The Crew???

[vcdarty]

A few questions here: where does the wonderful staff sleep? eat? get time off? We may love and depend upon the swell service on HAL, but I'm just nosy about what happens below decks. Their morale, background, perks, salaries, schedules, and all like that. Who, among the many many cruisers on these boards, can tell?

[jhannah]

Some former crew members have posted much of this information here in the past. They live on the ship, of course, although some passengers have asked cruise directors if they go back to shore at night! ;) There are dedicated crew quarters that contain sleeping, eating, and recreation facilities, as well as a store where they can purchase needed items.

 

They do get time off. You'll sometimes see them in port with you, taking in the sights and doing some shopping. Their workdays can be quite long.

 

As to morale, they are like any workgroup. There are times of elation and times of stress. But I've never seen anything but friendly, smiling faces on these hard workers. I've never, ever encountered any of them "copping a 'tude." The work ethic of the Indonesian and Filippino crew is second to none.

[jtl513]

There is a cc member with the screen name calisota that is a casino cashier on the Amsterdam, currently halfway through the GWV. He is maintaining a fascinating (to me) blog, and if you go back to his entries around Dec 13 or so he talks about what it is like down on decks A and lower. Later entries are all about what he does when he gets time off the ship.

 

Go to http://www.planettrekker.info/cruise/ and scroll down the panel on the right to select different entries.