On Beyond TA……Issues

[vino123]

We are also on this cruise and pretty much agree that it is not the usual standard we have come to expect from Celebrity.  We are also elite plus and have done a number of transatlantic cruises. It saddens me that this much anticipated cruise on a stunning ship for our silver anniversary has fallen short mainly due to staffing issues. 

We are also in our cabin due to the high seas. I did finally manage to get an answer from room service and it's an hours wait for the food due to high demand. 

It's not all been bad. We have had wonderful food in all venues. The staff are trying their best. I did email the executive office with my concerns but have yet to receive an answer. 

 

[39august]

Jelayne, to answer your question about my Equinox recent cruise, the ship was near capacity at around 2650 passengers. 

[mfs2k]

Why are so many riding out the bad weather from their cabins ?

[PTC DAWG]

1 minute ago, mfs2k said:

Why are so many riding out the bad weather from their cabins ?

Agree,  no way room service can function if everyone is cowering in their rooms. 

[DaKahuna]

2 hours ago, kathynorth said:

 

We've been on 4 cruises since the start of the year (Apex, Summit 2x and Infinity) and didn't experience any difficulty with staffing shortages. Julia may be correct, this cruise may have been over booked. 

I do not understand the use of overbooked.  The ship may be fully booked but there are only so many canines and bds so overbooking would result in someone not being allowed to sail, similar to when air planes are over booked.

 

 I can understand there not being the appropriate staff to passenger ratio, but as others have said, there are any numbers of reason that may be the case.

 

[jelayne]

40 minutes ago, mfs2k said:

Why are so many riding out the bad weather from their cabins ?

Even those with great balance are having difficulty walking.  Anyone with balance issues or at all unsteady are at risk.  I got off a elevator today and the ship rocked, I quickly found myself propelled across the elevator lobby.  We have been bouncing off the walls every time we go down the hall.  
Late afternoon things seemed to calm down, DH and I were enjoying some champagne, cheese and fruit in our cabin until suddenly the ship rolled and my glass, the cheese, fruit and another glass went sliding off the table.  DH caught his glass everything else hit the floor. 

The ship is dead, we are in Eden now and maybe 25 people at 9:30, rock & roll is increasing so we are heading to our cabin.

[CalTexCruiser]

This is the wave height map at 7am on Thurs.  Not sure when y'all are reaching the Azores but looks like the wave conditions will have calmed down relatively speaking by then.  Still not ideal since you really want to be in regions with blue shades...the darker blue the lower the waves.

 

 

 

Edited October 19, 2022 by CalTexCruiser

[kwokpot]

1 hour ago, mfs2k said:

Why are so many riding out the bad weather from their cabins ?

I guess you haven't sailed in very rough seas. 

[mfs2k]

51 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Even those with great balance are having difficulty walking.  Anyone with balance issues or at all unsteady are at risk.  I got off a elevator today and the ship rocked, I quickly found myself propelled across the elevator lobby.  We have been bouncing off the walls every time we go down the hall.  
Late afternoon things seemed to calm down, DH and I were enjoying some champagne, cheese and fruit in our cabin until suddenly the ship rolled and my glass, the cheese, fruit and another glass went sliding off the table.  DH caught his glass everything else hit the floor. 

The ship is dead, we are in Eden now and maybe 25 people at 9:30, rock & roll is increasing so we are heading to our cabin.

Stay safe ❤️❤️

[mfs2k]

4 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

I guess you haven't sailed in very rough seas. 

Caribbean and west coast California and Mexico only. Never that rough. 

[Sascol]

1 hour ago, DaKahuna said:

I do not understand the use of overbooked.  The ship may be fully booked but there are only so many canines and bds so overbooking would result in someone not being allowed to sail, similar to when air planes are over booked.

 

 I can understand there not being the appropriate staff to passenger ratio, but as others have said, there are any numbers of reason that may be the case.

 

Simple math.  Overbooked = more passengers than the staff can handle.  Not enough staff? Stop booking when you realize this is going to be a problem. You know the staff you will have available many months before the cruise starts so at that time, stop booking once you realize the numbers create an issue.  

[jelayne]

18 minutes ago, CalTexCruiser said:

This is the wave height map at 7am on Thurs.  Not sure when y'all are reaching the Azores but looks like the wave conditions will have calmed down relatively speaking by then.  Still not ideal since you really want to be in regions with blue shades...the darker blue the lower the waves.

 

 

 

We left the Azores last night about 6:30 pm

[RichYak]

3 minutes ago, Sascol said:

more passengers than the staff can handle.

That's the definition of understaffed. Overbooked would mean they've sold more cabins than there are on the ship, which is not the case.

[canderson]

2 hours ago, kathynorth said:

 

I think the poster meant Celebrity overbooked based on their advertised passenger to crew ratio.

Do they actually post that somewhere?  My 1:2.3 is just based upon total bookings a 2 per and full crew.  All Celebrity ships run a number close to that.

