What's a 'normal' time for turndown?

[blackwing]

Thanks for the responses.

 

Since this was seemingly missed by some people:

 

I've been lurking on CC a long time, and we are relentlessly told that cruise ship staff is overworked. That's why I came to ask about normal turndown times and asked whether it would be obnoxious to request an earlier time--I'm trying not to be a PITA to the staff. I've only been on four cruises now so I don't have enough data points. Hence the thread title.

 

Not every post is a disguised complaint that needs to be dogpiled.

I don't see much dogpiling... I see people giving suggestions.

 

I would have just gone to bed and put on the DND. And then get a copy of the daily the next morning from the cart or ask the steward for one in the morning or go to the atrium. I don't need much in the way of "turndown". I actually hate that the steward puts that nasty and disgusting bed runner back on the bed. No matter where I put it (under the bed, in the cubby on the nightstand, in the closet top rack), he puts it back on, even after I told him the first day that I prefer not to have it. I think it's dirty and possibly doesn't get cleaned as often, like a bedspread/comforter at a hotel.

 

The only thing I possibly need at night is towels, and it is easy enough to obtain those in the event I need more.

[Windsailer]

I was on the Jewel in January, the Epic in February and then on a 19 day HAL cruise in April. Service on NCL was dismal; service on HAL was outstanding. We were in balconies on the NCL cruises and an inside cabin on the HAL ship - so I don't think the cabin category explains the difference. The HAL steward had about 20 cabins.

 

One difference might be that according to the RS cards I've gotten from the NCL room stewards is that their hours are from 9-2pm and then from 6 to 9pm. The HAL RS didn't stick to those hours. Ours would arrive around 8am and be back around 5pm. That schedule works for me. And the HAL RS got the extra tip and a positive note to the Front Desk; nothing for the NCL stewards.

 

'll be on the Jewel again later this year and if the service is the same (bad) I'll ask for part of my DSC back since I'm not actually getting service. And if I make the request I'll certainly tell them why.

[luckyinpa]

The "turndown" is simply the final visit of the day by the steward. It's when they tidy your room, remove the bed scarf/runner, fold down the sheets not unlike you'd do when putting a child to bed. They also clean the bathroom put in fresh towels too, etc. It's usually done, as someone else mentioned between 6:30 - 9:30 preferably when you're out of the room.

 

It usually only takes about 10minutes or so.

 

hmm dont know if i need all that. when i go on vacation i typically have the DND sign on the hotel door for a few days. of course this may differ on a ship and maybe ill get wetter and need more towels or something :)

 

now if i was in haven room i guess id want them in there constantly dusting with white gloves :)

[hawkeyetlse]

hmm dont know if i need all that. when i go on vacation i typically have the DND sign on the hotel door for a few days. of course this may differ on a ship and maybe ill get wetter and need more towels or something :)

If you don't need the turn-down service, by all means let your steward know they can skip your room. It will save them a bit of time. But if you're in a room with just two people (no extra beds) and no special requirements, they may only spend a couple of minutes on your room anyway.

 

This is also when towel animals appear, so if those are important to you, you should get the turn-down service :p

 

We have had a couple of stewards that would try to catch us in the room every evening, hand us the Daily and our chocolates, and ask pointedly if we needed anything else. Since we are not ballsy enough to say "Yes, we need you to do your job and turn down our cabin after we go to dinner", we went without turn-down service most evenings on those cruises (and the stewards went without extra tips from us).

