~What do you think of this thread?

[Sea Island Lady]

This happened on a HAL ship, but was posted on wrong board (Carnival).
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=734686

[hammybee]

I am surprised the cabin steward's ESL was this good.;)

[vbmom87]

This happened on a HAL ship, but was posted on wrong board (Carnival).
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=734686

Unfortunate incident. Although it seems most people have had great room steward experiences, I think we all know that whatever profession you are talking about, you will always find someone who does not live up to expectations. Thank goodness it seems rare for the cruising industry to get a steward you are unhappy with.

[jhannah]

We have heard only one side of this story. Not to say there is an excuse for any staff person to become snippy or rude toward a passenger ... but there is usually more under the surface in stories like this.

[pms4104]

Still wondering the age of the bed-wetter.

The behavior of the "cabin boy" seems so out of character for HAL's cabin stewards ... I'm wondering what details haven't been shared in the Carnival post. Generally there are three sides to every story ... his, hers, and the truth (which is somewhere between the other two).

[RevNeal]

The room steward probably shouldn't have said what he did to the child. I would chalk that up to a different culture and that culture's different attitudes about children. As for the wise-crack about tip ... that wasn't appropriate, either.

I wish the OP of that tread would learn to use the shift key. If their child is going to have even just occasion bed-wetting incidents they really should bring a pad for the child to sleep on. I'm sure future residents of the cabin would appreciate at least that much courtesy.

[sail7seas]

As I posted on that thread, I have never heard any cabin steward on any HAL ship refer to himself as "cabin boy". Always a first time, I suppose.

[RevNeal]

As I posted on that thread, I have never heard any cabin steward on any HAL ship refer to himself as "cabin boy". Always a first time, I suppose.

Kind of like "Mustard Drill" or "Room Stewart" Eh?
I've also never head such a diminutive term used, and certainly not by HAL Stewards. I've had many introduce themselves to me as "your Cabin Steward."

[kryos]

I too have to agree, I can't imagine a room steward on HAL saying something so rude to a child. I also can't imagine them making the sarcastic remark about the tip. I think they could get fired for overtly "soliciting" tips ... especially now that there is the auto-tip.

I do know that the room stewards will sometimes make themselves very visible on disembarkation morning, but I've never seen one actually come out and ask for a tip. Of course, you know why they are hanging around ... but still they can't say anything.

I'm wondering if the person on that other thread got her cruise lines "mixed up?"

Blue skies ...

--rita

[gotsand]

She stated that the bed was not changed for 2 nights....(I have a hard time with that) First, the room would have had a terrible odor....Second, as a mother, I would have seen to it that the bed was changed, even if I had to do it myself (which if my child would have wet the bed, I would have wanted to change it myself).....Third, I would never want my child to sleep on the floor of a cruise ship, YUCK
I sell furniture for a living, which includes mattresses. Are most of you aware that you can not have 1 stain on a mattress to honor a warranty claim, because of health issues, mattress workers are not to handle soiled mattresses. This mother should have been prepared for bed wetting accidents. Inconsiderate behavior towards other passengers is very self centered, others will have to sleep on that mattress. Cabin stewards are not slaves. She SHOULD have taken care of it herself.

[ILoveScotland]

As I said on the other thread I think we need to be careful about blaming the OP for what the steward did. If the child has chronic bed wetting problems then of course precautions should have been taken, but that still does not excuse the steward's remarks which were not only rude but embarrassing.

I've heard grown men talk about being bed wetters and how embarrassing it was even within the family circle. I, too, would hope tthe steward's remarks had to do with cultural differences, but even so it was an awful thing to say to a child.

And that doesn't even deal with the comment at the end about the tip.

[Sea Island Lady]

I'm wondering if the person on that other thread got her cruise lines "mixed up?"

Blue skies ...

--rita
From the following statement, she seems to know which cruiseline she was on. This one had me fuming! :mad:
good point I can take the blame for not being preared but he didn't have to embarrass my child.this was a HAL cruise witch caters to the elderly.I sure they have there own bladder problems.I bet it happens on carnival with adults that drink way to much.

I agree that there is no excuse for being rude. I too am hoping there was a misunderstanding with language. I cannot imagine that the sheets would remain on the bed for two days without the mother complaining to the "higher up", or changing them herself. At least strip the bed and wash the mattress with a towel and soap. She claims she didn't have anything to clean the mattress with. :rolleyes:

She does need to learn how to use the shift key, doesn't she. ;)

[rochelle_s]

The cabin stewards attend the cabins numerous times in a day. Did he re-make the bed with wet sheets? Why would anyone wait TWO days to have the sheets changed? Was there no phone in the cabin? Who lets their child sleep on a strange carpeted floor??? At the very least wouldn't you take your own child into bed with you? I would have slept in a chair or on the couch before I would put my child on the floor!

