Staffing

[Southern latitudes]

We sail next week on meraviglia in YC.   Second YC sailing-first one was fabulous but ship was at less than half capacity.  I’m assuming that it will be close to full next week.  Having said that, I have read that many cruise lines are sailing full but not with a full staff.   Has anyone experienced that on MSC?    In YC?

Thanks for any insights 

[Markanddonna]

We were on the Meraviglia in mid March.It was understaffed and they ran out of so many basic foods like cartons of milk on the second day. Unreal. We were not in Y C.

[deliver42]

We just got off the Seashore, and there was plenty of staff throughout the ship. Never ran out of anything that I could see.

[HipHipOnAShip]

Was on Divina two weeks ago; staffing was fine but provisions were low.  They ran out of all of the wines included in the Premium Plus package (except the Champagne).  

[Joken35]

Just off the Seashore . There were 2625 pax. There were some passengers as well as crew members with Covid mid trip. The staff was attentive but shared that there were food items that were not on the menu. This is understandable with the supply chain issues  world wide.Menu in th buffet for lunch was disappointing. Pool bar could not serve mudslides due to not having ice cream . This was fine with me, saved  few calories.

The day at Ocean Cay was ok. The captain tried 4 times to finally get the ship successfully into port. Great Job! However, they were not prepared with food on the island. Only 2 food trucks were available on either side of the island. People were very upset , as they were on line for 45mins. 
Unfortunately, Yacht Club Guest were given priority to get back to the ship when the weather began to turn. One tram driver stopped  put his Yacht club only sign down , and waved us on for the ride back.

The staff did a great job to make this a good cruise… Caio Caio….

for now

[cruiseguyinorl]

53 minutes ago, Joken35 said:

The staff did a great job to make this a good cruise… Caio Caio….

for now

 

That certainly brought back memories of the cruise director. 😄

[JAGR]

1 hour ago, Joken35 said:

Caio Caio….

for now

I can't get her or that line out of my head, and we were on for her first sailing as CD on Seashore.  I hear she is on break now.

[JT1962]

It seems that staffing and supply chain issues, along with increased fuel costs (and predicted shortages), are the biggest issues for cruise lines going forward. They are needing to get passenger counts as high as possible to recover from being shutdown for 2 years, but are struggling to provide the level of service and onboard experience people expect.

If someone has a bad experience on a cruise (or anything else), they tend to only remember they did not enjoy it, not the great deal they may have gotten on the price. The onboard experience now will affect the cruise line for years to come.

[mackfam]

Currently on the Seaview in the YC. No staffing issues in YC and haven’t heard that they have run out of anything. Went to a lounge in another part of the ship and sat for over 15 minutes without being able to order a drink (it looked like there was only one server)  so we gave up and went back to the Top Sail

[mnpurple]

Similar experience to @mackfam. We walked around the pool deck outside YC and it was really busy. I thought we'd grab drinks and the bartenders were working super hard! There were several, but I'm sure the number of people made it demanding. I think they may have bumped our drink order up a bit because they could see we were from YC. Our kids have gone out in the evening and haven't mentioned any staffing problems.

[Hlitner]

17 hours ago, JT1962 said:

It seems that staffing and supply chain issues, along with increased fuel costs (and predicted shortages), are the biggest issues for cruise lines going forward. They are needing to get passenger counts as high as possible to recover from being shutdown for 2 years, but are struggling to provide the level of service and onboard experience people expect.

If someone has a bad experience on a cruise (or anything else), they tend to only remember they did not enjoy it, not the great deal they may have gotten on the price. The onboard experience now will affect the cruise line for years to come.

These staffing and supply chain issues are not unique to MSC.  We have recently cruised on two other lines (including one high end luxury line) that also had numerous supply chain and staffing problems.  Sometimes it is a simple that promised containers of supplies (food, booze, etc) do not show-up at the port or are only stocked with a partial order.    Another issue that has been plaguing multiple cruise lines is when too many crew members test positive for COVID and must be quarantined for at least a week.  This can leave certain departments temporarily understaffed or even wipe out much of the entertainment staff.  

 

Hank

[morpheusofthesea]

A good indication when one gets on board is to go to the Yacht Club Captain's greeting. At ours a couple of weeks ago we counted 16 butlers lined up to greet us. Had no problem with service at any time.