Recent cruisers, how has staffing been?

tvguy

Question anything the facts don't support.
Joined
Dec 15, 2003
I have seen comments from DCL guests seeing more trainees than in the past with the new ship coming on line and venues closed due to staffing issues.
This week several cruise lines have announced they are canceling guests reservations, eliminating extra cost dining, or freezing bookings for months due to a lack of staff.

1) Cunard is capping capacity due to lack of staff.
2) Carnival is closing down extra cost dining options to move staff to main dining rooms due to lack of staff.
3) NCL America is freezing current bookings on the Pride of America until October. NCL America is different in that the Pride of America of the only U.S. Flagged cruise ship going and their staff are almost all U.S. Citizens

Apparently the issue with International staff revolve around delays in getting Visas, former workers leaving the industry, and workers living in nations and cultures where they aren't as comfortable as Westerners with covid being at a place that they feel safe returning to work.
 
We sailed with DCL in March and April, and did notice lots of "Earning My Ears" ribbons around the ship, especially in dining rooms. (On our last night, my daughter noticed that our "in training" server assistant didn't have her ribbon anymore, and she shared that she had graduated training would would get her own section on the next cruise. We did a little celebrating with her!)

Chatting with some entertainment team members in March, it seems like lots of people had just left for a break and then training for the Wish and boarding the Wish. They were really positive about Disney's approach to staffing the Wish, saying DCL had learned from the introductions of the Dream and Fantasy and not pulled all the experienced crew to staff the Wish. But, they said, there were still lots of new folks on the existing ships to replace crew who were going to the Wish.

Neither the Dream in March or the Magic in April felt understaffed.

We are sailing Princess in August, and I've seen on some message boards that venues and specialty dining restaurants on some Princess ships have been closed due to staffing.
 
Currently, the bulk of international hiring is being sourced from three countries: Indonesia, India, and Philippines. Eastern Europe and Turkey used to be reliable sources, but the hiring logistics there have been upended by the war.

Our WBPC cruise in March didn't feel understaffed at all, but the MDR menus had a lot of repeats. Apparently most of the chefs were now Indians - who were still learning the DCL recipes and not comfortable taking risks.

Not all cruise lines have had 100% of their fleet up and running, so Disney has been able to poach their employees. Our assistant server, for instance, was from Azamara.

I imagine Cunard's launch of the new Queen Anne has heightened their staffing needs. And probably true for others too. This summer should be a good opportunity - maybe the last - to sail with these smaller crowds.
 
We cruised Carnival 3/31/22 for the ship’s first sailing since Covid. Most staff were Indonesian and they really helped make the experience great. At that point they were starting 8 months on, 2 months off contract.
 


We just disembarked from the Dream (Friday, May 20). Yes, there were several CMs with a red ribbon stating "Earning my Ears" but everyone was very eager to help and solve issues. MDR staff were extraordinary and every course was delivered in order, at the perfect temperature, and tasted fantastic - oh, and the wine list had most available but some bottles were sold out or not replaced. Kadek, our stateroom host from Bali, was on his 2-week count-down to go home for 7 weeks and then return. Fraje, our server at Palo brunch was disembarking with us for her 7-week break and then returning. So, international CMs were on the ship, taking a well-deserved trip home and returning to the Dream. Absolutely, no staffing issues during our 4-night Bahamian cruise.
 
Just got back from the Fantasy on Saturday and we didn’t really notice any issues either. It was around the normal number of trainees I’d say too
 
I disembarked from the Dream on the 13th of May and we didn't run into any staffing issues. We did notice LOTS of "Earning my Ears" badges, however.
 


Disney Fantasy 5/20-5/23 was incredibly slow. Ship opened late, opening lunch was slow, dinner services were slow. They are definitely hurting.
 
There is a big influx of new CM's on the ship. They are staffing an entirely new ship soon to sail and need to get the crews trained. They can't put all new, inexperienced people on the new ship so they need to mix them into the current fleet.

On our Dream sailing last week the ship was at ~60% capacity. So, the ship didn't feel understaffed.
 
Just cruised on the Dream May 16 to 20, and it did not feel understaffed at all to me, but it was my first Disney cruise (had been on 2 music cruises run by Sixthman group on Norwegian ships). We thought the service and food were excellent - maybe a little kludgey on the first night dinner service, but I got the feeling it was our head waiter's first cruise as a head waiter...I didn't know to look for the "earning my ears" badges, so I didn't notice any, but overall we thought it was a great cruise and will be back for sure...
 
Just cruised on the Dream May 16 to 20, and it did not feel understaffed at all to me, but it was my first Disney cruise (had been on 2 music cruises run by Sixthman group on Norwegian ships). We thought the service and food were excellent - maybe a little kludgey on the first night dinner service, but I got the feeling it was our head waiter's first cruise as a head waiter...I didn't know to look for the "earning my ears" badges, so I didn't notice any, but overall we thought it was a great cruise and will be back for sure...
Can I ask what SIxthman Cruises I went on Parahoy on Norwegian back in 2016 before sailing the Magic for back-2-back cruises. I hope to sail another sixthman cruise one day
 
Can I ask what SIxthman Cruises I went on Parahoy on Norwegian back in 2016 before sailing the Magic for back-2-back cruises. I hope to sail another sixthman cruise one day
We did Warped Rewind at Sea back before the Pandemic, then The Rock Boat last November. Really enjoyed them both, very different from Disney but a blast!!
 
Disney Fantasy 5/20-5/23 was incredibly slow. Ship opened late, opening lunch was slow, dinner services were slow. They are definitely hurting.
I think you mean the Dream as the Fantasy sailed May 14-21 and I did not notice any issues with the dining services.
 
We just got off the Wonder (first Alaska sailing) and the Cruise Director mentioned there were just over 900 crew on board. It certainly felt like there were plenty of crew around. As an aside, an entertainment host also mentioned there were about 1200 passengers so it was a really good ratio of crew to passengers.

The ship felt empty - no waits for anything and only felt crowded on glacier day while everyone jockeyed for good viewing spots on Deck 10.

Palo Brunch was easily bookable on board and the rainforest room was always either empty or only one or two other people.

Overall an amazing experience
 
We just got off the Wonder (first Alaska sailing) and the Cruise Director mentioned there were just over 900 crew on board. It certainly felt like there were plenty of crew around. As an aside, an entertainment host also mentioned there were about 1200 passengers so it was a really good ratio of crew to passengers.

The ship felt empty - no waits for anything and only felt crowded on glacier day while everyone jockeyed for good viewing spots on Deck 10.

Palo Brunch was easily bookable on board and the rainforest room was always either empty or only one or two other people.

Overall an amazing experience
I didn't even find the deck very busy that day, especially compared to our 2014 Alaskan sailing. Short lines for all the Alaskan characters, in years past you kinda had to pick one side of the ship and stick with those characters, but we were able to get pictures with everyone.
 
We just got off the Dream today. We didn’t have any issues with service and there were crew members everywhere and service was fast.
 
Along with the imagineering and the various intellectual property, may we agree that Disney excels in training staff to (re)create the magic?

Hoping all these CM's are satisfied with their decisions and are rewarded well. DW and I hope to meet some of them in Oct-Nov.
 

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