Anybody else feel like RCCL ships need more staff?

[jamesr3939]

I agree there's clearly a lack of staff compared to just a few years ago. It's mostly evident since the advent of drink packages. Guess what? Fewer bar servers, fewer drinks being served, more profit. In October I stood on the upper deck of Oasis looking at the pool deck and many times I couldn't find a "yellow" shirt and when I did I couldn't count more than three in sight at any one time.

 

But it's not just RCCL. When we did a recent Carnival we sat the entire comedy show and were never contacted by a cocktail server. In the entire comedy club (much much larger than RCCL) there were maybe 4-5 cocktail servers. Again, drink package, pay upfront, can't get anybody to give you a drink, i.e.: higher profit margin.

[CruisingNole]

Well maybe there is hope because it wasn't like that this past week. We tip all the servers every time we get a drink also. We never come early either, usually 6:45. Generally it took nearly 45 minutes for anyone to even come over to take our order and for that we had to almost tackle somebody to get their attention...that because they were so busy with a very busy CK and chefs table. They were great but spread too thin

 

Wow, which bars in particular?

[topnole]

Wow, which bars in particular?

 

Pretty sure he means the suite lounge bar. It can get very busy during dinner hours. Cocktails are free for a few hours and beer and wine is free from 11-11.

[CruisingNole]

;p

Pretty sure he means the suite lounge bar. It can get very busy during dinner hours. Cocktails are free for a few hours and beer and wine is free from 11-11.

 

Makes sense, thank you.

 

These details would be helpful for posters to add, instead of just saying "the bar staff." To us commoners, that's a very broad reference. ;p

[Beachboy3]

Just returned from a 5 day cruise on the Serenade OTS . Main dining room staff were great. Only thing our waiter and his assistant flew around like they had a rocket up there butt trying to keep up! They rarely stopped! I think they had to many tables! We had my time dining and they were constantly bringing more people to there section. Felt sorry for them!:(:(:(

[Tom47]

I have only been on one RCI cruise, back in 2011. Since then we have cruised on Celebrity and Azamara. Our recent Azamara cruise, February 8-20, 2018, had 680 passengers and 405 crew. Service was outstanding. We are planning a RCI 50th anniversary cruise with family in 2020.

[Mikew0805]

It does seem like the stateroom attendants and dining staff have more work than they used to.

 

Well they do keep adding cabins to ships, and a rather large amount of cabins on Voyager/Freedom Class. It works for CCL, I am sure that RCI sees that they can get away with it.

[Armac]

When we first started cruising 25 years ago the staff in the main dining room had time to stop and talk to you, some did magic tricks or puzzles for our kids. Not the case now most cruises we hardly get to talk to our waiters because they are so busy .

[CruisingNole]

When we first started cruising 25 years ago the staff in the main dining room had time to stop and talk to you, some did magic tricks or puzzles for our kids. Not the case now most cruises we hardly get to talk to our waiters because they are so busy .

 

You also probably paid more your cruise 25 years ago than you would today. As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.

[John&LaLa]

On the Oasis the evening bar staff have to service the Coastal Kitchen, chef's table and the suite lounge. Ridiculous and so understaffed. I felt very sorry for those guys.

I've never seen the SL bar staff serving CK. CK has 7 waiters, they get drinks, as well as the hostess and even the restaurant manager on occasion.

 

Don't recall how Chef's Table is served

 

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[helencruising]

This seems to be happening on RCI as well as the other two cruise lines we have been on. This is why I like to tip extra to those doing such a great job.

[Gomez56]

We just got off the Rhapsody and neither my wife nor I felt the wait staff or bars were understaffed. Yes, the wait staff was very busy but we are also in the food service industry and waiting 5 minutes between courses did not bother us at all.

A few of the bar staff, on the other hand, acted like it was an inconvenience to have us there. And that was mentioned on our survey.

[ONECRUISER]

Just curious if other feel this way or is it just our experience on our recent cruise?

 

We just got off the 8 night on Freedom and found the staff onboard to be incredible. Seriously, they were so incredibly friendly and hard working.

 

But we actually felt bad for them because they seemed so overworked.

 

As an example, we couldn't even flag down a waiter at the MDR at lunch to order off the menu. It was hard to get drinks at the bars because there was only one or two bartenders who were completely swamped and needed more help.

 

The poor guy in the Cafe Promenade making coffee drinks always had a smile on his face, but there were times when the line was like 8 people deep and he didn't have anyone to help him.

 

These were just a few examples, and I'm curious if this is a general theme across the board? Does RCCL ve a hard time finding enough staff or do they just not hire enough and over work the people they do have?

30 years ago average cruise ship had only 500-1000 passengers until Sovereign of the Seas. Then we had one room attendant to 8 rooms, dining room 1 Waiter to at most 1-2 tables. Times have changed. They use to clean your room 8 times a day, every time you left your room. We all ate 3 meals a day in Main Dining room, was a 5 course meal that took full 2 hrs. I actually like the choices better now... Cost of a 7 night cruise in a tiny port hole deck 2 cabin was over $3400 for the 2 of us. There wasn't even a single balcony cabin on Royal ships. But see see your point, with change some good, some bad...

