How important is room attendent for you??

[kyriecat]

I agree with the three. The only other thing to know is where the ice maker is located. And only bring clean hands.

Is getting ice still part of the steward's duties? I know there is usually an ice machine outside the Windjammer on the pool deck (became familiar with it on Legend:rolleyes: ) but cabin stewards used to bring you a filled ice bucket in the morning and evening. Maybe I was blaming our steward for not bringing ice but that was removed from her duties. Doesn't make up for the rest of it.

[vickiw0318]

Since we like to lounge around in the mornings on sea days, I always tell the steward on the first day not to worry about us on those days at all. I'd hate to feel like he/she was hanging around just to finish up our room. If we happen to see him/her, DH will ask for more ice. I just straighten up the small space myself in the morning. (The smaller the space I am in, the neater I like to keep it.) We do a towel exchange, if one is beyond Save the Waves status, in the evenings.

[fireofficer5]

Is getting ice still part of the steward's duties? I know there is usually an ice machine outside the Windjammer on the pool deck (became familiar with it on Legend:rolleyes: ) but cabin stewards used to bring you a filled ice bucket in the morning and evening. Maybe I was blaming our steward for not bringing ice but that was removed from her duties. Doesn't make up for the rest of it.

Normally the room steward fills the ice bucket twice a day. Within three hours its all melted. So find out early where the ice maker is.

And thats not the guy doing the ice carvings. :p ( attempt at humor)

[petesweet]

We love to have a personal encounter regularly with our room steward. On the Serenade we had a great guy (Skinner). It was especially important to us to have a good one since we were in the same room for 28 days (B2B).

 

We let him know the first day that he didn't need to bother to fill the ice bucket for us and also that we went to bed early so he could put us on his schedule first for evening turndown. He was terrific, but we are also easy to please.

[misty57]

We've never had any special requests and have always had good service, except on the Freedom. Our cabin attendant never introduced him or herself. The room was neglected until late in the day. The telephone book (the one that is in a blue leatherlike cover) was missing after the second day. We went to guest relations to report that... I didn't want to be held responsible. Someone elses excursion tickets were delivered to our cabin... and we didn't recieve an evaluation form at the end. The best and most pleasant staff we have encountered were on the Vision and the Voyager.

[SweetumsOne]

Hubby is devoted runner who DRIPS when done. Our stateroom attendant always gets extra for keeping us tidy despite drying laundry and soggy shoes. Our SRA's have been great, whether we are traveling with family or just adult friends. The towel animals are always a welcome sight. We did a B2B in Feb/March '08 and Mary got us different C&A gifts for the second cruise and extra totes as graduation gifts for the 4 non-cruisers we took along for youngest childs HS graduation A great staeroom attendant can make a small stateroom feel like home.

[RoyalCruiser2007]

My recent cruise on the Majesty of the Seas was the first one where I never met our room attendant until the morning of debarkation. It was my fault, not his. I was never in the room. My girlfriend met him a few times and he was very nice to her. We always had everything nicely made up in the room and cool towel animals. He even left us chocolate mints every day. He did a great job and we left him a nice tip. When I finally met him he was very nice.

[01Sweetpea]

As long as my bed is made, I have clean towels, and my room is neat, O'm a happy camper.

 

The towel animals are a bonus! Although I'd probably be a little disappointed if I didn't get them.

[Linda/Ohio]

We usually try to meet him/her the first day. We explain our schedule. After that point we don't usually have much contact--we are looking for a clean cabin and clean towels--on our schedule. We take the time the first day to mention that we prefer not to be bothered early in the morning. We also use that little card thing in the door to let them know when we are leaving.

[Happy ks]

We don't need the cabin attendants to be our buddies, especially when we know they are so busy it's hard for them to take time to chat. All we ask is our cabin cleaned every day...and we do like the chocolate left on the pillow :)

 

So far, we've only had one attendant we didn't care for so I guess we've done well. It's such an individual thing, some are more personable than others.

