How hard the crew works

[Kittymama]

This news item is from CC. It's about NCL, but I thought it gives an interesting perspective on how hard the work really is for the crew. If they're cancelling a cruise because the American crew is too tired to work, imagine how exhausted Carnival's crews must be--& they don't get any time off! I'm not trying to start any arguments, but it might be worth remembering this item the next time you're wondering about tipping or complaining that crew won't "smile" at you.

NCL Cancels Pride of Aloha Voyage; "Crew Exhausted"
In what's a relatively unprecedented reason for canceling a cruise, Norwegian Cruise Line has announced that Pride of Aloha will forgo a two-day weekend voyage that was slated to begin Saturday -- because its crew members are, according to company spokeswoman Susan Robison, "exhausted."

Pride of America just launched in June. What's different about the crew on this ship results from the fact that the vessel flies an American flag, which gives NCL a lot of benefits over the big-ship competition -- it can offer cruising's only seven-night roundtrip itineraries from Honolulu, avoiding calls at foreign ports. However, the cruise must also toe-the-line on strict U.S. regulations, one of which is that the majority of crewmembers must come from the United States -- and the U.S., unlike many other countries, has not had a long tradition of cruise crew service. As such, NCL has faced challenges in training a whole new generation of onboard crew in preparation for the ship's preliminary cruises and its inaugural sailing, which departs from Honolulu on July 4.

"This is a complete switch from an international crew and management to a U.S. crew and management almost literally overnight," Robison said. "Our U.S. crew has done a great job but they are simply exhausted, and the situation is in danger of developing into burn-out if we do not allow everyone to wind down for a couple of days."

Ecstasy--12/97
Fascination--9/98
Triumph--10/99
Sensation--4/00
Triumph--11/00
Imagination--4/01
Spirit--11/01
Imagination--4/02
Spirit--11/02
Imagination--5/03
Glory--11/03
Fascination--5/04

[tef43]

I do not believe there is any argument over how hard the crew works.

The issue that NCLA has to deal with is the lousy work ethic of the Americans who applied for these jobs, thinking they were going to be on the Love Boat.

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[B]"Just say [I]NO[/I]" to countdown clocks![/B]

[I]Dance like it hurts, love like you need money, and work when somebody's watching.[/I]

[dosi]

Since I was just on the Pride of Aloha I believe I can add something to this post. While it did seem to me that the crew was not very interested in providing quality customer service I do have some sympathy for them. It is my understanding that while the ship was in drydock the crew (waiters, stewards, cooks etc) were kept busy painting, carpeting and cleaning the ship. It is not as though they worked on one cruise and just couldn't handle it.

On the other hand the crew seemed very much like the college kids that National parks hire for the summer. For the mostpart they want to do the minimum the job requires and not much more. I am afraid I have become quite spoiled by the customer service I have received on Carnival. It will be interesting to see how Princess handles customer service. Then I will have 3 cruiselines to compare.

doris

"I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine"--Caskie Stinnett

Elation 10/20/02
Paradise 9/21/03
Pride of Aloha 6/07/04
Star Princess 10/24/04

[Tropicalconcrete]

Just a perspective from someone that used to work for a cruise line (granted it was Windjammer) but still. When you are hired on, they don't truly tell you the conditions under which you will be working. If they did, no one would sign up.
I started with Windjammer on the Fantome (bless her soul) as a scrub. This meant 10 hours a day painting the engine room after polishing brass for an hour or two at 5 am. After two weeks of the engine room, I moved up to repairs. After afew weeks there, I moved up to actually sailing the ship. Now understand that after a 14 hour day, you still had to do a two hour watch every night which meant steering the ship at sea. Not something that you want to be tired for. Eventually, I graduated to running the life boats to and from the shore with passengers. This was the best job as you could converse with and enjoy the company of the pax.
The cabin stewarts worked just as hard if not harder and the galley was non stop with only one shift. On certain cruises, we would drop off pax at Freeport, and set sail empty for West Palm for supplies (fuel, food, etc.). On the way there, the ship needed to be cleaned and readied for the next cruise since once we picked up supplies, a whole different job was at hand (putting supplies away while sailing back to Freeport). These were easily 36 to 48 hour shifts. Mind you they were some of the most fun.
I am not trying to build up how hard these people work because they excepted the positions but, they work 16+ hours a day, 7 days a week for at times 6 months. And most of them love it. They do much better than they could in their native countries and I think really enjoy being around people. If you are considerate of them, they will go out of their way for you.
Then again, maybe we've just become to lazy here in the US?

Sun Princess 4/74
Windjammer Fantome
7/78-8/79 (Employee)
Carnival Tropicale 06/83?
Regal Empress 6/02

Til Triumph
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=111111&cdt=2004;7;17;16;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]

[bhardy1]

Ok, I have to post - Although I believe we Americans can be a bit lazy, we also have regulations for work. If our Fore fathers of our country didn't change the age of the children working, the we still would have 10 year olds working 16 - 20 hour days! Now, that said, I do think we Americans are just a bit more lazier than other countries. I really don't think I could work on a cruise ship!! I just get to tired thinking about it! So, I tip REAL BIG!! LOL!

