what is a reasonable wait to get your cabin serviced?

[gooch47]

We are pretty much cabin potatoes so we like to get our cabin made up fairly quickly. Before you all jump on me, I don't whine and complain about it, but sometimes it takes forever. On our recent cruise it was 9:00 one night and he still hadn't made it even though we were out of the cabin by 5:30.

 

Another way to get jumped on: it seems to take longer on NCL than on Princess.

Edited November 12, 2013 by gooch47

[ColinIllinois]

Have you conferred with your stewards or staff to arrange a specific time? I've found them to be very accommodating when the normal time wasn't convenient on certain days.

[boopsahoy]

We are pretty much cabin potatoes so we like to get our cabin made up fairly quickly. Before you all jump on me, I don't whine and complain about it, but sometimes it takes forever. On our recent cruise it was 9:00 one night and he still hadn't made it even though we were out of the cabin by 5:30.

 

Another way to get jumped on: it seems to take longer on NCL than on Princess.

 

We put it on make up the room when we go to breakfast and its always been done when we get back and then we do turn down service before dinner and when we get back from dinner and some casino and show its done. Never had a complaint abpout it. My personal experience of course.

[gooch47]

We always use the sign and did talk to our steward on the first day. It didn't help. Not the first time we've had this experience, and the longest waits have been on NCL. Do they assign more cabins than on other cruise lines?

[weltek]

We had one cruise (the Spirit in 2009ish, I think) where it was pretty standard that it wasn't ever done prior to turn-down. We exited our rooms around 8:00 a.m., came back for a 4:00 nap, left around 6:00 for dinner, and it was finally done and turned down when returned late that night. Our other cruises on NCL haven't been a problem. Always done by the time we did our afternoon return to the room.

 

It's not that important to us, so I never said anything during that Spirit cruise. I figured that there must have been a reason for it, but maybe not. I did, however, find it very odd and sure, I didn't feel as "pampered" when my room wasn't serviced.

[Velvet Teddy Bear]

If I ever need anything for my cabin, speak with the steward and it is usually done however a small tip doesn't hurt....2/3 bucks....I usually make it a fiver.....

 

jus' me....jim....:cool:

 

I also tip the room service everyday for my coffee and rolls...2/3 bucks....j

Edited November 12, 2013 by Velvet Teddy Bear

[MeHeartCruising]

On all my NCL cruises, the stewards have done a morning pass on the room, usually by 10am. They then do an evening pass by 8:30 or 9:00 to drop off the next day's paperwork and to turn down the bed. If you didn't see that I would expect you had an employee who was not doing as they were supposed to or the staff was very shorthanded due to vacation/contract schedules. What you saw has not been the norm, in my experience.

[B6ConMe]

If I ever need anything for my cabin, speak with the steward and it is usually done however a small tip doesn't hurt....2/3 bucks....I usually make it a fiver.....

 

jus' me....jim....:cool:

 

I also tip the room service everyday for my coffee and rolls...2/3 bucks....j

 

Agree totally, we make it a point to chat with our steward anytime we have the chance and we tip often, only a little but they seem to love it.

 

Never have we had any problem having to wait for our cabin to be done.

[HokiePoq]

We always use the sign and did talk to our steward on the first day. It didn't help. Not the first time we've had this experience, and the longest waits have been on NCL. Do they assign more cabins than on other cruise lines?

 

We've never had that problem, but you could be right about the number of cabins on a particular steward's list.

Does anyone know how many cabins are assigned to each room steward?

[mypleasure]

I find that the steward soon gets used to our daily routines. Typically we are out most of the morning and afternoon and in the room from 5 until 8 as we eat late. We always stop by and say Hi, have a quick chat every morning and evening, doing this seems to get us done while we are out.

Example, Hi Joe how are things today. Hello madam, you off for your breakfast? Yes we'll be back in an hour or so = room serviced while we are out.

[Cruisin&Relaxin]

We are pretty much cabin potatoes so we like to get our cabin made up fairly quickly. Before you all jump on me, I don't whine and complain about it, but sometimes it takes forever. On our recent cruise it was 9:00 one night and he still hadn't made it even though we were out of the cabin by 5:30.

