Cabins not ready until 4:30- is this a thing now?!

[JinxyB]

Embarked the Joy today in NYC and cabins were not ready until 4:30 - they made repeated announcements about this. I find this concerning. Yes, I know the stewards are stretched thin, but 4:30?? This just seems really late to me- worse than a hotel check in. If this a new industry standard, then it would be nice to know. BTW, my cabin was pretty grubby- smears of stuff on doors and gray hairs in bathroom and balcony (my hair is dark brown). 

Edited July 10, 2023 by JinxyB

[chillyw]

They weren't ready until about 3:30 or so on the Encore this week. Think it's likely the new normal with staff cutbacks.

[omahabob]

45 minutes ago, JinxyB said:

....smears of stuff on doors and gray hairs in bathroom and balcony (my hair is dark brown). 

 

Never been on the Joy, so it WASN'T me.

 

But my hair USED to be dark brown.

 

Edited July 10, 2023 by omahabob

[All-ready2cruise]

Please, stop the nonsense. The staff are being run off their feet. Please be more understanding!!

[mccoy132]

I just got off the Joy today and the cabins were ready around 3:30pm last week.  

 

Have a great cruise!

[www3traveler]

22 minutes ago, All-ready2cruise said:

Please, stop the nonsense. The staff are being run off their feet. Please be more understanding!!

THANK YOU  Can not imagine how they accomplish as much as they do on Turnaround Day.  I would not want a housekeeping job on a cruise ship.

[All-ready2cruise]

I had a great cruise thanks to the staff and crew.  I boarded the Escape on June 25th, I can't even image the trauma suffered by the crew, the staff, the officers and those passengers still on the ship. 

Image what the crew must have gone threw just trying to get settled enough to go forward with their work for those of us to board the ship after going through to tragedy of losing a port worker and the injury of another.  

My hope is that the cruise lines, those who  benefit greatly from the hard work of the port of Miami workers, will in some way, assist the families of those affected in the tragic accident. God Bless all those affected. 

[LatinaInTexas]

Staff cutbacks? Cabins not ready until 4:30 because of this? Does this mean dinner will be late, shows will be late, everything will be late because of staff cutbacks, or just cabin cleaning?

[All-ready2cruise]

Certainly not in my case and even if it did, I'd accept it! ! Cabin care is priority. 

[RB9643]

14 minutes ago, LatinaInTexas said:

Staff cutbacks? Cabins not ready until 4:30 because of this? Does this mean dinner will be late, shows will be late, everything will be late because of staff cutbacks, or just cabin cleaning?

 

Cabins are a crapshoot. 3:30 last September on Joy. Your cruise is likely at capacity, ours wasn't.

 

Shows and dining won't change but be patient at the bars. Our best luck was the whiskey and mojito bars, but they have a more limited selection of drinks.

 

Just have fun and roll with it (hopefully not literally).

 

 

Edited July 10, 2023 by RB9643

[LMaxwell]

Pay more for daily services

Less staff; more guests

Raking in money

But the services aren't done in a timely manner

Needs to be a bit more of a balance in there

Guests allow company to get away with it by being "understanding"

No one says you need to be mean about it, or get upset with the front line worker that doesn't make the decisions

But stop giving cruise lines free passes to continue reducing service levels and standards. 3:30-4:30 for rooms to be available is pretty late, in my opinion. 

 

If you keep allowing this, 4PM will become standard and you can pay an additional fee for 1 or 2pm. Watch and see...

[shof515]

norwegian has the highest gratuities price of 20 dollars a day. it sucks to be paying more for less service. this also happens at land too

[RB9643]

14 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

But stop giving cruise lines free passes to continue reducing service levels and standards.

 

 

Yeah, let's all just quit cruising.  That'll work.  🙄

 

 

[HHI Cruiser1]

59 minutes ago, LatinaInTexas said:

Staff cutbacks? Cabins not ready until 4:30 because of this? Does this mean dinner will be late, shows will be late, everything will be late because of staff cutbacks, or just cabin cleaning?

What shows?  Those were cut a long time ago......  or downsized to solo acts or game shows.

[RB9643]

20 minutes ago, HHI Cruiser1 said:

What shows?  Those were cut a long time ago......  or downsized to solo acts or game shows.

 

Whoa!  What NCL ships are downsized to only solo acts and game shows?

 

 

Edited July 10, 2023 by RB9643

[omahabob]

1 hour ago, LMaxwell said:

...Raking in money...

 

Based on what? Looks like they lost $2.269 billion in 2022.

 

https://www.nclhltd.com/investors/sec-filings/all-sec-filings/content/0001104659-23-052206/tm232119d5_ars.pdf

[BirdTravels]

5 hours ago, JinxyB said:

Embarked the Joy today in NYC and cabins were not ready until 4:30 - they made repeated announcements about this.

Not a real thing now. 

[CruiserJ03]

Average land hotel check in is 200pm to 400pm. This is generally what I've experienced on the ship as well, but a lot can happen on turn over day. Considering 20 something cabins per steward, 900am vacant time and 15m a cabin around 6 hours or so for the last cabins to be ready 330pm or so. I usually store carryons or quickly place them in the room, say a quick intro to the steward and let them do their thing for the afternoon. I'm usually occupied with lunch, drinks, ship orientation and dinner otherwise.