Something sounds way off here.


Rochelle

[OceanLiner]

I’m not sure about all the details of this incident, but I am sure of this: the next time that someone wants to reduce the tips for children, they should be linked to this thread. Children make as much or more of a mess in a room than adults, and the staff works very hard to make everything correct. It just amazes me when parents don't believe that their kids need any attention or services, or less attention or services, just becaue they are of a smaller size than the average adult.

[rochelle_s]

Having worked many years in the hospitality industry I can tell you that is absolutely amazing how some people are with their children. These are the folks who think they are the first people in the history of the world to have been blessed with children. They act as if the whole world should revolve around their little blessings! I recall working in a large hotel where we had to tell a family who were staying in the hotel long term that they could no longer bring their children into the dining room for breakfast, but that we would happily provide breakfast in their room. As this hotel was also a conference center and the dining room was located in the atrium/lobby area the staff could not possibly keep up with the mess that this one family created. The mess of food was strewn 15 to 20 feet around their table, no one would sit anywhere near them and anyone entering the hotel could not avoid seeing the disaster area created by one family.
Some people are very misinformed.....because a waiter/waitress, maid or cabin steward etc. is providing services for you that does not mean that they have become your personal servant! You just have to wonder how these folks live at home!

Rochelle

[CocoKai]

That post irritates me in several ways. (1) If I knew my child had the possibility of wetting the bed, I would have brought something to protect the bed. (2) I would have made every effort to clean the bed to perfection, wrapped the sheets up so the urine isn't exposed, etc before I even called it to the Cabin Stewards attention. At that time, I would have been falling over myself with apologies, handing him cash and thanking him for his amazing job (3) The woman who posted that her daughter threw up and then called the Steward to clean it up??? Last time I checked, I am my child's parent. I clean their vomit at home. I clean it away. I would never leave something like that for the Steward to clean. I'm gagging for the poor guy right now.

To me, it sounds like they left a pile of urine soaked sheets, etc for the Steward with no effort to remedy the situation on their part. I hope they take their bed wetter and head back to Carnival because I don't want my kids to have to sleep on the urine stained bed :)

[richkinkade]

Actually, the original poster never mentions taking the sheets off the bed, so I doubt she even did that. It's quite possible the steward remade tne bed without noticing the wet sheets (perhaps dumped on the floor with a bunch of damp towels). New sheets over wet mattress equals damp sheets when the OP returns to the room at 11 pm.

Why a person would complain about their steward not bringing ice and leaving dishes in the room, as the OP does in the original post, and not mention their child being forced to sleep on the floor, is beyond me. It's sort of like calling the police about tire marks on your lawn and not mentioning they ran over grandma.

[RevNeal]

It's sort of like calling the police about tire marks on your lawn and not mentioning they ran over grandma.

No ... grandma got run over by the reindeer. :D

[LAFFNVEGAS]

No ... grandma got run over by the reindeer. :D
:D :D Good one Greg, when I read the previous post I have to say that was my first thought as well;)

[hammybee]

This is from the same thread, a different poster. I don't think most of us know half of what Room Stewards are asked to do:


"Many years ago my daughter who was probably 7 at the time had a major crush on the room steward. At one point during the cruise she was sick. We gave her dramamine which made her pass out. She wet the bed and was mortified. We called the room steward and he was so sweet and told her that used to wet the bed when he was younger. A little later she ended up throwing up and missed the toilet. We called him again and he cleaned it up with a smile."

[pms4104]

Here's a thought ... perhaps the steward did change the sheets daily and the little bed wetter kept wetting every night and lying about to his parents. So ... the mother thinks the sheets aren't getting changed when, in reality, her chronic bed-wetting darling is pulling one over on her.

[CowPrincess]

I've been thinking about this since it was posted, and cannot conceive of a cabin steward or stewardess saying the things that are being attributed.

I am wondering if a language problem or difficulty with the steward's accent is the source of the problem. Imagine with an Indonesian accent

"How you want bed?" or "You bed better?" could easily be heard as "Did you wet bed?" or "you the bed wetter?"

As well, the supposed comment re "impressive tip" could have come from "Hope you enjoyed trip". Or "please take another trip". For starters, who uses "impressive" when English is a second or third language, especially in a sarcastic way?

