Now is the time to get away to a tropical paradise celebration. Go ahead—pack up your clothes, sunscreen, and kids for a vacation you’ll always remember. Summer is here and nothing will keep you from the crystal clear, turquoise-tinted waters of the Caribbean.
You and everyone else, that is.
Now that summer has arrived, the Caribbean cruise season in full swing. Cruise owners, it’s time to prepare your ship for the busy months ahead.
1. Hire Extra Staff for a Deep Cleaning
You might have hospitality cleaning staff working year round that does an excellent job at keeping your ship spotless. However, there are probably some hidden parts of the ship that haven’t seen a cleaning crew in months—let alone received a deep cleaning!
When you want to make sure your ship is ready to sparkle, you’ll want to hire an extra cleaning crew to do the dirty work. They can perform deep cleaning tasks, such as scrubbing the grout between the tiles in each cabin’s bathroom and disinfecting the hand sanitizer distributors scattered across the decks.
The kitchen and food preparation areas are another place that should receive intensive cleaning. For example, when was the last time you emptied the ice cream machine and sanitized the inside of it before refilling the frozen chamber? If you’re like most cruise line owners, it might have been a while.
Cruises are a 24/7 style traveling method. Because many buffet areas are open late into the night—if not all night—they don’t close down like a regular storefront or resort can. Accordingly, they are not always allotted the team time to clean in as great of depth as the aforementioned businesses. Because most cruises do not enforce a curfew for travelers, these machines are running continuously. Don’t forget to give your ice cream machine a break and a good buff before the busy (and hot!) summer season.
2. Prepare the Kitchen
To some, it’s one of life’s great mysteries. How does a huge ship, hosting thousands of passengers, feed so many people so many times each day aboard? Cruise ships need a lot of preparation in order to feed so many people throughout each day of the cruise—and they need a lot of storing room, too.
After the kitchen and refrigeration areas are given a good cleaning, it’s time to stock up on food supplies.
Perhaps it’s Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas. Conde Nast Traveler reveals that this ship feeds upwards of 5,400 passengers, several times each day. Food service is provided at 26 venues—from a popular Starbucks shop to a gourmet restaurant, the Chef’s Table.
This ship has portside food inspectors, on ship bakers, and 1,200 other workers dedicated to passengers’ gastronomic wishes.
Now that you’ve seen all the numbers, you might consider it a miracle that this ship can deliver food service at this level! Accordingly, kitchen preparation takes a lot of work. In fact, to prevent cross contamination, storage, food preparation, and cooking are all done in separate rooms.
How much do ships need to stock up for each week? A smaller cruise of 2,700 passengers needs “3,125 gallons of soda, 10,000 pounds of chicken, and 71,500 eggs for an average weeklong sailing” (CN). And that’s just for the week! Once they unload Saturday, they will begin stocking up all over again.
3. Stock Up on Amenities
Finally, ships need to stock up on amenities for guests. With so many people to please, there are a lot of things to take into consideration each time a cruise sails off. Comfort is one of the most important parts of a cruise, so you need to be prepared to deliver this to your vacationers.
Here are some of the most important items to stock up on before the busy summer season gets ahead of you:
–Spa Wraps. If you have a spa on board, you will want to offer guests the peace of mind that spa wraps deliver.
–Bathrobes. You don’t want to offer just any bargain brand bathrobe. Give something that your sailors will actually want to use! Opt for luxury quality bathrobes to ensure guest comfort. It might sound like an expensive investment, but there is an affordable luxury brands to choose from: Boca Terry. We deliver top quality amenities at factory-direct prices, meaning that it’s always in the budget.-
–Some of your guests will want slippers. There’s no doubt about it and no way around it. Pick an affordable quality pair and supply them so that your guests get the most out of their experience.
–Another thing your guests will be after are high quality towels. Don’t buy something that they won’t use. Go for the top brands of towels to ensure their ultimate comfort.
Get Prepared for a Great Season!
Now that you know what to do, it’s time to do it! Contact Boca Terry today with questions about wholesale pricing or to place an order for top quality amenities.