New Odyssey Capt?

FManke · September 15, 2019

To Captain a new ship, I'm sure is a plum job with any cruise company. Anybody know how RC goes about choosing a Capt. for such a position and any guesses as to who might Capt. Odyssey? Do Capt. start on the smaller class ships and move their way up? I'm sure it's already been decided, just not made public yet.

twangster · September 15, 2019

I saw a listing on monster.com. "Odyssey Captain Required, salary TBD"

Just kidding.

With four Quantum class ships they have eight Captains now since all Captains work on a rotational basis. Typically the same two Captains will stay with a ship for several years taking turns while the other is on vacation. I've heard they rotate every few months, two on, two off sort of thing. The Captains stay in touch by email letting each other know of note worthy events and/or maintenance conditions.

At the same time there are Staff Captains that do something similar. They may move more between ships so they are exposed to different Captains and expand their knowledge in this fashion. They are fully capable of being Captain, but each ship has only one Master of the vessel at any given moment.

Every ship in the fleet works on this basis. At some point a Staff Captain may be ready to become a Master. They likely would not take a Staff Captain who has never served on a Quantum class ship to be the first Odyssey captain. They'll likely take an experienced Quantum class Captain for Odyssey and backfill the vacancy on their old Quantum class ship. It doesn't have to be this way, they could take any of their Captains and move them to Odyssey. A Voyager Captain could be picked, an Oasis Captain could be picked. If that Captain has worked through a build process on another ship that experience works in their favor.

The Captain and a Staff Captain will join the ship long before it is handed over to Royal however their position isn't official. The ship yard has it's own Captains who will be on board for sea trials and fulfil the role of Master until the ship is handed over because until it's handed over, the ship doesn't belong to Royal. Royal's own Captains will be on board but in an observation role. Despite that they all tend to get along and be included in meetings and operations.

Looking beyond the bridge as the ship becomes an actual ship and is ready for crew to live on board Royal will begin to assemble the "float out crew" for Odyssey. They tend to pick experienced crew for all positions, from chef's to bar managers to waiters to hotel directors the entire crew will need to be selected. Several of the Symphony crew I talked to on the transatlantic have been chosen to be the float out crew for several Oasis class ships. They knew the drill, they've done it before, this is how a ship can launch and be so ready on the very first cruise.

At some point as the ship is nearing completion the float out crew or many of them will start living on the ship. The bridge crew may have been for months now. They have had cabin attendants and meals served on board for a while. In this manner the ship itself is tested albeit not for the thousands it will eventually serve. At the moment of handover the crew is in place and ready to go, all experienced and hand picked from across the fleet.

In conclusion they don't crew the ship with newbies off the street. They tend to staff positions from across the fleet drawing on more senior or repeat contract employees who already know their jobs and the Royal way of doing things. The vacancy they create on their old ship will see people move up within the ranks based on individual merit to do so. It works this way for bridge crews as it does for the customer facing hotel positions.