How loing before you met your cabin steward?

[chloes nana]

I have read many different stories on CC about the wonderful cabin stewards on HAL. Having never cruised before, I was wondering how long was it before your cabin steward introduced himself to you?? Should you search them out, or wait for them to come by??:)

[Boytjie]

They have always appeared when we go to the cabin for the first time. This year they had the two-steward teams in place on the Eurodam and we met both of them soon after we got to our cabin.

[jtl513]

I have read many different stories on CC about the wonderful cabin stewards on HAL. Having never cruised before, I was wondering how long was it before your cabin steward introduced himself to you?? Should you search them out, or wait for them to come by??:)

We've usually had them stop by within the first 20 to 30 minutes or so after we get in the cabin. Sometimes it isn't until he brings your first bag by. Sometimes there's a "business card' in the cabin with his name, and if we see a steward in the hall before he has come by to introduce himself we'll ask "Are you XXX?". Other than that, we've never gone searching for one.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

I have read many different stories on CC about the wonderful cabin stewards on HAL. Having never cruised before, I was wondering how long was it before your cabin steward introduced himself to you?? Should you search them out, or wait for them to come by??:)

Usually with in about 30 minutes of arriving at our cabin when they annouce the cabins are ready. We have usually been one of those people that love to be in the first wave of passengers boarding so we go up to the Lido for lunch. At that time the cabins are not ready. Usually between 1 and 1:30 they make the annoucement that the cabins are ready. The cabin steward will normally come to our cabin and knock on the door to introduce himself and ask if we have any questions or need anything.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Our cabin stewards usually stop by within the first 1/2 hour.

Some will ask how many pieces of luggage we have.

[Harry1954]

We have usually seen them in the first thirty minutes of entering our cabin; however there have been a couple times where that was not the case. I suspect they were preoccupied with finishing up prior segment issues or in one case I know the person was brand new and really was lost.

harry

[Sage]

On our last cruise, we were very lucky, as our cabin was ready when we arrived, and our cabin stewards were in the cabin waiting for us, as the Concierge took us inside. Generally though, they show up within a short period of time after you have arrived, 20 minutes or so.

[chloes nana]

thanks for all the quick answers! It is good to know they are there so soon after arrival, one less thing to worry about.;)

[whogo]

I never met our steward on our 12 day HAL holiday cruise.

[chloes nana]

I never met our steward on our 12 day HAL holiday cruise.

wow! :confused: did you inquire about him??

[ROZO'SBEAU]

20-30 minutes max...we have 8 HAL cruises under our belts.

[sail7seas]

Ditto for us.....

 

Our cabin stewards have almost always stopped in to meet us withint the first 20-30 minutes we are in our cabin.

 

They always ask if there is anything additional we need and inquire how many suitcases to look for.

 

[kaykay51]

Our upcoming cruise will be our first HAL. OUr first Princess cruise, our first cruise in almost 10 yrs., our cabin steward was in the room immediately introducing himself, asking if we neede anything, etc. I wanted to just look at the room and forgo the formalities. He was our best cabin steward so far. On our second Caribbean Princess cruise we NEVER met or saw our steward and he was horrible. He never emptied ash trays, left food trays in the room and hallway. On the last formal night we had some sangria, complete with fruit in the glass. When we left the ship 2 days later that glass was still sitting in our cabin!! ANeedless to say he didn't get an extra tip!

[mrsltg]

On all of my cruises (HAL and otherwise) it was within the first 20-30 minutes. I like that. I like knowing who's going to be in my cabin. I don't know why as I really don't care when I'm at a hotel???

[innlady1]

Same here. within 20 or 30 minutes. We usually have lunch in the Main Dining Room upon embarkation, and the announcement usually comes on while we're finishing lunch. Same thing. They come in the room, introduce themselves, ask if we need anything, how many suitcases we have, etc.

 

Once they finish the rooms, I think they "hover" around the area doing "busy work" in preparation of their guests embarking so they can introduce themselves at the beginning.

 

We only had one steward this past cruise. We were on the stern, and those cabins and one or two around the corner were assigned to one.

[whogo]

I never met our steward on our 12 day HAL holiday cruise.

 

wow! :confused: did you inquire about him??

I did not miss him or them. I called housekeeping to have the bed configuration changed. The fruit basket was not filled until day 10 and the room was sometimes not made up until after 12, no big deal to me. I was only in the cabin to sleep, bathe and dress.

[chloes nana]

Ditto for us.....

 

Our cabin stewards have almost always stopped in to meet us withint the first 20-30 minutes we are in our cabin.

 

They always ask if there is anything additional we need and inquire how many suitcases to look for.

 

does that hold true for the veranda cabins as well, and not just the suites and penthouse??

[Sage]

Yes, you should see your cabin steward or stewards quickly after entering your cabin regardless of your accomodations.

