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Later Embarkations; no boarding day lunch, cabins ready, Seapass activated at muster station + other ideas


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I could envision changes to embarkation in the future. 

 

Later embarkation not starting until 2 or 3 PM. 

 

Will allow for longer period of time to clean ship; have shore based contractors onboard "fogging" areas of ship while regular onboard staff continue things like changing sheets, preparing rooms, minor paint and varnish touch ups. 

 

Will allow for time to "fog" the terminal after disembarking passengers leave and new ones arrive. 

 

Cabins ready at boarding and no more embarkation day lunch buffet. The madhouse of buffet first day (when other dining venues are limited) always creates crowding and long lines. By delaying embarkation and making cabins ready (and no lunch) that would change behaviors of passengers from needing to schlep carryons into a crowded restaurant; to treating it more like a hotel where they go to their rooms after checking in and drop off carryons immediately. By the point in the day crew will have finished their turnover and can actually get some rest before preparing to serve new guests in the evening and all week (turnover day is very tough on crew). As such you reduce the number of crew interacting with guests in hallways and buffet. 

 

Room doors all will be propped open; Seapass cards will be in the rooms.  

 

Why keys in the rooms?  You want to encourage people not to all crowd to the same spot upon boarding. You want them to locate their room and identify the physical path to their muster stations (emergency can happen any time, true, and people not in their room all week - but still seems better than locating muster station the moment you board before acclimating yourself with any base starting point or ).  You want them to put away as much non-essential items before they go around the ships.  

 

At this point, taken from another thread, guests could go locate their muster stations during a window of time before scheduled sailaway at which point scanning the Seapass would activate it.  No drink packages, charging ability, etc. would work until cards are scanned at muster. 

 

 

 

 

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Some great ideas. Regarding late boarding the new Virgin Voyages Scarlett Lady was already planning to do that.  Boarding on that ship would be 2-5 with sailaway at 7pm. That also squares with not necessarily offering lunch. 

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17 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

I could envision changes to embarkation in the future. 

 

Later embarkation not starting until 2 or 3 PM. 

 

Will allow for longer period of time to clean ship; have shore based contractors onboard "fogging" areas of ship while regular onboard staff continue things like changing sheets, preparing rooms, minor paint and varnish touch ups. 

 

Will allow for time to "fog" the terminal after disembarking passengers leave and new ones arrive. 

 

Cabins ready at boarding and no more embarkation day lunch buffet. The madhouse of buffet first day (when other dining venues are limited) always creates crowding and long lines. By delaying embarkation and making cabins ready (and no lunch) that would change behaviors of passengers from needing to schlep carryons into a crowded restaurant; to treating it more like a hotel where they go to their rooms after checking in and drop off carryons immediately. By the point in the day crew will have finished their turnover and can actually get some rest before preparing to serve new guests in the evening and all week (turnover day is very tough on crew). As such you reduce the number of crew interacting with guests in hallways and buffet. 

 

Room doors all will be propped open; Seapass cards will be in the rooms.  

 

Why keys in the rooms?  You want to encourage people not to all crowd to the same spot upon boarding. You want them to locate their room and identify the physical path to their muster stations (emergency can happen any time, true, and people not in their room all week - but still seems better than locating muster station the moment you board before acclimating yourself with any base starting point or ).  You want them to put away as much non-essential items before they go around the ships.  

 

At this point, taken from another thread, guests could go locate their muster stations during a window of time before scheduled sailaway at which point scanning the Seapass would activate it.  No drink packages, charging ability, etc. would work until cards are scanned at muster. 

 

 

 

 

Last Royal cruise we took in Feb, our keys were at the room.  You got to have food on board the ship, so I dunno about that

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31 minutes ago, Newleno said:

Last Royal cruise we took in Feb, our keys were at the room.  You got to have food on board the ship, so I dunno about that

As I stated the new Virgin Scarlet Lady plans to have boarding from 2-5pm. So I don't think in that case a regular lunch offering would be available on embarkation. 

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50 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

At this point, taken from another thread, guests could go locate their muster stations during a window of time before scheduled sailaway at which point scanning the Seapass would activate it.  No drink packages, charging ability, etc. would work until cards are scanned at muster. 

This would not be up to the cruise line to initiate something like this, it would require a change in SOLAS through the IMO.  The requirement for a passenger muster drill is not just to have passengers learn where their station is, it is to be a "drill" for the passengers, and SOLAS requires drills to be "as realistic as possible", so passengers meandering to their muster locations throughout the afternoon would not meet these criteria, and removes crew training from the passenger muster, and also requires staff to remain at an emergency station (taking those sea passes) for longer periods, so they would be unable to provide passenger services (their normal job).  I don't see the muster drill going away anytime soon, any more than I do crew fire drills (which have been mentioned in lawsuits by crew recently).

