Interesting article on bringing ships back into service

[Fairlynew]

If someone else has posted this, I apologize, but I found this article to be very interesting.  The Points Guy is/was on Celebrity Edge and interviewed Richard Fain.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/why-cruise-ships-slow-to-return/

[cruisellama]

Anyone seen an article that

On 6/23/2021 at 12:40 PM, KLA said:

This is perfect - thanks so much @ConstantCruiser!! 

US port readiness to host cruise ships?

[Ampurp85]

It definitely makes sense. I work for a restaurant chain as a manager and I have been getting constant calls as to why this particular location hasn't opened dining back up. We have been training workers at my location, getting them up to standards. People assumed as soon as dining was allowed, places would be back like snapping a finger. But it takes time. Look at Chris Wong, he has to learn a whole new ship. Factor in that some ships are only just starting back, with whole new protocols and I can see why there is reduced capacity and fleet.

[CGTLH]

Been my hunch all along when it came to the simulated voyages being spread apart and far out. I've viewed bringing a ship back to a guest readiness state is along the lines of turning a dimmer knob vs flipping a light switch.

[stevendom57]

The cruise industry has never done a cold start like this. Initially, they started out with one ship, added another and kept expanding. They always have just added one or two ships at a time. That is a lot different from a total shutdown and then trying to bring everything back online at once. The latter is MUCH more complicated. 

[wordell1]

1 hour ago, Ampurp85 said:

It definitely makes sense. I work for a restaurant chain as a manager and I have been getting constant calls as to why this particular location hasn't opened dining back up. We have been training workers at my location, getting them up to standards. People assumed as soon as dining was allowed, places would be back like snapping a finger. But it takes time. Look at Chris Wong, he has to learn a whole new ship. Factor in that some ships are only just starting back, with whole new protocols and I can see why there is reduced capacity and fleet.

There were noticable issues with some of the restaurants on AOS on the 6/12 initial voyage.  We dined at Giovanni's the first night and they actually brough waiters over from Johnny Rockets (uniforms and all) to make up for an obvious shortage.  There were other issues at My Time Dining at MDR with unusual waits between courses etc. 

I was really impressed that they were really hustling to make it work - I can't imagine going from no guests to around 1000 people on board in one day.  I'm sure that most of the staff were experienced, but as you correctly pointed out, there is no substitute for training and working with a team of Chefs, waiters, bus staff etc over a period of time to get in sync.  Overall, none of these issues bothered us and I think everyone on board was of the same mind set.

[CGTLH]

31 minutes ago, wordell1 said:

We dined at Giovanni's the first night and they actually brough waiters over from Johnny Rockets (uniforms and all) to make up for an obvious shortage.

Seen it myself on many other cruises. Guess when demand at JR isn't that great they'll pull in support. Amazingly it always seems to be Giovanni's getting JR support, can't recall an instance seeing them at Chops. 

[Ampurp85]

I have so much respect for any sort of service staff. It is hard to learn everything and then have to learn everything you know in a different way. I think some people believe like "well they worked on Indy, so Explorer should be a piece of cake." Sometimes even something as small as, they keep the silverware in a panty instead of by the dishwasher, can throw a person off. I knew the first initial sailings would be a little rocky as most of them have been off for at least a year. Plus it could be some staff have never worked on a cruise ship. I know RCG has always had a standard of service and prides themselves on that, but I will be more than understanding if the crew are a little rusty.