fttf and carnival stewards

[cruzn buckeye]

I have been reading reviews where the cabins are not clean. Well, the I feel is that with the influx of FTTF passengers in addition to the thousands of Platinum cruisers (made possible by grandfathering if a person had 10 cruises by the end of the next year) has made it nearly impossible for the cabin stewards to get the cabins clean by embarkation time. you have to be out of your cabin by 8:30. Boarding begins in many cases by 11:30.

I love FTTF for my friends and family that do not qualify for early boarding. But I feel it is putting too much on the cabin stewards, and putting too many people in the priority lines. Think about it... If cCL sells 40 cabins of FTTF, they will make 2000 dollars which is nothing to them. Yet possibly add 200 more passengers in lines for tendering, embarkation, etc etc. And makes it tough when the stewards are adding 40 more cabins to get clean in such a limited amount of time.

 

If my cabin is not prefectly clean, I will not hold it against the cabin stewards or report it to anyone. They are working super hard in the limited time they have to get things done.

They deserve their tips and more.

Edited June 4, 2014 by cruzn buckeye

[flamomo]

FTTF?????

Carnival newbie here ..... what does that stand for?

[JLee1973]

First of all if there are 40 FTTF then there are not many platnium since it is only released in groups of 15 cabins. If more are released it is because of the lack of platinum cruisers. They could do away with FTTF and make it go back to where no one was allowed to their stateroom but I'm sure people would complain about that as well.

 

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[kitkat9438]

FTTF?????

Carnival newbie here ..... what does that stand for?

 

Faster to the Fun. It means you get priority boarding after Carnival Platinum and Suite passengers and your cabin will be ready for you upon boarding so you can go directly to your cabin and drop off your luggage and explore, eat or whatever. You don't have to stand in the long lines with everyone else. There are only a limited number of these FTTF available each sailing, depending on how many elite cruisers are onboard. To purchase, you go to the shore excursion page for the embarkation port and you will find it there. It is $49 per cabin, not per person, even though it will pop up everyone in the cabin when you try to but it. It's a flaw in the system. You only have to buy one. You also get early disembarkation and priority tendering if you tender in port. Definitely worth the $49 IMO.

Edited June 4, 2014 by kitkat9438

[amyh13]

I look at it this way. ALL of the cabins have to be cleaned by 1:30. The have the same amount of time to clean the cabins as they did before FTTF, they just have a different order of doing them. No burden at all to me. We had FTTF last year on the dream and our cabin was PERFECT.

[Jana60]

I have been reading reviews where the cabins are not clean. Well, the I feel is that with the influx of FTTF passengers in addition to the thousands of Platinum cruisers (made possible by grandfathering if a person had 10 cruises by the end of the next year) has made it nearly impossible for the cabin stewards to get the cabins clean by embarkation time. you have to be out of your cabin by 8:30. Boarding begins in many cases by 11:30.

If my cabin is not prefectly clean, I will not hold it against the cabin stewards or report it to anyone. They are working super hard in the limited time they have to get things done.

They deserve their tips and more.

 

I agree with you that the cabin stewards work very hard but I believe the reports of the room being dirty are very isolated events. In 16 cruises I've only had one time when anything was less than perfectly clean. On one cruise the room looked perfect but when I opened the drawer underneath the couch it was filled with pieces of old bread crumbled up. I suspect a child has been in the room and put that in the drawer. The cabin steward had the not noticed it and so did not clean the inside of those drawers. When I brought it to his attention he came and totally recleaned the room to make sure everything was spic and span inside the drawers and out. He apologized profusely and took fantastic care of me the rest of the cruise. Since I'm platinum and get to board so early, I did one time encounter a slightly damp carpet because evidently they had actually shampooed the carpet between cruises. I don't know what the previous occupants had done to the carpet but it looked beautiful and smelled great after being shampooed and it was dry within an hour. I probably would have never known that it had been shampooed if I wasn't the first to board.

 

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[beachbum53]

I think when it comes to the cabins being cleaned, different people have different standards. We bought the FTTF for the first time on our last cruise (on the Liberty), and our cabin was fine. We've never had a problem with our cabin being clean and ready for us. But then, we don't give it the white glove test, and we're not germaphobes. I think a lot of times the reports of cabins not being clean are highly exaggerated. Compared to some hotels we've been in, the ship's cabins we've had have ranged between very good to excellent. If something ever was not right, it's very easy to get ahold of housekeeping and have it taken care of.

[carsastic]

most people work hard at their jobs. some do not. if I ever had a room that was not cleaned properly I would not hesitate to alert the proper people.

If the core problem is FFT, training or not so attentive person it up to the company to fix it. the market /customers will ultimately decide

[Disconnections]

How can Faster to the Fun and Platinum solely be the cause for staterooms not being cleaned? Some cruise lines have every stateroom cleaned and ready for embarkation.