Beth

Carnival - Sensation
4/00
RCCL - Sovereign of the Seas
12/02
RCCL - Majesty of the Sea
11/03

Leaving on the Fascination, come on Thanksgiving!!
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[alohacrewmom]

Many of the crew on POA work 80+ hours a week so I think it's really a stretch to call them lazy. They may be unaccustomed to that amount of work ( so is everyone I know ) but that doesn't mean they are lazy.

[fgresko]

I thought you were not allowed to use 4 letter words on these boards!! WORK AAGGHH i need to set up a buffet line in my house!

[L2J]

[quote name='alohacrewmom']Many of the crew on POA work 80+ hours a week so I think it's really a stretch to call them lazy. They may be unaccustomed to that amount of work ( so is everyone I know ) but that doesn't mean they are lazy.[/QUOTE]
I'll assume from the alias that you have a DS or DD on the POA?

Yes, the majority of America has a very "lazy" work ethic.

[woodman]

Yes we Americans are lazy we live in one of the most prosperous countries in the world. We produce some of the wealthiest people in the world. America is all this while we all sit around on cruise ships watching young people from foreign countries working there butts off. Wrong I don't know about all you other Americans but I worked for over 40 years giving some times more then 100% to the people I worked for. I admit I was paid well for it but I was not lazy thank you.
Please remember that the lazy Americans out produced the world in the 1040's and lost over a million of our young men doing it.
Remember one thing more the people that work so very hard for you on the cruise ships would have to work even harder to live if they had stayed home in the native countries. For some bashing Americans and America has become sheik but this country still has the longest waiting list of people wanting to get in from foreign countries. Maybe they all just want to become lazy to.
This will more then likly be pulled from this board but maybe a few people will read it and wake up. GOD BLESS AMERICA

[steveaaaa]

Alohacrewmom,
80+ hours per week????
The crew must be rolling in $$$ Since they are governed by US employment law they recieve time and a half for anything over 40 hours so they get paid for 100+ hours?I thought overtime was not mandatory with US jobs? Their R&B is included I would assume?
My question or debate issue would now be...the original thought of tipping was this was their only income (stewards and Waiters) now that we have a US crew with US wages,benefits,ect, tipping is now not needed??
I have also seen questions on this board about tipping the waiter if you do not eat in the dining room all week.The answer was always that this is their only income,so now with US labor laws and fair wage acts in place,if you ate at the buffet for every meal you would not have to tip the waiter or busboy??
The crew now under a US vail could also unionize to help with the poor work conditions as we are led to believe.
I wonder what the real reason they cancelled the cruise was for.
If I am incorrect on anything above please let me know as I have no knowledge of how a US flagged ship deals with the above and I am curious.
Steve

[cruisinqt]

I am also very curious as to how many hours an american crew member works. With U.S. regulations, it is bound to be different than most cruise ships. Do they get paid minimum wage? Do they get paid overtime? Or have the cruise lines found a way around these laws? I would have to assume that they get paid much more than your average crew member. And any overtime would be time and a half, right? Does anyone have any solid info. on this, or is all of this just going to be speculation? It would be nice to know the specifics so we can all be informed on this issue.

[kwpatel]

[quote name='alohacrewmom']Many of the crew on POA work 80+ hours a week so I think it's really a stretch to call them lazy. They may be unaccustomed to that amount of work ( so is everyone I know ) but that doesn't mean they are lazy.[/QUOTE]

80 per week... I was under the impression that these people get over time on the POA so they must be making a bundle

[bthorn1108]

I would still bet that the crew that are working in the "service" area of the ship (waiters, ass't waiters, cabin stewards) are not paid minimum wage. When I worked as a waitress in Massachusetts, I was not paid minimum wage. It was expected that I would receive a portion of my wages as tips and I'll bet it's like that on the POA.

[derf5585]

Report takes aim at ‘sweatships’
from
[url]http://www.cruisejunkie.com/ot.html[/url]

So, can they afford to pay a Hypnotist or Magician $3,000.00 per week?
from
[url]http://www.big-bucks-in-magic.com/1Rj-Magic-Cruise-Ships.html[/url]

[skitch57]

The problem is that they are being paid waitress/waiter wages which is below minimum wage and that unlike crew members from other countries they are NOT making more money than they could make at home and are probably having to work 2-3 times harder for it. I worked as a waitress through high school, college, and several years after for a second income and I never recieved overtime or minimum wage. I relied on my tips. My paychecks were always laughable. Any cruiseline is about making profit, not providing well paid jobs for their employees. They pay them the least amount they can to attract the workers they need - not the most. Just sailed on Raddison a few weeks ago. This is a no tipping ship and the service was EXCELLENT. In this case, the crew must be paid well to attract a staff that provides that level of service with no tipping. Of course, you pay for it in the higher cost of the cruise. Anyway, the point is, in this country there are probably many easier ways to make an equal living to that of a crew member. In other countries there is not.

[kalamari]

This entire story referred to in cruise junkie is at [url]http://www.waronwant.org[/url]. The article is about 20 pages of long but I can vouche for the reality of it...Menina





[quote name='derf5585']Report takes aim at ‘sweatships’
from
[url]http://www.cruisejunkie.com/ot.html[/url]

So, can they afford to pay a Hypnotist or Magician $3,000.00 per week?
from
[url]http://www.big-bucks-in-magic.com/1Rj-Magic-Cruise-Ships.html[/url][/QUOTE]