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Oasis understaffed


Coach9

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I’m going to be going on Oasis next week, and I have been hearing that they are under staffed and are turning guests away from the main dining room who have my time dinning.   I’m wondering if any past guests can confirm this or is it just a lie?  
Thanks. 

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Any staff shortage on Harmony's 5/29 sailing was hardly noticeable. Some ships will obviously be in better shape than others, whether it's luck or other factors, but I wouldn't be discouraged or go into your cruise with a negative outlook.

MTD specifically can be a bit of a mess from what I've read. So if traditional seating works for you and you can switch, that would at least take that one specific issue out of play. Just spitballing.

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9 hours ago, Coach9 said:

I’m going to be going on Oasis next week, and I have been hearing that they are under staffed and are turning guests away from the main dining room who have my time dinning.   I’m wondering if any past guests can confirm this or is it just a lie?  
Thanks. 

I'm not sure what you read or what happened but I have a hard time seeing someone outright turned away from MTD.  More likely, they were told that they would have to wait for a table.

If you have not already done so, I recommend making reservations in your cruise planner for MTD.  There will be two lines at the dining room for MTD, one for reservations and one without.  It is always better to be in the reservations line, especially on the first night.  

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Just got off the Oasis yesterday after boarding on June 10th. We were hearing that the ship was around 90ish percent full. I can honestly say that the staffing may not be 100%, but we had no issues. Had My Time Dining at 7pm and was seated immediately every night. Dinner took around 1.25 hours on average, but could have been faster if needed and you asked. Always found seats in the buffet and only had to wait about 8 minutes one day to make sure we washed our hands. Overall they seem to be getting things done. I will say the line was longer for MTD if you did not have reservations.

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Got off of the Ovation on May 20th.  Other than one breakfast, I was never willing to go into the Windjammer as the lines to get in were just tooooooooo long to get in.  I was told, by the servers in the Coastal Kitchen, that the lines are long because the Windjammer is very short staffed.  They also told us that because of the shortage in the Windjammer, they had to send a couple of their servers over to the Windjammer to help.  I never went to the MDR, so I don't know the situation there.  However, I can say that it looked like a lot of activities were canceled or reduced.  The most obvious to me was, even though we were told it was mechanical, some of the crew said that it was lack of staff, the Northstar was not in service for the entire cruise.  We also noticed that the, what we have become accustomed to on a Royal cruise, the large Promenade sale never happened on the last sea day.   The sail where they put out watches, other jewelry items, t-shirts, bags, raffles for stuff, etc etc etc.  Who knows what else wasn't operational or services reduced.  Don't get me wrong, I had a good cruise.  But, the shortage of crew was very noticeable in some venues.  I know I'm leaving out many areas that were effected by the lack of crew.  Oh, one more thing, the bakery items were limited, not that I noticed, I was told that by a crew member and I didn't even ask about it.  I just said that I wanted an assortment of dinner rolls and she said that the assortment was going to be limited because of the shortage in the galley.  

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6 hours ago, Mr. Green said:

Just got off the Oasis yesterday after boarding on June 10th. We were hearing that the ship was around 90ish percent full. I can honestly say that the staffing may not be 100%, but we had no issues. Had My Time Dining at 7pm and was seated immediately every night. Dinner took around 1.25 hours on average, but could have been faster if needed and you asked. Always found seats in the buffet and only had to wait about 8 minutes one day to make sure we washed our hands. Overall they seem to be getting things done. I will say the line was longer for MTD if you did not have reservations.

That’s reassuring. Do you happen to have your cruise compass? I’m on oasis july 8

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I’m on Oasis now.  I have the scheduled 5:30 seating. At dinner last night, first night on the ship, they announced if you weren’t seated by 5:45 for dinner your table would be given away. They also said the dining room opens at 5:15, I imagine to expedite service.  When we left the dining room, I’m not sure what time, there were 2 long lines waiting for entry.  Staff was attentive and did not seem lacking.  I was on this ship May 1 and it felt less crowded and service sucked as did the food.  So far, so good.

I did see new staff being given orientation today. 

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15 minutes ago, Matt said:

Thank you to @Rakaia@Mr. Green & @Pattycruise for sharing their recent experiences on Oasis. Sounds like they're handling things well.