[chloes nana]

Yes, you should see your cabin steward or stewards quickly after entering your cabin regardless of your accomodations.

perfect! can someone get me on my ship now????? I don't want to wait until August :(

[jtl513]

does that hold true for the veranda cabins as well, and not just the suites and penthouse??

All cabin classes. Sometimes the stewards get distracted with some other task, and don't stop by early, but don't worry if that happens. That only happened to us once in 9 HAL cruises.

 

Make it a point to get the correct pronunciation and spelling of their name in that first meeting and they will make it a point to give you very good service!

On our only RCCL cruise we never met our stewardess. We knew who she was because there was a card with her picture in the room, but she never spoke to us in the hallway other than a brief greeting.

[Rabbitlady]

Surprising to us, but we met our cabin steward the 2nd day and that was only after we asked him if he was one of our stewards. The Eurodam was packed that week so maybe they were very busy. It was the first time in all of our HAL cruises where the stewards did not introduce himself/themselves within the first our of arriving. They did tell us they had 30 cabins to clean and that's probably why we got no turndown our first night and then cleanup during the day took until 2:30pm.

RL

 

RL

[countrygal52]

On our HAL cruise to Alaska, we were walking down the hallway looking for our room and there were lots of stewards around all smiling and saying hello. It just happened that one of the ones we asked for help in finding our room was our own steward Daniel. "Hello, my name is Daniel and I will be taking care of you in suite # _____." (We had a veranda suite:D). He was wonderful! I had ordered the Bon Voyage pkg. of champaigne and balloons - the balloons were taped to the outside of our door and the champ.on ice. We didn't think to take our glass of champ. topside when leaving port, we were just so busy looking everything over and excitedly watching sailaway. (Our first ever cruise!). He changed the ice in the bucket the next day while we were at lunch (we overslept and missed breakfast- luckily it was an "at sea" day!:o) and then we had it on our balcony while waiting to go down to dinner, which also happened to be our first formal night. He was always picking up after us and making sure we had everything we needed. It seemed almost comical that almost every time we opened our door we saw at least 2-3 stewards in the hallway or just coming out of their little housekeeping closet.

[chloes nana]

On our HAL cruise to Alaska, we were walking down the hallway looking for our room and there were lots of stewards around all smiling and saying hello. It just happened that one of the ones we asked for help in finding our room was our own steward Daniel. "Hello, my name is Daniel and I will be taking care of you in suite # _____." (We had a veranda suite:D). He was wonderful! I had ordered the Bon Voyage pkg. of champaigne and balloons - the balloons were taped to the outside of our door and the champ.on ice. We didn't think to take our glass of champ. topside when leaving port, we were just so busy looking everything over and excitedly watching sailaway. (Our first ever cruise!). He changed the ice in the bucket the next day while we were at lunch (we overslept and missed breakfast- luckily it was an "at sea" day!:o) and then we had it on our balcony while waiting to go down to dinner, which also happened to be our first formal night. He was always picking up after us and making sure we had everything we needed. It seemed almost comical that almost every time we opened our door we saw at least 2-3 stewards in the hallway or just coming out of their little housekeeping closet.

Thank you for that wonderful story. it made me smile:) and want to go on our fisrt cruise even more. I can hardly wait, only 98 more days, 8 hours, 37 minutes, 18 seconds......:rolleyes:

[naturetchr]

Can you give me details on how the whole tipping thing works? Should we tip when we meet? Is there tip deducted from the money we had to place on a ship charge? How much is that? What comes out of that charge? Should we modify the tip (up or down based on service) at the end of the trip? As you can guess this is our first trip.

[Boytjie]

Should we tip when we meet?

 

To me that seems too much like a bribe. Tips are usually given after services rendered, not before.

 

Is there tip deducted from the money we had to place on a ship charge?

I don't know what charge you had to place, tips are not charged in advance.

 

How much is that? What comes out of that charge? Should we modify the tip (up or down based on service) at the end of the trip?

HAL calls it a Hotel Service Charge (and is generally referred to as 'tips'):

Service Charge of US$11 per passenger is automatically charged to each guest's shipboard account. If our service exceeds or fails to meet your expectations, you are free to adjust this amount at the end of the cruise. The Hotel Service Charge is paid entirely to Holland America Line crew members, and represents an important part of their total compensation package.

 

Regarding beverages there is a service a charge added to every order:

A 15% service charge is automatically added to bar charges and dining room wine purchases.

The $11 hotel service charge is added daily per person while on the cruise. It is split between cabin stewards, dining room servers and other behind the scenes crew.

 

The service charges should be sufficient to take care of most tipping but many will tip extra for cabin stewards and other servers especially if the feel they received extra special service.

 

We usually give our cabin stewards an extra tip and also others that have gone above and beyond to serve us. For example to a bar man (on the Caribbean Princess) that chilled our own champagne and made sure we had glass flutes for a little sunset get together we arranged with friends on the last evening. (We did also purchase champagne from the ship)

 

As you can guess this is our first trip.

Enjoy it!