Should I take a ship's final cruise before a dry dock?

[LAKaye]

Hello everyone~

 

I was planning on booking the 15-night TA on the Brilliance in April of 2025, which just became available, but I've learned that she will be going into a two-week dry dock following that cruise.

 

I greatly prefer to cruise on a Radiance class ship, which is why I'm not easily jumping over to another Royal TA.

 

Does anyone have experience of how the food quality/availability and the service is before a hiatus like this?  I'm worried that quality will fall off.

 

Thank you 🙏🏻

Leslie

[smokeybandit]

I was on a pre-drydock cruise before and there wasn't any difference.

[BillB48]

That was my experience as well.

[CaptainBazz]

We did a pre-dry dock cruise on another cruise line...only issue was they started doing construction around the ship during the cruise...not terrible but annoying...food, service and entertainment was great and they never ran out of anything...the only benefit from the 'early' construction was that they gave us all a FCC.

[cruiseguy1016]

A two week dry dock is a short one. They won't be doing any major work that they need to get a head start on. You most likely will not be affected at all.

[LAKaye]

What happens with the crew?  

 

Does the dining room staff stay on board/remain somehow (with their expertise) over the dry dock or are contracts ended, with a brand crew coming on board for the season in the Mediterranean?

 

Thank you~

[FionaMG]

1 hour ago, LAKaye said:

What happens with the crew?  

 

Does the dining room staff stay on board/remain somehow (with their expertise) over the dry dock or are contracts ended, with a brand crew coming on board for the season in the Mediterranean?

 

Thank you~

 

Check out this fantastic video by @Chris Wong which documents his experience as a crew member during Symphony's last dry dock:

 

[SUgwoz]

I did a last cruise before Allure was moved to a different port and they closed one of the pools along with making the solarium in accessible on the first sea day.  Made for a very unpleasant day on the pool decks, also it forced everyone to walk alongside the smoking section.  Solarium Bistro and Samba grill was unavailable for the first few days of the cruise.  Unsure if it opened because the amount of complaints or they completed the work.

[snaefell]

In 2019 we did a repo cruise on Quantum from China to Singapore,she was heading into drydock for a month(I think) for a Refurb which developed 'a bit',due to the pandemic she ended up staying in Singapore for a couple of years!

The repo cruise was superb,no food shortage or quality problems,couldn't believe she needed that much work as she looked almost like new,she obviously had been well looked after.

[A&L_Ont]

The only issues I’ve heard of is venues being closed due to renovations starting early. 

[Eddie Wilson]

We were on one once where the elevators were being serviced prior to crossing Atlantic for dry dock.  A crew was on board for the work, resulting in a set of elevators always being shut down. 
 

Not a big hassle, just a tad longer at getting the operating lifts.

[SG65CB]

The bigger risk is booking the first cruise *after* a dry dock. 

 

Several times I have seen cruises canceled because the dry dock work wasn't finished in time. 

[BirdTravels]

7 hours ago, LAKaye said:

What happens with the crew?  

 

Does the dining room staff stay on board/remain somehow (with their expertise) over the dry dock or are contracts ended, with a brand crew coming on board for the season in the Mediterranean?

 

Thank you~

Depends. If they are replacing dining room furniture or reupholstering furnitures, some could spend hours and hours on their hands and knees assembling furniture. Some get assigned fire watch around welding. Our cabin steward was tiling bathrooms during a dry dock (we took the first cruise after a dry dock). 

[RobInMN]

We' e never experienced anything personally, but I've read posts from people on pre-drydock cruises talking about getting a head start on things that don't actually require being completely passenger-less and in a dry dock. Things like ripping out carpet or closing venues that might be getting an overhaul and starting to remove stuff. Even closing parts of the pool deck and stripping off the surface.

[compuryan]

21 hours ago, LAKaye said:

What happens with the crew?  

 

Does the dining room staff stay on board/remain somehow (with their expertise) over the dry dock or are contracts ended, with a brand crew coming on board for the season in the Mediterranean?

 

Thank you~

 

Most stay onboard.  Many will make minimal money with no tips coming in.  Like maybe a quarter of their usual take home pay during the time the drydock is happening.

 

Often crew will be pressed into service doing fire watch, if they don't have anything else to do.  They basically watch the contractors who are welding or anything risky like that.

[topnole]

22 hours ago, LAKaye said:

What happens with the crew?  

 

Does the dining room staff stay on board/remain somehow (with their expertise) over the dry dock or are contracts ended, with a brand crew coming on board for the season in the Mediterranean?

 

Thank you~

They mostly stay onboard.  Our Concierge was emailing usafter or last TA to tell us how things were going and she wanted to see some of our post cruise pics.  Not really us, just pics of our kids.  Haa.    She really enjoyed the lighter schedule for several weeks.  

[vwlmember]

Did it once in 2019 with NCL.  Never again.  They worked on it while we were crossing the Atlantic, closed venues, and shortened the cruise by two days less than a week before we left because the dry dock became available earlier than expected. They cancelled two ports. 25% credit towards a future cruise that they refused to honor because of the shutdown.

Edited November 10, 2023 by vwlmember
I can't spell

[Jetdriver787]

Could you print 6 random numbers between 1 and 50, so that I can eliminate them from all future lottery games? 🤣
 

[PhillyFan33579]

Personally I wouldn’t do it. I have made this “mistake” twice, but won’t make it again. Overall the cruise was still good, but both times they started working on the ship during the cruise and blocked off areas of the ship where they were working. 

[A&L_Ont]

18 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Personally I wouldn’t do it. I have made this “mistake” twice, but won’t make it again. Overall the cruise was still good, but both times they started working on the ship during the cruise and blocked off areas of the ship where they were working. 

I’d probably skip the first one or two after as well, in case they had not finished the work. We have been on Oasis when this had happened.

[LAKaye]

Hey Y'all~

 

Thank you very much for all of your replies.

I have decided to avoid this cruise.  

 

🙏🏻🩷