[bobg529]

I've cruised with NCL 9 times now. I won't count this last cruise because it my first time in the Haven, but just in case you're wondering the level of service was fantastic! That being said, I can't say that I have ever really had trouble with turndowns and the like. I admit that I always seek out the steward as soon as I'm in my cabin, just to introduce myself and let them know my likes and dislikes in a friendly way. I did have one steward that I barely saw, and that was when I was in a Studio cabin on the Epic. God knows the poor guy was probably busy as heck, but I will say that every night the room was made up, complete with towel animal, the ice bucket was filled three times a day as per my request, and everything was as it should be all the time. These folks are human beings. Treat them decent, and smile and you will get the same back 9 times out of 10. TELL them how you like things and they will usually follow through. They are working hard for that tip remember! In answer the OP, yeah I think your guy may be running a bit late, but he may be new. Try to speak to him. When you get to your cabin stick your head out the door once in a while till you see the carts. Then, if all else fails call housekeeping, but try not to if you can. There is usually no reason to get him in trouble.:)

[Windsailer]

We always introduce ourselves to the RS when we board and (in a polite and friendly way) let them know what we are early risers and early eaters (breakfast and dinner) and prefer to spend the evening with each other in the cabin rather than go to shows and bars. We have never had a problem on our 15+ HAL cruises but seem to be pretty unlucky with room stewards on NCL. It's not enough to stop us from cruising on NCL - just a mild irritant. And my current solution is to replace my towels myself (if needed) and get the daily off the RS cart. If I need ice I call room service. I'm pretty good at making the bed myself.

Edited June 8, 2016 by Windsailer

[LrgPizza]

hmm dont know if i need all that. when i go on vacation i typically have the DND sign on the hotel door for a few days. of course this may differ on a ship and maybe ill get wetter and need more towels or something :)

 

 

 

now if i was in haven room i guess id want them in there constantly dusting with white gloves :)

 

 

Evening is when they leave the Freestyle Daily for the next day, leave you cute towel animals, replace your pool towels with fresh ones (and room towels, if needed), pull down the Pullman or make up the couch for cabins using those, and whatever else. If we ever had to choose just one service a day, we'd skip the morning and just use evening.

 

 

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[ejnsb]

We had an awesome cruise on the Getaway in March but never saw our RS. The one time I really wanted him or her was for ice and glasses at sailaway as we had brought champagne but got nothing but automated "we are busy" responses from repeated calls to housekeeping and no stewards were in our area (9 aft). On every other cruise we have been on we met the RS first day. even though we never laid eyes on the RS in 7 days the service was fine.

 

 

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[navybankerteacher]

What part of...

 

 

 

... are you people not understanding. How is OP supposed to ask for what they want if the steward isn't around to be asked?

 

I have never been on a ship where it was not possible to contact the cabin steward. Usually there is a card with his name and extension - otherwise it is easy enough to keep an eye open during the morning and evening hours when the steward would be in and out of cabins -- with the doors usually open. Easy enough to catch his attention . As a last resort - and not that hard to think about - call guest services.

 

Zeeeeesh!

[Ontario cruise duo]

My only complaint about a RS we had was on our Hawaiian cruise back in March, 2006. Not sure if things are the same now, but back then the staff were almost all "Americans". Our RS (female about 35 years old, older than most anyway), introduces herself as soon as we get to our room. Asks us what time we are out of our room each morning and in the evening for dinners. I believe we had the late dinner time back then, which would have been 8:30. Anyway, she proceeds to tell us her day starts at some awful early hour... like 6:00 a.m., she likes to have the rooms done by 8:00 - 9:00 a.m. and starts her evening turndowns around 6:00 - 8:00, again an awful early time, as she likes to finish her day by 8:00 p.m. What the heck, who's vacation is it anyway. I could go on more about her, but that being said, she was by far the "worst" RS we have EVER had, and you can be sure that she was standing outside our door on the last day... looking for you know what. I have never NOT given a tip to our RS on any of our other 8 cruises, as they have always been outstanding and there to please, but I cannot say the same for this RS. Let's just say, she was memorable!

Like others have posted, just speak to your RS and I am sure that he/she will try their best to honour your requests!

[Freckle53]

On the Breakaway in Feb. it was usually between 9-10 which was way later than we would have liked with two kids (3 and 11). Morning service was usually closer to lunch time which wasn't great either because I liked to go back to the room with the youngest and have a little down time around then.