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Cleaning stations at elevators, stairwell entrances, dining venues, entertainment venues, etc.

 

Freely available masks. Especially available for muster drill and other large gatherings (theatre, parades, etc.).

 

Once this pandemic is resolved, keeping these adjustments in place will go a ways to reducing other outbreaks, notably Norovirus.

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Not crazy at all for any of these ideas. We love getting to the ship really early and having a nice lunch with not a lot of people in the WJ. Then exploring the ship and landing at a bar for our first drink.  What a total waste of the first day if boarding is so late and departure even later. With muster normally occuring in the hour before departure when would dinner be the first night.

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1 minute ago, broberts said:

Cleaning stations at elevators, stairwell entrances, dining venues, entertainment venues, etc.

 

Freely available masks. Especially available for muster drill and other large gatherings (theatre, parades, etc.).

 

Once this pandemic is resolved, keeping these adjustments in place will go a ways to reducing other outbreaks, notably Norovirus.

This make a lot more sense.

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8 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

This would not be up to the cruise line to initiate something like this, it would require a change in SOLAS through the IMO.  The requirement for a passenger muster drill is not just to have passengers learn where their station is, it is to be a "drill" for the passengers, and SOLAS requires drills to be "as realistic as possible", so passengers meandering to their muster locations throughout the afternoon would not meet these criteria, and removes crew training from the passenger muster, and also requires staff to remain at an emergency station (taking those sea passes) for longer periods, so they would be unable to provide passenger services (their normal job).  I don't see the muster drill going away anytime soon, any more than I do crew fire drills (which have been mentioned in lawsuits by crew recently).

Chief, the cruise line that I go on …… Genting HK......don't conduct safety drill.

Is the Captain or the cruise line boss personally responsible if there is some mishap.

I have always wondered why these Swedish Captains would accept these conditions.

Genting HK which started here 20 years ago never could get the local gamblers to do the safety drill.

But RCL ships here have imposed the safety drill on all guest.

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2 minutes ago, datolim said:

Chief, the cruise line that I go on …… Genting HK......don't conduct safety drill.

Is the Captain or the cruise line boss personally responsible if there is some mishap.

I have always wondered why these Swedish Captains would accept these conditions.

Genting HK which started here 20 years ago never could get the local gamblers to do the safety drill.

But RCL ships here have imposed the safety drill on all guest.

Wow.  Even if there was a muster drill, yes, the Master is always responsible, and the cruise line would be liable for claims.  Would love to know what class society inspects these ships.

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16 minutes ago, WeLuvVacation said:

Not crazy at all for any of these ideas. We love getting to the ship really early and having a nice lunch with not a lot of people in the WJ. Then exploring the ship and landing at a bar for our first drink.  What a total waste of the first day if boarding is so late and departure even later. With muster normally occuring in the hour before departure when would dinner be the first night.


I agree. Boarding day is day 1. Limiting facilities and access on day 1 would effectively shorten the cruise. 

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7 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Wow.  Even if there was a muster drill, yes, the Master is always responsible, and the cruise line would be liable for claims.  Would love to know what class society inspects these ships.

Don't understand 'what class society inspects these ships'

Yes these young handsome Swedish Captains would lose everything including their freedom.

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Can see a later embarkation.  Most Royal ships let passengers on anywhere from 10:30 - 11:00.  Maybe no one is on before 12 noon.  Wondering if the time to board listed on the Set Sail pass will be enforced rather than show up when you want.  That might spread the boarding process out.  Other cruise lines stick to the time to board listed on their boarding passes.

 

Wonder if perhaps they would open the dining rooms for lunch as well.  Princess has that option, and we've liked that when we've taken a Princess cruise.  Not so much crazy town like the Windjammer on boarding days. 

 

Would be disappointed not to have a boarding day lunch.  Another option to spread out diners for boarding day would be to use the specialty restaurants at no fee. They could all be opened with all offering the same menu.  Might be the an opportunity for some to be in a specialty restaurant and deciding to actually go to another time during the cruise. Win/win for the ship.

 

I'm pretty certain, if I can think of these ideas, the cruise lines are already thinking out of the box! They want to get cruisers on board ASAP.  Also, they definitely have to demonstrate to the CDC they have plans to keep the spread of infectious diseases with as close to zero point as possible. And if something does go awry, the ships have a plan to be responsible for the outcomes. All of that was outlined in the CDC posting in the Federal Register.

