what do you mean The training has been moved from Piney Point straight to Hawaii.

The last class to be training in Maryland arrived last Monday, August 6th as class 138. They're moving all the STCW and departmental training to their facility in Hawaii, so if you're scheduled for training you'll be going there instead of Piney Point (which is good, as long as you don't mind staying there and waiting for you MMD). Trust me it's a good thing, you'd get sick of Piney Point really fast.

quote:

Originally posted by Utility Galley POH:
I was a utility galley (dishwasher/night cleaner on the POH.) The ships are short staffed and the people who are in charge got there promotions through multiple cruise contracts. The facts are as follows. 12hr days. no days off for 5 months when you do go ashore it's to Wal Mart. Your in a cabin with 3 other people who are as unhappy as you are. When she's at sea you can only go on the mooring deck to get freash air, that is where the smokers are. The ship will loose 80% of her crews each rotation. If you are fired you pay your own way back from Hawaii. If you need medical attention off the vessel you will pay for it. If you miss the vessel when she sails you will be stranded and fired. The company wants Gay people to staff their vessels. The recruiters and the whole Pych eval is to see what your sexual orientation is. Hawaii will get about $400 in taxes. Think about the the long hours the double taxation, Your home state and Hawaii. and the fact that once you leave the vessel you will be discharged from the Merchant Marine service, Your MMD will be no good for other vessels. If you quit you will be on a no hire list with the SIU. If your a difficult person who can't be worked like an animal then around the time your contract is up you will be fired and you get to find your own way back from Hawaii. Oh and one more thing the natives of Hawaii hate White people "HULLIES" is the N word in their language. If you have no home, no car no prospects, then by all means work for about $5000 a contract.

that's pretty aweful... are you sure you're not just saying that because you have the worst job on the ship? I'm sure not everyone is as miserable as you are.

thanks for the info.

thanks captain bob, you were very helpful and you cleared things up, and about the gay thing, I am ok with that, I just worked in a environment that was highly "gay" operated, and I got no where and I didnt want this to be the same, because I hope to get a lot out of this and in turn will give a lot back. Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Captain joe

well i have been off of the pride of hawaii for 11 mos. but what i can tell u is to just go for it, the ship is great! you will make lots of friends, work hard, and live in cramped quarters but its fun. save all your money! good luck

exroomstewardess can you please tell me if you can smoke cigarettes in your living quarters,if not is their a designated smoking area for the crew. please reply A.S.A.P. Sincerely,Slowjoe

well slowjoe, this is how it was when i was on board....no smoking in your room unless everyone in the room agrees to it, if just one person says no then you cannot smoke in your room and believe me you wouldn't want to. the room is small and there are no windows, just an air conditioning vent on the ceiling. there is a smoking area out on the mooring deck, its outside the crew mess and the internet cafe. when do you start with ncla? what ship will you be on? I was on Pride of hawaii, big beautiful ship. I am on medical leave but am ready now to return to the ship. all though sadly it will not be with POH because she is going international (sad) so i want to go to pride of Aloha. ok well good luck to you, just remember its really hard work so keep a good additude.

thanks for the information exroomstewardess, have a great day. i am going to a job fair on tuesday 10/9/07, i was wanting to know what i should expect at the job fair since i already have my merchant marine document.please reply A.S.A.P. Sincerely,Slowjoe

Slowjoe, I went to the job fair in August, and I cannot stress that you have to be on time. Once the presentation starts and you walk in, they will ask you to leave, I thought that it was just my recruiter, but everyone I have talked to said that, and people were asked to leave if they were late. Bring your resume, and ID, and come dressed like you want the job, and shave. That was the one thing that they look for. I was lucky to have had an insight to the recruiter, but they are all looking for the same thing. Pay Attention when they speak. there was a girl drawing on her paper, and she was asked to leave, and if you go in the morning, drink coffee, or whatever you drink to stay awake, they dont like yawning. The last bit of advise I can give to you is be your self, these people see thousands of applicants, and are a pretty good judge of character. Good luck!

thanks for the reply captainjoe, have a great day,can anyone give me some information on tattoos.i have 2 tattoos on my left arm that will show with a short sleeve shirt, i have 1 tattoo on my right arm that will show with a short sleeve shirt, i have 1 tattoo on my right calf that will show with shorts on, i have 1 tattoo on my left calf that will show with shorts on, i want to know if i will have a problem getting hired because of my tattoos.please reply A.S.A.P. Sincerely,Slowjoe

If you have visable tattoos the only place you can work is in the galley (kitchen), unless they are VERY small and can be covered with a bandaid, or a watchband or make up or something

thanks for your reply buppa, have a great day. i am going to apply for Utility Galley with N.C.L.A. so i should not have a problem getting hired with my tattoos. is that correct,would you exroomstewardess please give me your opinion on this question,anyone else that is a past or present crewmember. please reply A.S.A.P. Sincerely,Slowjoe

utility galley your in for some fun. lol you should be hired. been six months since i worked on P.O.H was fun training. class 81 as long as you get your mmd and dont screw off to much you should be hired.

