What happens during dry dock?

[mocro]

There's an interesting thread below vis a vis whether a passenger should take HAL or X to Alaska this summer. Lots of postings regarding Infinity's need for refurbishment; lumpy bedding, plastic flowers, torn carpet, etc. I'm watching this thread w/interest as we're set to sail on the Infinity in August, so we still have time to choose another ship. The pod issues that relate to itinerary changes aren't a concern for us, but the condition of our suite/ship is.

 

The Infinity is scheduled for dry dock in May, but most posters talk about that vis a vis the pod problems. For those of you who've sailed after a dry dock, can you please tell me if a dry dock always extends to general ship refurnbishment? I'm guessing Celebrity wouldn't tell me specifics, i.e. if bedding is scheduled to be changed out, but I thought some of you experienced cruisers might know what a dry dock entails. Thanks so much.

[Friendly Cruiser101]

All it depends on what the line want to do with the ship. We were on the Enchantment of the Seas first cruise out of dry dock they had cut the ship in half, added 117 feet to the middle of the ship put it back together, added a new a pool, lounge and many cabins, all new carpet other stuff and the ship was back in service within 30 or 40 days and it was impossible to tell where the new part was.

 

We were on the Century last year when it was just out of dry dock when they had removed the sides off the ship and added back balcony to the ship and redid the rest, new cabins, etc., in about a month.

 

So I guess you just need to ask what they are doing to your ship, each case is different.

 

Sometimes they do minor work as they do also, like new carpets etc. Sometimes it's just easier and cheaper to give the entire staff off for a month and get everything done at once.

 

One thing not to worry about, both times the work was was finished on time and it was perfectly done.

[Lois R]

Hi,:) In my opinion Century was much more than

just "drydocked"......she had a $55million overhaul.

314 balconies were added, a new restaurant was added,

etc....and she was out of service for close to 6 weeks.

 

I would say a week of drydock..example on upcoming one for

Mercury on April 13th would be new carpets, bedding, general

maintenance.

[terumim]

the dry dock will be at the ned of may to replace the pods that have been playing with the speed of the ship .. also some replacement to the ship that needs to be done.. not sure what ,, probably thing that can be done that week...so i am sure the ship, will be shining a bit when ya go in august,,, i sail in oct

 

tonia

[chessbriar]

Things like bedding, carpeting, upholstery are done while the ship is in service. It's done while people are ashore and at night. We saw a lot of this on our last cruise as we were usually the last one off the ship. With 2000 people wearing out the facilities, they cannot wait for drydock to do these repairs.

 

What goes on during dry dock is things that cannot be done at sea. With Infinity's drydock not being part of the normal rotation, they will repair the pods and anything that might need an overhaul.

 

It is not a refurbishment they are doing, it's only repairs.

[tromvest]

We will be sailing on the Infinity on May 27th, right after its week long drydock in Vancouver. I thought that in addition to the pod repairs, that new bedding would be added. Is this not true? I called Captain's Club but they don't seem to know what I am talking about when I mention the new bedding.

 

Thanks

[Rev22:17]

mocro,

 

There's an interesting thread below vis a vis whether a passenger should take HAL or X to Alaska this summer. Lots of postings regarding Infinity's need for refurbishment; lumpy bedding, plastic flowers, torn carpet, etc. I'm watching this thread w/interest as we're set to sail on the Infinity in August, so we still have time to choose another ship. The pod issues that relate to itinerary changes aren't a concern for us, but the condition of our suite/ship is.

 

Something tells me that there's a need to "consider the source" regarding such posts. They are not at all consistent with my experience aboard said vessel less than six months ago. Rather, the ship was in fantastic condition and the beds were quite comfortable.

 

The Infinity is scheduled for dry dock in May, but most posters talk about that vis a vis the pod problems. For those of you who've sailed after a dry dock, can you please tell me if a dry dock always extends to general ship refurnbishment? I'm guessing Celebrity wouldn't tell me specifics, i.e. if bedding is scheduled to be changed out, but I thought some of you experienced cruisers might know what a dry dock entails. Thanks so much.

 

A "drydock" is, quite literally, a facility within a shipyard for taking the ship out of the water. It has permanant walls on three sides and a movable door called a caisson on the fourth, plus pumps permanently installed for pumping water into or out of the enclosed area. Basically, the shipyard will close the caisson, pump the drydock out, set up keel blocks for the ship, then flood the drydock, open the caisson, move the ship into it, close the caisson, and pump iit dry again. While pumping the drydock dry, shipyard employees adjust the ship's mooring lines at the direction of the drydocking officer to position the ship very precisely within the drydock, both fore and aft and sde to side, so that the ship's keel comes to rest on the keel blocks as the water level drops. With the drydock empty, shipyard workers can go into the drydock to inspect and work on the underwater portion of the hull as well as underwater appendages like rudders, propellers and shafts, external bearings, dynamic stabilizers, side thrusters, and underwater instrumentation. This includes azipod propulsion units on ships that have them.

 

Note that ships can -- and often do -- go into shipyards for routine maintenance and repairs without going into drydock. The process of putting a ship into a drydock and taking a ship out of a drydock is quite expensive, so a cruise line is not going to spend the money to put a ship into drydock unnecessarily. Thus, the shipyard will do work at a "fitting out pier" (where the ship remains in the water, but the shipyard's cranes, etc., can reach it) whenever it's possible to do so.

 

Note, also, that cruise lines will have a shipyard do as much work as possible, with first priority being work that affects the seaworthiness of the vessel and second priority being work that must be done when there are no passengers aboard, whenever a ship goes into a shipyard, whether the ship actually enters drydock or not. When GTS Infinity went into the shipyard for replacement of a propulsion pod last September, the shipyard also replaced carpeting in stair landings and closed the opening in the deck that separated the Martini Bar and the Champagne Bar, for example.

 

Norm.

[chessbriar]

Bedding is a change that's being made on the fly. They were making the changes everyday on the Galaxy. Some people got off in the morning and came home that night to nice fluffy beds.