[canderson]

29 minutes ago, CalTexCruiser said:

This is the wave height map at 7am on Thurs.  Not sure when y'all are reaching the Azores but looks like the wave conditions will have calmed down relatively speaking by then.  Still not ideal since you really want to be in regions with blue shades...the darker blue the lower the waves.

 

 

 

Might help if you included the color/scale factor chart that is, if I am using the same source, is just below the map.  On mine, the deep orange represents about 35' waves.

[canderson]

21 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

I guess you haven't sailed in very rough seas. 

Have too!  The game was to see if you could make it back to your cabin without touching any walls on the way back from wherever you were.  Not really possible, so the one with the least touches won.  NCL 1986.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

4 hours ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Really.  What is important is that Beyond cruising in the Med has much easier access to staff and was fully staffed when it started cruising.  Now some months later Celebrity lost a large number of staff because of them needing a US visa to be able to get off the ship.  Very similar to Summit who had some 250 staff who left the round trip TA to Iceland because they lacked EU visas and would not be allowed off ship for 4 weeks.  Service was slow to very slow when Summit left Bayonne and improved steadily as time passed.  The big issue on Summit was poor cabin service.  We were fortunate to have a long term veteran others had newbies.

Again a question, if Beyond had a large number of experienced crew leave/not arrive due to visa issues; would it help much to have a bartender (as was commented on several times) who did not know how to make drinks or a cabin attendant just learning their job.

The PPV and internet issues have been explained by others.  We have a very unhappy passenger who outlined several problems.  As I do not drink martinis cannot comment on that.  The staffing issue not rubbish.

I would be interested in the comments of others on board.

Staff shortages happen to us on the Voyager of the seas Arctic TA 

7 day Baltic cruise lots of staff the ships ran very smoothly 

than on the TA there was a lot of problems with staff shortages because lack of US visa for staff

MDR and specialty restaurants were a disaster, lack of waiters everywhere 

Edited October 19, 2022 by Ex-Airbalancer

[Sascol]

37 minutes ago, RichYak said:

That's the definition of understaffed. Overbooked would mean they've sold more cabins than there are on the ship, which is not the case.

37 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Nitpicking. Regardless of your Websters definition, the ratio is bad and the onboard experience is suffering. 

[Jim_Iain]

2 hours ago, mfs2k said:

Why are so many riding out the bad weather from their cabins ?

I'm a fairly seasoned cruiser and have to admit we have been in some pretty rough seas that the only safe place was staying seated - weather in your cabin or out.   

 

When the seas are so high that you have to hold onto the handrail to get down the hallway it is just safer  to find a nice comfortable place until the seas calm down.

[RichYak]

8 minutes ago, Sascol said:

the ratio is bad and the onboard experience is suffering. 

That also means "understaffed".

[DaKahuna]

3 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

I'm a fairly seasoned cruiser and have to admit we have been in some pretty rough seas that the only safe place was staying seated - weather in your cabin or out.   

 

When the seas are so high that you have to hold onto the handrail to get down the hallway it is just safer  to find a nice comfortable place until the seas calm down.

I agree 100 percent.  Go somewhere for the long term and get as comfortable as possible.
 

The worst I have experienced was when the ship, US Navy vessel, tried to turn around in a hurricane.  We were cleaning foot prints off the bulkheads (walls) after it was all over. 
We put a weight on a string and a protractor and measured one roll at 40 degrees.  I never want to experience that again. 
 

[Ferry_Watcher]

There probably was a significant staff/crew turnover before the ship set sail on it's TA.  Newly boarded staff are most likely in quarantine, and will be ready once the ship begins it's next voyage.   That doesn't help the current overworked available crew, nor the passengers currently onboard.  No doubt the hope was that the transatlantic cruise would not be as full.   Unfortunately, it is just a sign of the times we are living - staffing issues across the board everywhere, combined with 'revenge travel' as we  all try to make up for the two years lost to the pandemic.

 

Hang in there @Sascol

[RichYak]

8 minutes ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

Newly boarded staff are most likely in quarantine

I highly doubt that this is still the protocol for new staff.

[Jim_Iain]

When on Summit they said there was no longer a quarantine for new crew.   They board in the morning and are put to work immediately. 

 

It is often with a  lot of new crew it take them a  little awhile to be trained and get the feel of a new ship.   Will be interesting to hear if things smooth out after the first couple days.

 

Regardless of how well a ship is trained and staff I've always found the first night dinner to be chaotic.   This includes MDR, Blu and Luminae.  

[dlh015]

2 hours ago, mfs2k said:

Caribbean and west coast California and Mexico only. Never that rough. 

Well, it's an experience I can tell you. I, for one, really enjoyed it last March sailing out of San Francisco. 

I am fortunate in that I have great balance still...BUT, more than great balance can be required because you don't know when the ship is going to get smacked. Many times it is sort of a steady consistent roll for a period of time, then WHACK. You really want to be sitting down or have a hold of something at that time. However, you certainly can be almost knocked out of your chair...honestly.

 

It is easy to picture (for me) what jelayne described about items sliding off the table...