 

All things aside, if my room isn't perfectly clean, yes, I will take a trip to Guest Services. Just like a hotel, if the room isn't perfectly clean, I will call Starwood's Platinum Concierge and tell them I want a Front Office Manager to call me or come to my room immediately. If problems continue to arise, I will reach out to the General Manager and open a Corporate File Complaint.

 

I don't care if an employee will get in trouble. As a guest, that's not my position to worry about. They're not my best friend. They're doing a service for my length of stay.

[lovecarnivalcruises]

The 1st time we had FTTF, on the Dream, our room was not ready, they had not even started cleaning it yet. But we didn't care, we were told we could still leave our stuff, which we did, our suitcases were there so we changed into our swimsuits and headed to the pool. We weren't planning on staying in the room anyway. Just happy to drop our stuff off. When we came back later all was clean.

[goodtogo123]

How can Faster to the Fun and Platinum solely be the cause for staterooms not being cleaned? Some cruise lines have every stateroom cleaned and ready for embarkation.

 

All things aside, if my room isn't perfectly clean, yes, I will take a trip to Guest Services. Just like a hotel, if the room isn't perfectly clean, I will call Starwood's Platinum Concierge and tell them I want a Front Office Manager to call me or come to my room immediately. If problems continue to arise, I will reach out to the General Manager and open a Corporate File Complaint.

 

I don't care if an employee will get in trouble. As a guest, that's not my position to worry about. They're not my best friend. They're doing a service for my length of stay.

 

The scary part is that I think you are telling the truth

[bar1068]

Prior to FTTF, Platinum and Diamond guests did not have the option to board early, they were just boarded first?

[loxley]

I have been reading reviews where the cabins are not clean. Well, the I feel is that with the influx of FTTF passengers in addition to the thousands of Platinum cruisers (made possible by grandfathering if a person had 10 cruises by the end of the next year) has made it nearly impossible for the cabin stewards to get the cabins clean by embarkation time. you have to be out of your cabin by 8:30. Boarding begins in many cases by 11:30.

I love FTTF for my friends and family that do not qualify for early boarding. But I feel it is putting too much on the cabin stewards, and putting too many people in the priority lines. Think about it... If cCL sells 40 cabins of FTTF, they will make 2000 dollars which is nothing to them. Yet possibly add 200 more passengers in lines for tendering, embarkation, etc etc. And makes it tough when the stewards are adding 40 more cabins to get clean in such a limited amount of time.

 

If my cabin is not prefectly clean, I will not hold it against the cabin stewards or report it to anyone. They are working super hard in the limited time they have to get things done.

They deserve their tips and more.

 

I don't understand your thinking. From 830 to 1130 gives them 3 hours to get the priority cabins ready. I find it hard to believe they would have more than half their cabins needing priority cleaning. By 1130 at least half the cabins should be ready anyway.

 

FTTF is not adding any extra cabins.

[Brighton Line]

My first and only time FTTF the cabin was not ready. The steward even questioned why I passed the fire doors and entered the corridor even with the FTTF sign on the door.

I dropped my bags and went to get lunch.

This could have been related to the Upsell Fairy as 6 days out I went from Inside to Balcony, me e-docs were updated but maybe the ship didn't get the change?

I'll find out in a month, have FTTF again, still in an inside, no cabin change yet.

[fin1954]

We had FTTF last week on the Legend and our cabin was spotless! I did see cabin stewards turning away non-FTTF trying to access their rooms at the same time as us.

 

 

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[KPfromCT]

We bought FTTF for this cruise, primarily to be able to drop our bags off right away.

Honestly, I could care less if the room is "ready", or not.

I honestly cannot believe people go down to Guest Services and stand in line, to complain about dust.:eek::eek:

Are you serious?

Maybe we are just super laid back.

You are on vacation.:D

[andy.capitan]

FTTF is insignificant compared to the number of Platinum cruisers. Most Platinum cruisers today would likely not even qualify under current rules. FTTF is a way of letting a few passengers per cruise have a taste of a subset of Platinum benefits. It is because of FTTF that Platinum guests even have early cabin availability and priority luggage.

 

Cruise lines that have cabins ready when guests board tend to begin boarding later than Carnival does.

[bar1068]

We bought FTTF for this cruise, primarily to be able to drop our bags off right away.

Honestly, I could care less if the room is "ready", or not.

I honestly cannot believe people go down to Guest Services and stand in line, to complain about dust.:eek::eek:

Are you serious?

Maybe we are just super laid back.

