Am I helping if I don't let my room steward clean?

[Victorious8]

So I am a young cruiser (24) and I will be going on my 3rd cruise this summer. The past two cruises I have shared a room with another young family member. Here is the thing I am a pretty big slob but the mess doesn't bother me. I am not in my room very often and usually my busy schedule causes me to franticly get ready. I also do not feel that it is necessary or environmentally conscious to have my room cleaned daily. I understand why Princess would be weary of two young people never having their rooms serviced but we don't trash them or anything. Most cruises we leave the "Do Not Disturb" card in our door and they always ask when they see us if they can clean. I am not saying we do this the entire cruise but I am more than happy only having them do that 3 or 4 times on a 12 day cruise. With the huge workload they have my thought is that this would be beneficial to them but I was wondering if I am making it worse somehow. I always really like my stewards the last one we warned him the first night about our messiness

[bhopal21]

I would simply ask the steward if it was okay with him/her that your cabin be cleaned only when the DND sign was removed.

 

Mike:)

[ONT-CA]

The steward will not thank you for this. His boss will be on his case like forever. It is up to the steward to get access to the room and service it and his boss doesn't care how or how long it takes. I can't imagine an untidy room that could be shocking to a steward. They must have seen and handled it all. You don't have to change your standards just allow him to practice his.

[paul929207]

As bad as your cabin might be, the steward has seen much worse.

 

By keeping the steward out, you are delaying them. They will be hanging around waiting for a chance to get in.

[Musky Ike]

So I am a young cruiser (24) and I will be going on my 3rd cruise this summer. The past two cruises I have shared a room with another young family member. Here is the thing I am a pretty big slob but the mess doesn't bother me. I am not in my room very often and usually my busy schedule causes me to franticly get ready. I also do not feel that it is necessary or environmentally conscious to have my room cleaned daily. I understand why Princess would be weary of two young people never having their rooms serviced but we don't trash them or anything. Most cruises we leave the "Do Not Disturb" card in our door and they always ask when they see us if they can clean. I am not saying we do this the entire cruise but I am more than happy only having them do that 3 or 4 times on a 12 day cruise. With the huge workload they have my thought is that this would be beneficial to them but I was wondering if I am making it worse somehow. I always really like my stewards the last one we warned him the first night about our messiness

 

Most stewards want to please you. They are asking because it is their job. They don't want someone complaining that the room was never cleaned. If you explain that you prefer a messy room I would think that they would be OK with that. Especially if you leave the auto gratuity in place.

 

from an environmental standpoint the general daily tidy up is not a big deal. A cruise ship is not exactly the green way to travel to begin with. if you hang your towels back up that is usually a sign that you will reuse them, but ask to be sure. I do not believe the bed linens are changed each day, but again if you ask, I would think they would not change them for the duration of the voyage.

[FritzG]

There is a concern about keeping all of the cabins as clean as possible so that no insects or anything else gets into the rooms. The steward has a supervisor who checks his work, and if the supervisor finds a really messy room your steward might be in trouble.

[skynight]

You and your roommate(s) are causing negative issues for the steward. They will have to explain the why to their supervisor. They will have to wait around until they see the room is empty. Stewards generally work from 7AM to 2PM. If they don't finish their duties then they have to hang around. They again work from 5PM to about 9PM. Surely at some point during these times your room will be empty for the 30 mins. it takes them to service the room. It's time for you and your roommate(s) to learn how to travel.

[Loonbeam]

If you prefer something different from normal service, just ask the steward if its ok, and then if it is, ask them to talk to the supervisor so you can let them know your requests and the steward will be covered.

 

That said, the steward is required to enter your room daily just to check on things at a minimum. Room service will also come once per day to check the minibar if you don't have it cleared out.

[Happy ks]

When our kids used to cruise with us, it was a daily chore for us to go to their cabin and get them to pick up before the cabin attendant came to clean. I don't think it's the cabin attendants job to pick up after us, except for dirty towels left on the floor (indicating you want clean towels).

 

I observed a cabin across the hall from my kids with 4 young women staying in there and could not believe the mess they had. You could not see the floor for the clothing all over the place. The reason I saw it was the door was propped up and the attendant was cleaning the bathroom. I didn't stay and see if he picked up the clothes, but I sure felt sorry for him.