 

We had told our steward what our schedule was going to be like (up fairly early and off to breakfast and then back to the room around 11, a quick lunch and then probably back again to try for a nap, early dinner 5/6 and then would have liked showers and settling in at about 8. Everything was still very late though and we needed the evening service to at least get the pullman bed down. On the last night it was 10:30 and he still hadn't made it to our room and we finally found him and said to never mind as we'd just have the 3 year old sleep with us and our 11 year old sleep on the couch bed. The steward was very nice, but I felt service was 'meh' at best.

[triptolemus]

Zeeeeesh!

 

Gesundheit!

[navybankerteacher]

Anyone who has cruised mass market lines for any length of time must be aware of staff reductions. Room stewards have more rooms - period . That translates to less time per room - and less flexibility as to scheduling. In the 1990's stewards were in rooms at least four times per day - and spent enough time each time to leave the cabins spotless. The larger number of cabins means that the morning clean-up must extend til noon or later - and the evening turn down must run until nine or ten - still, I have found that a COURTEOUS AND UNDERSTANDING request for particular times is usually honored ---- except on NCL - where the overload is either too great or perhaps the stewards are too poorly trained or supervised.

 

Degradation of service is apparent across the board, but seems most apparent on NCL.

[Cruisercl]

When we were on the Getaway this past February our RS did not get to our room until 9:30-10 pm which seemed late for me too; have never seen service that late on any of our many cruises. He was working but seemed to have more than normal amount of rooms. No problem for us that we didn't have turn-down if we wanted to be in earlier.

 

This was apparent all over the ship, less staff so they were having to do more work. We did receive great service when the staff was able to get to us.:)

 

Safe cruising all!!

[NLH Arizona]

I've never had an issue with make-up or turn down. The Cabin Steward seems to pick up on my schedule quickly.

 

I asked my Cabin Steward how many cabins he had and he said when he had an assistant, he had 22, but now without one, he had 11.

[AdoraBelle]

OP here. Things got worse after my initial posting (don't think I got normal cleaning till about 1pm the next day), but have improved a bit.

 

I've generally just adjusted my behavior accordingly (pushing my typical "hours"/activities later).

 

On thinking about the thread, I discovered the following: I do actually quite enjoy coming into a tidied room twice a day. Not having to "pick up" is a big perk of vacation. (Not that I don't de-clutter for the steward; I do. I mean the little things like the bed, fresh towels and ice, and clean surfaces.)

 

So yeah, I can just put up DND when I wish to occupy the room, but there is a element of value lost.

[hawkeyetlse]

Have you spoken to your steward about any of this?

[NLH Arizona]

OP, you should not have to settle or adjust your behavior. If you have spoken with your Cabin Steward and things are not to your liking, call the Housekeeping Manager and discuss the situation with them.

[dexddd]

My only complaint about a RS we had was on our Hawaiian cruise back in March, 2006. Not sure if things are the same now, but back then the staff were almost all "Americans". Our RS (female about 35 years old, older than most anyway), introduces herself as soon as we get to our room. Asks us what time we are out of our room each morning and in the evening for dinners. I believe we had the late dinner time back then, which would have been 8:30. Anyway, she proceeds to tell us her day starts at some awful early hour... like 6:00 a.m., she likes to have the rooms done by 8:00 - 9:00 a.m. and starts her evening turndowns around 6:00 - 8:00, again an awful early time, as she likes to finish her day by 8:00 p.m. What the heck, who's vacation is it anyway. I could go on more about her, but that being said, she was by far the "worst" RS we have EVER had, and you can be sure that she was standing outside our door on the last day... looking for you know what. I have never NOT given a tip to our RS on any of our other 8 cruises, as they have always been outstanding and there to please, but I cannot say the same for this RS. Let's just say, she was memorable!

Like others have posted, just speak to your RS and I am sure that he/she will try their best to honour your requests!