 

Same thing with dining room staff, although sometimes they are fun and it's interesting getting to know them. If they are efficient and friendly, but don't want to chat a lot with us, we're fine with that.

[twoputt.plusone]

Last week we were on Vision of the Seas....In our haste to meet up with another couple at the tender boats to Cabo.... My hubby ran to the room to get our passports....

When we returned I was horrified............... my wallet was on laying on the end of the bed....and the safe was wide open with some of my very best jewelry, all of our cash, and many credit cards....... also one of my gold dinner rings laying on the table...

In his haste he left it all out...

I appoligized to Marley our room attendant for putting her in a position to be accused of something horrible.... Not a thing had been touched....

I wrote very good comments on the card... and she got and extra tip at the end of the week..... I was quite impressed...

 

Our cabin steward that we had earlier this month told me that if he enters a cabin and the safe is opened, he immediately leaves the room and gets a supervisor to watch while he completes his cleaning. That totally eliminates the possibility of being accused of anything.

 

2P.P1

[retnuh281]

Last Spring Break on NOS we had two 14 yr old girls with us and we had a contest with the girls. Throughout the day we would meet different staff on the ship and see how many different countries we could "meet". The girls didn't realize it but they were learning a little tid bit about each of these countries and it was really quite interesting. The steward and our wait staff didn't count because we all knew them. I can understand on a short cruise not ever meeting the steward but on the longer ones or B2B I can see how that can be really important.

[ship dog]

;) We have always been lucky to have great attendants looking after our cabins on 10 cruises. From the stewardess in Tahiti who made sure my wife's flowers were watered and lasted the whole cruise, the time my pillow had a strong perfume smell, he changed all the bedding and had the carpet steam cleaned because he could still smell it, to the wonderful Romanian stewardess who gave me heck for leaving the cabin without any shoes but made sure our cabin was immaculate and slapped her thighs as she talked to you. As most of you have said "bed made, some ice and clean towels, a couple of choc's on the pillow and we are happy campers.:D

[tip]

..and we have never ever had a complaint about our room steward. He certainly does much more for us than the maitred. Thus the room steward gets the "suggested tip" plus whatever is suggested for the maitred. Although I did have to chuckle when a member of the "Clothes Police" on this board bragged about tipping the maitred extra because he denied entry to the MDR to someone who was not dressed to her standards on formal night! Well, whatever is important to you, I guess.

[crusinmama06]

I can't say they would "make or break" my cruise because let's face it, I am still on a cruise. :D

 

But they can make it a better experience. :) Here are a couple of examples from our past cruises

 

--last month on Disney, the cabin attendant decided to throw away the pile of papers that I had on the desk. So not only did he throw away my Navigators and some art projects that the kids made in the club, he threw away the luggage tags. :eek: When I asked him where they were he said "I'll be back" and he brought them back to me covered in something wet since they had been in the garbage.

 

--on Elation, there was fresh and old blood spots on the comforter, pillows and sheets when we first got into the cabin. ewwwww

 

On the flip side

 

--One morning on Sensation, we were leaving the cabin and the attendant asked how everything was. Well my (never shy) 4 year old said "My bunny is gone! :( ) - She meant that the towel animal was changed into another animal and she was sad that the bunny towel was gone. Well when we came back to the cabin later that afternoon, there was a whole towel animal ZOO in the cabin. There were animals everywhere. Yes, the first thing I did was to march the kids out to find the cabin attendant and thank her (and of course, TIP her :D extra right there)

 

--On Freedom, the cabin attendant would dance down the hall every morning with the kids. :D It always made them giggle. Nice way to start out the morning with happy kids.

[retnuh281]

Blood on the sheets? How in the heck do you miss that? So these were the same sheets from the people before you?

I'm gonna puke. Any one have extra patches?

