Curious: When a ship positions to a new port, does the staff change?

[danak13]

I am on the Breakaway the second week after it moves from Miami to Port Canaveral.  Just curious if this would coincide (generally) with any staffing changes?  Does it effect service at all? 

[Rsavtechcruise]

No 

 

crew only changes when there contract on board is up you will have weekly crew changes even at times in the middle of a cruise

[www3traveler]

There are some staff changes that occur every single week.  Different staff have different length contacts ranging from 10 weeks (10 weeks off) to 8 months on (2 months off).  When their contact is finished , they leave sometimes to be assigned back to the same ship and sometimes to others ships.  Right now, with getting close to time for The Encore staff to begin arriving Germany for the opening, there is lots of staff movement happening.  Almost every week brand new crew members board.  For the most part passengers can not tell when staff has changed.

[graphicguy]

While different personalities could affect how a passenger perceives the service, overall, NCL (as well as all of the cruise lines) look for a personality type for those crew who interface with passengers.

 

Plus, they are all trained in the same way by NCL.  So, what you'll see is a pretty consistent result when it comes to crew members.  Obvious minor differences here or there, but overall, you'll like the service you receive as a result.

[tomk3212]

We were on the Spirit back in the mid-2000's on a Caribbean cruise in late October.  The ship's captain during a Latitudes party told us that when we disembarked we should expect to see a LOT of crying & hugging between crew members as we left the ship in NYC.  He explained that a LOT of the crew's contracts were terminating on our scheduled arrival day.  He explained that while NCL makes every effort to stagger the dates when crew contracts terminate for some strange reason for Spirit an inordinate number were ending at this cruise's conclusion; almost half his crew he said.

 

During a BTS tour on Gem about 10 years later I asked our tour guide about crew contracts & as www3traveler pointed out above they vary greatly.  Basically, however, "regular" crew (wait staff, room stewards, etc) have 10 month contracts.  Entertainers are MUCH shorter & vary greatly.  CD's, ships officers, etc. have 3-4 month ones, I think she said.  What NCL wants to avoid is the situation I referred to above on NCL Spirit above where a VERY large percentage of the crew "turns-over" all at once. 

 

So in answer to your original question while there may be a larger-than-usual crew turnover when Breakaway moves from Miami to Port Canaveral I don't think you'll see a mass exodus like we saw on Spirit many years ago.

 

Have a great cruise!

Edited September 5, 2019 by tomk3212