 

We had pretty much the same experience on POA back in 2006. That was when NCL had 3 ships in Hawaii and service was not very good. We were very hesitant to go again on POA but went this March. Service was great and they have things dialed in with only the one ship.

[blackwing]

OP here. Things got worse after my initial posting (don't think I got normal cleaning till about 1pm the next day), but have improved a bit.

 

I've generally just adjusted my behavior accordingly (pushing my typical "hours"/activities later).

 

On thinking about the thread, I discovered the following: I do actually quite enjoy coming into a tidied room twice a day. Not having to "pick up" is a big perk of vacation. (Not that I don't de-clutter for the steward; I do. I mean the little things like the bed, fresh towels and ice, and clean surfaces.)

 

So yeah, I can just put up DND when I wish to occupy the room, but there is a element of value lost.

I would agree with others, you shouldn't have to adjust. Talk to your steward. And in case you aren't doing it, when you leave the room for breakfast, push the "make up room" button to get the green light to turn on. And if you are using the "old hotel keycard" trick to keep the lights on, you need to pull it out so he doesn't think you are in the room. I think stewards will attend to the green light rooms quicker since they won't have to worry about bothering anyone.

[hawkeyetlse]

I agree about using the door indicator to let the steward know when you're out, but for the morning service (which typically takes longer per cabin than turn-down), it's really not possible for them to do every cabin exactly when the occupants step out for breakfast. We put the "make up room" signal on, but we certainly do not expect the room to be done when we come back from breakfast 30 minutes later. We are impressed if it happens, but as long as the room is made up sometime before lunchtime, we consider that to be normal. On sea days, when we are in and out of the cabin all morning, it may even be later.

 

In the evening, we tend to leave the cabin for several hours, so that has always been plenty of time for turn-down service to happen.

 

But if the housekeeping schedule was not compatible with our schedule, we would communicate with the steward about it, instead of just living with it (or just posting about it on CC) and letting it affect our cruise.

[mking8288]

It takes far less time to try to communicate directly with RS on his candy-bar ship phone than to post here for advice on a slow satellite internet as shared by OP on another thread, and/or to call housekeeping for towels. If they can't get into the room, Freestyle Dailies are usually on the mail-slot or slip under the door.

 

Try speaking to someone first & give the RS the chance to fix the problem as they have a checklist to complete daily on their rounds.

 

Or, is the RS out sick ??

 

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[AdoraBelle]

Out of all the forums I post on, this is the only one where one has a pretty high chance of being criticized for posting about the topic the forum ostensibly exists to discuss. It's a pretty interesting phenomenon. Especially when people have to go out of their way to deliberately misunderstand questions in order to get their little "why are you bothering to post about it here" stabs in.

 

You guys are extraordinarily weird.

[hawkeyetlse]

Out of all the forums I post on, this is the only one where one has a pretty high chance of being criticized for posting about the topic the forum ostensibly exists to discuss. It's a pretty interesting phenomenon. Especially when people have to go out of their way to deliberately misunderstand questions in order to get their little "why are you bothering to post about it here" stabs in.

 

You guys are extraordinarily weird.

You asked two questions: Is 8:30 a normal time for turn-down, and would it be obnoxious for you to request earlier service. Nobody criticized you for posting those questions, nobody went out of their way to deliberately misunderstand them, and I think you received pretty clear answers: Yes, it's normal, and no, it would not be obnoxious.

 

You are the one who has returned to this thread repeatedly to criticize everyone else for answering you. In an effort to further the discussion, people have made suggestions and asked you follow-up questions, all of which you have either ignored, or you have gone out of your way to take offense at them.

 

Whatever the problems with this forum in general, you take most of the blame for the problems in this specific thread.

 

I hope you enjoy(ed) the rest of your cruise.

Edited June 11, 2016 by hawkeyetlse

[sha32]

Agreed [emoji106]

Edited June 11, 2016 by sha32