It's been my experience that the cabin stewards on HAL speak very heavily accented English, are very helpful, happy to give a passenger whatever is requested, and are somewhat afraid of losing their jobs.... I cannot imagine any of them saying what is being attributed to this one.

[PrincessYoga]

I agree with you all. If my child was a bed wetter I would have brought nappy pads to lie across the sheets or a waterproof sheet. If she wet the bed. I would strip the bed and ring down for supplies to clean it up myself. Same with her sick. She is my child and my responsibilty. It not a cabin stewards job to do that. If they insisted due to health and safety or whatever I would give them a huge tip and be very apologetic. Actually I would have probably given I huge tip for the hassle. As far as my child sleeping on the floor. I would have rang again for new sheets but if they still didn't come I would bring her into bed with me or give up my bed and sleep on the sofa or in chair.

I didn't think about the accent causing miscommunication but that makes sense.

[Host Michell]

I've been thinking about this since it was posted, and cannot conceive of a cabin steward or stewardess saying the things that are being attributed.

I am wondering if a language problem or difficulty with the steward's accent is the source of the problem. Imagine with an Indonesian accent

"How you want bed?" or "You bed better?" could easily be heard as "Did you wet bed?" or "you the bed wetter?"

As well, the supposed comment re "impressive tip" could have come from "Hope you enjoyed trip". Or "please take another trip". For starters, who uses "impressive" when English is a second or third language, especially in a sarcastic way?

It's been my experience that the cabin stewards on HAL speak very heavily accented English, are very helpful, happy to give a passenger whatever is requested, and are somewhat afraid of losing their jobs.... I cannot imagine any of them saying what is being attributed to this one.

I had the same thought, about a language issue potentially being involved. I just have trouble picturing a crew member capable of uttering sarcasm about an "impressive" tip also introducing himself as a "cabin boy."

I also know if I were that mom, and urine-soaked bedding hadn't been changed by nighttime (let alone two days later!), I'd have done something about that, one way or another. If the child was already prone to these accidents, then I'd have had what was needed and used it before the accident happened. If the accident was unexpected and unusual, even so, I'd have been kind enough to the steward to strip the bed myself and talk about it with them. Letting it sit around for two days? Weird.

The whole thread struck me as kind of strange. Nobody knows better than cabin staff on a cruise ship that accidents happen (in fact, for them, a kidlet wetting the bed is probably on the "ho hum" end of THAT spectrum!). I can't imagine that happening in a steward's cabin causing this kind of reaction/meanness/sarcasm. I think there must be something more.

[CowPrincess]

a kidlet wetting the bed is probably on the "ho hum" end of THAT spectrum!).

Ewwwww!!! Thanks for the chuckle, now I have to go wash my brain :)


I think there must be something more.


I agree completely. The whole scenario makes no sense to me.

[innlady1]

This is from the same thread, a different poster. I don't think most of us know half of what Room Stewards are asked to do:


"Many years ago my daughter who was probably 7 at the time had a major crush on the room steward. At one point during the cruise she was sick. We gave her dramamine which made her pass out. She wet the bed and was mortified. We called the room steward and he was so sweet and told her that used to wet the bed when he was younger. A little later she ended up throwing up and missed the toilet. We called him again and he cleaned it up with a smile."



Oh my. :(

[DFD1]

I wonder; in fact, I hope the room steward might have a rubber sheet or some sort of vapor barrier to place on the bed underneath the sheet after the first incident.

I had not thought about it before, but I expect this happens more than once on cruises where children are present.

They must have a way of dealing with this sort of thing in order to prevent as much damage to the bedding as possible. Hope so.

[hammybee]

It's been my experience that the cabin stewards on HAL speak very heavily accented English, are very helpful, happy to give a passenger whatever is requested, and are somewhat afraid of losing their jobs.... I cannot imagine any of them saying what is being attributed to this one.

I can't imagine one of them introducing himself as the Cabin Boy.

[innlady1]

I wonder; in fact, I hope the room steward might have a rubber sheet or some sort of vapor barrier to place on the bed underneath the sheet after the first incident.

I had not thought about it before, but I expect this happens more than once on cruises where children are present.

They must have a way of dealing with this sort of thing in order to prevent as much damage to the bedding as possible. Hope so.

