What makes a good room attedant?

[geojobes]

We've always had good cabin stewards. We've had both types also. I'm impressed by the ones that remember your name when they see you. I like the ones that say hello when they see you & are generally friendly. We are really undemanding & low maintenance. We like our cabin clean & our ice filled & don't ask for much else. The friendly ones get extra tips, because they made our cruise special.

[flsunnymommy]

I must say I was very impressed on our first cruise. The attendant was informed in advance that my son had autism and asked what he could do to make my son feel more comfortable. He left the towel animals for my son so that he had a zoo by the time we left. My son set up a fort in our room and the room attendent actually put it back together after making his bed and tucked in his stuffed animals. I was absolutley amazed.

[Pumbaamd]

Mr. Clement was our Cabin Steward. Between our two cruises, we had to move to the next cabin. Not a big deal for us, but Mr. Clement had to move our things. He moved all the hanging clothes, and more. We were very happy with what he did, and, of course, tipped him a little more extra $$$.

RCCL, if you are listening, Mr. Clement is an outstanding cabin attendant. We really appreciate what help is was to us. Thank you Mr. C!

Rick and Deirdra

[ALSEAU]

Reading through these responses it struck me that most people thought that a cabin steward doing his job made him a good attendant and made most people happy. I thought that the original poster was asking what made a GOOD cabin attendant. In my mind that means special.

 

Here is my take. First and foremost the room must be clean, enough hangers available, having all towels necessary including wash cloths and ice in the bucket. Towel animals are a nice touch. Half of my cruises have been in inside cabins so I probably don't get the cream of the crop. But what puts one over the top to me is when they see me in the hallway smile and address me and my wife by our name.

 

We just completed a B2B on Carnival. After the first week we filled out the comment card that even though our cabin steward did keep our room clean after a week we still didn't know who exactly he was. They really must read those cards because the first day of the second cruise our cabin attendant was smiling and introduce himself and addressed us by our names every time we saw him in the hallway.

 

Yes the comment card for the second week praised our attentive cabin steward.

[flagger]

Half of my cruises have been in inside cabins so I probably don't get the cream of the crop. But what puts one over the top to me is when they see me in the hallway smile and address me and my wife by our name.

We had an inside cabin last week and of all our cruises, Michael was the best we have ever had. We were down on Deck 2 of Liberty of the Seas. I even saw Ken Rush coming down the hall and said "What are you doing down among steerage?" and found he lived just down the hall behind the crew door.

 

Anyway Michael was great, anticipating our every need and even doing things ABOVE and beyond.

 

I said I would comment to HQ about him and on the ship and asked him which he preferred and he commented he would prefer if I wrote a letter to Miami. Though I commented on him on the onboard comment, I fired off a letter Monday praising him.

[Rancher Dave]

(s)he must at least meet minimum standards of keeping the cabin clean and properly stocked. They begin to get good when they let the towel animal zoo Greeting us in the hallway, responding quickly to reasonable requests helps as well. I don't care if I see them 50 times a day or only a few times on the cruise...I don't like if they turn and hide in another cabin as I walk by, I appreciate a hello and enjoy talking with them if they aren't too busy.

 

We are in GS on Sunday and that is a first for us, so I am interested to see if the folks servicing the GS and above cabins are a cut above the rest or if it just happens they have fewer but larger cabins. I would expect them to be a cut above since the cost of these cabins is a bit more...but we will see.

[ozcaz]

I dont know what makes a good cabin steward, but for us our last one was perfect.

 

Her name was Grace and she was from the Phillipines, and she was on our 28 day Legend of the Seas cruise.

She kept our room spotless, which is amazing in itself, considering some days we didnt get up until lunch. She would always smile and say hello when she saw us in the hallways.

 

But what got us was her sense of humor. We have two teddy bears that we travel with which have done over 100,000km of flying. We call them our kids

On sea days we would set them up in the window so they could see out. After a few days we came back and they were tucked up in bed. I had just seen Grace so i stuck my head out of the door and said thank you to her for putting the kids to bed. Her reply was that she told them they had had enough of looking out the window and it was time they went to bed. Each night she would put them to bed, one day she turned on the tv and put the cartoons on and put the kids at the bottom of the bed so they could see the tv. She made little towel friends out of face washers and some nights they would play. It was like having a nanny. We would come back at night to get ready for dinner and always saw Grace and ask if the kids were in bed. One day our friends went to knock on our door about 9am and she went no! They sleep till lunch lol She told us she always knew when we were off the boat on shore days. The kids were gone.

 

So for us she made a wonderful cabin lady and after a month of being together we miss her.

 

Caz and Rog

[Debde]

I too do not know what qualities make a great stateroom attendant.

Our first-we never saw but our room was spotless and stocked everyday.

Our second was- and we will never forget his name-Ricky. He was the best-funny and my kids looked forward to seeing him.

Our next one-in a GS was unbelievable. I told my husband he acted more like our own personal butler. So attentive and by the end of the cruise he had us all saying Excellant as whenever we asked, 'how are you today' he always responded 'Excellant'.

 

One thing I have learnd about RC is service is number one from all employees in our eyes!

[Cruising89143]

A clean cabin with plenty of clean towels. I don't need to chat with my room steward. A good morning/afternoon/evening between the two of us more than works for me. These folks have a lot to do and I for one don't want to be responsible for slowing them down.

[I'm on holiday]

We have always had great attendants until our last cruise. We were in the Presidential Suite and as soon as we arrived our attendant, Chris, introduced himself and then told us that he was very tired and would be back after 3:00 so show us everything in the suite. When he came back he told us that he had been with RCCL for 14 years and this was his last cruise because RCCl had made him sick-too much stress and now mentally unstable!! I had to talk to him because my girls (13,13.13) were uncomfortable around him and refused to be in the cabin without a parent. He asked them about boyfriends, told them their dresses weren't SEXY enough and gave them advice on makeup. He told my mom about his wife in India and that she is a prostitute. I reported him to his supervisor after all of this and the rest of the week there was no eye contact.

 

OMG :eek:

[MDSue]

Our last attendant on Royal Caribbean was my favorite so far and it was just the little things that made the difference. She knew we liked a bucket of ice for our drinks when we returned from port and without fail it was always there. We didn't see her often, but our room was always immaculate and all our needs were met. We made sure we tipped her well.

The first attendant that I had on Carnival was not as friendly. He wasn't happy that we brought our own sodas onboard and resented us using the refrigerater for them. Other than that he was okay, but the resentment didn't win him any brownie points. I know they want to sell there own sodas and water, but they don't sell the brand that I like and the money we saved on the purchace of sodas and water, were were able to spend on other onboard items.

I do admire all the hard work that the attendants do everyday and their schedules are grueling, so I always make sure to treat them well and tip accordingly.