Thank you room steward.....

[shof515]

......for the free drinks

 

I am back home from an 8 day cruise on the Carnival Sunshine. On Day 1 in my cabin was the VIFP complimentary bottle of water. The gold appreciation drink coupon, gold vifp pin, the cruise critic meet n greet invitation (I did put in my cabin number and we had 30 people signed up for it) and any other pieces of paper or goodies was missing. I check the desk and other areas in my cabin for the missing papers and was unable to find it. When I left my cabin, my room steward stopped by and made me fill out one of those comfort matters cards. On the card was 3 checkbox, 1 for morning service, 1 for evening service and one for both services. I checked all 3 boxes and told my steward I wanted both morning and evening service. For the first few days, the steward only provided evening service, no morning service.

I stopped by Guest Services to make a complaint about the missing papers, the gold pin and the lack of services the steward is providing. They contacted housekeeping and said housekeeping will look into the issue. Guest Services printed a new gold appreciation drink coupon and gave me the gold vifp pin. When I went back to my cabin to drop off the pin and coupon. A housekeeping officer stopped by my cabin and I explained to her that I requested both morning and evening service and that the steward was only providing evening service. The next day, I received both morning and evening service for the rest of the cruise. Yay!

A few days later after the issue is resolved, I received an envelope in my cabin. In that envelope was a note from guest services. The note said as an apology for the cleanness of your cabin, here is 4 drink coupons for free drinks. Wow, that was totally unexpected, was not expecting anything from guest services about this issue. Kudos for Guest Services for a surprised gift and kudos for the housekeeper officer to get my steward to do their job as I requested. So thank you room steward for your initial poor service that resulted with me having 4 drinks on the house...Woohoo!

[Port of Tampa]

That is great!🍸🍸🍸🍸

Cheers and happy cruising. My few stops at guest services were a waste of time.

[bury me at sea]

That was a nice resolution to your problem. Thanks for posting your experience.

[BTromboneFrack]

Mistakes happen. Making it right is the key to quality.

[easyboy]

I wonder what kind of reprimand the room steward got.

 

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Forums mobile app

[KPfromCT]

We just got off the 8 night Eastern on the Magic Sunday, and when he came around on Saturday to introduce himself, he had us fill out the "comfort card'. We also checked AM and PM, and we got both. He said it would start the next day (Sunday) which it did.

 

He was great.

 

Not sure what I would have done if he didn't do both, but he did, and we were happy with him.;)

[riclop]

Cheers x 4.

[tef43]

The daily gratuity is based on a 2x daily cabin servicing. If the steward is not performing up to that standard, then you are perfectly justified in adjusting your gratuities downward.

 

That would be the implied "threat" if and when I had to make a complaint to Guest Services about the steward not adhering to the service request. So far, I have not had to make that journey down to the front desk. Cabin service has been superb.

[First and Ten]

Tef....where in any of the documentation does it specify that the tips are based on 2X day service for the room? You are tipping your steward,MD, waiters, and all the behind the scene workers a total of roughly $13 per person, per day. If your room steward visits your room 6 times in one day, those tips dont increase, do they? Now, i will agree that there are "mooches" out there looking for any excuse to remove the tips (it happens on every cruise). Those type of people are beyond help and i try not to waste my breath on them

Edited July 7, 2017 by First and Ten

[LMaxwell]

Tef....where in any of the documentation does it specify that the tips are based on 2X day service for the room? You are tipping your steward,MD, waiters, and all the behind the scene workers a total of roughly $13 per person, per day. If your room steward visits your room 6 times in one day, those tips dont increase, do they? Now, i will agree that there are "mooches" out there looking for any excuse to remove the tips (it happens on every cruise). Those type of people are beyond help and i try not to waste my breath on them

 

Carnival asks if you want one time a day or two times a day. If you select two times a day, it is reasonable to expect them to oblige your request.

 

We should applaud OP for advocating for themselves to get the level of service the company offered, and we should applaud Carnival for addressing the issue and giving the guest a positive experience and lasting impression. Mistakes happen, but Carnival did the right thing here for the OP, and OP did a service for the rest of us by, in my opinion, addressing a problem onboard instead of complaining afterwards when nothing could be done to resolve it.

[sparks1093]

Carnival asks if you want one time a day or two times a day. If you select two times a day, it is reasonable to expect them to oblige your request.