You are on vacation.:D

 

Ok...so I had to chuckle...maybe a little...lol.....on one of our recent cruises..where we did purchase FTTF....my wife spotted something...not to her liking when we first got into our cabin...I don't even recall what it was...pretty minor...but she tells me I'm like really...are you gonna be ONE OF THOSE type complainers!! She laughed at me....but...first chance she got...she mentioned it to our room steward...who took care of it right away...no fuss no muss.....we did "take care" of our guy at end of cruise....but yea...some things really ain't worth fussin over....

[Jana60]

Most Platinum cruisers today would likely not even qualify under current rules.

 

I disaggree. I think most of the people who are platinum already meet the point requirements. A few people took cruises to grandfather in but the 3 to 4 day cruises are almost as expensive as a seven day cruise so most people have met the 75 point requirement at least by the 11th or 12th cruise.

 

 

 

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[Waterloomarc]

My one and only time with FTTF was on Fascination in January and our cabin wasn't ready. Our luggage, however beat us to the room. I didn't care as the only reason I buy it is to skip the lines at embarkation and be able to drop off carry-ons. We were able to do this so I was happy. I've purchased it again for our upcoming Dream cruise in September.

 

Now on to my point. Sure $2000 is a paltry amount to CCL. But let's assume they do sell 40 cabins @ $50. That's $2k per sailing. Figure 52 sailings a year (shorter sailings compensate for dry docks etc.) and 23 ships and all of a sudden you're at almost $2.5 million for CCL. Sure still relatively small change for a big company. But that's an extra $2.5 mil for something that costs them virtually nothing. Hard for a company to walk away from that!

 

I tend to agree with the consensus that a lot of the dirty cabin complaints are overdone and from folks that want to be more uppity than their station really is. You want to white glove your stateroom sail on Silver Sea or or something and pay their prices. For what Carnival charges I wouldn't expect anything nicer than a Hampton Inn standard. Sure there's always going to be problems but I think these people that complain about there being dust behind the TV and a water spot on the faucet are just ridiculous and if I were a betting man I'd venture that their houses were pig sties.

 

 

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Edited June 4, 2014 by Waterloomarc
Edit - dang autocorrect

[UpstateCruizer]

I have been reading reviews where the cabins are not clean. Well, the I feel is that with the influx of FTTF passengers in addition to the thousands of Platinum cruisers (made possible by grandfathering if a person had 10 cruises by the end of the next year) has made it nearly impossible for the cabin stewards to get the cabins clean by embarkation time. you have to be out of your cabin by 8:30. Boarding begins in many cases by 11:30.

I love FTTF for my friends and family that do not qualify for early boarding. But I feel it is putting too much on the cabin stewards, and putting too many people in the priority lines. Think about it... If cCL sells 40 cabins of FTTF, they will make 2000 dollars which is nothing to them. Yet possibly add 200 more passengers in lines for tendering, embarkation, etc etc. And makes it tough when the stewards are adding 40 more cabins to get clean in such a limited amount of time.

 

If my cabin is not prefectly clean, I will not hold it against the cabin stewards or report it to anyone. They are working super hard in the limited time they have to get things done.

They deserve their tips and more.

 

I agree and I've started bringing Clorox travel wipes with me. It's a small price to pay for being able to get into my cabin early. I don't mind a general wipe down which so far is all I've had to do. If the cabin was disgusting that would be a different story. Although guests are supposed to be out of the cabins by 8:30 many are still lingering and some still have the sleeping sign out! Last cruise we saw 2 people open their door in their robes to grab the bill out of the mailboxes.

[Sailor_Sally]

I am generally very laid back about my cabin but on my last cruise (Carnival Legend ) our room was just plain dirty . Inside the closet were piles of dirty linens and the bathrobes had large stains . The whole week the cabin was cleaned marginally . I did not say anything but I did not tip extra .Worst steward ever .

[Disconnections]

I am generally very laid back about my cabin but on my last cruise (Carnival Legend ) our room was just plain dirty . Inside the closet were piles of dirty linens and the bathrobes had large stains . The whole week the cabin was cleaned marginally . I did not say anything but I did not tip extra .Worst steward ever .

 

If you're upset about it enough to share your experience here after your cruise is over... why did you not say something onboard? By doing so, you're allowing that stateroom steward to get away with not only not doing his job properly, but allowing safety/sanitation hazards to continue on future sailings. Linens and bathrobes that contain stains, toxic spills and bodily fluids should NOT be left in reach of a guest (including children) and should be out of sight.

Edited June 4, 2014 by Disconnections

[Linda the Book Lover]

I am going to knock on wood and say, "I have never had a dirty cabin or someone not willing to take care of requests pertaining to the cabin. The DD and I will be enjoying the FTTF in July. I do not believe it is any harder to clean some cabins earlier except that it means you can no longer go in order but instead move to the FTTF cabins first before starting the row of remaining cabins. I love the idea of coming aboard and dropping my things off in the cabin. We always to our cabin first on the off chance it is ready early and sure enough it has been except for one time.