Has anyone taken a last cruise before drydock?

[Eaglestrike]

Hi friends,

 

My wife and I are scheduled for an 11 day cruise on the Fantasia in the Yacht Club from Hamburg to Genoa. After that the ship goes into Drydock for a few weeks. I am wondering if anyone has taken a cruise like this and was the service and all activities the same? or can you notice a difference in the crew service, food offerings, shows etc., or anything that would be different than normal. 

 

The ship looks to be about 60 or 70% full and same for the Yacht Club which can be a plus or minus depending.

 

Happy Sailing and best regards.. 

[jules815]

Yes, and not only was it a dry dock, it was the Carnival Destiny major overhaul before it became the Sunshine. The ship was definitely showing signs of wear and tear, but everything else on the ship, activities and service, were normal. Funny too, because that was my very first time sailing with Carnival and all the reviews here prior to our cruise weren’t very good at all, but it will still go down as one of my favorite cruises. It was a girls cruise and we had so much fun.

[kelleherdl]

We’ve done right before dry dock and one first cruise after. I will take the last cruise before dry dock every time over first one after dry dock.😀. 

[MasterNotCommander]

The last cruise before a scheduled dry dock should generally be fine. The first one after a dry dock can be hit and miss and occasionally will result in embarkation of passengers whilst the crew are still cleaning up. 

[Nunagoras]

Never done one, but it should be really like an end of season cruise and that I did at least once. At this time of the year it will likely to reflect full crew turnaround time. Your current crew will be tired, and quite anxious to return home and see their much beloved ones. Service might to suffer a little bit from the employee's emotional state, but otherwise it would be great. First cruise after dry dock is another thing. Likely initial cruise for a crew that is away for months trying to get their act together, plus the addition of possible new features to the ship's ecosystem. I probably wouldn't do either one, but if I did, I'd to prefer last one before dry dock.

[Eaglestrike]

17 hours ago, jules815 said:

Yes, and not only was it a dry dock, it was the Carnival Destiny major overhaul before it became the Sunshine. The ship was definitely showing signs of wear and tear, but everything else on the ship, activities and service, were normal. Funny too, because that was my very first time sailing with Carnival and all the reviews here prior to our cruise weren’t very good at all, but it will still go down as one of my favorite cruises. It was a girls cruise and we had so much fun.

Sounds like you had a great time!. Sometimes when the expectations are low the reality is a fantastic time. 

Best regards.

[Eaglestrike]

16 hours ago, kelleherdl said:

We’ve done right before dry dock and one first cruise after. I will take the last cruise before dry dock every time over first one after dry dock.😀. 

Funny thing is we took a Trans  Atlantic cruise this past November/December for 17 days on the Seaside and it was the very first cruise out of Dry dock. 

I figured the crew will be new and fresh and everything sparkling and had no worries. It was absolutely fantastic!. Best cruise ever. To be honest you would never have known that it was the first cruise. I will report back after the cruise.

 

Thanks friend and Happy Sailing.

[Eaglestrike]

5 hours ago, MasterNotCommander said:

The last cruise before a scheduled dry dock should generally be fine. The first one after a dry dock can be hit and miss and occasionally will result in embarkation of passengers whilst the crew are still cleaning up. 

Thank you Captain (In between Master & Commander) I hope you are right and looking forward to the cruise and reporting back. 

 

Happy Sailing!

[Eaglestrike]

5 hours ago, Nunagoras said:

Never done one, but it should be really like an end of season cruise and that I did at least once. At this time of the year it will likely to reflect full crew turnaround time. Your current crew will be tired, and quite anxious to return home and see their much beloved ones. Service might to suffer a little bit from the employee's emotional state, but otherwise it would be great. First cruise after dry dock is another thing. Likely initial cruise for a crew that is away for months trying to get their act together, plus the addition of possible new features to the ship's ecosystem. I probably wouldn't do either one, but if I did, I'd to prefer last one before dry dock.

That is exactly what I thought after I realized that we booked the last cruise before Dry dock. My wife however thinks that I am crazy to think that LOL. 

I figure that they may be tired and that they no longer care about certain things as many will be finishing there contracts etc., This may be very different in the Yacht club however as the service is always absolutely First Class in every aspect. 

We shall see and I will report back.

 

Happy Sailing friend!

[Heartgrove]

We have done one HAL cruise right before a drydock.. Everything was fine except the last night when they starting ripping out the old carpeting. It was accompanied by their loud music and I had to step out in the hallway toask the workers to tone it down.

[Nunagoras]

14 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

We have done one HAL cruise right before a drydock.. Everything was fine except the last night when they starting ripping out the old carpeting. It was accompanied by their loud music and I had to step out in the hallway toask the workers to tone it down.

Sometimes they'll have crews changing things up to a month before dry dock. Once I was on a TA that was a month before dry dock on the Magnifica. There was a Samsung team there changing all the TV sets onboard. Of course my own cabin was visited on one of the sea days. Little annoyance with nothing to write home about.