Reply to Really did not enjoy cruising.

Forum Index » Travel Discussion

Reply to "Really did not enjoy cruising."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I recently went on one and can't decide whether it was a good overall experience or not. The food was excessive. I was concerned what, if any, labor laws were being followed. There was an inability to clear one's own plates; it was all done by staff. Pools were crowded. I did like the ability to get off at a port.

I think I would have been really bored at a gated all-inclusive placee and am not a beach person. 
[/quote]

What do you mean by excessive food? The buffet? You know you aren’t obligated to use the buffet, right? I don’t eat at the buffet. The only time I go in there is to grab fruit or coffee. Our preferred line has healthy food options in a certain area.

The inability to clear your own plates at the buffet is for liability reasons coupled with the practicality of staff knowing where to put things.

PS - Most people avoid the pools at all costs. Gross. [/quote]
Food is just everywhere all the time, which a couple of my kids (teens) enjoyed, but the excessive, wasted food, combined with not knowing what, if any, labor laws are being followed and what wages are being paid did "eat away" at me.  I suppose the buffet could be avoided, but it's just quicker to pop in there for breakfast or lunch. I will say that I'm not used to eating 3 full meals a day and do not have a big appetite or care much about food (or alcohol), so what seems excessive to me may not seem so excessive to others.

Why is it a liability to clear your own plates? It's done all the time at university cafeterias, for example.

While some may avoid the pools, they were pretty crowded. [/quote]

I’m also not a buffet eater and the waste irritated me too.  If you’re worried about the labor conditions, why not talk to the workers? I regularly talk to the workers and they mostly are pretty happy.  They have free room and board and are compensated really well compared to what they could earn back home with a lot more freedom from what can sometimes be oppressive cultural norms or political situations.  They generally work their way up to more preferred shifts and ships.  
I’ve also talked to the performers who tend to be American.  Most of them appreciate the ability to make money performing instead of having to do something like a paralegal gig, and also like the option of seeing different ports.  Most of them will only do it for a few years though, or some of the more skilled ones like the pianists do a few months on then a few months off.

If you’re worried about labor conditions—-people who work in American hotels are treated pretty much like crap.  And it’s maybe worse in places like the DR—I don’t know.  One way you can try to make sure you stay places with better treated staff is to look for unionized work forces — usually though UNITE-HERE.  But it’s really hard to find that outside major cities like NY, Atlanta, Vegas, most of California, Portland, New Orleans, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philly. DC, Boston and some hotels in Florida.  And it’s typically only the larger chains, so if you’re staying in boutiques the workers probably aren’t union and are probably paid like crap and fired at will.  One thing about cruise workers is they have pretty decent job security — no one wants to fire them mid-term.  But land hotel workers get fired at th drop of a hat if some guest says they looked at them funny or accused them of theft or they are late getting to work.  [/quote]
But U.S. hotels are [supposed to be] following U.S. wage and hour laws, while cruise ships are not obligated to (they're not considered a U.S. employer). How many hours are they working a day on a ship? Do they get days off? Is there a minimum wage? I doubt they're being paid time-and-a-half for overtime. Why are the only American employees entertainers? [/quote]

You should ask all these question!  I always talk to the workers on ships.  They tend to have a lot more down time to chit chat that on land hotel workers.   People only “check in” once a week so the check out/check in day is INSANE for the cabin staff.  The other days are not bad as they tend to have a reasonable number of rooms, and they often get offf at ports for some down time.  I had a nice chit chat with an Indonesian guy who “swabbed the decks” — he said on ship he worked a lot for 6 months straight but then would go home and take 6 months to a year off and just spend it with his kids.  He made as much on 6 months as he would make in a year at home—and that was a non-tipped position.

Im not saying it’s all roses for cruise workers but American hotel workers are pretty badly treated, and most Americans don’t even try to stay at Union hotels.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics