Laundry rooms

[grouchomarx]

I have been on plenty of Princess cruises but never use the laundry (as I would rather die than do laundry while on vacation). So I don't know what they look like or how large they really are. During a conversation about all the changes happening with the mainstream cruise lines, along the lines of cutbacks etc, I started wondering will Princess continue offering self service laundry to their customers for the long haul? Or will they go the way of many of their competitors who do not offer this at all. It must cost them money to maintain these laundry rooms, and I would doubt they're terribly profitable (or at all?). And lets face it, Princess has gotten good at keeping up with their competitors (I don't mean this in a good way, I mean with cutbacks and imposing new limits/rules, etc that people complain about here on CC.)

What do you think? And are the laundry areas large enough to be turned into cabins instead? Would you be upset if they axed the laundry rooms? Just curious how important it is to you guys.

[voljeep]

not sure which ship, but Princess cut the laundry room in half, and added a cabin(s)..

 

It's a nice option to have if needed...

[ppmanusa]

Read somewhere they might be doing with only one per deck as it takes the space of 2 inside cabins at least on the Regal it did.

 

As a person who sweats allot in the gym and on hot shore excursions I don't like laundry stinking up the cabin so the option is really nice rather than hand washing and trying to dry on the balcony.

 

It would be nice if Princess had unlimited laundry like HAL love that service.

[moki'smommy]

The difference between doing laundry yourself ($6 to wash and dry, you can bring your own products or buy for $1.50) vs. sending a bag of laundry to be done ($65 for us!) is remarkable. Besides, I can't specify delicate or cold water if I send it to the ship's laundry. Even though we were in a suite for our last cruise, I did a load of delicates.

 

I won't say "never," but at this point we don't cruise longer than a week on a line that doesn't have a self serve laundry. It is costly and difficult to take extra suitcases of clothing; much easier to take less and launder. As to what Princess will do, I don't know. I've been on ships with 4 sets of washers and dryers in the room and all were in use. I've been on other ships with 2 of each and neither was in use. At $3 per machine with pretty regular use, I don't know that they are making much money, but they are more than breaking even.

[paul929207]

Princess has laundry rooms on all ships. They have not announced any change to that policy. It will only be a guess as to whether that will change

[skynight]

Princess has laundry rooms on all ships. They have not announced any change to that policy. It will only be a guess as to whether that will change

Laundry rooms are on the all new builds. Who knows in the 2020's?

[yogurtpo3]

I sure hope not! I love having the option to do your own laundry and use it all the time when I am on a cruise!

[Jezabel2924]

Even though we get the free laundry, there are things I would not send out. I want control over the temperature in washing and drying for some items. I am very glad that Princess has self serve laundry.

[grouchomarx]

Even though we get the free laundry, there are things I would not send out. I want control over the temperature in washing and drying for some items. I am very glad that Princess has self serve laundry.

 

I’ve always gotten the sense Princess cruisers like the self serve laundry and would be disappointed without it. That’s why I wonder if it would be something to cause a major uproar if they tried to eliminate it. Like BOGO happy hour, bottled water prices etc. I wonder what’s most important to people, for curiosity’s sake, and because I have my opinions about what’s important too, and Princess has let me down a few times in giving in to the competition and going lower on certain things they never used to.

[yogurtpo3]

Well, I’d definitely rather expensive drinks and bottled water than lose the laundry. I can forgo fancy drinks and bottled water, my clothes still need to be washed!

[paradiselivin1]

I almost always use the laundry on longer cruises. I do much of our laundry using cold water and have to watch the delicates in the dryer. This summer we are doing a 14 day cruise followed by a 14 day safari and need to have clean clothes when we leave the ship. I would hate to see the laundry rooms taken off of the ships.

[fishywood]

I would certainly think that the $6 or more spent on each passenger visit to the launderette, plus the gross margin on the laundry supplies sold, is a revenue stream each ship would not want to give up. The cost of upkeep is likely buried is some large maintenance expense account, and major overhaul or replacement when necessary is considered a capital improvement.

 

I also surmise that Princess has evaluated the possibility of replacing passenger laundry use with stuff-a-bag specials. And concluded that the extra time and work that would be imposed on the ship's laundry would make such a trade off not cost effective. Or that selling unlimited laundry packages as HAL does also would be less than ideal given the issues with turnaround time for the Elites who already have that benefit.

 

It is frequently postulated on the NCL board that the reason they removed launderettes from their older ships, rather than just stop offering them on newer builds until the fleet turned completely over, was the amount of calls to security to settle disputes over who gets the next dryer and/or someone taking someone's else's clothing out to use their time (which actually happened to my mother on a Cunard ship). So hopefully the Princess laundries will remain as long as civility reigns.

[jlp20]

Laundry facilities take the entire space from port to starboard hallway. Some of these are being reclaimed by the ship to build crew quarters. Just a guess on my part but possible IT staff for troubled ***** system.

[sewgood]

As we prefer to do repostioning cruises the laundry rooms on Princess are one of the reasons why we now do these longer cruises on Princess.

