Missed it by a couple of months but heard it is a good laugh! A ship with no guests can only be good! But I also heard it can be very hard work as the whole ship has to be cleaned, painted, etc!!! But you do get to have parties in guest areas!!! :
It is basically when the ship is taken out of the sea for around 2 weeks and given a complete overhaul, i.e. painted, cleaned, refurbished, etc. As I said I missed it when I worked on the Wonder but I think the Disney ships sail up to North Carolina for dry dock. They do this around every two years. They have both just been in dry dock last year so it probably won't be due for a while again. The Magic is in California at the moment sailing in the pacific. Normally when the Wonder goes in for dry dock the Magic switches and does the 3 and 4 night cruises while the Wonder is not sailing. I didn't get to experience it but my boyfriend did and he says it's really good fun although everybody has to work hard to make sure the ships are ready for sailing again. But as I said a ship with no guests must be great!!! We once sailed on a chartered cruise where there was only around 400 guests (normally 2700!) and that was great!!!!
Hey... Well I did Dry Dock in October last year....and let me tell you...its not that fun. You don't have running water for periods of time, no air conditioning, or circulation. Everyone had to clean and do their thing. The Cruise Staff and Programmers bascially were the people they called to clean up after the contractors. I never want to carry used carpet again. With Dry Dock, DCL goes to Norfolk Virginia, the place where everyone is in the Navy. I had to work 8-8 everyday, and after 8pm, everyone was off the ship to go and party hard. On top of doing your cleaning duties, we had Fire Watch, where from 12-4, 4-8, or 8-12 for 24 hours, you had to walk each deck of the ship and call the bridge each hour to report. Honestly when it was 2am, we would sleep in the disney suite (since everything is open) and we would set our pagers for the hour and wake up and radio the bridge...good safety..hhahaha. Well Dry Dock is fun in a way, but the work is evil and you can get hurt by people who don't know what they are doing, my friend has a massive scar down his leg from being cut, and he also got hit in the head with a plank of wood which someone dropped from deck 10 to 9. If you don't have to do it, you are lucky..sorry for those who have to do it. We were all very excited to have guests when we were done! thats it for now...off to FLorida now for a holiday and visiting the ship for a day on Sunday! =) lynsay
i'm on the magic and we're due for dry dock in october! i've heard good and bad things about it, definitely sounds different! ;D
It sounds like dry dock adds a change of duties and change of scenery. That could be a good thing if your getting bored with your everyday duties....besides...not everyone can say that they've experienced dry dock....
IMHO, that sounds the worst job! you have to work a LOT ... how much do you get paid? ANyway, If I ever consider working for the DCL, I'd do it with guests... being alone with just a few others sounds boring.
Meeooowww... Ouch... watch those claws my dear! You don't wanna go snagging the new carpets now do you!   Â
