Will crew come back after their current contracts are up?

[Moby Jones]

On 10/1/2021 at 5:33 AM, earlydiner said:

We were on the Millennium and some of the crew we talked to were worried they would not be offered a contract after their contract was up.   With so many ships not yet in service, they said lots of people are available and that they might rotate some of the crew to try to keep them happy.

This was our exact experience last week. Our two waiters were heading home soon and they both made it very clear that they were hoping their contracts would be renewed as some of their friends back home had not been due to a lack of sailings or ships sailing at reduced capacities. 

The lady cleaning our cabin didn't hold back expressing her frustrations about the lack of shore leave either. This wasn't something I expected to hear, but I appreciated her honesty! 

[Algebralovr]

A dear friend of mine is a staff member on one of the ships.  While he said he doesn't care how they are basically stuck on board (he isn't a beach person), he is so glad to be working that he has already extended his current contract and when it finally ends he will have been on board for nearly 10 months.  Considering that many of the contracts are traditionally only 6 months in length, that is huge. 

 

The months of time not working hit many of them hard.  If their main experience in work was on board ships, they often didn't have the connections to work back at home, and tourism jobs haven't opened up in many parts of the world.  

 

I'm not worried about the ships finding sufficient staff.. there will always be people who see it as a way to gain experience and $$$ and see the world a few minutes at a time.