 

 

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58 minutes ago, WeLuvVacation said:

Not crazy at all for any of these ideas. We love getting to the ship really early and having a nice lunch with not a lot of people in the WJ. Then exploring the ship and landing at a bar for our first drink.  What a total waste of the first day if boarding is so late and departure even later. With muster normally occuring in the hour before departure when would dinner be the first night.

Dinner time would not have to change. MSC and NCL have 7pm sailaways on many sailings with no impact to dining time.  You wouldn't be forced to select set time dining so nothing changes in that regard. I've seen people board MSC ships as last as 5pm without impact to anything else 

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41 minutes ago, Billy Baltic said:


I agree. Boarding day is day 1. Limiting facilities and access on day 1 would effectively shorten the cruise. 

This is potentially a fact. It could have the effect of shortening your vacation. 

 

The flip side of that is whenever there have been delays and people couldn't be on the ship at 10:37am to line up for the windjammer opening they would complain and the responses generally ran the line of "your cruise doesn't start until the ship leaves".  

 

Hotels will have to adapt to guests wanting to leave later as well if they have to wait longer to embark. 

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8 minutes ago, denamo said:

Can see a later embarkation.  Most Royal ships let passengers on anywhere from 10:30 - 11:00.  Maybe no one is on before 12 noon.  Wondering if the time to board listed on the Set Sail pass will be enforced rather than show up when you want.  That might spread the boarding process out.  Other cruise lines stick to the time to board listed on their boarding passes.

 

Wonder if perhaps they would open the dining rooms for lunch as well.  Princess has that option, and we've liked that when we've taken a Princess cruise.  Not so much crazy town like the Windjammer on boarding days. 

 

Would be disappointed not to have a boarding day lunch.  Another option to spread out diners for boarding day would be to use the specialty restaurants at no fee. They could all be opened with all offering the same menu.  Might be the an opportunity for some to be in a specialty restaurant and deciding to actually go to another time during the cruise. Win/win for the ship.

 

I'm pretty certain, if I can think of these ideas, the cruise lines are already thinking out of the box! They want to get cruisers on board ASAP.  Also, they definitely have to demonstrate to the CDC they have plans to keep the spread of infectious diseases with as close to zero point as possible. And if something does go awry, the ships have a plan to be responsible for the outcomes. All of that was outlined in the CDC posting in the Federal Register.

 

 

Thank you for sharing your ideas as well. Some would seem possible to implement and common sense.  

 

I had also thought to INCREASE dining offerings for lunch on boarding day, but the flip side is that the embarkation is delayed because the major thing going on is sanitization of the ship between say 930-130. They could clean much deeper than a regular turn around day. 

 

I'm not saying NO food anywhere, but if the new Norm is to arrive at say 2pm, people will become conditioned to having lunch before arriving and making their first meal onboard dinner. 

 

I think I'd give up that first windjammer lunch to give staff more time to do thorough cleaning and perhaps even a bit of rest 

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Good ideas if they can work out regulations and logistics

 

Maybe actually enforce scheduled boarding times😉

 

No need to leave early if all they are going to do is go to the Bahamas anyway

 

Someone mentioned on another thread about the possibility of not allowing same day turn arounds.

 

There could be all kinds of changes, what happened a month ago, will unlikely continue in the near term

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FYI - in case anyone didn't know: there was a time  that ships did not disembark and embark passengers on the same day.  In the U.S., "revolving-door cruising" (as I call it) only got its foothold in the industry in the 60's;  before that, ships might spend days between sailings depending on the length of the upcoming cruise and whatever maintenance needed to be done. 

 

I know (because of revenue) this will likely never take place again, but it would certainly allow for a more thorough cleaning of the ship and a lovely embarkation day.   lol...one can only wish (Pardon my nostalgia.)

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Enforcing a set boarding time isn't really feasible....especially, if you are arriving in your port on the DAY OF the cruise.    Or, you arrived the day prior, have no car, and have to be OUT of your hotel by 11am.  Waiting until your "assigned" time of 3-4pm would be a horror.

 

 

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15 minutes ago, cb at sea said:

Enforcing a set boarding time isn't really feasible....especially, if you are arriving in your port on the DAY OF the cruise.    Or, you arrived the day prior, have no car, and have to be OUT of your hotel by 11am.  Waiting until your "assigned" time of 3-4pm would be a horror.

 

 

The one and only time I cruised MSC they enforced bordering times.  

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19 minutes ago, cb at sea said:

Enforcing a set boarding time isn't really feasible....especially, if you are arriving in your port on the DAY OF the cruise.    Or, you arrived the day prior, have no car, and have to be OUT of your hotel by 11am.  Waiting until your "assigned" time of 3-4pm would be a horror.

 

 

 

It's a new world, deal with it

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