T-AOE- Rooms, Amenities and Life on Board

T-AOEs are old ships, and their layout can be confusing, especially if you are not familiar with them or expect the T-AKE layout. T-AOEs have two houses with living spaces and amenities divided almost evenly between them.

Officers do have their own staterooms on board the T-AOE. However, they are not as nice or as new as the T-AKE staterooms, and many officers will share a bathroom with the adjoining stateroom. Many, but not all, Deck Officer staterooms are in the forward house behind the bridge, while Engine Officers and other officer rooms are located in the aft house. The officer rooms in both houses are scattered among each level of the house.

Like Officers, CPOs will have their own staterooms and need to share a bathroom with either the adjoining stateroom or in a communal bathroom. CPO staterooms are in both the forward and the aft house and scattered amongst the different levels.

All unlicensed, non-CPO personnel live in berthing. There are several different berthing areas onboard to include the watch standers berthing, boatswain mates berthing, Deck Department day worker berthing, Supply Department berthing, the Engine Department berthing, female berthing and military berthing. Berthing pay is authorized onboard, and each crewmember usually has a decent bit of space in the berthing. MSC does not carry enough people to max out the berthing areas. If you were in the Navy, the berthing areas are much more spacious and do not have 3-person high coffin racks like the Navy. MSC berthing is more akin to having your own cubicle. Like the staterooms, berthing areas are in both houses are located on different levels.

There is both a crew mess and an officer’s mess on board. The crew mess is located on the main deck while the officers mess in located a few decks above. While the officers mess has a separate galley, it is the same food and the same menu that is served to each mess deck.

The are many lounges on board the T-AOEs. The officer’s lounge is in the officer’s mess while the crew lounge is located on the main deck near the crew mess. Additionally, there are lounge spaces in each of the berthing areas.

The T-AOEs have 2 gyms: a weight gym and a cardio gym. The weight gym is large and is found at the bottom of the forward house. The weight gym will have a typical shipboard load out of gym equipment to include dumbbells, barbells and random weight machines. The cardio gym is located midship on the main deck in X-Ray alley. As the name suggests, the cardio gym has cardio equipment such as treadmills, bikes, rowers and ellipticals. Both gyms are fairly large as far as shipboard gyms go.

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