 

Even if it is just to iron a t-shirt on a shorter cruise it is handy to just pop down the hall way then to send it out and pay $5 for it to be pressed and wait for it to come back.

[Baronessofbargains]

One of the reasons we take Princess is the laundry rooms. We like the longer cruises so with the laundry room we do our laundry once a week. Will be Elite after our next cruise but most likely will do our own washing, as stated by others the wait is 3 days for Princess and you have to be careful what you send out as they don’t check fabric content. We might send clothes that need ironing- I don’t like to iron!

 

 

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[moki'smommy]

One of the reasons we take Princess is the laundry rooms. We like the longer cruises so with the laundry room we do our laundry once a week. Will be Elite after our next cruise but most likely will do our own washing, as stated by others the wait is 3 days for Princess and you have to be careful what you send out as they don’t check fabric content. We might send clothes that need ironing- I don’t like to iron!

 

 

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I read all the warnings about the laundry....and then took a deep breath and sent everything except some lycra/delicate things. Turn around was less than 24 hours--if we sent it at night, it came back the next morning. And everything was lovely. I did a single washer load of delicates myself, and sent a bag of laundry on two occasions.

 

I do understand that if you are on cruise with a lot of Elites, it might take longer...

[luvtoteach]

The only reason we stay with Princess is because there is a laundry room on every deck. We are Elite but I will not send my cotton clothes to the laundry to be washed in hot water and dried on hot. I do not want them to shrink. Doing laundry on a sea day is no hardship. I have had some interesting conversations with other people while waiting for my laundry to finish.

[chickadee1]

We chose Princess for our Alaska 7 day cruise, 5 day land tour so we could bring less clothing and have clean clothes on the land portion. Could not even imagine what the suitcases would weigh with all the jeans if we could not do laundry!! We have to fly back and forth from Hartford so weight is definitely a consideration!

[babs135]

Do away with the laundry room!!! Where would I get the latest gossip? :D:D

[Nightengale31]

I would be disappointed if Princess did away with the laundry rooms because I usually go home with most my clothes clean, and I certainly make use of the irons and ironing boards especially to knock the wrinkles out of my husband's formal night dress shirts.

[ggprincess2004]

The difference between doing laundry yourself ($6 to wash and dry' date=' you can bring your own products or buy for $1.50) vs. sending a bag of laundry to be done ($65 for us!) is remarkable. Besides, I can't specify delicate or cold water if I send it to the ship's laundry. Even though we were in a suite for our last cruise, I did a load of delicates.

 

I won't say "never," but at this point we don't cruise longer than a week on a line that doesn't have a self serve laundry. It is costly and difficult to take extra suitcases of clothing; much easier to take less and launder. As to what Princess will do, I don't know. I've been on ships with 4 sets of washers and dryers in the room and all were in use. I've been on other ships with 2 of each and neither was in use. At $3 per machine with pretty regular use, I don't know that they are making much money, but they are more than breaking even.[/quote']

 

 

I also run my delicates through the laundry rooms rather than using the laundry benefits, and will not sail other lines for a number of reasons, but especially since they do offer passenger laundry facilities. I make sure to mention this on surveys, when ever asked by management personnel, etc., to let them know passenger laundry facilities are important in my choice of cruise line.

[tip]

The difference between doing laundry yourself ($6 to wash and dry' date=' you can bring your own products or buy for $1.50) vs. sending a bag of laundry to be done ($65 for us!) ....[/quote']

 

I have no problems doing my own laundry and pack a small bag of laundry detergent pods for each cruise. The money I save can be spent on some liquid refreshment or treating my darling wife to a specialty restaurant.

[moki'smommy]

I have no problems doing my own laundry and pack a small bag of laundry detergent pods for each cruise. The money I save can be spent on some liquid refreshment or treating my darling wife to a specialty restaurant.

No way I would send my laundry out if it were not a suite/elite benefit. I'm the one who kicks myself if I forget to pack some pods and have to buy detergent!

[cadreamer]

When is the best time to try to use the laundry? I assume they get pretty busy.

[moki'smommy]

When is the best time to try to use the laundry? I assume they get pretty busy.

Obviously they are busiest on sea days, so if you choose to stay on board on a port day, that's a great time. Beyond that, it is pretty much luck of the draw. On our Japan cruise, I saw a woman come in with laundry and fill all 4 machines (fortunately mine was in the dryer). That room seemed to be pretty busy much of the time. On the Caribbean Princess last month, I walked into the room to find one dryer in use and both washers available. Obviously there was an empty dryer when my wash was done. This was about 4pm on a sea day.

 

There are multiple laundry rooms on each ship. What I did was to go over to the closest one with nothing. When I saw empty washers, I went back and got my laundry. Sure, they could have filled up in the few minutes I was gone, but better than dragging stuff that I couldn't do. There are people who seem to get out of bed and do laundry. There are others who feel that later in the day is the right time. There is no way to predict when you'll find machines available.

 

The other thing I've done is when someone has a washer nearly finished, I'll sit there till it is finished. As soon as their stuff comes out, it is my turn!