 

Another way to get jumped on: it seems to take longer on NCL than on Princess.

 

If you have a complaint about your room steward, you should contact the hotel director and I am sure it will be quickly rectified.

[Bella213]

We are pretty much cabin potatoes so we like to get our cabin made up fairly quickly. Before you all jump on me, I don't whine and complain about it, but sometimes it takes forever. On our recent cruise it was 9:00 one night and he still hadn't made it even though we were out of the cabin by 5:30.

 

Another way to get jumped on: it seems to take longer on NCL than on Princess.

 

Funny you compared NCL to Princess. When I first read your question I was going to say that I haven't had any issues with my NCL cruises, but with the 1 Princess cruise we took our cabin was almost never made up by lunch time. Fortunately we don't spend a ton of time in our room, but it always seemed like when we would come back from the pool to just relax on the balcony that was the point our room would be getting started on Princess. On NCL, by the time we were back from breakfast our room was usually done. Maybe it makes a difference if you're out of your cabin in the morning when they do the first pass on the rooms?

[markf]

I believe during the past few years the # of cabins each steward is responsible for has dramatically increased.

In the earlier years of cruising--10years ago, you would never see a steward working much past noon. Recently I have seen them work unti 3-330Pm for the morning rounds.

I have also seen teams of 2 people being assigned .

 

Cant be a fun job!!

[travelnap]

I usually get up early in the morning and retire early in the evening. I visit with my steward and let him know what my schedule is and have found them very willing to work with me. I let them know that on port days I will leave the ship so they need not make up the cabin until later if that works for them, and on sea days, I'm probably going to sneak a nap or two in during the day, so its not real important anyway. If I retire before the turn down, I will just look for the steward, taking my ice bucket with me to be filled, and then let them know that they are done for the night as I don't need a turn down that evening. I usually dine from 6 to 7 PM so most of the time, the room is turned down before I get back. Not that big of a deal as I am on vacation, and I just go with the flow.

[Cloudyrain]

Funnily enough our Steward told me off for doing all the tidying up when we were on the Epic: I'm the daughter of a chambermaid, I can't help it! :D

 

Personally we were happy with him just coming once a day (whilst we were at dinner) to bring the daily and to top up the loo roll. Don't get me wrong, I loved the towel animals, but we aren't messy people and i don't change my own towels/sheets daily, or clean through daily, at home so don't expect them to either: especially when we are hardly in our room.

 

I think the signs on the door on the epic were really good because we didn't require much service, but then I suppose other people want more. Heaven help a steward who has people who want two visits a day in every single room :D

[punkincc]

We are pretty much cabin potatoes so we like to get our cabin made up fairly quickly. Before you all jump on me, I don't whine and complain about it, but sometimes it takes forever. On our recent cruise it was 9:00 one night and he still hadn't made it even though we were out of the cabin by 5:30.

 

Another way to get jumped on: it seems to take longer on NCL than on Princess.

 

After several cruises on NCL, the only time we ever had a problem was on the Star when we returned from port late one afternoon to find that the cabin had not been serviced. We called housekeeping and then just went somewhere to get out of the way. When we returned it was done. Never found out why. I have a feeling someone might have filled in and we just somehow fell through the cracks.

 

We find that our cabin is usually done sometime between breakfast and noon. I would think early afternoon at the very latest. But someone does have to be last. We can't all get our cabins done during breakfast.

 

You said you are "cabin potatoes". I wonder if the steward kept waiting for you to go out so that he did not disturb you. But 9:00 PM would not be acceptable to me. I would have talked to the steward, and if no improvement would have gone to the HD.

[rhinomike]

On any cruise I have ever been on my room has always been cleaned by 9 or 10 am. I think something is wrong. I would start by talking nicely to the steward.

[ibcnusoon]

We had a wonderful steward on Breakaway last week. I chatted with her too and she said she works 10 hours a day. We were aft in a B1 and not only did she service our room twice a day but once a day she had to get a bucket and mop broom and clean the soot off the balcony floors and wipe down the chairs and railing. I hope she gets paid extra for that because other stewards who did not aft aft facing balconies do not have to do that, nor do they have that big of a balcony to clean up.