 

How the heck can people get ready for anything in a disorganized mess? It's just so simple to organize as you go and it makes life so much less complicated. Perhaps learn a new life skill, starting with your cruise cabin?

[PunkiC]

Let him clean your room.

 

You will have the rest of your life to clean up after yourself and possibly a bunch of other people as well. Who knows, you could have quintuplets.

 

Enjoy the luxury of having someone else do it while you can. :)

[Victorious8]

Thanks for the replies I will definitely have a conversation about it with him. It was my concern that it could be an issue with one of his superiors. For those of you with negative comments I would prefer next time I pose a question you would respond to that without trying to give me life lessons. I do not live in a messy environment because I don't know how to clean and organize I just do not notice or care when my living space is thrashed. It really doesn't phase me as long as it isn't dirty (big difference between messy and dirty).

 

See I can clean if I want to!

[Loonbeam]

I am exactly the same way. My office is a pile of piles, but everything is clean and to my wife's amazement I can find almost anything in 2 mins (unless it's been like a year since I used it, that may take longer).

 

Thanks for the replies I will definitely have a conversation about it with him. It was my concern that it could be an issue with one of his superiors. For those of you with negative comments I would prefer next time I pose a question you would respond to that without trying to give me life lessons. I do not live in a messy environment because I don't know how to clean and organize I just do not notice or care when my living space is thrashed. It really doesn't phase me as long as it isn't dirty (big difference between messy and dirty).

 

See I can clean if I want to!

[Shogun]

Hi There

 

The supervisors are very strict, because the management structure

 

is strict, have seen room stewards getting into trouble for the smallest of

 

things. like fresh fruit turning, a dead flower head etc

 

you will not be helping him , if you are going to make his job take longer

 

just tip him more at the end, but let him know he is going to get a bigger

 

tip

 

 

yours Shogun

[cruzsnooze]

I don't think it will be a problem as long as your cabin steward and his supervisor know. They are required to honor a guests wishes. I would think it would help his day go faster to be able to bypass your cabin most days. I would ask him/her to leave your daily pattter in the mail box thingy outside your door each evening, that's an essential part of knowing what's happening on the ship the next day.

[cruzsnooze]

Hi There

 

The supervisors are very strict, because the management structure

 

is strict, have seen room stewards getting into trouble for the smallest of

 

things. like fresh fruit turning, a dead flower head etc

 

you will not be helping him , if you are going to make his job take longer

 

just tip him more at the end, but let him know he is going to get a bigger

 

tip

 

 

yours Shogun

I gotta ask.... Why tip extra for having someone do something you don't want them to do? Isn't it ok to have things done as the cruiser wants? If you're not hungry one evening should the waiter come to your door and demand you come to dinner because it's "his job" to serve you dinner?

[IECalCruiser]

I would suggest letting your steward come in every day. Talking to our steward on the last cruise we found out that they have a weekly routine of tasks that must be done for every cabin. If they can't get into you cabin on the day they are doing a given task, that will disrupt their routine and possible cause more work. To help them plan their day, we try to let our steward know when we will normally be out of our cabin and try to let them know in advance if our routine will be different for a given day.

[cardqb]

How about you just do what you want.. put out the Do Not Disturb sign and don't worry about anything else. Understand that the room steward/security may need to check that you're still alive from time to time and perhaps open the door and look in if you don't ever remove it.

 

If you leave Do Not Disturb on your room, it should be left alone and I'm sure the steward will not get into trouble with the supervisor for not cleaning. That's simply ridiculous. Some people don't want a room steward near their belongings or have other reasons to keep them out of the room. Same thing as at a hotel. They should honor the guest's request.

[donaldsc]

I am exactly the same way. My office is a pile of piles, but everything is clean and to my wife's amazement I can find almost anything in 2 mins (unless it's been like a year since I used it, that may take longer).

 

I shared an office once with someone who used the vertical filing system - 3 or more stacks of stuff on his desk maybe 2 or more feet high. It drove us crazy but to everyone's amazement, he could a location in a stack and find any needed document. It worked for him.