We have waterproof mattress pads at our inn, but did have a bed wetting incident years back. A divorced dad and his two teenage daughters. They had two twin beds in the room and we put in a cot for the extra. He came downstairs next day to tell us his daughter (16) had wet the bed and offered to pay for a new mattress. We couldn't figure out why he didn't have the daughter with the bed wetting issue sleep on the cot, but that's neither here nor there. We bought the new bedding and all was fine...of course, he cancelled his credit card after he left our inn so we ended up paying for it. :mad:

We have four granddaughters and when they sleep over, they love to sleep in bed with me...DH gets relegated to the guest room. One 7 year old has an occasional problem with bed wetting....and when she sleeps over, I always put a waterproof pad under her. So far, it's not been needed, but better to be safe than sorry.

There's just something not quite right with this woman's post. First, she posted it on the Carnival board...when it was a HAL cruise. :confused: "Cabin Boy" ~ I've never heard any steward refer to themselves as a "cabin boy." And rude? I find it hard to believe that any of the HAL room stewards rude.

I agree with all of you who say that she should have stripped the bed and saved the room steward from having to do that.

[satchiesmom]

I have no idea what the "cabin boy" said or did not say to the OP, but what I do have a problem with is that she says that the sheets were not changed for 2 days. I can't imagine any parent allowing urine soaked sheets to remain on her child's bed and not doing anything about it, let alone putting the child to sleep on the floor. She seems to be concerned that the steward's comments were hurtful to her child. I would think that the child would be more hurt and embarassed having to sleep on the floor because of the soiled linens when the parents could have taken care of the matter. I also have a hard time believing that any cabin steward on any line would not have changed the sheets immediately. Something is strange here.

[sail7seas]

This is from the same thread, a different poster. I don't think most of us know half of what Room Stewards are asked to do:


"Many years ago my daughter who was probably 7 at the time had a major crush on the room steward. At one point during the cruise she was sick. We gave her dramamine which made her pass out. She wet the bed and was mortified. We called the room steward and he was so sweet and told her that used to wet the bed when he was younger. A little later she ended up throwing up and missed the toilet. We called him again and he cleaned it up with a smile."




Leaves me speechless, Hammybee.

What is with these people? :confused:

[mamaofami]

One of my daughters wet the bed until she was 7. I would never have traveled anywhere without waterproof pads to put under and over the sheets. Something about the original post just doesn't sound right.

Sail and Hammy...don't know why you would be surprised. After all, this mom was on vacation. Do you think she was going to clean up after her child herself? :rolleyes:

[Two if by Sea]

Leaves me speechless, Hammybee.

What is with these people? :confused:


If you're in a strange location -- that is, not at home -- you do not generally have access to the necessary cleaning supplies. At home I would cart out the bleach, rubber gloves, a roll of paper towel, a large sponge, large plastic garbage bags, etc., and clean everything up.

In a hotel room (or the equivalent) I'm not likely to have any such supplies. Not sure how I'd GET such supplies on a cruise ship short of calling the cabin steward. If he wanted to drop off all the supplies for me and let me clean it up I would consider that perfectly reasonable, but I cannot imagine a cabin steward doing that.

[HeatherInFlorida]

Most posters here know that I am painfully realistic about my experiences on any ship. And if this actually happened, it's terribly unfair to the child.

But as I posted on that thread, I have a problem with the story because why would any mother allow her child to sleep on the floor rather than raise a fuss and get the bed made with clean sheets?

It just makes no sense. I think they didn't like the Steward for whatever reason and she may be stretching the truth a bit. She actually said that after 2 days she followed up. Followed up!!?? If she was so concerned for her son, then she would not have allowed him to suffer even longer than necessary.

And there may have been a misunderstanding of the tone used by the Steward. They are from an entirely different culture and he may not have seen a little bedwetting as a big deal at all and may have said something in a totally different tone than we're imagining from the OP's description.

It just doesn't sound like a HAL Cabin Steward. They are just too kind, too sensitive, to deliberately hurt a child like that. There has to be more to the story.

[mamaofami]

Does it make sense that a person would be too kind to request that the sheets be changed and then also be "kind" enough to allow her son to sleep on the floor ? This story just doesn't ring true. There were so many ways to solve this problem of changing the sheets from calling housekeeping to going to the front desk, to getting sheets and changing it yourself. And why would they want to keep the soiled sheets in the cabin while they slept?

[babyher]

Does it make sense that a person would be too kind to request that the sheets be changed and then also be "kind" enough to allow her son to sleep on the floor ? This story just doesn't ring true. There were so many ways to solve this problem of changing the sheets from calling housekeeping to going to the front desk, to getting sheets and changing it yourself. And why would they want to keep the soiled sheets in the cabin while they slept?

I agree.