 

We should applaud OP for advocating for themselves to get the level of service the company offered, and we should applaud Carnival for addressing the issue and giving the guest a positive experience and lasting impression. Mistakes happen, but Carnival did the right thing here for the OP, and OP did a service for the rest of us by, in my opinion, addressing a problem onboard instead of complaining afterwards when nothing could be done to resolve it.

 

Yep.

[grest]

I think I would have left him a note instead of complaining about him to GS, but that's just me...

[Micahs Grandad]

Tef....where in any of the documentation does it specify that the tips are based on 2X day service for the room? You are tipping your steward,MD, waiters, and all the behind the scene workers a total of roughly $13 per person, per day. If your room steward visits your room 6 times in one day, those tips dont increase, do they? Now, i will agree that there are "mooches" out there looking for any excuse to remove the tips (it happens on every cruise). Those type of people are beyond help and i try not to waste my breath on them

 

I hve always gotten 2x service of my cabin and that is my expectation for the steward. If he does less work for me he will get some reduction in the tip. Has never happened to this point but tip is earned for service provided/.

[DaisyandMoe010]

I think I would have left him a note instead of complaining about him to GS, but that's just me...

 

I would leave a note as well if it was that important to me. I always keep my cabin tidy, so if he or she overlooked me, I most likely wouldn't have an issue with that. This has never been an issue for me, always stellar service.

[shof515]

I think I would have left him a note instead of complaining about him to GS, but that's just me...

i left a note that i wanted both morning and evening service and that i needed a bucket of ice. he ignored that note, so i had no choice but to go to GS

[Canadian_J]

I think I would have left him a note instead of complaining about him to GS, but that's just me...

 

Yeah the odd time we've had an issue, we've always tried to resolve it first with the cabin steward. Never had an issue after that. Could've been an honest mistake, and wouldn't want them reprimanded if we hadn't at least tried to resolve it ourselves first. But that's just our style. The complimentary drinks are a nice touch as an apology, but I also wouldn't be bragging about it being "thanks to" the poor service. These guys/gals usually work hard for us. Hope the rest of the sailing was alright and without incident for you though.

[Organized Chaos]

Tef....where in any of the documentation does it specify that the tips are based on 2X day service for the room? You are tipping your steward,MD, waiters, and all the behind the scene workers a total of roughly $13 per person, per day. If your room steward visits your room 6 times in one day, those tips dont increase, do they? Now, i will agree that there are "mooches" out there looking for any excuse to remove the tips (it happens on every cruise). Those type of people are beyond help and i try not to waste my breath on them

Carnival's policy for cabin service was 2 times/day prior to the recent change to give people a choice. Therefore, the amount of tips they receive, set by Carnival, is originally based on that 2 times/day service. Most people, especially those who pre-pay gratuities, will leave their tips as is, even if they choose to only receive once/day service. Just for the sake of simplicity. But if anyone chooses once/day service and decides that warrants less of a tip (considering it's less service), then it's justified. Carnival will never increase the daily number of cabin services because it's unnecessary, so we don't have to worry about your 6 times in one day analogy. But if we're speaking hypothetically, then you can bet that they would increase their gratuity amount if they significantly increased the service.

[Life_Traveler]

We once called GS because of something that maintenance did for us outside of a repair we had requested. They had gone above and beyond what I had asked. They said they would pass on our compliments to the maintenance department and the next day we had a plate full of cookies delivered to our room from GS. it pays to offer compliments and not just complaints to GS also.

[IntrepidFromDC]

I wonder what kind of reprimand the room steward got.

 

I believe it depends on how many offenses.

 

First offense is walk the plank. :o

 

Second is much more serious, keel hauling from bow to stern! :eek:

[oxymoron11]

I would suggest if others have a problem with their cabin steward to call them on the number they provide or call housekeeping. Some stewards are unable to read English so notes don't always work.

[JKrise]

I believe it depends on how many offenses.

 

First offense is walk the plank. :o

 

Second is much more serious, keel hauling from bow to stern! :eek:

 

 

Nothing beats old school.

[JKrise]

All joking aside, a sound practice that works great is to **first** address the issue a the closest point to the source-the room steward, and not to go directly to Guest Services. Who knows...maybe the steward was having a bad couple days...it happens to us all, especially if we were doing the working grind they do..

Talking directly to a room steward has always worked in my experience to correct a defiencency. Give the person a chance to self correct first before going to the next level. In the end Karma can work for you or against you.