One complaint about Eurodam cruise

[mechcc]

We had a wonderful cruise last week on the Eurodam and everything was better than we expected. Well, almost everything – we were disappointed in our cabin stewards as that had been the best on past HAL cruises. Nothing really major, but some small issues that added up to being an annoyance on an otherwise perfect cruise.

 

The biggest (and most major) was it took over 24 hours to receive a sharps container. This was after requesting one prior to the cruise by sending in the special needs form. I know they got it because other items were there. At embarkation, we noted on the medical form that we needed one and the person noted it and said he would let the right folks know. When we met our room steward and assistant, we again requested it. The first morning, I asked the concierge about it. Our room was cleaned again, and still no sharps container. We saw our cabin stewards in the hall and asked for the container again. Finally around 4:00 p.m., it showed up.

 

On embarkation day, I had noticed some trash on the verandah and that the table was sticky. The trash was still there until the second morning.

 

Then, there was the laundry bag issue. We sent laundry the first night and expected that we would get a fresh bag during the evening service. Nope, didn’t happen. Nor was it there the next morning. Had to ask concierge and the cabin steward and still no bag after that evening’s service. At this point things were adding up and I requested to speak to the head of housekeeping.

 

The next morning, the service was the best of the whole cruise (word spreads fast). Had a meeting with housekeeping and explained the problems and they had been resolved with that morning’s service. Also indicated that we felt they had too many cabins to serve. This became evident in that it always seemed to take 3-4 hours after we left our cabin before it was serviced and several times we didn’t receive fresh ice. Have to say that even on Carnival and RCL have we ever waited that long for our cabins to be serviced or not gotten ice.

 

Did we have bad cabin stewards? Has HAL given them so many cabins that it is impossible for them to provide the quality of service that we had experienced on past HAL cruises? Or were our expectations to high?

[schoolinmy3]

We were on the Eurodam in May in two cabins: a VD and a interior J on the main deck. Our kids were in the J cabin and they had a wonderful steward who was a delight. He had a daughter the same age as ours (10) and was quite taken with her. Everytime he saw me coming he hurried to open the door with his key. He also was very prompt with the laundry. With our two teenage boys sharing the room with our daughter I had ordered unlimited laundry for their cabin and everything was brought back neatly pressed and folded or hung on hangers. He also, at my daughter's request, made up the bunk bed for her instead of the couch and left it open during the day so she could arrange her stuffed animals. He also apologized for not making the beds one day because my oldest was being lazy and stayed in his room :). He was just a sweet man and I was very glad that after that week he was going home to his family. I am sure he missed them. As for our steward, for the VD room, the room was always clean, however we hardly saw him.

diane

[CowPrincess]

May/09 -- the BEST cabins stewards I've ever had (30 cabins) - I wish I could have brought them home with me

 

Jan/10 -- the WORST cabin stewards I've ever had (30 cabins)

 

Sept/10 -- one of the WORST (1/2 of the pair from Jan/10) cabin stewards I've ever had, and he had not improved one bit since January.

 

I think it is a combination of poor hiring, poor training, and too much work. IMHO HAL isn't able to hire the same quality of individual as they could in the past, OR they have changed their hiring criteria.

 

The result is new staff who are not nearly as capable or qualified as have been hired in the past.

 

I also think whatever training new hires now get is not as comprehensive as it was in the past -- churn out the graduates and get 'em working. Get those warm bodies on ships, and if a particular one gets lots of complaints, don't renew his contract. Repeat...

 

I sincerely hope our next cabin steward team is better than our January team. DH will refuse to cruise again if they are as bad this time as our January team. They were truly a "gong show".

 

So, OP, I don't think you had unrealistic expectations. It gripes me to no end to play "where'd they leave the garbage basket" and to have to leave notes for everything that needs to be done, replenished, etc. It also gripes me to no end to leave the cabin, tell the steward that we are out for 4 hours, the cabin not made up when we return, and an hour later they interrupt our reading/nap/whatever because NOW they want to do our cabin. It gripes me to no end to have to go find a cabin steward in order to get towels.

 

It gripes me to no end to have a cabin steward say "Are you sure you want turndown service tonight", and to tell me when handing me the end of cruise survey "Just leave it in the cabin, my supervisor will collect it". :rolleyes: And when they look at me like I'm a crazy person when I ask for soap.

[alcpa1]

We sailed on the Ryndam exactly a year ago.

