Concerning the stewards cleaning the rooms, were you allowed to decline the service if you wanted & if so, was that frowned upon by the stewards & other officers? I worked over 7 years on a FOC vessel outside of the US & the stewards would clean the Masters, CE & CM room. I always declined the service because my stateroom & day-room were the only pieces of privacy I would have for 1-3 months & I wanted to keep those places for me. I didn’t like anyone cleaning up behind me. On construction vessels they still have stewards tidy up the rooms everyday even in the US. From my experience, my fellow engine room team members would prefer to clean our own rooms & make our own beds while the bridge team enjoyed the room service. On the FOC vessels some stewards would be offended when asked to skip over my quarters & more than 1 master told me I should have them do the job because perhaps the stewards would get lazy & want to stop doing it for everyone.
Also, if I plan on spending any amount of time on a vessel I quickly get an digital preprogrammed coffee pot to brew me a cup 10 minutes before I wake up. It’s not the same as having brought to my room like on the cruise ship but it’s the best I can do.
You have to bear in mind that we had no automated engine room and no control room. With three watches you had in each watch 2 wipers, 2 oilers, a trainee and the engineer of the watch. Together with the chief engineer, turner/machine worker and electrician the engine room departman accounted for about 22 people. Another large department was the Catering (steward’s) department.
I never met the situation that somebody declined to have his cabin cleaned by a steward but I don’t think that this would be frowned upon. Nobody can force you to have it cleaned except when it becomes a health hazard… I think that the steward would not be offended in any way as it meant less work for him and most people like that…
I visited in the late 90’s before the internet ruined all “off the beaten path” traveling. We hiked the entire Inca trail to Machu Picchu by ourselves, with no guides or any bothers. It hasn’t been allowed for years.
On my first vessel there, the steward who did the rooms was perhaps the most intelligent guy on the boat. He spoke English, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian & said he did the readings at mass in Latin. He was from Brazil but his grandparents migrated there from Germany after WW2. The dude looked like a movie star with his 40’ish, chiseled features with grey hair with grey eyes. One of the most well mannered mariners I ever sailed with. He was always offended that I didn’t want my room serviced. He had all these logical reasons why I should & it kind of made me feel like a asshole for opting out. Something wrong with my head I guess?
My experience mirrored yours. I sailed with Caltex UK which later became Texaco UK fleet. One vessel I sailed Junior mate, the chief officer didn’t keep a watch, second mate, third mate and six deck apprentices. Same thing with the engineering deptment with six deck apprentices. The master had an extra masters ticket and a second class engineering ticket (steam). The extra qualification was before they had degrees and was the qualification require to teach in a school. It was unusual to find someone at sea with the qualification but he was single. Every Sunday morning all the cadets were corralled in the study room outside the masters office for a grilling.
We had 3 galleys, deck and engineering ratings came from different parts of India and had their own galley. The officers galley was staffed with Goanese who were all catholic as it was then a Portuguese colony. Our whites were laundered by the steward. Coveralls were laundered by I’m not sure who. Soiled ones were picked up from a crate at the top of the pump room (no cargo control room in those days) and the clean ones placed folded outside your door. The engineers had the cleanest coveralls.
There were a number of wives onboard, including my wife, and they used the very large day room in the owners suite as their space when they weren’t in the pool.
I had better accommodation than I had as master in later years with a large day room and seperate sleeping cabin en suite.
To spend the same time on ship today with the conditions that today’s crews have would be intolerable.
The master’s office on the vessel I was referring to would have rivalled some big shot CEO. It had sofas and coffee tables and a visitors head.
His day room easily accommodated all officers and cadets off watch on Christmas Day at sea.
For what it worth I was able to bring family aboard on several passages. My wife, daughter and youngest son made the trip from Oakland to Honolulu. When my youngest son was in high school he was in a home school program. He made 2 trips with me on separate occasions bringing his school work with him. I think it broadened his horizons. He was able to scuba dive in Guam, see a bit of Hong Kong where he tried snake soup, and saw volcanoes erupting off Japan.
One of my dad’s bucket list wishes was to make a trip with me. He rode from Oakland to Honolulu on one occasion and several years later from Honolulu to Singapore. He talked about the expeirence for years.
Can attest to this. The spending they bring into a town outside of just a few merchandise shops and food vendors is limited.
They aren’t taken Port to Port to do Venture Capital deals in the millions or building companies in each port.
Only went on one Cruise in my life and it’s just a collection of very random and hasty memories. Due to the time constraints, there really isn’t anything more that can be done under those circumstances.
Probably won’t ever go on another one in my life seeing first hand how limited their medical facilities were onboard the ship.
Mine allows spouses and children for up to one month with no travel or expenses paid for anyone but the employee. Last person I saw exercise the option was 10 years ago but my kids are getting old enough that they could probably handle it. This summer would have been prime time but this pandemic has definitely killed that option.
Back to the original topic, it’s looking more and more like these cruise companies are in a world of hurt. Huge new ships built, debt to eyeballs, crap cashflow, huge fixed and variable costs (though fuel prices are way down, but they always “surcharge” when they increase anyway). Leadership at cruise companies is crappy during the good times, I can only imagine what it will be like during the shit times.
I think that the steward would not be offended in any way as it meant less work for him and most people like that…
You know the stewards were grateful but they also wondered, “what’s this person hiding in there?” 