[John&LaLa]

I seem to recall their was a cabin steward and an assistant. Much like the MDR setup

 

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[torpeedo]

I've never seen the SL bar staff serving CK. CK has 7 waiters, they get drinks, as well as the hostess and even the restaurant manager on occasion.

 

Don't recall how Chef's Table is served

 

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We've sailed many other times on the Oasis with fine service so this may have been a one off due to the holiday week. Not bashing the Oasis staff in the SL, just that they were over their head with everything being full. The Bar Staff makes all the mixed drinks for everyone even though the CK waiters deliver the drinks to the CK.

[cruiselvr04]

Service has declined over the last 17 years we’ve been cruising. The MDR staff is spread more thin but where we’ve noticed it most is the bar service. We don’t get a package so buy by the drink. I’ve waited so long I’ve given up. That’s lost revenue for them. Rarely do you get chair service at the pool. So I buy less there also. And it’s almost impossible to get a drink with dinner or takes 30 minutes for them to come back with it. So I often skip that too.

 

The cabins aren’t as clean as they used to be but I can’t blame the stewards as they have a lot of cabins to cover. The bathrooms are clean and the sheets but no cleaning in the corners is done.

[Snit13]

 

The cabins aren’t as clean as they used to be but I can’t blame the stewards as they have a lot of cabins to cover. The bathrooms are clean and the sheets but no cleaning in the corners is done.

 

We were on NCL Epic over Thanksgiving for 7 nights and sheets were NEVER changed. We were in a spa suite. On Majesty in January in a JS for 5 nights sheets were NEVER changed. What is wrong with this picture?

[Denversail]

We were on NCL Epic over Thanksgiving for 7 nights and sheets were NEVER changed. We were in a spa suite. On Majesty in January in a JS for 5 nights sheets were NEVER changed. What is wrong with this picture?

 

 

 

I wouldn’t think they would change the sheets on a 5 or 7 day cruise. Unless you did something gross and obvious. [emoji33]

 

 

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[CruisingNole]

We were on NCL Epic over Thanksgiving for 7 nights and sheets were NEVER changed. We were in a spa suite. On Majesty in January in a JS for 5 nights sheets were NEVER changed. What is wrong with this picture?

 

 

 

Taking the environment into consideration...do your sheets really need to be changed more than once per week? Unless there are bodily fluids on them, I think that's a bit overkill.

[sosilly27]

When we first started cruising 25 years ago the staff in the main dining room had time to stop and talk to you, some did magic tricks or puzzles for our kids. Not the case now most cruises we hardly get to talk to our waiters because they are so busy .

 

 

We just got off the Independence and one of the waiters near our table seemed to get a lot of kids at his tables. We saw him regularly engaging with them - he made a squirrel out of a napkin and would show the kids how he pet it. When they went to pet it, he would flick it up his arm so it jumped away. Lots of happy kids - especially when he gave them their own squirrel to keep. Our 2 servers were great and we had some good chats with them. On our 2nd night, the waiter had all of our names memorized when we sat down. The assistant waiter remembered my quirky drink order from the first night and brought it to me every night afterwards. Honestly, these two guys were my teenagers' favorite thing about the cruise after the zipline in Labadee!

 

Now the bars out near the pool? It was nearly impossible to get a non-alcholic drink and at one point, Squeeze had only 1 bartender for the entire bar!

[icsys]

I wouldn’t think they would change the sheets on a 5 or 7 day cruise. Unless you did something gross and obvious. [emoji33]

Taking the environment into consideration...do your sheets really need to be changed more than once per week? Unless there are bodily fluids on them, I think that's a bit overkill.

How often would you expect the sheets to be changed on a 10, 14, 16 night cruise?

 

How often are they actually changed? just at turnaround day I imagine.

 

Watching the recent documentary series 'The Cruise', featuring the Royal Princess, S3 E4 gave the distinct impression that Princess change bed linen daily.

 

Taking the environment into consideration, how often have your towels been changed, even though you may have left them on the rail?

[SRF]

It seems the standard for hotels is now every 3 days for sheets, unless they see a need or you request them

 

On board, I would expect no longer than 3 days between fresh sheets.

[CarpeCerevisi]

One thing I’ve noticed more often now is the cabin stewards not considering when I put the “make up room” card in the slot. For example, I might leave my cabin with the card in the slot at 9 AM and see only a few other cards out at the time. I come back at 11 and the room is still not done. In those cases my room would never be done until around noon every day. This is not always the case, but it has happened more and more often.

 

 

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[KamiKake]

We noticed it as well and mentioned it in our cruise questionnaire. Particularly drink service around the pool and in the Windjammer. In the Windjammer it was often difficult to find a table that had been cleaned, get a server to take away dirty plates during the meal, or to get drinks. More often then not, we ended up getting our own drinks. No we don't mind, but it was a change from the other cruise line we had been on. We know it wasn't the poor staff's fault, because there wasn't a single one that was standing around, it just looked like a severe staffing shortage. Drink service around the pool was non existent. On our past cruise, seeing the same server over and over again and having a bucket of beer, or favorite drink all but waiting on us was a highlight, and we tipped well for the pleasure. This past Christmas, that wasn't even a remote possibility.

[John&LaLa]

It seems the standard for hotels is now every 3 days for sheets, unless they see a need or you request them

 

On board, I would expect no longer than 3 days between fresh sheets.

We often tell our steward that we are morning folks and please do our cabin early.

 

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