How is staffing on the ships?

[RMS Olympic]

My last Princess cruise was on the Caribbean Princess in the spring last year. The ship appeared to be way under staffed...the crew were working hard but it was easy to see they were stretched way too thin. I asked a senior staff officer out on deck while having my morning coffee how short the crew was. He said the ship was at 70% staffing with a 100% passenger load. He frankly said he had no idea what corporate was doing. I complimented the crew for how hard they were working, and not complaining.

If staffing is still short and this is due to cutting expenses I would want to adjust my expectations for my upcoming cruises.

Your thought, your observation?

Thank you.

[bronzey214]

On the Caribbean now. Seems back to pre-Covid levels even for non-essential crew functions (I swear there are 20 photographers on board - they've even restarted photographers at dinner, something I really hoped died with Covid)

[voljeep]

9 minutes ago, RMS Olympic said:

My last Princess cruise was on the Caribbean Princess in the spring last year. The ship appeared to be way under staffed...the crew were working hard but it was easy to see they were stretched way too thin. I asked a senior staff officer out on deck while having my morning coffee how short the crew was. He said the ship was at 70% staffing with a 100% passenger load. He frankly said he had no idea what corporate was doing. I complimented the crew for how hard they were working, and not complaining.

If staffing is still short and this is due to cutting expenses I would want to adjust my expectations for my upcoming cruises.

Your thought, your observation?

Thank you.

we sailed on the CB over Thanksgiving 2022 - 100%+ capacity - way understaffed in mdr, Crooners - we could only get into Sabatini's on opening night and Crown Grill not at all - not sure if that was staffing or not - but our service was decent.  Not a fan of 2+ hours in the mdr seating at a 2 top, but treated like a 10 top with 4 other 2 tops nearby

[phoebe2m]

We had the opposite problem in February on the Crown to Hawaii. So many crew with not enough to do. But about half of them were on their first contract so not completely trained. We had 3 servers at dinner. The cleaning crew was on their knees cleaning carpet spots. The maintenance crew was touch up painting the ship in every port. In the buffet and IC the servers kept reminding us that they could get our tea/coffee for us. We prefer getting out own. Just a few examples. 

[memoak]

It seems to be more a function of 100% occupancy than understaffing. In 202w ships were pretty empty this year packed. On the Discovery in June it was packed to the gills with tons of large families. Many cabins showed 4 people in each cabin

[rj59]

it depends on the ship and season and itinerary. If you go to Alaska out of Seattle during the summer, or anywhere during school holidays, everything is going to feel slow and crowded and understaffed, particularly for Alfredo's or room service. But if you do a coastal, N/S Alaska, or one-way Hawaii, it will feel much different. For MDR, you can simply adjust your dining times to try to get quicker service--I usually eat at 8, or whenever the early show starts, although on a Cunard cruise I tried showing up at 5:30 and got a window seat and quick service, since my order got put in before crowding. I also find that I get too tempted by an early buffet visit if I eat later, particularly on Princess German or Italian nights. Generally, though, there are fewer travel restrictions and labor demand has slowed a little worldwide, so I'm seeing quicker response times from cruise customer service. High inflation around the world probably makes cruise contracts more attractive, fuller ships means a bigger tip pool, and cruise lines probably tried to up salaries somewhat to attract more crew. Plus, I noticed on Celebrity and Princess growing numbers of crew from Zimbabwe, where the per capita income is $1200, versus $3500 in the Philippines, and a maitre'd I spoke to said Ukrainian and Eastern European crew are decreasing, but are being replaced by Africans and others. 

[kiwimum]

Sky Princess was understaffed on the 19 August Norway cruise.   Around 100 new staff missed the ship in Southampton and caught up with the ship in Tromso.

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, voljeep said:

Not a fan of 2+ hours in the mdr seating at a 2 top, but treated like a 10 top with 4 other 2 tops nearby

Bummer for sure.

[kstrittm]

I just sailed on the Discovery, and the bartenders and wait staff were far and few between.  I regularly waited up to 30 minutes to get a drink during Happy Hour times; dinners took over 2 hours every night.  I felt so bad for the staff - they were working their butts off; just weren't enough of them to support the 3800 passengers.  

