Crew eating in guest areas?

[John&LaLa]

21 minutes ago, Cruisercl said:

 

(Off topic) Is there a source/reference for these definitions or are they an opinion? 

 

Wikipedia 

[time4u2go]

22 minutes ago, Cruisercl said:

 

(Off topic) Is there a source/reference for these definitions or are they an opinion? 

Wikipedia

[Nunagoras]

By the way: I don't know RCI's rules, I only know the MSC's ones, but indeed, those may give an example of what is the general norm for the whole industry with minor changes here of there: Generally speaking:

 

Top Officers can freely use guest areas.

Middle officers can freely use guest areas granted they're not busy generally at sort of a "happy hour" for them. Otherwise they must pay for use.

Lower officers can freely use guest areas at given specific times for them subject to time availability when they are out of service for guests and they are generally forbidden to use them. Occasionally they may be authorized to use it on a discounted pay for use basis.

Entertainers (except Cruise Director and his generally small animation team), shop assistants, tour leaders, SPA personnel, sport personnel (except the gym top responsible and pool safeguards or equivalent) and other unrelated to the regular ship's structural functionality are considered as GUESTS aboard! Hence they have generally a specific cabin area for them separated from both passengers and crew areas and they can use freely all the guests areas and they are forbidden to use crew areas, unless specifically invited. And they must renew their cruise card for each cruise as everyone else at each cruise start.

 

Hope to have helped a little bit.

[Clarea]

17 minutes ago, cruisinghawg said:

We have seen the entertainers eat in the public restaurants on many occasions. I guess they are contracted personnel and not employees of RCI.  

 

The headliners are more like guests, they stay in guest staterooms.

[Cruisercl]

16 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Wikipedia 

 

Hahaha, good one! 😊

[Thorben-Hendrik]

10 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

The headliners are more like guests, they stay in guest staterooms.

Only when available.....last cruise they were complaining they had to use crew cabins....

[Cigar King]

Saw the captain having breakfast and what appeared to be a morning meeting in Coastal Kitchen several times.  He stopped by to say hello a couple of times.

[HBE4]

3 hours ago, Biker19 said:

and in keeping with CC tradition, the discussion veers.......

 

Just to keep the conversation veering even further off course.....

 

One ice show I went to, there were a few show girls...er, I mean show people...from the Production show sitting next to me. All of us had just snagged the last few open seats when they opened up the Diamond Reserved seating for general public.

 

Had a great chat with them before & after the show. They were there to support their fellow entertainers. I kept bumping into the the rest of then night at various venues. Total accident, I swear!

Edited December 8, 2018 by HBE4

[Clarea]

12 minutes ago, Cigar King said:

Saw the captain having breakfast and what appeared to be a morning meeting in Coastal Kitchen several times.  He stopped by to say hello a couple of times.

 

We saw a similar thing on a recent transatlantic.  The Captain and several officers eating in Chops for breakfast every morning.

[SRF]

A friend of mine and his wife did several years as cruise entertainers.  She sings in an Abba tribute band, and he is sound and road manager.

 

They stay in guest cabins, and are treated like the rest of us guests.  But they also have access to the crew areas and can eat/drink there.  This is for the headliners, not the ships entertainers.

 

I have seen a couple of headliner entertainers stick their head out of normal cabins.  And have chatted with a couple in the WJ when they were eating there.

[NO_Member_Name]

I've seen Captains eating in the nicer buffets a couple of times, and customer facing folks eating in the specialty restaurants. I also usually see entertainers in the the gym. But, I've never seen any behind the scenes crew members using any of the guest facilities on the ship.

 

The only half related bad experience was with a film crew on Oasis early in its career. They were always taking over public spaces and the director was downright rude when I got too close to some of his equipment (great, so don't leave it laying around in a busy public space). I should have complained about him, but let him slide.

 

[ONECRUISER]

4 hours ago, LidoBoy said:

We were in Izumi on the last night of a cruise and a large group of entertainment staff (8-12) came in for dinner.  The problem with this, as with any restaurant, a large party can slow down the service/kitchen.  Good thing we got our order in prior to them showing up.  

 

Normally in the WJ, I only see staff in the final hour when it's nearly dead.

Just got off B3B on Sereande, do it every yr. In WindJammer every nite about 10-20 Crew eat within firstmin. They are all Kids Club, Entertainers and Shop sales. WJ gets busy after first 30min so they are actually beating the crowd. Entertainers eat in WJ lunch and dinner, and see them in Gym almost everyday....

Edited December 8, 2018 by ONECRUISER

[payitforward]

Only slightly off topic, there is an older gentleman at my gym who knows I cruise often. He has told me on more than a few occasions why he will never sail RCCL again: He was on a singles cruise where the women greatly outnumbered the men. However, the officers often hung out at the singles events so he and the other guys "never had a chance." 🤣🙄😉

[dreadpirate3]

We had a two-top for each dinner in the dining room on Freedom last year. Our next table was Casino Joan, and there were four-top tables against the window that were frequently filled by crew in uniform.

[Merion_Mom]

3 hours ago, NO_Member_Name said:

I've seen Captains eating in the nicer buffets a couple of times, and customer facing folks eating in the specialty restaurants. I also usually see entertainers in the the gym. But, I've never seen any behind the scenes crew members using any of the guest facilities on the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

What are "nicer" buffets?  What are less nice buffets?

[gaylemh]

Cast members from WWRY on Anthem were seen in the MDR, speciality restaurants, shows, Music Hall, and Schooner Bar on my last Anthem cruise. 

[chengkp75]

As Bob has said, it is rank dependent.  On NCL, only 3 stripe officers and supervisors had "unlimited" access to guest areas, but their use of dining facilities was always subject to the maitre d's decision as to how busy the venue was at the time requested.  Officers were shooed out of buffet if it got too crowded.  1 to 2.5 stripe officers and supervisors could visit guest areas a couple of times a month, with the permission of their department head.  Crew, generally, were not allowed guest area privileges, unless it was an award for getting the most "hero" cards for the month.

 

Spa, shop, art auction, and other concessionaire crew were not granted guest area access, but were treated as regular crew.  A few, like the auctioner himself, the headliner acts, comedians, etc, were in guest cabins, and were awarded "guest status" and had free reign of guest areas.

 

Officers congregating in bars and nightclubs was actively discouraged, especially given the alcohol limits and testing required onboard.

 

An interesting historical note regarding uniforms is that in the "old days", NCL gave their officers (deck and engine, who were the only ones to wear a uniform) a stipend to encourage them to go out and mingle and buy drinks with the guests.  Then the alcohol limits were in place after 1990, and the stipend stopped, so the officers stopped going into guest areas.  Guests complained about "never seeing officers", so NCL put all the hotel supervisors in uniform to make them "visible officers".

[Clarea]

3 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

... Guests complained about "never seeing officers", so NCL put all the hotel supervisors in uniform to make them "visible officers".

Interesting to know the history.  So what was the "work" dress for the hotel side before they went to uniforms?

[chengkp75]

58 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

Interesting to know the history.  So what was the "work" dress for the hotel side before they went to uniforms?

The first line supervisors wore similar dress to the housekeeping staff, and the senior staff wore business suits or similar types of "uniforms".

[A&L_Ont]

Unless something had changed senior officers and crew on RC used to get discounts when dining in the pay venues.    We have had a few meals over the years with crew that we know.  For example our friend in sports deck crew need to wear their crew badge with civilian clothes. Our friend who was the HR Manager wore her full uniform for dinner and lunch. 

[brillohead]

On most lines, nurses and doctors from the medical center are officers and get a private room and access to guest areas with the exception of pools / hot tubs.