Dry Dock

[JLI219]

Hi All,

Please tell me what happens when a ship is dry docked. I read in another post the Liberty is being dry docked. I bill be sailing on the Liberty in January so I am curious to know.

Thanks,
Jeff

[Kuki]

Originally Posted by JLI219

Hi All,

Please tell me what happens when a ship is dry docked. I read in another post the Liberty is being dry docked. I bill be sailing on the Liberty in January so I am curious to know.

Thanks,
Jeff

The answer is, it depends.

The ship is actually taken out of the water.. thus drydock. And every ship has rather regularly scheduled drydocks ( every 2 - 3 yrs normally). The initial purpose is to do maintenace on areas they can't reach while the ship is in the water; cleaning and painting the hill for example.

While the ship is drydocked they will also do interior maintenance that is more difficult to do when the ship is carrying passengers.

If there are any major changes the cruise lines decide to make, they'll make those changes while in dry dock.

So, as I said, it depends.

[robh]

Our port does about 4 - 6 cruise ships a year in drydock.
It is a very complicated process that has been planned down to the hour and day it comes in and goes out.
The planning is nornally in the works at least a year prior.
Not only are local drydock workers involved but the entire crew, contractors and trades from all over the world are brought in.
Depending on the extent of the renovations everybody might be in local hotels and fed or on board and fed.
Drydocks are nornally scheduled for around 3-6 weeks depending on the changes.
here is RCL's 'Radiance of the Seas' in Victoria Canada this May 2011
‪Radiance of the Seas Cruise Ship Dry Dock‬‏ - YouTube

[green_rd]

Not sure if Liberty will be receiving any major upgrades. Princess has a set of videos on the Grand Princess (search YouTube) when it overwent a major makeover.

[cruised1014]

They sort of try to rush these refebishments and sometimes cannot complete
the work in a week. Ships need to be full and on the ocean to keep making money. Many years ago they would take a ship out of the water for three weeks. But now never more than a week. I had a friend go on a Carnival ship I forgot which one. The first week it was back in service and the worker had several areas of the ship closed all week long even one pool and two hot tubs. Very noisy with drilling and saws running all week long. That was most likey a one time thing but you never know. Have a great cruise. Ed

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Originally Posted by cruised1014

They sort of try to rush these refebishments and sometimes cannot complete
the work in a week. Ships need to be full and on the ocean to keep making money. Many years ago they would take a ship out of the water for three weeks. But now never more than a week. I had a friend go on a Carnival ship I forgot which one. The first week it was back in service and the worker had several areas of the ship closed all week long even one pool and two hot tubs. Very noisy with drilling and saws running all week long. That was most likey a one time thing but you never know. Have a great cruise. Ed

I have to disagree with you. On CCL at least most dry docks are 2 weeks. If they are adding Serenity areas or making more extensive changes then usually about a month.

Bill