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

2 hours ago, kiwimum said:

Sky Princess was understaffed on the 19 August Norway cruise.   Around 100 new staff missed the ship in Southampton and caught up with the ship in Tromso.

I’m surprised to read this. Not doubting you at all. Do you know what areas they were understaffed?

Honestly can say my experience on board on this cruise didn’t feel like they were understaffed at all. Maybe that’s due to what I did on board or where I went not suffering from shortages, or maybe the staff were working v hard, or I should say even harder than they normally work, making up for the staff loss.

This was my first Princess cruise so I had no comparison with other Princess cruises to go by, but at no point did I feel like I was waiting ages for anything, staff were always on hand to offer assistance or get drinks, meals didn’t take an age, and our cabin stewards (one left half way for his scheduled 2 month break) were both awesome with great attention to detail and nothing too much trouble.

 

That level of staff loss for that amount of time must have been tough!

 

[gah_cruise]

4 hours ago, voljeep said:

 Not a fan of 2+ hours in the mdr seating at a 2 top, but treated like a 10 top with 4 other 2 tops nearby

Had this on Sky in June in Norway.....tables only cleared after all 5 of the 2 tops had finished.....likewise, all tables served the next course at the same time.
Can appreciate it may be efficient for the staff....poor for the customers.

Very slow service....risotto was cool and stodgy and the creme brule was fridge-cold.
had this type of service twice in the first 3 days of a 14-day cruise......gave MDR a miss after that

Edited September 3, 2023 by gah_cruise

[NavyVeteran]

1 hour ago, gah_cruise said:

Had this on Sky in June in Norway.....tables only cleared after all 5 of the 2 tops had finished.....likewise, all tables served the next course at the same time.
Can appreciate it may be efficient for the staff....poor for the customers.

Very slow service....risotto was cool and stodgy and the creme brule was fridge-cold.
had this type of service twice in the first 3 days of a 14-day cruise......gave MDR a miss after that

Did you mention this problem to a head waiter in the dining room? He may have been able to arrange something better for the next night. It's usually a lot more productive to point out problems like this while you're still on the ship and to give them an opportunity to fix them.

[gah_cruise]

7 minutes ago, NavyVeteran said:

Did you mention this problem to a head waiter in the dining room? He may have been able to arrange something better for the next night. It's usually a lot more productive to point out problems like this while you're still on the ship and to give them an opportunity to fix them.

no, i didn't....if I recall it was in two different dining rooms and at different times with different waiters.
If I was dining same time same table/staff each night, then of course I would have mentioned it.... but we don't wish to tie ourselves down to that type of dining.

[trin880]

We just returned from Royal Princess. Generally, I think ship was pretty much staffed. MDR was no problem, very little waiting time between courses. Bars - one is better than another. Crooners was the most where i have waited for 20 minutes to get a drink. In Spirits At Sea, I did an experiment and tried order my drink via app. My drink was made pretty fast, but it was ignored by bartenders and I had to come and ask for it. After that, I ignored the app's ordering. 

[SCX22]

Staffing is back to pre-pandemic levels as of recent.  The problem is that there are a lot of newbies on their first contract and do their jobs as if their heads were cut off.  Many need more training.  Crew with more seniority have expressed that crew are being promoted to quickly without having as much experience or know how as compared to pre-pandemic.  The OceanNow delivery waiters look "lost" sometimes because they are trying to match a picture to face to deliver food/drink.

[Micahs Grandad]

1 hour ago, SCX22 said:

Staffing is back to pre-pandemic levels as of recent.  The problem is that there are a lot of newbies on their first contract and do their jobs as if their heads were cut off.  Many need more training.  Crew with more seniority have expressed that crew are being promoted to quickly without having as much experience or know how as compared to pre-pandemic.  The OceanNow delivery waiters look "lost" sometimes because they are trying to match a picture to face to deliver food/drink.

Island Princess had lots of new crew lasst month. Waitstaff we had in DR was excellent but Horizon court we thought crew members wandered aimlessly walking around not looking at passengers or tables to see if they needed anything. Mentioned this to two of the most hardworking supervisors we have seen and that is what they are facing now.

Edited September 3, 2023 by Micahs Grandad

[Sunwanabe]

Our group did a 11 day Alaska cruise this August on Crown. There was a bit of a wait a couple of evenings in the MDR. Overall service times for food and drinks were very good. No complaints, great cruise.

