Pros and cons of cruising right after dry dock

[Snackdaddy]

Greetings:

 

We will be on the May 16, 2011 sailing of the Monarch OTS and just learned that she will be in dry dock from May 6-15, 2011.

 

In your opinion and/or personal experience, what are the pros and cons of cruising right after dry dock?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Ocean Boy]

I have never been on a ship right after dry dock but it seems that many times I have read on these boards about work that was not completed and continued to be done once the ship went back into service. I can even remember reading awhile back when a Windjammer was undergoing extensive renovations and it was not available for the first post-dry dock cruise.

 

I, personally, would not be excited about being on either a ship's maiden cruise or its first post dry dock cruise.

[cb at sea]

Pros: updated carpets, furnishings, etc....whatever they'd planned to do!

Cons: may not be entirely finished!

 

It really depends on what was supposed to happen in drydock!

[Mark_K]

Pros - None really in comparison to a month or so after dry dock.

 

Cons - quite likely your cruise will be at least somewhat disrupted by them finishing the work that didn't get done.

[BillOh]

Pros: updated carpets, furnishings, etc....whatever they'd planned to do!

Cons: may not be entirely finished!

 

It really depends on what was supposed to happen in drydock!

 

 

"It really depends" is the key phrase. I was on Majesty on one of her first cruises after dry dock and there were no cons. I think I just read somewhere that Liberty just left dry dock where they added new things like the Cupcake Corner, or what ever it is called and it wasn't fully operational the first cruise or two.

 

One universal "pro" is that you get to come back here afterwards and tell all of us, who will greatly appreciate the insight.

[Demongear]

1 con that I and 3000 of my newly closest friends;) had when Explorer came out of drydock was the ship was late back to Bayonne. You can guess what madness and chaos resulted from that. It was very poorly handled I felt.

[Merion_Mom]

Liberty's first cruise after drydock at couple of weeks ago had a VERY delayed boarding because of work that was still being done.

 

That created A LOT of VERY unhappy passengers.

[Trekker954]

I, personally, would not be excited about being on either a ship's maiden cruise or its first post dry dock cruise.

 

After being on the Allure's maiden voyage, we said we'd always try and be on a maiden voyage. While we paid for the cruise (we weren't part of the two groups that received free 2 day cruises), we certainly kept receiving free gifts in the room each day with "Allure - maiden season". from lanyards to beach towels, nice hats, pins and I'm sure other things I can't recall. Loved it.

 

We'll be on the Radiance shortly after it comes back from dry dock. I'll be excited b/c they'll have a Diamond lounge that will be new and we are now Diamond.

 

We were recently on the Naviagtor. It hadn't come out of dry dock, but did get a new carpet installed in some areas on our deck. There was quite a strong smell of glue. whew did it stink. But it did look nice.

[Cruzface]

Granted, not RCCL, but last year we cruised on the Carnival Glory right after dry dock. They did not have their act together. The movie screen was installed in dry dock, but they showed no movies at all. Major diappointment to the kids. I would never cruise right after dry dock again.

[Snackdaddy]

Thank you all for your comments. I guess we'll have to wait see if RCI has their act together on this one...

 

Be well.

[Snackdaddy]

Thank you all for your comments. I guess we'll have to wait see if RCI has their act together on this one...

 

Be well.

[Gilgo Surfer]

1 con that I and 3000 of my newly closest friends;) had when Explorer came out of drydock was the ship was late back to Bayonne. You can guess what madness and chaos resulted from that. It was very poorly handled I felt.

 

I was on this cruise. The ship was about five hours late, the first night was very unorganized. There was still some work going on (carpets, varnish, etc.) nothing major. One thing that I noticed was that the crew seemed very stressed out. My cabin was worn and out dated. I was on the Explorer nine months prior and did not see much difference after dry dock. I guess they addressed mostly mechanical issues.

[daisy-mae]

Just wondering if the possible smell of new varnish or carpet glue might be an issue for those who have environmental sensitivities..

[cruisegirl1]

Hi all - did a search - but failed. Can anyone tell me the anticipated changes to the Monarch.

Thanks.

M

[sldcruiser]

We'll be on FOS next month right after drydock. Hoping for the best! I'll let you know when we get back....

[Snackdaddy]

sldcruiser:

Thanks and look forward to your comments when you get back. Have a great cruise.

 

cruisegirl1:

I'm looking for that information as well. If I hear anything I will post the information.

[DanJ]

It's a 9 day out-of-service, which is probably a 6-7 day drydock. Sounds like a mechanical check-up and a general spruce up. They aren't going to be gutting and relocating large areas of the ship in something like this. When you see a ship being down for 3-4 weeks, that's when they are going to do large scale stuff that I would be more concerned about being completed.

[Snackdaddy]

It's a 9 day out-of-service, which is probably a 6-7 day drydock. Sounds like a mechanical check-up and a general spruce up. They aren't going to be gutting and relocating large areas of the ship in something like this. When you see a ship being down for 3-4 weeks, that's when they are going to do large scale stuff that I would be more concerned about being completed.

 

Sounds good, Dan. Thanks for your insight.

[orville99]

Would much rather cruise the week after dry dock than the week before. Did that once and as the week progressed, more areas of the ship got closed off/torn up/prepped for dry dock:( By the end of the week, we were being re-routed around roped off areas to get where we wanted to go, had to walk on plywood sheets that were put down to protect deck areas where they were going to drop materials, constantly dodging scraping/chipping crews, etc.:(

 

At least after dry dock, the ship improves every day.:rolleyes:

[Jnoel]

We sailed the Disney Magic right out of dry dock and enjoyed the perks of all the enhancements. We will be sailing FOS 2 weeks after dry dock and hope it's as smooth as it was on the Magic.

[SusieQQQ]

1 con that I and 3000 of my newly closest friends;) had when Explorer came out of drydock was the ship was late back to Bayonne. You can guess what madness and chaos resulted from that. It was very poorly handled I felt.

 

I was also on that cruise and it was terrible! Standing on cold concrete out in the cold for hours was just one of the problems. And, no apologizing from the captain or crew made it even worse.

[orville99]

We sailed the Disney Magic right out of dry dock and enjoyed the perks of all the enhancements. We will be sailing FOS 2 weeks after dry dock and hope it's as smooth as it was on the Magic.

 

 

Would have booked two weeks later w/you in a heartbeat if we had known that she was going into drydock at the end of our cruise. What I described is what it was like when we were on the Magic the week before she went in to drydock, and the last two days really were a bummer:(

 

We're on FOS in May, well after she comes out.