Our steward was so stressed and exhausted. He had over twenty cabins including several suites for he and his assistant to care for. We tried to keep our cabin as neat as possible to make their lives easier too. The cabin was never truly clean, especially the bath.

I'd gladly have paid another $100 for the cruise to have the mildew removed and the cabin as it should have been. It definitely left a bad impression.

[Jemima]

Somehow we get good cabin stewards and each cruise they are better than the last. Our stewards on the Statendam last month were wonderful. Sharps container in room first day, new laundry bag each day, new breakfast room service cards as needed & more, clean cabin and bath.

Sharps containers - the question on the check-in medical form is new. I just use lances and put them in a container to take home and dispose. The form said lances or needles, so I checked and it was in my room when cabins were ready. Possibly OP's cruise had more requests than expected and they needed to get more to the stewards?

Laundry bags - Usually we have to remind the steward and ask often. There sometimes aren't extras in the non-suite areas and stewards have to find some.

[GeriatricNurse]

We had a wonderful cruise last week on the Eurodam and everything was better than we expected. Well, almost everything – we were disappointed in our cabin stewards as that had been the best on past HAL cruises. Nothing really major, but some small issues that added up to being an annoyance on an otherwise perfect cruise.

 

The biggest (and most major) was it took over 24 hours to receive a sharps container. This was after requesting one prior to the cruise by sending in the special needs form. I know they got it because other items were there. At embarkation, we noted on the medical form that we needed one and the person noted it and said he would let the right folks know. When we met our room steward and assistant, we again requested it. The first morning, I asked the concierge about it. Our room was cleaned again, and still no sharps container. We saw our cabin stewards in the hall and asked for the container again. Finally around 4:00 p.m., it showed up.

 

On embarkation day, I had noticed some trash on the verandah and that the table was sticky. The trash was still there until the second morning.

 

Then, there was the laundry bag issue. We sent laundry the first night and expected that we would get a fresh bag during the evening service. Nope, didn’t happen. Nor was it there the next morning. Had to ask concierge and the cabin steward and still no bag after that evening’s service. At this point things were adding up and I requested to speak to the head of housekeeping.

 

The next morning, the service was the best of the whole cruise (word spreads fast). Had a meeting with housekeeping and explained the problems and they had been resolved with that morning’s service. Also indicated that we felt they had too many cabins to serve. This became evident in that it always seemed to take 3-4 hours after we left our cabin before it was serviced and several times we didn’t receive fresh ice. Have to say that even on Carnival and RCL have we ever waited that long for our cabins to be serviced or not gotten ice.

 

Did we have bad cabin stewards? Has HAL given them so many cabins that it is impossible for them to provide the quality of service that we had experienced on past HAL cruises? Or were our expectations to high?

 

From my experience, it is more efficient, (with faster results), to contact the Front Desk with any concerns, (rather than taking the time to track down your stateroom stewards), who may "forget" what it was that you wanted! (Or, alternatively, you could leave a "Post-It" note for your stateroom stewards affixed in a visible location, such as the centre of your bathroom mirror)!;)

[Krazy Kruizers]

The cabin stewards are definitely overworked.

I can remember when a cabin steward had 9 - 11 cabins. Now 2 of them service anywhere from 30 - 34 cabins.

On our last 2 cruises -- Ryndam and Nieuw Amsterdam -- the assistant cabin stewards that we had started work at 6 AM -- cleaning an assigned area of the ship before reporting to help the main cabin steward clean rooms at 8 AM.

[parrotfeathers]

OP--weren't you in an SA category also? You may have had the same stewards as 7048. We had no complaints about our stewards but we did not need any specialty items either. Tried to get them not to clean the second day and just leave a couple of towels but they did it anyway. We had several suite afternoon get togethers and everything was cleaned up promptly.

 

We were very near the room where the ice machine was and when I needed extra ice I just walked it like I knew what I was doing and got it (after seeing someone else do it).

[mechcc]

OP--weren't you in an SA category also? You may have had the same stewards as 7048. We had no complaints about our stewards but we did not need any specialty items either. Tried to get them not to clean the second day and just leave a couple of towels but they did it anyway. We had several suite afternoon get togethers and everything was cleaned up promptly.

 

We were very near the room where the ice machine was and when I needed extra ice I just walked it like I knew what I was doing and got it (after seeing someone else do it).

 

We were on the other side of the ship from you in 7049 and I think we probably had different stewards then you did. I am glad that you had a better experience then we did. Maybe our stewards were new or were newly working together.