[IndyKid]

We're going on the CB in Early December. Hoping for a quieter, less crowded experience with all the kiddies still in school.

[Ken the cruiser]

We were on the Diamond for 17 days in July and it sure felt like there was a full crew, and more importantly we had a blast. Just like we did on the Regal the previous July for 21 days cruising around the Med while they filmed many of the New Love Boat scenes. You can see my Live From threads in my below expanded signature area if you’re interested. 

So no worries, any Princess cruise is still as fun, maybe even more than before the pandemic, especially if you like to laugh a lot at their variety of game shows! 😁

Edited September 4, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Steelers36]

12 hours ago, voljeep said:

Not a fan of 2+ hours in the mdr seating at a 2 top, but treated like a 10 top with 4 other 2 tops nearby

 

8 hours ago, gah_cruise said:

Had this on Sky in June in Norway.....tables only cleared after all 5 of the 2 tops had finished.....likewise, all tables served the next course at the same time.
Can appreciate it may be efficient for the staff....poor for the customers.

Very slow service....risotto was cool and stodgy and the creme brule was fridge-cold.
had this type of service twice in the first 3 days of a 14-day cruise......gave MDR a miss after that

I wouldn't stand for that.  I'd ask the waiter first and if (s)he couldn't do anything, I'd be asking the section Head Waiter for a different approach or a different table.  I have not seen this happen to us ever.  Okay, the odd night it seemed as thought we and another table were running in sync, but we didn't have any delays, per se.  But our waiters knew we didn't want to dawdle over dinner.

[Pinballs83]

I was on regal the week before Easter. The ship was full with lots of families for princess and the service was still pretty good. No problem getting a drink. 

[jgd3rdbcfd]

On 9/3/2023 at 4:30 PM, Micahs Grandad said:

Island Princess had lots of new crew lasst month. Waitstaff we had in DR was excellent but Horizon court we thought crew members wandered aimlessly walking around not looking at passengers or tables to see if they needed anything. Mentioned this to two of the most hardworking supervisors we have seen and that is what they are facing now.

Can you email me with thoughts of Island.  Looking at her for Christmas-New Years.  See you on Enchanted.  Greg V of Caroline jgd3rd@yahoo.com

[D&L Thomas]

Just off Caribbean 8/30. Crew seemed very short-handed. The ship was full and everyone had to be mostly inside (bad weather), and the wait for a beverage was excruciatingly long. Even in the Elite lounge, we sat at least 20 minutes just to order a drink. Dinner service was very slow too. And our poor room steward was clearly overworked although he tried his best, he was very harried and always rushing.

Breakfast room service (usually just coffee) was very prompt, and once I was quarantined with Covid all room service was free including MDR meals. Room service actually called me to take my order and I quickly realized why: Because if I waited until closer to meal time, I'd be on hold for 30 minutes. There was no option to order from the TV. Once it did come the orders were always correct.

[desertdwellingsailor]

On 9/3/2023 at 12:31 PM, kstrittm said:

I just sailed on the Discovery, and the bartenders and wait staff were far and few between.  I regularly waited up to 30 minutes to get a drink during Happy Hour times; dinners took over 2 hours every night.  I felt so bad for the staff - they were working their butts off; just weren't enough of them to support the 3800 passengers.  

We were on Discovery beginning of May. MDR was much faster than when we were on it in October. But we had a smaller party and didn't order as many dishes. We did struggle to get bartender/waiter attention at the bar during a busy time after dinner. Room service at busy time (watching glacier) was very slow and we went to buffet instead. But otherwise it was fine. Probably just avoid peak times and it would be fine. I was laughing to myself about the bartender situation. Would be hard to get very drunk if you cannot get someone to take your drink order. But I ordered room service drinks several times at off hours with no problem. Maybe pre covid you didn't have the peaks? Seems unlikely, but  I wouldn't know since I didn't cruise for 20 years prior to Covid.

[ken_ll]

Just off the CP today in Quebec City, ship was about 95% full, no issues with bar or dining room staff.  Drink orders while seated or at bar had responsive service and no delays.  From various accounts I read, I was expecting challenges getting a drink, it was the opposite.  No issues on cruise.