One thing I do want to point out - My experience is from a cruise that happened on May 13 - 20th.  In Human Resources time, that's a long time ago.  I'm sure that by now, Royal, and others, have healed, A LOT.  They probably already had many old employees in the pipeline to come back, were already in the process of hiring and training new crew and had several large hiring events world wide going on.  So, in terms of today, I'm sure things aren't like I explained above, any more.  My comments were as I experienced them in a snap shot of time.    

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Currently on the Oasis for the 17-24 June sailing. I will say that overall the staff are trying to do their best. There are definitely staffing issues on the Oasis. This doesn't mean things will be horrible. It just means that the same level of impeccable service that many crusiers experienced when they were over staffed and had a very good passenger to crew ratio isn't there anymore.  

Last year on the anthem both the head waiter and assistant waiter knew everyone of guests' names. Both were amazing. We literally never had to ask for anything. It was almost like they read our minds. 

This time on the Oasis, the staff are working their butts off with handling what looks to meet like too many tables. Many times  at the dinner at the mdr I would ask for a refill on a cocktail and wouldn't get it in time or it would be the wrong drink. I don't really blame the staff. I think royal bit off alittle too much more than they can chew. Which is understandable as any business would want to recoup their losses during the pandemic. I will still give kudos to the staff trying to make the best of current staffing and passenger levels. 

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2 hours ago, leesam82 said:

Currently on the Oasis for the 17-24 June sailing. I will say that overall the staff are trying to do their best. There are definitely staffing issues on the Oasis. This doesn't mean things will be horrible. It just means that the same level of impeccable service that many crusiers experienced when they were over staffed and had a very good passenger to crew ratio isn't there anymore.  

Last year on the anthem both the head waiter and assistant waiter knew everyone of guests' names. Both were amazing. We literally never had to ask for anything. It was almost like they read our minds. 

This time on the Oasis, the staff are working their butts off with handling what looks to meet like too many tables. Many times  at the dinner at the mdr I would ask for a refill on a cocktail and wouldn't get it in time or it would be the wrong drink. I don't really blame the staff. I think royal bit off alittle too much more than they can chew. Which is understandable as any business would want to recoup their losses during the pandemic. I will still give kudos to the staff trying to make the best of current staffing and passenger levels. 

I’m onboard Oasis too and my servers are amazing.  My water glass is constantly refilled.  (Unlike in May where I was parched nightly).  Speak to your Head guy, mine has stopped by each night to inquire about the service.  They should address it immediately. (I never spoke up about my lack of water when I was sailing in May, my mistake!)

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16 hours ago, Suite Snob said:

One thing I do want to point out - My experience is from a cruise that happened on May 13 - 20th.  In Human Resources time, that's a long time ago.  I'm sure that by now, Royal, and others, have healed, A LOT.  They probably already had many old employees in the pipeline to come back, were already in the process of hiring and training new crew and had several large hiring events world wide going on.  So, in terms of today, I'm sure things aren't like I explained above, any more.  My comments were as I experienced them in a snap shot of time.    

We actually saw a group of new employees being ushered around and shown the ropes. From what we saw, they looked like they were being given a good intro. Looking forward to being back on board Oasis in October.  

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8 minutes ago, Rakaia said:

We actually saw a group of new employees being ushered around and shown the ropes. From what we saw, they looked like they were being given a good intro. Looking forward to being back on board Oasis in October.  

I have no doubt that Royal, at least, will be back to fully functioning in the very near future.  I'm thinking within the next 6 months.  

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Keep in mind that staffing issues can be complex during these times of Covid. A ship can sail with a full staff, but during the cruise…if one crew member tests positive, then not only is that crew member placed ‘out of service’, but also a whole group of ‘close contacts’ can be sidelined. As most crew members are in close quarters, and the company exercises due diligence by liberally defining close contacts…one positive can result in a dozen, or more, quarantined. This is most visible to the passengers when entire production teams are affected by one positive test and shows are cancelled. I have learned how to be patient and understanding over this past year as the restart has proceeded. So far, I think Royal is doing an excellent job…and I have no qualms about cruising with Royal again and again. Good luck and enjoy your cruise!

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