Granted like someone already mentioned you don't have all the facilities to clean up something like this as you would at home. But call the steward or housekeeping. There are obviously clean sheets on that ship in some type of stewards closet/ linen closet .

This can not be the first time someone has wet the bed in the history of cruising . It cannot be that big a deal to get clean sheets. Wether the steward makes up the bed or just brings them to the cabin and the mother does it or whatever. I mean room service can bring you food 24/7, I can't believe you can't get someone to bring a set of sheets and take away the soiled ones.

And even if the steward didn't come right away , I certainly wouldn't wait 2 days to remind him. I would be constantly reminding him and if that didn't get me anywhere I would be at the front desk.

I agree there are certain pieces of this story that are missing , but if in fact the steward did say the things he did , to my child and about the tip. I would take some serious issue with it.

[iwannacruznow]

Where to start. The steward did actually introduce himself as cabin boy. I've never heard that before, and I didn't mean to be demeaning. Some people have heard it, some haven't. Look it up and you will find it means a boy that serves on a ship. I do prefer to call them stewards. Next, our son is not a chronic bed wetter, he has not had a incident in many months. But I will take the blame for not being prepared. I think maybe he had to many drinks (sodas)and the rocking of ship caused his accident. The morning after, we told the steward what happen and he said he would take care of it. The bed in question was the pull out couch. That night after a busy port day and dinner and late show, we return to our cabin and the bedding was wet. We were tired so we made a pallet on the floor for our child. In hindsight we should have complained. We are not complainers and at the time we though it was an over sight by the steward. The next day we brought it to his attention and he took care of it. Done, over,; finished until he saw our sons in the hallway and asked them which one of you pees the bed?... that's when he lost his extra tip. Still we didn't think it was such a big thing to get this guy in trouble after all he had to change the bedding.
The reason we didn't take the bedding off and bundled it up was because he said "he would take care of it".
The remark he made about his tip, I know it was directed toward us but perhaps he didn't mean for us to hear it, but we did. As I stated many times before we did not remove his auto tip, we just didn't tip extra.
What makes no sense to me is that it makes no sense to some of you. I know a lot of you are loyal HAL cruisers and I can understand why since we had a great time. But how can you think this kind of thing Doesn't happen. This is our fourth cruise and this kind of thing hadn't happened and thats why we thought we share our experience with you, even though we accidentally posted it on the Carnival board.
Also we purposefully did not want to post our son's age because we wanted to protect him from any further embarrassment; so THANKS TO poster who investigated and posted his age.(I bet if you dig further you can find his picture)
I know I'm subjected to further flames but at least you can't flame me for not using my shift key any more:D
We are not mad at HAL and would like to cruise with them again. Any more questions please don't hesitate to ask.

[legalslave]

I am going to paste the reply I made on the original thread here. I know it is very hard to believe that a cabin steward on a HAL ship can be rude. I did experience this and believe me, I was in total shock when it happened. We can all ignore little problems because we all know the amount of hours the stewards work in a day are way too many. However, it is very rare there would be an inappropriate cabin steward but yes, it can happen. Here is my post:

IWANNACRUISE, if you put it on the comment card, trust me, it got the attention of the Hotel Manager. After he made the remark about the tip, did you bring that to the attention of the front desk? We had a very bad experience with a cabin steward on HAL back in 1999. The cabin steward was demoted to a dinning room assistant waiter where they could keep an eye on him. HAL really does want to know when these incidents occur. That was the only time we ever had a problem with any HAL employee and have sailed the dam ships several times since then.

To others who are reading this, you may think oh what could have been so bad? There were several instances. Everyone has a bad day and we can overlook a lot of things but some things just can't be ignored. What got him in real trouble was he master locked our cabin door the last morning before we returned from breakfast. Our keys would not open the door. I asked another steward if they could open the door for us and he said only our cabin steward could unlock it. He went and got our steward. When our steward arrived, he told me he got in a lot of trouble for what I wrote on the comment card and he got a warning and I shouldn't have done that and he hoped we had a lousy vacation. He unlocked the door, we got our luggage and immediately went to the front desk. When I told them what happened, they took me right into the hotel manager's office. He knew I wasn't lying as how else would I know he got a warning. The HM was ready to terminate the steward's contract. I told him I would hate to see that happen and possibly just a little retraining would help. By the way, this was before HAL started the automatic gratuities. Though the stewards service was not good, we tipped him on the last night as we would have tipped if gratuities were expected.

