New Ship? New Crew?

[scooter123]

I would suspect that there is a time period after the launch of a brand new cruise ship when all the bugs are being worked out. How new of a ship is too new? Do the cruise lines use existing seasoned staff from other ships to staff new ships? Does anyone have any experience with this? I am thinking of taking a February 2007 cruise on the Crown Princess, which is scheduled to debut in June 2006. Would anyone have any reservations? Would you jump at the chance to be on a new ship? I've only been on one cruise, so I'm not sure if this is an issue or not. Any input would be great. Thanks.

[Rok4u2]

I sailed on Carnival's Conquest on it's first 7 day cruise. Great. She had done only two other short cruises before. NO problem. I also did the second 7 day cruise on Royal Olympic's Voyage. Ship problems, but not crew. If you are sailing on an established cruise line, they take staff from other ships in the line to staff the new ship. You should have no problems.

[love2vacation]

We were the 4th or 5th group out on the Carnival Miracle in 04.

It is a very nice ship, everything was so new. They crew seemed to have things down pretty well by that 5th cruise.

 

I am not sure we would go on the first cruise of any ship; just like we don't go to the first night of any new restaurant- I like to have things running smoothly before I enjoy.

[Happy ks]

You're looking at 7 - 8 months before your cruise. The crew will not be the ones who started when the ship was new, as most cruiselines sign them on for 6 month contracts. But, not everyone is leaving and starting on the same 6 month schedule. Therefore, you will have some new, some who have been on a while, some who have been on somewhere in between.

 

I'd not go on a cruise on a maiden voyage, too many kinks to work out. I'd wait a minimum of 3 months. After saying that, our first cruise was on Disney Magic, we were on the 3rd revenue voyage. They were still working out the kinks and many people were complaining. I was as happy as I'd ever been in my life and any minor issues that came up, I just didn't care, it was truly "magic" for me.

 

Your time frame would be great, the ship will still be new, the staff and crew will be well along and know what needs to be done and you'll have plenty of time to read reviews of the ship. You may just have to ignore the ones from the first 2 months, though.

[scooter123]

Thanks everyone, great insight. I'm getting more and more sold on the Crown Princess in February 2007.