Turn Down Service Requests

[Shidah]

7 hours ago, New2cruise2022 said:

If they were putting steak knives at the crafting table in the kids club on board, your point might be a valid parallel. If they removed all signage and changed all of the protocols for the pools and hot tubs, your blanket statement about liabilities might carry some weight. 

So post signs all over the room not to trip on the pulled out couch, problem solved.  

[Southerngal410]

So is it officially changed on all ships now? I had thought it said it would be a gradual changeZ 

[ellewoods]

21 hours ago, luv2kroooz said:

It clearly is time to revisit value. Truth be told, we really don't even require the services of a stateroom steward or the excessive fees that come with him or her at this point. We are adults and can keep our stateroom tidy for seven or ten days just like we do at our condo rentals when we do land based vacations. We can invest one minute a day to make our beds each morning. We have the app for show schedules. The only thing we may require is a towel refresh mid week and would be pleased to provide a small gratuity for the towel exchange service. Don't call us; we'll call you approach. I like how this sounds. Plus, it is one less room that the overworked crew on NCL has to deal with.

You can make your own bed and tidy your own room?! You definitely do not belong on a cruise ship. 

We sailed the Haven this past month. We often asked our steward to skip the night service anyway. I don’t understand the need for multiple services a day. This seems like a very small thing to be upset about. Anytime we’ve had sofa bed/Pullman beds we have asked for them to remain open at all times in case someone wanted to rest. We’ve sailed in every kind of room from inside staterooms to suites and have never had an issue working around it. 

[New2cruise2022]

9 minutes ago, ellewoods said:

You can make your own bed and tidy your own room?! You definitely do not belong on a cruise ship. 

We sailed the Haven this past month. We often asked our steward to skip the night service anyway. I don’t understand the need for multiple services a day. This seems like a very small thing to be upset about. Anytime we’ve had sofa bed/Pullman beds we have asked for them to remain open at all times in case someone wanted to rest. We’ve sailed in every kind of room from inside staterooms to suites and have never had an issue working around it. 

YMMV

[Miss Abbi]

18 hours ago, Shidah said:

So post signs all over the room not to trip on the pulled out couch, problem solved.  

I’ve been on over 20 cruises and stayed in almost every category.  NCL is more like Royal and Carnival than not.  Personally, I am happy with the one day room check.  On Carnival, you can even call housekeeping yourself and request an extra service. You just hit the housekeeping button on the phone.  I don’t need to be that pampered.  Cruises are still a very money friendly way to travel, imo.  I do think the new NCL ships are gorgeous.

[eileeshb]

I can see more people asking guest services to refund their service charges explain it’s because they’re giving less service for a higher cost and then just tip the steward, etc individually as it’s the one way to get the message through to NCL HQ. 
thankfully my next cruise has a service charge rate 2 steps behind the new rate as I booked it before the 2022 rate increase. 

[asmit4]

9 hours ago, eileeshb said:

I can see more people asking guest services to refund their service charges explain it’s because they’re giving less service for a higher cost and then just tip the steward, etc individually as it’s the one way to get the message through to NCL HQ. 
thankfully my next cruise has a service charge rate 2 steps behind the new rate as I booked it before the 2022 rate increase. 

In one way or another we will pay for it anyway. If NCL decides to bring back 2 a day service they will just up the cost of the cruise by a few bucks or whatever to make up for it. In the end- we are the ones that end up paying. 

[DrUrsula]

On 1/10/2023 at 5:58 PM, BirdTravels said:

 

 

Royal Caribbean started it. NCL followed. 

Do you know when RCL started? We were on Allure in  June ( non-suites) and had twice a day. 
Interesting!

Thanks for the info-as always!

[BirdTravels]

Just now, DrUrsula said:

Do you know when RCL started? We were on Allure in  June ( non-suites) and had twice a day. 
Interesting!

Thanks for the info-as always!

Recently. Not sure which ships have been changed at this time. We sailed on the Wonder and Quantum last year and had 2-times a day service. (We were in a Loft Suite on the Quantum,,, so we actually had two room stewards the "upstairs steward" and the "down stairs and balcony steward")

[OUTinMinnesota]

On 1/10/2023 at 8:06 AM, New2cruise2022 said:

To any current or recently returned cruisers that have experienced this, can twice daily be requested or is it prohibited?

 

 

I still hope to see an answer to the original question asked by New2cruise2022.  