50 dollars a week

Ello Everyone,
I just recently came from working with NCLA. I'm going to give you the real insight on it and its not real pretty. Yes I've been only on my first contract and life was bloody hell. For the first week of training, I worked on the America, Most of the people there are Phillapino, which isn't a problem except a lot of them don't like Americans. So your descriminated right off the bat. I made no friends while working there and worked odd end hours. The Supervisor, Adam whispered when he talked so you couldn't hear him,(I was hotel utility). And if you need some chemicals, well good luck find any to use. Galley workers had to be the lowest position on the Totem pole, they were over worked in the most dirtiest jobs and still get underpaid, overworked, and treated with disrespect. The food on the other hand wasn't too bad on the America. I had yet to contend to my roomates, With their oversized stuff in the compact box which I called home. The beds harder then rocks and the constant movement made it hard to sleep, sometimes falling out of bed happened ocassionally. The bathrooms were very tiny, You have maybe a foot of room, You could soap up the walls and clean yourself at the same time!
Moving on to the Aloha was a major change, its Labyrinth like hallways to get to your rooms, I was on Deck 5 all the way forward, there is only one staircase to even get to it. The crew rooms were small, Some people on Deck 2 had to contend with sharing the bathroom with neighbors or flooding happening down the hallway. Within the month of Janurary 2008, The pride of Aloha had 6 fires, Two in Galley, Two in the Spa, One in the Capenter's workshop, and one in the Engine room(which 5 out of the 6 extinguishers did not work). The safety people don't do their Jobs, they just mostly sit around and get paid. If you get injured, Your fit for duty, If your puking blood, your fit for duty. The doctors didn't care what you felt, nor what limbs you were missing, you were always fit for duty. I had a crew member assault me, and nothing happened. I've talked to everyone from Supervisor, Security, Executive hotel director, HR manger, to staff captain. Nothing happened to the crew member, not even a slap on the wrist. The food on the Aloha was terrible, The worst food ever eatten in my life, I only ate cereal after the first week of being there. The chicken and any other kind of meats are not cooked all the way, They will gush blood at you, be warned. And they always Serve rice, with every meal. I never want to see rice again! That ship was a death trap ready to sink. The ship is due to be dry docked on May 11th, it was sold to Star Cruises and they are to likely repair it and rename it yet again. The ship needs to be scrapped, I will tell you, Every passenger on that ship will not be happy, and I truthfully don't blame them. Plus the rocking on the ship was more worse then on the America or the Hawaii, cause they have stablizers where the Aloha does not.
If that was the worst of all your problems, enjoy the smell of arse around the crew mess, and the lovely crew bathrooms that reek cause the Hotel Utility that cleaned them was lazy.

Around Janurary 28th I was transferred to the Pride of Hawaii to help it get ready to go international, and probably one of the best things that could have happened to me, The Hawaii was beautiful, the crew members where very kind, The crew cabins were quite decent, the food was actual food, They just ran out of stuff a lot. You could actually take a nice shower without too many problems, but it has a lot of international people and again, discrimnated right off the bat. I wasn't even given a schedule for like three days, Even though I went up to the House keeping office 3 times to get one and they wouldn't. Finally after going to HR, I got a schedule to finally work only 6 hours a day. That was it?! I went from working in Laundry on the Aloha(Cause I got transferred down there),working 12-14 hours a day to 6 hours a day. What hell was that, and making only 6.25 an hour, doesn't do shit. The access to internet on all three ships was slower then dial up. You spend $20 for an internet card that gives you 3 hours, and you only get to use 1 hour of it, the other 2 is waiting for things to upload. My suggestion, Don't take the risk of working for this awful company, they will treat you real bad, and talk down to you like your a child. I would never resign up for another rotation, I could do better then that.

But I will tell you one thing, On the America no one would talk to me and I had really no friends for the longest time, only the people that went to piney point. On the Aloha and the Hawaii(Which is now the Norwegian Jade), I made the truest friends one could ever ask for, people that would go out of their way to help you, true friends that care, that was the only positive experience I had except for seeing Hawaii's beautiful islands. I'm not over-exaggerating any of this, this is true information from a now former employee of NCLA.

^ I too, am a former crewmember on the Aloha. I was working on the ship in january and I don't know why you said there for 6 fires, thats just false i was on the fire team and we had no fires. There's was a few code alpha's, and that one guy died of a heart attack but thats about it. I remember when we first left for Fanning though, that was in November i think... the night we were leaving there was a problem with the incinerator on deck 3 aft, and there was smoke on deck three down to your waist in zones 5 and 4. It was pretty intense.. i work down in provisions so i was just going about my business and then everyone's screaming FIRE GET OUT OF HERE. ya had to be there..

as far as the other things you said you are correct.. i did my whole contract on the Aloha and, like you, the only good thing I got out of it was some good friends and a chance to see the islands everything else about working for this company is abysmal. They have a terrible system of giving promotions, its all who you know not what you know.. if youre friends with the HR manager then you are guaranteed to get promoted on your second contract, maybe even your first if you really kiss ass. The treatment by managers generally made you feel like a worthless slave. If you slack off, youre treated like a slave. If you work really hard and get lots of stuff done, you get treated like a slave. It doesn't matter HOW hard you work and thats what was contributing to the low ratings we were getting... I think our Christmas/New Years cruise we scored a 68%!! thats so horrible and its the management to blame.. not the little guys.