Maiden voyage risky?

[Sunny80]

Hi, My family is looking to book the Ruby Princess's first or second voyage. Does anyone know if that is risky, as far as all the service, dining, etc. kinks being not quite worked out yet?

[RetireeWannabee]

I would think that unless you need everything perfect that the maiden voyage would be wonderful! I figure if there are some things not quite up to snuff, they would make up for it in other ways. I'm a laid-back, roll with the punches type of person.

 

If you are one that sweats the small stuff, I wouldn't go on the first. I would not use the term 'risky' only because I think of risk in terms of bodily injury and monetary loss. If you apply the term to service levels, then, yeah, it could be risky - the teams will not have jelled yet tho I would assume all are professionals trying their best, no matter what comes up.

 

Consider the worst case, consider the best case, consider the price, and make your decision from there. Would you pay $xxx if worst case occurred?

[cruise_lover]

Given the opportunity I would love to take a maiden voyage. Everything is brand new, clean (not worn out) and the crew is ready to go and make a good and lasting impression. You would also have the distinction of being able to say that you were one of the lucky ones who had taken a maiden voyage.

[linda_22003]

The only maiden voyage I'd actually call "risky" happened back in 1912.

[Toyz711]

usually the crew is the "best of the best". breaking in a new ship is a treat for the crewmembers with the best customer service record. that's a promotion they really work for.

[ncboatdrvr]

I was goig to say the same thing. Several years ago our head waiter who was excellant had heard he was going to be promoted to a new ship as soon as it launched and he was really looking forward to it.

[Toyz711]

i can only imagine how much of a honor is is for them. our of thousands of crew memeber, to be hand picked to set up a new ship. i know on the NCL gem, they were saying how the crew was working on the ship, getting it ready...way before the 1st sailing.

[okgirl]

Hi, My family is looking to book the Ruby Princess's first or second voyage. Does anyone know if that is risky, as far as all the service, dining, etc. kinks being not quite worked out yet?

 

I wouldn't call it risky but it certainly wasn't what I was expecting.

 

This past March my sister and I were on the Maiden voyage of the Carnival Freedom in Europe. I was a little surprized that not everything was read for service. Nothing big, but they were still taking protective film off of some of the brass, and there were stickers on some windows.

 

The thing that I probably noticed the most though was the staff (both dining room and room stewards) weren't quite in sync with each other. For the most part the dining staff were a lot of newly promoted head waiters that didn't exactly have their "routine" down pat.

 

I was also surprised to learn that the bar staff had to be on the ship for a couple of weeks prior to the initial sailing to set everything up but without the benefit of tips. Most of the people that I talked to said that in the end it's worth all of the extra work to be on the new ship and/or sailing in Europe, BUT, there were definately plenty of kinks to be worked out.

 

I also thought that there would be a lot more fanfare about being the 1st cruisers and lots of celebrations as we went into new ports for the 1st time, but it was all rather subdued.

 

All in all, I would probably wait a month or two before sailing a new ship, just to give things time to settle in. But the real bottom line would be the price and if I could get a better price on one of the earlier sailings because people are staying away I would take it, cause there wasn't anything so bad as to ruin my cruise.

[cruisead]

The biggest worry you'll have is if there are any construction delays with the ship. For some reason, Princess seems to have more than their share of delays with their new ships, so even if they are delayed by a few days, they will cancel your cruise and you're out of luck.

 

But, we had friends who were booked on Crystal Serenity's maiden and two weeks before they received a telex from Crystal saying the ship isn't quite ready, so they had a choice---they could cancel their cruise and get a refund or still take the cruise knowing that not everything will be perfect (by perfect Crystal meant that they wouldn't have all the barware or linens on board) and still get a full refund. Of course, they took the 14 day cruise for free and said they didn't notice anything different from their usual wonderful Crystal cruises.

[Sunny80]

Thanks, everyone. This is very helpful! I certainly don't mind a few kinks like stickers still on the windows. I will just hope it doesn't get cancelled!

[cruiserbryce]

we went on Liberty of the seas Maiden Voyage and would absolutly do another Maiden Voyage...for the most part and major issues are worked out on the Pre-Inagurals that occur before the first official cruise...everything was great on Liberty and I think we got some kind of gift every day we were on the ship

[sail7seas]

We are booked for HAL's new ship, Eurodam's Inaugural Voyage next July and cannot wait.

 

Crew is on board the ship for months prior to its sailing getting the galley and dining room and bars, housekeeping......everything ready. All those dishes have to be unpacked, washed and stored. Glasses, flatware, bed linens, towels etc etc

 

It is such a huge amount of work getting the 'hotel' ready for guests.

 

There is sometimes more risk in booking the Maiden Voyage of a ship which is the first in a new 'class' of ships. Noordam was the fourth in the series of Vista Class ships for HAL and was 'ready to go' for the most part.

 

Eurodam will be the first in the class or Signature Class for HAL. Hope she is ready to go and all set for guests for July 2.....a three day prelude cruise which is prior to her Maiden Voyage on July 5.

[Keith1010]

To the original poster yes there is a risk which you need to think through. There are times that the ship is not ready in time and the maiden voyage has to be canceled. Rather than pushing all of the other cruises back they cancel that particular voyage(s). So, the risk is that your vacation plans get impacted. Now, if that happens the cruise line normally does something nice for those who were booked on it but the fact is that your plans could be impacted.

 

The other two issues are that many times on the maiden voyage minor items still need fixing. Not a big deal but just wanted to mention that. And, finally sometimes the first couple of sailings everything does not go perfectly in terms of the crew, etc. as they are all getting used to the new ship and also working together.

 

There are many nice aspects to sailing on a maiden cruise ship voyage as well.

 

Good luck with whatever you do.

 

Keith

[spongerob]

Ruby Princess will be the fourth ship built on the same design that started with Caribbean Princess, and isn't that different from Grand Princess which is now 8 or 9 years old. There shouldn't be too many surprises. I'd be more concerned if the ship were a brand-new design or was being built in a different yard than the one Princess normally uses. That seems to cause problems. The yard they are using has a pretty good record of delivering on time. In fact, the Caribbean Princess was delivered 2 weeks early.

 

You might be surprised at how little celebration there is on the first cruise. The real party will be held a day or two earlier, for invited guests only.

[cusyl]

I was booked on the maiden voyage of the first Disney ship, but unfortunately it was not finished on time and it took 6 months to get my deposit back.

I booked the 2nd voyage on the QM2 and fortunately, it was finished on time.