 

Have any recently returned cruisers requested and received twice daily service in their NON-Haven cabin (tipping appropriately, of course!)?

[SplashOfWater]

1 minute ago, OUTinMinnesota said:

 

I still hope to see an answer to the original question asked by New2cruise2022.  

 

Have any recently returned cruisers requested and received twice daily service in their NON-Haven cabin (tipping appropriately, of course!)?

We just got off the Prima. We were in an Oceanview cabin and received twice daily service. We did not have to request it. 

[mking8288]

The changeover is rolling out today, starting with 2 NCL ships in the fleet - expect to read about it, urrrr, maybe later this evening and tomorrow.  Not expected to complete the changeover until end of March and NCL isn't publishing detailed schedule on CC, knowing that they are NOT going to be complimented by most outside of Haven & suites.  

 

Sailing soon & our Getaway housekeeping schedule isn't affected yet, but will switch at the beginning of February after 1 more short cruise.  Rest assured that there will be plenty of watchful eyes & ears everywhere.  

[SeekingKillerWhales!]

There really needs to be a look at the needs of the room. I'm in my own inside cabin, shower in the morning, and only need my room (very quickly) done once a day. Mostly to stock and make bed as I don't tend to make a mess. Night time service was a bit of a pain as sometimes I had to wait for them to finish, and on my last cruise there was no chocolate on the pillow, so what's the point? I've always hung my own towels (will ask for a change out/bedding change after night 5 on my 10 day), and pretty much clean up after myself. (Which is easy as no kids/sloppy significant other to undo all my good work. 😁)

 

But rooms with more than 1 or 2 people, where beds have to be rearranged so people can sleep, are very different. I believe everyone pays the tips, even 3rd and 4th passenger? If so, it's okay to give a room paying $80/day in tips more service verses my $20/day. (Plus individual tips, of course.) Hopefully over time people will figure out a way for everyone to get the service they need, and are happy with the service they want, and does of us that don't need a lot can "donate" our time to those that do.

[Buford T Justiice]

Bigger Trash receptacles and steward hallway patrols are going to be needed.  With three or more in a cabin the trash receptacles are not currently big enough in cabins to sustain 23 hours of debris. So folks are going to put full trash receptacles and cups, plates, saucers, etc. in the hallways...

[Honolulu Blue]

On 1/10/2023 at 10:49 PM, Southerngal410 said:

Had it already changed over to just once a day? I thought it was going to be a gradual change?

 

On 1/11/2023 at 3:39 PM, Southerngal410 said:

So is it officially changed on all ships now? I had thought it said it would be a gradual changeZ 

According to the article that announced this change (thanks NCL PR staff! 😛) at Norwegian Cruise Line Trimming Stateroom Cleaning, Cutting Crew Roles - Cruise Industry News | Cruise News, the following NCL ships have or will receive the change first:  Epic (Jan. 8), Sky (Jan. 13), Jewel (Jan. 14), Sun and Breakaway (Jan. 15).

 

So we should be receiving more reports on the effects of this soon.

[BirdTravels]

On 1/15/2023 at 12:52 PM, Buford T Justiice said:

Bigger Trash receptacles and steward hallway patrols are going to be needed.  With three or more in a cabin the trash receptacles are not currently big enough in cabins to sustain 23 hours of debris. 

What debris are you generating on a cruise ship? Drink straws? We cruise a half dozen times a year and our trash cans are mostly unused. 

[pghflyer]

The removal of turn-down, which we initially didn't think so important and didn't pay attention to (in my head: I can fold my sheets back off my pillow and turn on bedside lights myself).....turns out to mean more than we appreciated.

 

Just back from Jade in Greece/ Turkey.   We never saw or heard from our room steward at all, a first on any cruise we have ever taken. They were a name on a card on our phone but never saw them or heard from them. Cleaning of rooms was definitely a longer affair as the carts were out in the hall most hours of every day. Our room was moderately cleaned every day but no extra touches and not even cleaned particularly well (we often found hair/ lint on the floor so not vacuumed daily, friends found previous guest clothing and garbage in their room).  Any plates/ cups we brought back to the room now sit there 24-hours until next cleaning service. Also no ice bucket at all and without evening turn down, not sure how we would have gotten ice for our evening use delivered (yes, we could have called but....).  

 

Not a substantial loss in what we are primarily paying for, but definitely a significant loss in the nice touch of entering your room every evening to low lights, curtain drawn, room touched up, occasional towel animal (ha ha those days are clearly gone), daily flyer on the bed (now stuck on your door), and ice by our glasses. Makes cruising less special, even if I might not put a dollar value on it.