[HeatherInFlorida]

Gary and Cece, thank you for clarifying what happened. I read your other post and maybe I'm not remembering it correctly, but I'm pretty sure you said that you followed up after 2 days. That's what really caught my eye ... that you would wait 2 days before getting after the Steward again while you're child of whatever age was sleeping on the floor.

Here's your quote from the other thread:

yes we did ask him to change the bedding which he didn't. so we reminded him 2 days later and did.
................


Gary and Cece

When we're angry about something, we sometimes color it a bit to make the impression we want.

You say you didn't want to get the Steward in trouble and you're not one to complain. But truthfully the place to go with the criticism is really on the cruise itself rather than come home and post it here on a message board where it will do the least good.

As for his comments, that's unfortunate. While we've always had good reason to tip extra, the whole idea of the auto-tips is to eliminate the necessity to tip individually. If a person doesn't see fit to tip extra, no comment should be made. It sounds like this Steward was not having a good week.

[pipedreams62]

http://constitutionclub.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/yawn8hm.jpg

[sail7seas]

Pipe Dream....... :D :D

GREAT!

We'll never hear the stewards version and seeing as none of us were there, etc etc

Hope your next steward is more to your liking and your next cruise perfect!!

[CowPrincess]

In the thread on the other board, you say "he got $14 in autotip/day" (I'm paraphrasing).... it's my understanding that the autotips are SHARED, so while you may have been paying $14/day autotip, the steward received only a portion of that.

I'm not about to get into the "cabin boy"/"cabin steward" debate, but I am very curious as to how easy it was to communicate with the steward. Was there a language barrier? As I mentioned previously, could the "impressive tip" comment that you believe you heard actually have been the steward saying something else in heavily accented English? As you were disembarking, and he'd not yet gotten to your-just-vacated cabin, how could he possibly have known whether or not you'd left a tip?

I know I'm subjected to further flames

I don't see anything in this thread that qualifies as a flame -- just a number of people wondering about portions of your story, and discussing what they would have done under similar circumstances.

[Keith Rita]

On our first HAL cruise, which was on the old Westerdam, our room steward introduced himself as our Cabin Boy.

[RevNeal]

In the thread on the other board, you say "he got $14 in autotip/day" (I'm paraphrasing).... it's my understanding that the autotips are SHARED, so while you may have been paying $14/day autotip, the steward received only a portion of that.

You are correct in that the gratuity on one's account is shared. Each passenger has a "service charge" of $10.00 per-person/per-day charged to their account, of which their cabin steward receives $3.50 per-person/per-day. I think this is where the OP's figure of $14 per-day originates. $3.50 x 4 = $14.00 per-day for their cabin.

[CowPrincess]

RevNeal you are correct! I'm not so good at math sometimes :) My apologies!

[RevNeal]

I know I'm subjected to further flames but at least you can't flame me for not using my shift key any more:D

Dear iwannacruznow,

I'm sorry that you took my remark about using the shift-key as a flame; it was not intended as such, it's just that I find both all-lower-case and all-upper-case posts to be difficult to read. I'm sorry.

In my post on this subject I stated that I agreed that the Cabin Steward was inappropriate in his words to your son and in his quip to you. The use of "boy" is just not one that I'm used to for our Cabin Stewards ... it seems diminutive to me. Since, as you say, he used the term of himself, then okay.

Take care!

[iwannacruznow]

I don't see anything in this thread that qualifies as a flame -- just a number of people wondering about portions of your story, and discussing what they would have done under similar circumstances.[/quote]
It seem like some posters were trying to label me as a bad mom or something.Which is far from the truth,I adore children.

[iwannacruznow]

Dear iwannacruznow,

I'm sorry that you took my remark about using the shift-key as a flame; it was not intended as such, it's just that I find both all-lower-case and all-upper-case posts to be difficult to read. I'm sorry.

In my post on this subject I stated that I agreed that the Cabin Steward was inappropriate in his words to your son and in his quip to you. The use of "boy" is just not one that I'm used to for our Cabin Stewards ... it seems diminutive to me. Since, as you say, he used the term of himself, then okay.

Take care!Hi rev.No apologizes necessary. That was my attempt at humor.Trying to lighten things up a bit.I do agree with you on the "boy" part and this was our first HAL cruise and I thought maybe this was the norm.I stand corrected and I am more knowledgeable now.Thank god or Bill Gates for spell checker.(more humor):D

[iwannacruznow]

On our first HAL cruise, which was on the old Westerdam, our room steward introduced himself as our Cabin Boy.
Thank you

[pms4104]

delete

[sail7seas]

Originally Posted by Keith Rita
On our first HAL cruise, which was on the old Westerdam, our room steward introduced himself as our Cabin Boy.


