1st cruise after repo, always bad?

[Sotermarler]

I have recently seen several threads about poor service and limited access to goods on the first cruise after a repositioning.

 

My question is, has any one had a good experience with the first cruise out after a repo? Or are all first after repos always pretty much chaos?

 

I am booked on the first cruise on the Jade next year when it comes back from Europe to Tampa and now am concerned that this may have been a mistake.

What's your thoughts?

[cliffd64]

I have recently seen several threads about poor service and limited access to goods on the first cruise after a repositioning.

 

My question is, has any one had a good experience with the first cruise out after a repo? Or are all first after repos always pretty much chaos?

 

I am booked on the first cruise on the Jade next year when it comes back from Europe to Tampa and now am concerned that this may have been a mistake.

What's your thoughts?

 

I do not think there is a hard and fast rule... I think it mainly depends on a lot of factors and there is no way to predict it. The thing I will caution you with is that for every cruise, regardless of timeframe or itinerary, there are several hundred people who did not experience all the bad things that some people say they did. But it's far less likely that those people will seek out to post on cruise critic to tell you the cruise met their expectations. If there was any consistency to these types of "1st week after repo" scenarios and they were always bad, word would get out and no one would book the first week after a repo now would they? Take the negative reviews with a grain of salt. It was more likely a small subset of people who were upset. I'd check the roll call to see for that cruise to see how everyone else felt who was a cruise critic member...

[mugtech]

We were on the Sun for a 19 day cruise from Tampa through the canal to Vancouver, followed by a 10 day Alaska round draft trip from Vancouver. Although there were a few crew changes, the first Alaska cruise of the season was fantastic, we had great weather and we noticed no change at all in the service or the products. That was this April/May, it was a much older clientel, and on the Alaska leg there were more Canadians than Americans, so it was a very friendly trip, don't drink but heard no UBP complaints about lack of service.

[kirsty_r]

this could be a repo followed by a mega ship launch where experienced staff might have been repositioned to for the first few weeks, leaving a skills gap across the fleet perhaps?

[Demonyte]

Unfortunately it seems that some ports (in this case Tampa) just act like season's first cruise is the first one they have ever handled. Dawn had also major problems right after repositioning to Tampa in 2013/2014 season.

[moopig]

Took a Princess cruise that had just come from Europe. We had to wait almost 3 hours in a huge line outside of the terminal before boarding, Something about the ship having to clear Dept. of Agriculture (?) Other than that, the cruise was great :)

[BirdTravels]

We were on the Epic last October on the first Western Caribbean cruise after repositioning from the Med. other than a few hiccups at Grand Cayman (which was a tender port), no real problems.

 

However, we were on the Epic last week on the repositioning from dry dock to Barcelona. I had multiple crew members from multiple departments say to me "this is a one off cruise, so it doesn't matter". A bit annoying.

[bonvoyagie]

while I have not been on a repo cruise or the first one after, I can imagine all of the "extra" inspections - USDA, USCG, Health inspectors etc. I suspect that most of the food stores need to be emptied, inspected (after all it came from a foreign country :D) and re stocked. This is usually way more than a simple turnaround. Add to all of this crew changes - also probably higher than normal due to the impending dry dock.

 

In the case of the Star they also had Azipod issues and perhaps they were also trying to avoid storms - hence the late departure - the Breakaway had to do this due to Joaquin.

 

The potential for the "Perfect Storm" in this case is was greater than normal.

[LMaxwell]

Will not sail:

First cruise after major repo or transatlantic

First cruise out of drydock

Last cruise before drydock

New ship for at least 6 months

[Sotermarler]

this could be a repo followed by a mega ship launch where experienced staff might have been repositioned to for the first few weeks, leaving a skills gap across the fleet perhaps?[/quote

 

I was wondering t too, maybe some seasoned staff were repositioned to the Escape? Sounds like many people have experienced issues on these though, so I don't know.

[kirsty_r]

I've done actual repo's and never had issues, unless all the c crew got off after which I doubt. I have only done the repo from usa to Europe, so maybe its fine in Europe but not when it lands back in usa?

[Sotermarler]

Oh boy, not exactly what I wanted to hear. Oh well.

[House_Atreides]

We were on the Sun for a 19 day cruise from Tampa through the canal to Vancouver, followed by a 10 day Alaska round draft trip from Vancouver. Although there were a few crew changes, the first Alaska cruise of the season was fantastic, we had great weather and we noticed no change at all in the service or the products. That was this April/May, it was a much older clientel, and on the Alaska leg there were more Canadians than Americans, so it was a very friendly trip, don't drink but heard no UBP complaints about lack of service.

 

 

Hey I was on that cruise too did the 29 day [emoji2][emoji322][emoji111]🏻️

[SMerritt]

Took a Princess cruise that had just come from Europe. We had to wait almost 3 hours in a huge line outside of the terminal before boarding, Something about the ship having to clear Dept. of Agriculture (?) Other than that, the cruise was great :)

 

We must have been on the same cruise! :D

 

It was a little hectic, but once boarding started, we were on the ship in minutes!

 

Lesson Learned: Check and see if you should arrive at the port later in the day

 

As moopig psted, after that, the cruise was great!

 

We sailed on the Breakaway & Getaway when they were new - again, all went smooth

Edited October 29, 2015 by SMerritt

[FormerCoastie]

I sail NCL for the first time in a month, but I've had a good experience with RCCL. I did Adventure in 2013 out of San Juan right after she did the trans-Atlantic. Quite a few B2B cruisers on as well. I had great service, and would happily do that cruise again with the same staff if it were offered. I don't know how much turn-over there was in San Juan, though. Boarding was delayed due to USCG inspections, but we got notices about that. Maybe waited 20 minutes in line from taxi to on-board.