extra staff

[AmuseMe]

:confused:I noticed that our cruise is underbooked. How does the cruiselines deal with the extra staff.

I would think you get better service from them not being overwelmed with a packed ship.

Do they take on more staff if needed in some ports? Just wondering

[champagne123]

The crew have contracts. (which are about 6 to 8 months). They don't come and go "as needed". Ships rarely sail not filled. They would rather lower the price prior to the cruise than to allow empty cabins. Hypothetically, if the guests were low....there is always something for the crew to do....just like in a restaurant. No customers? Clean.

Edited April 9, 2017 by champagne123
ddddd

[CruiserBruce]

First, how do you know your cruise is undersold? That is info that the public can't typically see. What you see on the cruise lien website does not accurately represent what is going on, as you can't see guarantee bookings.

 

Second, what do you propose to do with the surplus? Assuming the ship is going to come back to the same port in 7 or 10 day...put them in a hotel? If it is not coming back to the same port, fly them to the new port, and put them up? Sounds very expensive to me.

 

In our experience, the "extra staff" is is kept on board, and a lot of catch up work and cleaning gets done.

[leaveitallbehind]

As others have said, the ship's crew do not come and go as needed based on the passenger load. Ships are fully staffed at all times and the crew is contracted and live permanently on the ship during their contract period.

 

What cruise line and ship are you referring to? Most ships sail full (or maybe have a few unoccupied staterooms) and the crew on board is kept quite busy as a result. Also as mentioned, booking information is not normally publicly reported so I would join with the question of how would you know that?

 

If you are seeing available staterooms on a website that does not mean a ship is under booked. Staterooms are sold up until the day (in most cases) before departure, so you could not know of final booking total until day of departure.

[thinfool]

Please share with us the source of your 'undersold' statement.

[sfaaa]

There are always ongoing staff training and ship maintenance to deal with during down time. You won't see any staff standing around doing nothing.

[paul929207]

OP,

 

Are you basing your comments on a look at the line's website? If you are counting available cabins, you are not considering cabins sold as guarantees, but not yet assigned a cabin.

[navybankerteacher]

Actually, because ships now are understaffed when compared with passenger/staff ratios in effect until just a few years aga, the only impact of a few empty cabins and some fewer people being served in the MDR is a temporary return to the levels of service previously enjoyed - along with a slight decrease in the heavy burden carried by the staff.

[AmuseMe]

I looked at NCL website. I did not know about the guaranteed rooms wouldn't show on the website. I was just wondering. This is for the NCL Getaway sailing 4/16/16. Woo hoo can't wait! Thank you all for the info.....

[champagne123]

I looked at NCL website. I did not know about the guaranteed rooms wouldn't show on the website. I was just wondering. This is for the NCL Getaway sailing 4/16/16. Woo hoo can't wait! Thank you all for the info.....

I have been on the Breakaway (sister ship). You are going to have a fabulous time!

[cb at sea]

You can have a full passenger capacity, and MANY "empty" cabins...if there are many families with 4 in each cabin! They have many more cabins/beds than the number of passengers they are allowed to carry.

[CruiserBruce]

You can have a full passenger capacity, and MANY "empty" cabins...if there are many families with 4 in each cabin! They have many more cabins/beds than the number of passengers they are allowed to carry.

 

Don't believe this is true. Cabins are rated for 2, 3, 4 and occasonally, in the case of family cabins or suites, more than 4.

 

When you look online and see a ship carries XXX people, that is almost always the double occupancy capacity- 2 per cabin. That IS NOT the rated capacity of the ship- simply the double occupancy number- a common number used for comparisons. So if you have 4 in a cabin rated for 4, that doesn't mean a cabin for 2 is sitting empty because a cabin for 4 is full.

 

The "full" capacity is all cabins filled at their rated capacity.

[calliopecruiser]

:confused:I noticed that our cruise is underbooked. How does the cruiselines deal with the extra staff.

 

I would think you get better service from them not being overwelmed with a packed ship.

 

Do they take on more staff if needed in some ports? Just wondering

 

 

Huh......I was just wondering the same thing. I've heard a rumour about a light passenger load on my next cruise.

 

 

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[leaveitallbehind]

You can have a full passenger capacity, and MANY "empty" cabins...if there are many families with 4 in each cabin! They have many more cabins/beds than the number of passengers they are allowed to carry.

 

This not correct. They don't have more staterooms than the number of passengers they can carry. They can carry passengers in all staterooms at double occupancy, or stated minimum stateroom occupancy.

 

They do have more beds than total passenger capacity will allow, but that is for families, etc., in single staterooms, and to provide flexibility with the mix of passengers booking together. What limits the total passenger capacity load is the number of lifeboat spaces. And that is typically more than each stateroom at double occupancy, but less than the total number of beds on board.

 

CruiserBruise's response is also correct.

Edited April 10, 2017 by leaveitallbehind

[leaveitallbehind]

Huh......I was just wondering the same thing. I've heard a rumour about a light passenger load on my next cruise.

 

 

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Which is just that - rumor. Curious where you are hearing that? As pointed out numerous times on this thread there is no publicly published information about a cruise ship's booked passenger count at anytime, and the final booking total will not be completed until departure date. Most cruise ships sail full (or very nearly so) and crew staffing is also full and permanently on board.

[Hlitner]

We have been on undersold cruises...in fact we were on one HAL cruise where there were never more than 600 passengers on an 800 passenger vessel. This resulted in amazing MDR service for later diners (early dining was still crowded). The main issue for the crew has to do with tips or auto gratuities. Most cruise lines have some type of pool fund to make up for lightly booked cruises, but some staff can still make a little less money.

