forego great service if such deals continue.

[Alfisti]

5 minutes ago, ChinaShrek said:

Who is really paying top dollar for HAL cruises right now? With all of the free cruises, FCCs, and discounted cruises people are sailing HAL quite cheaply. I am willing to forego great service if such deals continue.

 

100%

 

Most people want champagne taste on a beer budget 😂

[Florida_gal_50]

3 hours ago, ChinaShrek said:

Who is really paying top dollar for HAL cruises right now? With all of the free cruises, FCCs, and discounted cruises people are sailing HAL quite cheaply. I am willing to forego great service if such deals continue.

Not everyone is getting free cruise or cheap  deals.  One cruise I’m looking at in November is $5000 for the cheapest balcony.  That does include have it all.  Then start adding air on top. If that isn’t top dollar for a balcony I don’t know what is.  Also looking at cruises on Princess for April.  Pricing marginally lower and that is two months from now.  Please share which cheap deals are available to the general public.