[mechcc]

From my experience, it is more efficient, (with faster results), to contact the Front Desk with any concerns, (rather than taking the time to track down your stateroom stewards), who may "forget" what it was that you wanted! (Or, alternatively, you could leave a "Post-It" note for your stateroom stewards affixed in a visible location, such as the centre of your bathroom mirror)!;)

 

Being in a Deluxe Verandah Suite, we contacted the concierge. Not to mention that it was requested precruise. As for a note to the stewards - we did that to request an extra soap - note was thrown away and no extra soap left.

[m steve]

On all my HAL cruises I have found the stewards to be extra helpful and brought extra shampoo, had a large bucket of ice delivered every afternoon and made up the room when requested. Sometimes we just went out to the balcony knowing they had 30 cabins to prep every day. They are much nicer than we found on Princess or Celebrity. I also tip them when we board and at the end of the cruise as well as the auto charge. They work extra hard to please you.

[pearliemae]

We just returned from the fall TA on the Prinsendam, and have never had a better crew experience, they were fantastic! Our cabin crew, Adi and Firman, were the best we have ever had. Whenever we left 134, we would return to a perfectly clean room, sometimes it took a while, but the guys have a lot of rooms to do. I went to use the computer at 5:30 am and would run into Firman vacuuming there--befor the cabin duties started.

The rest of the crew was equally great. Sharon and Dexter and Elen at the front desk, Tina and Julie in the gift shop, Bernardo "Mr Patient" at the internet,Kemba and Harugsti in the La Fontaine--Open Sitting--were all memorable. The entire Lido staff, especially the captivating ice cream lady, and the crew on the buffet--Aaron, Jagdish, Marselinus,Arid, Rumini and the rest of that gang were top notch. There were also many other hard working, always pleasant crew members who helped make this particular cruise experience one of our most memorable.

The only complaint we have is that we had to get off the ship in Ft Lauderdale!

[sandthrush]

We were on the Eurodam this past October. Out of the 10 nights, I think the steward managed to get the room serviced only 4 times in the evening. He never seemed to get the fact that we are early eaters. We even left the "please service" card in the door a few nights, but that didn't make a difference. If I really needed something I would have just asked.

[mechcc]

Okay, so what I am seeing from the responses is that most of the time everyone still get the great service we had experienced on previous cruises. But the number of times the experience isn't up to par is starting to increase based upon more cabins being assigned to individuals. Either that or we had the worst cabin stewards on the Eurodam.

 

Again, I want to stress that the service we received in other areas of the ship was wonderful - espically the Pinnacle staff, concierges, and retreat cabana's. I wanted to bring Tommy (retreat cabana) and DH wanted to bring Anita (Pinnacle & butler on HMC) home with us.

 

Thank you everyone for your expierences and opinions.

[rangeley]

We have always had the best cabin stewards, until last year on the Eurodam. Every cruise we have been on has been great, never any complaints. But this steward was terrible!!! He never filled the ice bucket and by the end of the cruise we had no glasses in the room at all. All I drink is ice water so it was a big deal for me. We never saw him to ask about these things and we didn't want to get him in trouble. We will never let that happen again, and it probably won't. We understand they are overworked thats why we didn't say anything. I'm sure we will have an awesome steward this time.

[snorkler8]

We just got back from the Oosterdam. Service all over the ship was exceptional, a few way over the hoped for or expected.

That being said.... honestly I personally don't know how these people do it...7 days a week and very long days. Throw in being separated from their families for a very long time. I'm pretty amazed because don't think I could keep that up for long day after day! If I ever passed someone that didn't look like they were HAPPY, no problem for me! They are human and have their days too.

[m steve]

Someone suggested tipping the cabin steward (there was only 1 at that time) when you come on board and give him your daily request up front and I have always done that and never encountered a problem. He(they) are also remembered at the end of the cruise. $40 is nothing when you're spending several $1000 for the cruise.

[mechcc]

We disagree with tipping before hand and see pretips as bribes. As I stated before, our previous HAL cruises came with the best cabin stewards and service possible. I know there are many who advocate tipping in advance but we feel tipping should be for good service received. Prior to the cruise we had planned on extra tips to our cabin stewards at the end of the cruise. Those 2 put that money back into our pockets. Everyone else that we had planned on tipping extra received at least the amount we had prebudgeted. They provided the excellant service we had expected without the pretip.