 

I heard so many people comment on this, I think it made a bigger difference than anyone (us and NCL) appreciated. It is interesting that service charges INCREASED 25% but our actual service received DECREASED by about 35%. I know there is inflation but it feels like this was more about profit margin. This is the first cruise we didn't leave any small token extra tip for our steward, but I guess may be how things go now - I feel bad for them as I know they work hard and seems like they now have more work and less time to provide personal service.

[Amberle3]

1 hour ago, pghflyer said:

The removal of turn-down, which we initially didn't think so important and didn't pay attention to (in my head: I can fold my sheets back off my pillow and turn on bedside lights myself).....turns out to mean more than we appreciated.

 

I found the same thing on my recent RCI cruise. Mind you I did have the worst cabin steward I have ever had on a cruise, but the lack of evening/turndown service was definitely noticed.

 

We did get 2 towel animals during the 10 night cruise. I know some people think they're silly but they always make me smile, and making the guest smile is always a good thing. But we saw our cabin steward a grand total of 3 times during the 10 nights - once on embarkation day when he make sure to introduce himself, once when he made a point of coming over to us in the hallway to chastise us, and once a few days later when we passed him in the hallway.  That was it.

I asked on our FB chat/group what others were experiencing with their housekeeping service and the overall reports were very similar - rarely if ever saw their cabin steward.  I really feel like that "personal connection" is missing from that service, which is a shame because the personal connection is one of the things that makes cruising so special.

[Greenpea2]

On 1/18/2023 at 8:43 AM, BirdTravels said:

What debris are you generating on a cruise ship? Drink straws? We cruise a half dozen times a year and our trash cans are mostly unused. 

I know! Ours too! But maybe people who do a lot of room service throw more stuff away...other than that I don't see what trash they would have. The dailies? 

[ChiefMateJRK]

7 hours ago, pghflyer said:

I know there is inflation but it feels like this was more about profit margin.

It is about profit margin.  The cruise lines are a business and they need a positive profit margin to survive.  I can live with a few years of less pampering if it means I'll be able to enjoy cruising the rest of my life.  And no, I'm not about to take it out on my over-worked room steward by stiffing him/her on an additional gratuity.

[BirdTravels]

I am on Day 2 of a cruise and have talked to my room steward a half dozen times. Not in depth discussions, more of the “have a great day” conversations and he has bent over backwards for us. 

[pghflyer]

1 hour ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

It is about profit margin.  The cruise lines are a business and they need a positive profit margin to survive.  I can live with a few years of less pampering if it means I'll be able to enjoy cruising the rest of my life.  And no, I'm not about to take it out on my over-worked room steward by stiffing him/her on an additional gratuity.

To be clear, I did NOT advocate "stiffing" anyone their gratuity. I fully support and participate in the auto gratuity program.

[ChiefMateJRK]

46 minutes ago, pghflyer said:

To be clear, I did NOT advocate "stiffing" anyone their gratuity. I fully support and participate in the auto gratuity program.

 

9 hours ago, pghflyer said:

This is the first cruise we didn't leave any small token extra tip for our steward

 

2 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

I'm not about to take it out on my over-worked room steward by stiffing him/her on an additional gratuity.

Just piece all of those together and you'll likely get my point.

 

That said, just tip what you want.  I'll do the same.  I don't tip them the astronomical amounts that some here (claim to) do.  I also don't leave the cupboard bare.  I really like these people and hope to brighten their day just a bit after I've had the time of my life (again).😎

 

ETA: I always book inside, so maybe I have a few more $$$ to share than some of the others on the ship.

Edited April 11, 2023 by ChiefMateJRK

[AK Dreaming]

15 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

I am on Day 2 of a cruise and have talked to my room steward a half dozen times. Not in depth discussions, more of the “have a great day” conversations and he has bent over backwards for us. 

What ship?

[The Traveling Man]

On 1/10/2023 at 8:15 AM, wolft927 said:

I am assuming, (bad to do) that any pullman or sofa beds will have a second service in the afternoon.I am also assuming this would have to be requested, but i am sure it can be done. 

There have been several reports on CC of Pullman and sofa beds only being made up in the morning, not tucked away for the day and then pulled out in the evening.  They either are being left out all day or they are being put away and the passengers are having to pull them out at night.