Wow!! Impressive. You have a great memory..... how long since the old Westerdam sailed? You must be going back at least 10 ??? years and you remember how your cabin steward introduced himself. I can barely remember what I had for breakfast today. :D

[Keith Rita]

Wow!! Impressive. You have a great memory..... how long since the old Westerdam sailed? You must be going back at least 10 ??? years and you remember how your cabin steward introduced himself. I can barely remember what I had for breakfast today. :D



In Oct of this year it will be ten years since that cruise. It seems everything else is going south with age, however the old memory is still in tack. That cruise turned us on to Holland America. Also, I had oats for breakfast this morning.;)

[Sea Island Lady]

To others who are reading this, you may think oh what could have been so bad? There were several instances. Everyone has a bad day and we can overlook a lot of things but some things just can't be ignored. What got him in real trouble was he master locked our cabin door the last morning before we returned from breakfast. Our keys would not open the door. I asked another steward if they could open the door for us and he said only our cabin steward could unlock it. He went and got our steward. When our steward arrived, he told me he got in a lot of trouble for what I wrote on the comment card and he got a warning and I shouldn't have done that and he hoped we had a lousy vacation. He unlocked the door, we got our luggage and immediately went to the front desk. When I told them what happened, they took me right into the hotel manager's office. He knew I wasn't lying as how else would I know he got a warning. The HM was ready to terminate the steward's contract. I told him I would hate to see that happen and possibly just a little retraining would help. By the way, this was before HAL started the automatic gratuities. Though the stewards service was not good, we tipped him on the last night as we would have tipped if gratuities were expected.
:eek: That's scary! What did he do to get the first warning?

[Jsipes]

I'm Astounded.....I can't believe that was a HAL ship...can you confirm ??

[dobiemom]

Also we purposefully did not want to post our son's age because we wanted to protect him from any further embarrassment;

I am so sorry. I have asked the moderator to remove my post. Hopefully they will also remove any "quotes" associated with it. Again, I apologize to you and your son.

[iwannacruznow]

I am so sorry. I have asked the moderator to remove my post. Hopefully they will also remove any "quotes" associated with it. Again, I apologize to you and your son.
I appreciate your apology, I can tell you didn't do it to be mean but to answer the question. Thank you and I will pass it on to him. no hard feelings.

[lvz2cruz]

We were in a hotel years ago and I smelled heavy perfume on the pillow. I pulled back the covers to see if the sheets looked clean and saw a huge wet spot halfway down the bed. I would guess the previous guest had wet the bed and made it and moved to the second bed. The spot was far enough down I'm sure it was an adult and not a child. I think this might happen more than anyone wants to think about!
We called and they brought us new sheets for us to change the bed--like that would make it dry? I think they ended up turning the mattress over as we needed both beds. They said there were no other rooms. We checked out the next day and will never return.

[candbgirl]

What ship did this happen on?

I appreciate your apology, I can tell you didn't do it to be mean but to answer the question. Thank you and I will pass it on to him. no hard feelings.

Your son knows that you have been on here for several days discussing with us what happened?

[legalslave]

Sea Island Lady, this was on the old Westerdam. I won't go into every little thing that happened, just the 2 I wrote on the comment card. My husband and I had sailed this same ship 11/99. I was back with my best friend 01/01 and this is when we had the problem. The very first night I went to take a shower before bed. The water barley trickled out of the shower head. Tried again in the morning and it was the same thing. I mentioned this to the steward and asked if he would be so kind as to have someone come and fix it. That night, went in again to try and shower and the problem had not been fixed. (2 days no shower---yuck!) In the morning, I found the steward to let him know they had not come to fix the shower. He told me there was nothing wrong with the shower and that is the way the showers work on cruise ships. I almost fell over! I had even shown him the problem. I knew they weren't like that a year before. I went to the neighboring cabin and asked if I could see how the water worked in their shower. It was fine. I called the front desk and told them about the problem. They had someone from engineering there in 15 minutes. They put on a new shower head and it worked perfectly. The engineer said I should have told my cabin steward as soon as I knew there was a problem. (DUH!) Okay, now for the flame throwing---I am a light smoker. There was an ash tray with a cigarette butt and ashes in it when we left in the morning. I usually would empty it and wipe it clean but it had not been out long. When we came back in the afternoon, the ash tray had apparantly fallen when he was cleaning (?). I picked up the butt and just figured he would vacuum the ashes when he cleaned that day. It didn't happen. I thought maybe he didn't see it so the next morning I asked him if he could vacuum up the ashes as I didn't want to rub them into the carpet. It never got vacuumed. It was in an obvious location. There were other little things like days without clean glasses, or new towels which I never mentioned on the comment card. Language barrier--not even close--he had no problem communicating to me in wonderful English how he felt about the comment card. I basically wanted people to know they do read the comment cards as they get them as we did not drop ours off at the front desk until around 7:30 pm the last night. Everything else and every other employee on that ship were perfect in my eyes and has been on each HAL cruise since then.