[MCAT48]

Funnily enough our Steward told me off for doing all the tidying up when we were on the Epic: I'm the daughter of a chambermaid, I can't help it! :D

 

Personally we were happy with him just coming once a day (whilst we were at dinner) to bring the daily and to top up the loo roll. Don't get me wrong, I loved the towel animals, but we aren't messy people and i don't change my own towels/sheets daily, or clean through daily, at home so don't expect them to either: especially when we are hardly in our room.

 

I think the signs on the door on the epic were really good because we didn't require much service, but then I suppose other people want more. Heaven help a steward who has people who want two visits a day in every single room :D

 

on our last cruise I kept telling our room Steward not to worry about doing the room up but he wouldn't listen, he always made up the room always left a towel animal nightly with the dailies. I even told him especially on port nights in Bermuda not to worry about my cabin so he could get done early, but he insisted on doing up our cabin!

 

if you have a set time you'd want your room done I'd seek out your room attendant and ask if you could have your room done by a certain time.

[polySeraph]

The very best cabin steward we ever had was on our 2012 Norway-Iceland-Faroes cruise aboard the Sun. He was dazzlingly good but we noticed that he seemed to be working a lot more than other stewards we'd had in the past. We asked him about this and he said that NCL had changed from having a senior and a junior steward servicing a row of cabins together to one steward servicing a group of (fewer) cabins. Reading between the lines, though, it seemed to us that overall, the workload on the stewards had gone up.

 

That particular steward was so outstanding that he got it all done. If we saw him in the hall on our way to breakfast, we would let him know our schedule and our cabin would be made up when we returned. With other stewards, it's been more of a crapshoot. They've all been very good; it's just that some of them - like our super-steward on the Sun - seem to be better able to organize their schedules around accommodating the needs of their passengers.

Edited November 12, 2013 by polySeraph

[gooch47]

We could see he was working hard so we didn't feel it would be right to complain to him and definitely not to his bosses.

 

Even if we were back in the cabin we'd leave the "Make UP Cabin" sign up so he wouldn't know if we were in there or not. And when he'd get to us we'd either leave or just sit out on the balcony.

 

The last few nights we just put out the "Do not Disturb" sign and went without the turndown service.

 

Next time we will make it a point to let him or her know we spend a lot of time in the cabin.

[GORDONCHICK]

If you have a complaint about your room steward, you should contact the hotel director and I am sure it will be quickly rectified.

 

That's way past overkill. The director of housekeeping would/should be enough.

 

We've sailed many lines and have never found this to be a problem on any of them! And we've never tipped (on top of the DSC) before the end of the cruise.

[Cruisin&Relaxin]

That's way past overkill. The director of housekeeping would/should be enough.

 

We've sailed many lines and have never found this to be a problem on any of them! And we've never tipped (on top of the DSC) before the end of the cruise.

 

The last Hotel Director I spoke with would disagree that this was overkill. They wanted to hear about any complaints we had since bad news doesn't typically go up the chain of command very quickly if at all. They wanted to hear the bad things so that they could immediately contact the appropriate person to get it fixed ASAP.

[GORDONCHICK]

The last Hotel Director I spoke with would disagree that this was overkill. They wanted to hear about any complaints we had since bad news doesn't typically go up the chain of command very quickly if at all. They wanted to hear the bad things so that they could immediately contact the appropriate person to get it fixed ASAP.

 

Out of the 3 I know & correspond with, they would all want you to start with the correct chain of command. If it doesn't get corrected after speaking w/ the director of housekeeping, then go to the HD. They do want it to be corrected quickly, but they also believe they have the correct people in their positions to get that done. Otherwise, why would the director of housekeeping show up to the meet & greet, and his number be on the card they hand out at the M&G?

Edited November 12, 2013 by GORDONCHICK

[rhinomike]

I would not go to the hotel director nor the director of housekeeping. I would start with a simple friendly conversation with the steward. If that doesnt work then you escalate it.