[SeekingKillerWhales!]

I don't mind a later room ready time, or once a day service, or paying a small fee for room service. But when I check into my room that first day it has to be clean. I'm not living in someone else's filth. NCL needs to have enough staffing to get the rooms clean. Everything else is gravy, but that is a must have. And yes, I'll wait until 9pm for a sparkling room. 😁 Prefer not to, but clean is more important than early. 

[JinxyB]

3 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

Pay more for daily services

Less staff; more guests

Raking in money

But the services aren't done in a timely manner

Needs to be a bit more of a balance in there

Guests allow company to get away with it by being "understanding"

No one says you need to be mean about it, or get upset with the front line worker that doesn't make the decisions

But stop giving cruise lines free passes to continue reducing service levels and standards. 3:30-4:30 for rooms to be available is pretty late, in my opinion. 

 

If you keep allowing this, 4PM will become standard and you can pay an additional fee for 1 or 2pm. Watch and see...

Exactly! I’m not ripping off anyone’s head over this or anything. Just disappointed. Boarding was delayed 2 hours because the wifi went down on the ship and terminal and I just wanted to put my carry on in the room and rest after a very long travel day. 
 

I get prices have gone up, but increasing gratuities and decreasing services is not cool. And my room could at least be clean if there was such a delay. Walking in bare feet on the carpet and there are large crumbs and hair stuck to my feet, so it wasn’t even vacuumed or mopped. 🤮 I don’t think that’s too much to ask. The excuse of at least we can cruise, and the poor staff are so over worked and blah blah is old and tiresome. No one is forcing anyone to work on these ships. I guess the answer is to take my business elsewhere. I love NCL overall and have been pretty loyal over the years, so once I use up my cruise next certs, I will make a decision to move on or not.

Edited July 10, 2023 by JinxyB

[SpainAlien]

I had a similar experience on Dawn in June and when posting on CC about it got a lot of negative posts saying that I was either not being truthful or over reacting. I am sorry that you are experiencing this, I was hoping that my experience was a one-off.  Go to guest services and make a complaint, it is only by people complaining on the ship that anything will change otherwise it will be assumed to be acceptable.

[insidecabin]

It is really important to check your cabin carefully before moving in.

 

How clean is the bathroom

Has all the storage options been cleared check everything.

 

Get onto cabin steward/housekeeping to get anything rectified before they knock off for the day, the later they say they are ready the less time you will have.

 

To many cases of sloppy turnarounds, bathrooms not cleaned to adiquate standard.

Leftover detritus from previous passengers not removed.

 

Two cruises in a month, different ships(Star/Dawn), both cabins needed rectified.

 

Another issue will be during the cruise many cabins won't get serviced till late afternoon and you can expect things to get missed.(might be minor but should not be happening)

 

Make sure you have a stock of spare towels, we always double up first day as most cruises we can have a no service day.

With the move to one service and no housekeeping around after around 6pm you can't just grab a towel from a steward in the evening.

 

This is change to single long day service is not working for a lot of people.

 

They need to put some people on cabin check duty

 

I recall in the past on some ships they had support workers on turnaround striping down cabins and cleaning duties.

 

 

Marella a UK operation have teams of three doing cabins, they can turn a cabin round very quickly and have more eyes on the job which helps avoid missing tasks.

[Twolittleboys]

7 hours ago, All-ready2cruise said:

Please, stop the nonsense. The staff are being run off their feet. Please be more understanding!!

 

I am sorry but I don't quite get this. Sure, if someone said "My cabin wasn't ready so I gave the room attendant a piece of my mind" I would understand. But remarks/complaints that one is not happy with the current level of service (i.e. not a specific worker but the company policy)?

 

When I go on a cruise I pay for a service, not engaging in charity work. Of course I will be understanding if a specific person has an issue/makes a mistake. That is human and we all should extend grace (and be polite)!

 

But I don't see why I should be understanding for a company policy? I can agree or disagree with it and use this to inform future decisions without feeling guilty about it.

[LatinaInTexas]

8 hours ago, HHI Cruiser1 said:

What shows?  Those were cut a long time ago......  or downsized to solo acts or game shows.

Well that's not a true statement at all. Was just on the Getaway in May and there were two, count them, TWO big production shows.

[insidecabin]

2 hours ago, Twolittleboys said:

 

I am sorry but I don't quite get this. Sure, if someone said "My cabin wasn't ready so I gave the room attendant a piece of my mind" I would understand. But remarks/complaints that one is not happy with the current level of service (i.e. not a specific worker but the company policy)?

 

When I go on a cruise I pay for a service, not engaging in charity work. Of course I will be understanding if a specific person has an issue/makes a mistake. That is human and we all should extend grace (and be polite)!

 

But I don't see why I should be understanding for a company policy? I can agree or disagree with it and use this to inform future decisions without feeling guilty about it.

If the employee is unable to do their job in the time allocated that's between them and their employer, the employee should be addressing the issue it should not be upto passengers to accept sub standard service and having to repeatedly raise concerns.

 

Giving any individual crew members a break(overlooking the shortcomings and not raising the issues) because they are rushed off their feet is not an acceptable solution.

 

If they have to work longer hours to get my cabin ready that's not my problem.