[Sea Island Lady]

legalslave - That's awful! Sorry you had that experience. ;)

Quote:
I appreciate your apology, I can tell you didn't do it to be mean but to answer the question. Thank you and I will pass it on to him. no hard feelings.

Your son knows that you have been on here for several days discussing with us what happened?


That's what I was thinking! No need to tell your son that you posted about his bed wetting on a public forum. :eek: Of course, no one knows who you are.

If you wish, you can have both your threads removed, by clicking on the red and white triangle next to the numbers on the threads.

[sassyredhat]

No ... grandma got run over by the reindeer. :D


This just makes my day !!
And I do know how to use the shift key. :p :D

Pat

[runnbit]

I am new to Cruise Critic, and was browsing through the threads to get a feeling for the website. I must say that I am shocked, and somewhat disgusted, at the treatment of the original poster of this thread. In her posting, she attempts to share a painful, private experience with the readers of this board. She does not name names, nor does she request some sort of recompense from HAL. What possible motive could she have to elaborate, or even fabricate, this chain of events? One could not even make the claim that she was embittered at HAL as she quite plainly states that (other than this happening) she had a wonderful time and would sail with HAL again.

It was my understanding that the purpose of this board was to share experiences, expertise, and knowledge so that all of us may enjoy a better-rounded and informed acumen of cruising. Many posters seem to have turned this thread into a witch hunt, and I can not help but wonder if it is because the OP states that her previous travels have been with Carnival. Is this some sort of cloaked elitism? Post after post claims that the story can not be judged on its own merits as we have not heard the “other side”. Am I to assume that if I post that my halibut was dry, others would doubt my word until they had interviewed the chef? Sounds fishy (pun intended).

Others state that the story sounds unbelievable as she waited two days before insisting the linens be changed. If you read through the OP’s postings thoroughly, the timeline is quite clear:

Night 1- Incident occurs
Morning 2- Incident is discovered and reported to steward who claims, “I’ll take care of it.” Family leaves cabin.
Evening 2- Family returns to cabin at 11:30 at night, presumably exhausted from near 14 hours out of cabin, and discover linens have not been changed. Decide to make a pallet on the floor for son.
Morning 3- Remind steward, and linens are changed.

Time lapsed between Night 1 and Morning 3: (3-1=2) technically, 2 days

Many posters have criticized the family for being disrespectful toward the steward by referring to him as “cabin boy”. I think the family showed the utmost in respect by NOT summoning him at nearly midnight, but by waiting until the next morning. If anything, this is a self-sacrificing lesson to their children that the room stewards are NOT servants that should be expected to jump at every command. As far as “cabin boy,” there are a great many terms I find demeaning: busboy, maid, driver, bellboy, waiter, etc. But guess what- that is the term many of these people use to describe their roles. If the steward himself used the title, then he does not find it condescending. The only shame attached would come from “pitying” him for his job.

If we are to point fingers at those behaving in a demeaning manner, let us begin by reading through this thread. Such as wishing the OP would “learn” to use the shift key. Including the term “learn” was unnecessary and offensive. It implies ignorance. The statement would be just as effective as, “I wish the OP would use the shift key.” This is just one example, I will not even begin with the fact that someone posted her son’s age without her consent. Despicable, not to mention unethical! Yet time after time, the OP has responded with grace and a sense of humor. I commend her for not sinking to the level of spewing judgmental personal attacks.

This is my first post, and I did not plan on it being so heated. I am sure I have opened myself up to much negativity, but suppressing my opinions has never been my strong point. I am 29 years old and cruising for the first time in April. I chose HAL, even though I will be in the demographic minority, because I hoped it would mean more sophisticated companions with taste and class. I hope I was not wrong.

[iwannacruznow]

This is the most thought through, well written and impressive post I have seen yet. I'm so glad someone finally did the math.
As for your cruise I am positive you will have a great time. We met so many wonderful people on our cruise and had such a wonderful time.

I hope when you return from your cruise you post a review. I would love to read it. I'm sure it would be very informative and insightful.