Cabin sharing

[jacloc]

Is it usual for a (female) deck cadet on a cruise ship to have to share a cabin with a member of the spa staff?

I am asking as the cadet is on watches and the spa girl working days, so the cadet is getting disturbed when on rest periods and when trying to study. So should the cadet keep nagging until one of them gets moved or is this just what happens and they should just accept it?

Thanks.

[Chiefy]

Hmmmm one of the cruise boys should along soon, but I would have thought that no it's not normal.

Sharing yes that is normal, but then they may be on different watches so a certain amount of tolerance and co-operation is required.

[chris]

On a HAL cruise ship I was on, the sole female deck cadet got her own cabin in the cadet area, there were 3 cadet cabins in total. But she later got moved to the pilot cabin near the bridge, so the cabin could have 2 male cadets instead.

Certainly not normal to share with spa.

[Dosedmonkey]

On budget cruiseship I worked on, two of the deck cadets had to share cabin, despite being on different watches. BUT they were cadets, not watch keepers, so at the end of the day there should of been no requirement to be awake on a certain watch, they should of been able to swap watches, just talking to the Chief Mate. But they were happy, as they had mutual respect, be quiet in the room, there is plenty of public spaces to go hang out in, use computer in, whatever.

However, where I was fulfilling a 3rd engineers position, as assistant watch keeper, as they were short handed, I got my own cabin, 3rd engineers one.

It'll just depend on how much space they got on cruiseships. Normally cadets will be on a higher deck then spa staff, even if it is a bunk room. On one cruiseship I heard recently, they had more officers then cabins, so they just had to use some passenger cabins. If you talk to people nicely, if there is any problems, I'm sure they'll sort something out. Just don't go there thinking sharing a cabin is the end of the world, and don't get the hump with anyone. If the person your sharing a cabin with really is causing problems, bringing people back to the cabin for parties, or anything like that, and they are just cruiseship staff (non-essential), they'd be getting pretty close to a sacking.

[Clanky]

Is it usual for a (female) deck cadet on a cruise ship to have to share a cabin with a member of the spa staff?

I am asking as the cadet is on watches and the spa girl working days, so the cadet is getting disturbed when on rest periods and when trying to study. So should the cadet keep nagging until one of them gets moved or is this just what happens and they should just accept it?

Thanks.

This is not usual, but I would imagine that the only reason that it has happened is that there is no alternative. That said, she does need to let her DSTO know if she is not getting her proper rest etc.

[YoungMariner]

I think the answers above cover everything. It really depends on the size of the ship (small boutique or large ) as to how cabins are assigned. The preference would be for a cadet I be with another cadet, even if they were on different watches as at least they would understand each other. The situation of a watchkeeper and spa staff mixed would probably end up with both of them getting disturbed sleep. I would suggest she ask politely for a cabin change when one becomes available, and if she has a half decent chief officer he will make that happen when it can.

[alistairuk]

Is she the only cadet Onboard? Cadets would normally share with each other which would result in your sleep being slightly disturbed.

Cabins Onboard are normally assigned to departments (or companies) if she's sharing with spa it will be because there are no other 2 berth cabins available - possibly they already have male cadets Onboard?

[jacloc]

Thank you all for your answers. She has told her DSTO and the Chief she is not getting much rest, they have said they will sort it out but 2 weeks on and nothing much has happened, as you say maybe there is no where else for the spa girl to go.
There are 3 cadets on board, 2 engine, who share, and 1 deck. Its not the sharing a cabin that is the problem but the lack of ability to get a decent sleep. She could do with another female cadet being put on with her then the problem would be solved, at least cadets understand each other, the spa girl told her that 'she (the cadet)didn't need to work at night as they have people to do that'! I wonder what the spa girl thought the cadet got up to in her uniform when she wasn't in the cabin?

[Lewis]

I would just get on with it-pop by the engine room steal some ear plugs. Probably their is no more space.

[HolyNougat]

This is not unusual. You can find some regulations which state that it should not happen, although I advise against making a fuss out of it.
Unfortunately chronic lack of sleep is is pretty much par for the course when you are a watch-keeper, regardless of what the regulations might say.
There is a guidelines in MLC 2006 which states the following:
"as far as practicable, sleeping rooms of seafarers should be arranged that watches are separated and that no seafarers working during the day share a room with watch-keepers" - this is just a guideline in the rules, and it is up to the flag state of the ship to decide how to enforce it.
I keep hearing that cadets on watch are not watch-keepers and even had this argument used against me when I was a third officer on a large cruise ship many moons ago - I would argue very strongly that this is a misconception and that anyone keeping a watch is covered under the definition of a watch-keeper - I keep waiting for a case to come up which will define what a watch-keeper actually is for the purposes of this regulations.

[Unlimited]

i sailed on a bahamas flagged cruise ship (RCCL), in the bahamas book, i believe page 235 it specifies cadets can only share with cadets and a bunch of other useful cadet stuff, when in a weekly meeting with the staff capt, i brought up the fact my new room mate was a jamaican cook he wasn't very impressed called the HR manager in front of me... the cook was relocated the same day he told me for future ships refer to these pages.

great staff captain actually...

[Clanky]

In terms of the MLC, which is based on crew welfare rather than the safety of the vessel then I think it would be very difficult to argue that the guidelines do not apply to cadets. However the as far as practicable bit is the issue, I am sure that the senior officers on the ship understand that the situation is not ideal and they would not be doing it if there was an alternative.