[sj25]

I think a room attendent can make a difference...

and now on the mariner we had to sign our name after he interduced himself and went over the procedures...but he just looked at us and said I don't know what to talk to you about...since it was our 5th on just the mariner...so he asked us to sign.

I then only saw him 2 times the whole cruise after that....and was disappointed since I talk with this other one more then my own.....I just put his tip envelope on the counter because I didn't know for sure who he was

there was a couple that looked alot alike...almost gave the tip to the wrong one..

 

I've also had the attendents that ask how your day was, know you by name, ect....

[crusinmama06]

Blood on the sheets? How in the heck do you miss that? So these were the same sheets from the people before you?

I'm gonna puke. Any one have extra patches?

 

I have NO idea. :eek: When I saw the fresh red blood all over the sheets my first thought was that the cabin attendant might have cut his finger when making the beds and just not realized it.

 

There were 3 beds in the cabin (uppers and lowers) and they all had blood on them. Not like someone was just murdered in the cabin blood, but there were some small streaks and spots.

 

Then when I looked at the pillow cases, they had dried brown blood on them. :eek:

 

I found him in the hallway, he came back, took one look, he's eyes got REAL big...lol...and he said "I will take care of these right away"...which he did. But yeah, it was eeekkkk. :eek:

[Desert Cruizers]

Our recent Cruise to Hawaii, our Attendant was in the hallway, saying hello to everyone that came out of their rooms, wishing us a wonderful day, so he was probably the best we have had in our 3 cruises and the previous ones were good.

 

Gay

[land lover]

I have had my worst attendant on RCI and my best...A good attendant definately makes the cruise more enjoyable.......

[retnuh281]

sj25? What exactly did you have to sign?

I'm still having problems with the blood thing, just the health issues is enough to make me jump over board.

[happysinglemom]

I personally don't want to make "friends" with the room attendant. I mean, in a hotel, I don't "buddy up" to the housekeeper.

 

I want fresh towels, the bed made, trash emptied....and I like it done as soon as I leave the room, so that should I return to the room, it's ready for me to use!

If they do that, all's well!

 

Agreed. If I never see them, as long as my room is clean, that is fine with me. I don't expect it done as soon as I leave though...obviously that isn't always practical. On a sea day, we might be in and out of the room many times. As long as it's done by the time we arrive back in the evening, to get ready for dinner, that works for me.

[royalcaribbeancruiservt]

We have been very lucky with our attendants. The best one was on Enchantment. Her name was Sylvia and she went above and beyond. We had an Owners Suite and were under the impression (false) that along with the fruit basket and bottle of water we were also supposed to get a bottle of champagne. It wasn't there so we asked her about it, she said she wasn't sure but she would check. She found us a little later and said that we weren't supposed to get that, but a short time later she put a bottle in our cabin!!!! :D We were impressed and made sure that she didn't have to pay for it. We tipped her generously at the end for all she did for us.

[tmoret]

Being that I work in the hotel industry so I can say that it really can make or break a vaction. To me it is all part of it. I have enjoyed conversations with some of our attendants on ships and for others just a nice warm smile and good morning can remind me why I love being on the ship..

[Pop Tart]

Well on the Navigator a few years ago during the Canadian March break we had our 3 children in an adjoining room. All was great! Our attendant was wonderful! I didn't fully appreciate her qualities until a few days into the March break cruise when one afternoon we came back to the cabin and she asked us if we had relatives on this cruise? We said No. Well, someone had staked us out and had tried to enter our cabin during the time when our attendant was cleaning the 2 rooms. The person tried to enter the room on the pretense of leaving something in therre! They knew our names and everything!!!:eek: Thankfully our wonderful attendant did not let this person in!!!!!

Of course we couldn't thank our attendant enough and gave her a

wonderful bonus on top of the usual tip at the end of the cruise.

 

On another cruise on the Brilliance our attendant was less than favourable, but that's another story!

 

Pop Tart