 

DON

[jrzebird]

I agree, you don't need a lecture on tidiness. However, I know from personal experience, that the steward really does have to go into your room daily and perform his or her duties. On my last b2b I told my steward to just let my cabin go on turn-around day because I knew how busy he was with turn around. He told me that he could not do that because it was against the rules for him. But he did thank me for being so thoughtful.

 

So, just pick up your unmentionables, throw everything else on a chair (or in a corner) and you'll all be happy.

 

Maureen

[Victorious8]

I agree, you don't need a lecture on tidiness. However, I know from personal experience, that the steward really does have to go into your room daily and perform his or her duties. On my last b2b I told my steward to just let my cabin go on turn-around day because I knew how busy he was with turn around. He told me that he could not do that because it was against the rules for him. But he did thank me for being so thoughtful.

 

So, just pick up your unmentionables, throw everything else on a chair (or in a corner) and you'll all be happy.

 

Maureen

 

Thanks this is what I plan to do. My current job is in disaster relief and I am constantly traveling and staying in hotel rooms for extended periods with 3-4 people. I am the supervisor for a team of seven 18-24 year olds and I inspect the rooms weekly the morning before our weekly cleaning (it is an extended stay so they only clean once a week). Since storage space is non existent we just try to keep our things in our own somewhat organized piles.

[philv]

1. It's the room steward's job to clean your room. Let him do his job.

2. I don't understand why you would not want your room cleaned everyday anyway.

:confused:

[pablo222]

As bad as your cabin might be, the steward has seen much worse.

 

Someone somewhere has created the 'much worse'. Perhaps it really is the original poster just being honest.

[Times Prince]

I gotta ask.... Why tip extra for having someone do something you don't want them to do? Isn't it ok to have things done as the cruiser wants? If you're not hungry one evening should the waiter come to your door and demand you come to dinner because it's "his job" to serve you dinner?

As mentioned, the steward can get into trouble, with supervisor involvement because the room is not cleaned and/or straightened and steward duties checklist is not completed. This potential hassle is, in effect, "going above and beyond" the norm, and should be compensated.

 

The steward is required (not requested or suggested, but required) to change items such as bed linens, ice buckets, etc. on a periodic basis for health and sanitation reasons. Daily access to the room enables him/her to meet these requirements. Most cruises we don't even notice that the steward has done these things as they happen when we have been out of the cabin.

 

We make it a practice to use the card (blue Do Not Disturb / white Please Clean) to keep the steward informed of our privacy wishes, and when he/she can enter. We have the please clean notification in the door when we go to meals, and most of the time will also say "Hi" to the steward just to provide a visual suggestion that we are out of the cabin.

 

We also use a chair and/or shelves in the closet to stack miscellaneous clothes, enabling safe access to the areas to be cleaned / straightened. That takes us about 3 minutes, and is not a big deal. For normal "make the bed, provide new towels, clean bathroom" visits the steward takes about 15 minutes.

 

So with minimal effort on our part and agreed upon notification with the steward the whole thing is an efficient process, and we enjoy having been pampered by our Princess steward.

[jpthomas27]

I'm going to disagree with the majority around here and say that this is your cruise and you should have your cabin the way you want it.

 

All I would say is that you should be respectful to your steward because they will hover near your room waiting for an opportunity to clean it. If your just up front with them in the beginning so they know you would prefer it not be cleaned on most days then I think things will be fine.

 

I know many will not like this particular viewpoint, but it's honestly not our responsibility to try and counter the way Princess treats their employees. If you truly don't like it, then you should protest by not sailing with them. But every time you give Princess thousands of dollars you are not only condoning it, but encouraging it and participating in it.

 

It's more than just a little hypocritical of those around here that complain about the poor conditions the employees experience but in the same breath fork over thousands of dollars and also complain because prices should be lower.

 

Either truly be against it or stop complaining, you can't have it both ways people.

[1025cruise]

My understanding is that the stewards are required to clean your room.

With that being said, if you would prefer they not enter, when you first board, go to the passenger services desk and ask them what you need to do to arrange for the steward to not enter your room. Odds are they will call the housekeeping manager to come talk to you. You can probably arrange this if you wish.