 

But for those who are curious., yes, some cruises sail with a substantial number of empty cabins. The cruise lines use many marketing techniques to fill unsold cabins including last minute booking specials (we often take advantage of last minute pricing with amazing deals), opening up more cabins for "Interline" bookings (these are travel professionals such as airline crew, etc. But when they are unable to fill the ships...the show goes on and its great for the passengers. Ships are not as crowded, staff is better able to give great service, etc.

 

In most cases there is little to no adjustment of staffing as there are contractual obligations...and it does not often make sense to move crew members for just a few days (or even weeks).

 

Hank

[CruiserBruce]

I would say a very small number of cruises sail with "a significant" number of empty cabins, but it is usually a special event. Our special event? We sailed a Panama Canal repo cruise a number of years ago. It was sold as a 15 day FLL-San Diego, and a 19 day FLL-Seattle. At San Diego, over 1400 of the 2000 pax got off, and the San Diego-Seattle portion can't be sold as a 4 day. So we sailed with just 600 pax on board. Our cabin steward had just 3 cabins to clean (instead of 16).

[chengkp75]

Don't believe this is true. Cabins are rated for 2, 3, 4 and occasonally, in the case of family cabins or suites, more than 4.

 

When you look online and see a ship carries XXX people, that is almost always the double occupancy capacity- 2 per cabin. That IS NOT the rated capacity of the ship- simply the double occupancy number- a common number used for comparisons. So if you have 4 in a cabin rated for 4, that doesn't mean a cabin for 2 is sitting empty because a cabin for 4 is full.

 

The "full" capacity is all cabins filled at their rated capacity.

 

Not quite right. The "maximum" capacity is based on lifeboat capacity. There will be many more berths in passenger cabins than the maximum capacity. This is so that those who want more than double occupancy have the choice of various cabin classes. However, cb is as usual off the mark, because of the pricing practice where 3rd/4th guests pay less than 1st/2nd in a cabin. So, what the lines will do, in times of high family bookings, is base the number of 3rd/4th guests they will allow to be booked on having all cabins full at double occupancy. If it looks like the ship will be at max capacity without filling all cabins, they will stop allowing 3rd/4th guest bookings, to force the families/groups to book two cabins.

[MicCanberra]

It is a business after all, they aim for profits. Full ships help achieve this.

[calliopecruiser]

Which is just that - rumor. Curious where you are hearing that? As pointed out numerous times on this thread there is no publicly published information about a cruise ship's booked passenger count at anytime, and the final booking total will not be completed until departure date. Most cruise ships sail full (or very nearly so) and crew staffing is also full and permanently on board.

Yes, that's why I used the word "rumour". In this case from people who are currently on the preceding cruise and will be continuing on the next, the one I will board in 3 days. It doesn't matter to me whether it's sold out or not, but it did make me think about what it would be like if that rumour were true.

[Hlitner]

Yes, that's why I used the word "rumour". In this case from people who are currently on the preceding cruise and will be continuing on the next, the one I will board in 3 days. It doesn't matter to me whether it's sold out or not, but it did make me think about what it would be like if that rumour were true.

 

DW reminded me that the major impact, of a ship cruising well below capacity, it to be found in the MDR. It is a strange feeling to go to dinner and find 1/3 or 1/2 of the dining room empty with some waiters quietly standing around (they try to look busy with no tables to serve). It can create some problems if the Maitre'd (dining room managers) are not at the top of their game. We once did an Oosterdam Trans Pacific cruise that was only about 75-80% at capacity. For those of us in open (Select) dining who chose to dine late, the MDR was only about 25% full. Management tried to even the work load by scattering passengers around the spacious MDR. The result was that, although some of us would ask to share a large table, we would sometimes be put at a large table with on 4 person...or sometimes with just 2! So you had lots of larger tables where none of the them was full. After a few days, a group of us complained to management that although we understood they had staffing issues, we were the paying passengers and wanted to be at larger tables that were full! Management finally got the message and changed the seating. Some of the extra waiters were put to work helping (acting like assistant waiters). The best part was that we had amazing wine service because the 4 wine stewards only had to handle a small number of tables.

 

Hank

[sail7seas]

Please share with us the source of your 'undersold' statement.

 

 

I've not heard of an undersold ship since just after 9-11. What is your source of info that has given you the impression of undersold'?

[navybankerteacher]

Not quite right. The "maximum" capacity is based on lifeboat capacity. There will be many more berths in passenger cabins than the maximum capacity. This is so that those who want more than double occupancy have the choice of various cabin classes. However, cb is as usual off the mark, because of the pricing practice where 3rd/4th guests pay less than 1st/2nd in a cabin. So, what the lines will do, in times of high family bookings, is base the number of 3rd/4th guests they will allow to be booked on having all cabins full at double occupancy. If it looks like the ship will be at max capacity without filling all cabins, they will stop allowing 3rd/4th guest bookings, to force the families/groups to book two cabins.

 

Helpful, correct information. It would be interesting to know which ships have the greatest difference between lifeboat capacity and total number of bunks. I would suspect it would be NCL, given their frequent marketing of 3rd and 4th pax deals.

[calliopecruiser]

Hank, that is a horrible feeling. On my very first cruise, I was seated at a table for 8 or 10, but the other 7 or 9 were all from the same family who missed embarkation so I sat there the first night alone. It was worse than sitting at a table for 2 alone.

 

 

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[MicCanberra]

Hank, that is a horrible feeling. On my very first cruise, I was seated at a table for 8 or 10, but the other 7 or 9 were all from the same family who missed embarkation so I sat there the first night alone. It was worse than sitting at a table for 2 alone.

 

 

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Oh that would be horrific.