Rusty looking cruise ships

Funny you should post this! I just saw some pics on the site yesterday someone posted of their recent cruise. A worn out looking ship would discourage me from cruising if I were a new cruiser!

https://cruiseline.com/ship/enchantment-of-the-seas/review/525856

Sometimes it pays to do some research too. Let me amend that..it ALWAYS pays to do some research..Another poster was asking questions about an upcoming cruise in CCL VICTORY. Just so happens she's heading for a 38 day major refit in Cadiz Spain 3/18-4/21/20, and will be renamed RADIANCE. So to my mind, its debatable just how much maintenance CCL is willing to do a month or so prior to that. I wouldn't be happy to have booked a cruise just BEFORE she's taken out of service, but then, I wouldn't have anyone to blame but myself.

We discovered this refit announcement while meandering around..looked at each other and promptly booked a 9 day Panama Canal cruise on her for this NOV. and did it early enough to get our pick of cabins. Wound up with a panorama vista balcony. CCL announced all kinds of "new" venues/restaurants and such. Interestingly, when we made this reservation several months ago, CCLs website already had her renamed, and was selling out fast.

Although not always convenient scraping and painting should be an on going regular part of a ships maintenance much like the daily washing or hosing of the deck. I must say that I have seen the occasional bit of rust on the NCL ships that I have been on but never very much. The last time we were on an NCL ship (Breakaway) and when we were on Anthem of the Seas we noticed that throughout the cruises various areas of the decks would be closed to the public on some sea days. The crew was actively scraping and painting thew rails and metal. In a salty air environment this is necessary.

Constant exposure to salt and being run continuously takes its toll.

That is pretty surprising from RCI. Even when I was on Empress 2 years ago it didnt show that much age. I wonder how Grandeur is fairing, since it's leaving the fleet next spring, with Enchantment replacing it. I doubt Enchantment has a refit, renovation, or dry dock scheduled before then, as it was just "Revitalized" in 2016 or 2017(depending on the source)

John Heald also mentioned along with a new paint supplier that there some ports that no longer allow scraping and painting. With new regulations regarding the environment, more rust may be part of the trade off. I am not really knowledgeable in any of this, just passing information I have heard.

Been on enough cruise ships to know that most of that scraping and painting occurs IN PORT, not underway., while the ship is mostly empty. Had to move occasionally while the paint crew was doing metal and rail etc. and I do mean all over..(we stay onboard at least 75% of the time in port). New environmental regs here and there I guess. If I could get away with it, and I was the guy in charge, knowing the entire ship was going to be drydocked for 38 days, I'd leave darn near everything alone, let the contract workers in the shipyard beat on it. probably already in the verbiage. Don't forget, these are the same peeps who probably count the squares on toilet paper rolls..

On the Vista this past July I noticed rust in quite a few spots/areas, and she is a fairly new ship...it didn't ruin my cruise. I live in the Texas Gulf Coast area, I know how the salty air and water effects things, so just assumed it was hard to keep up with all the areas. I do hope they get the correct paint situation figured out though.

Scraping, prime and paint is a full time job on these ships. I think things start slipping when the ship has a dry dock or other major maintenance period schedule.

March of last year, we were on the Crown Princess. The ship had a lot of rust spots.

Their must have been a lot of complaints because while we were at sea they were painting.