It is important to understand that when you put a cruise ship into cold lay-up, it is effectively shutting down as much of the ship as possible in order to save money.
Royal Caribbean’s fleet is currently in a condition of warm lay-up, which implies that the ship may be brought back into service very fast due to the fact that the machinery, lifesaving equipment, and navigational systems are all in good working order and up to date.
During a chilly lay-up, however, the inverse is true. The majority of the ship’s mechanical systems have been turned off, with only the bare minimum required to keep the ship operational.
There are several techniques of preserving the interior of the ship, depending on how long the company intends to lay up the ship. During a layup period ranging from three to nine months, the air conditioning will continue to operate in order to keep the humidity levels low. In the event of a long protracted lay-up, the chambers would be hermetically sealed to prevent any contamination.
Crew numbers have been considerably reduced due to the reduction in the number of personnel on board.
A hot lay-up has the engine department and the deck department nearly completely staffed, but a cold lay-up would have a bare minimum skeleton crew that could step in and get the ship going if an emergency arose during the lay-up (such as a hurricane).
What is the point of a chilly lay-up?
For those of you who are curious about why a cruise line would consider placing its ships into cold storage, the answer is all about saving money. When compared to a hot lay-up, the advantage of putting a cruise ship into a cold lay-up is the additional savings.
“People are the most expensive part of a lay-up, and you have a whole lot fewer people engaged in a cold lay-up than you have in a hot lay-up,” says the coach.
Obstacles in the way of restoring ship operations
It is not an easy task to bring a ship back into action once it has been placed in a state of cold lay-up. Because of the length of time the ship has been in cold lay-up Malaysia, you must basically re-certify the ship while it is in cold lay-up.
“There are a slew of certificates that have to be updated if it’s been more than six months,” says the author of the book.
How long to get a ship back into service after a cold lay-up
Another problem is that there is a limited number of inspectors available to re-certify a ship, and with other cruise lines attempting to do the same thing, this might become a problem if there are not enough inspectors available to board a ship.
If the cold lay-up lasts longer than three months, perhaps even six months or more, Commander Goldstein has stated that it could take a month or more to get a ship out of cold lay-up.
