Normal on NCL to Never See Cabin Steward(ess)?

On a 7-day Epic last month and we saw our cabin stewardess a grand total of twice and one of those was when she came in while we were still in the cabin.

On Carnival, our stewards would introduce themselves as soon as they saw you the first time and then we would always run into them around the cabin somewhere almost every day.

On the Epic, our stewardess never introduced herself, never asked if we needed anything and didn't appear to do a good job of cleaning, e.g. hair from the last guests still in our tub three days later, garbage that missed the can still on the floor after cleaning, etc. It just didn't seem like the service for the cabin was as good as on past cruises. Is this the norm for NCL?

Not in my experience, no

What did you do about it while you were still on the ship?

No , very strange.

No, and if your cabin was not being cleaned properly, did you report that to housekeeping management? That would be the appropriate course of action, rather than waiting until your return from your cruise and commenting here.

No , very strange.

I've had an invisible steward twice on Carnival though;)

Not normal at all, we have always had great cabin stewards on NCL, whatever stateroom category we book

In my experience, the cabin attendants haven't always come around to introduce themselves, but they're always polite and friendly if I run into them in the hallways. They even know my name most of the time. My cabin has always been well kept, and if I leave a note for any requests I might have - a rare occurrence - the requests are handled promptly. I like this way better: they're working stiffs doing a job just like me, not my personal friends or servants.

I've had an invisible steward twice on Carnival though;)

Same here. Never on NCL though. As long as they do their job it doesn't matter to me.

I think its probably different for everyone on ever cruise. On my last Getaway cruise, I saw the steward on day 1 when he introduced himself and never saw him again. However, I generally sleep through morning steward service and when they come in at night, I was out and about.

It didn't bother me at all not to see them as long as everything was as it should be in the room.

It has only happened to us on one NCL cruise. We saw the girl maybe 3 times. We had a shower curtain that was black with mildew on the bottom. We had to hunt her down to get it taken care of. We came back to get ready for dinner and still had no shower curtain. My husband had to hold up a towel so I could shower for dinner. Fun times! I think we saw her only 2 times after that and that was way down the hall, never near our cabin. I am not sure if she thought we were mad at her and she was avoiding us or what. Or maybe she just had a lot of cabins to clean that week. But normally they are very friendly.

On our recent Getaway cruise, the cabin stewardess introduced herself the first afternoon, and we saw her constantly. She always knew our names and was just great.

Half way through the trip her boss (I assume an asst. hotel director) stopped by to ask whether we had met her, how she was doing, etc. I thought this was a basic quality control visit as clearly this woman was a top notch employee.

Bear in mind, though, our schedule as early risers meant we did naturally encounter her. People with different schedules might not get to know their cabin stewards. Don't hold that against them if they are otherwise doing their job!

While I have only been on 4 cruises and three of them have been in suites. I do think that the room stewards for suites are a cut above the normal steward. On our last cruise we had a chance to speak a length with our steward - he told us he had recently been promoted to the suites and was trying very hard to make the suites he was in charge of the best suites on the ship. He had done a great job on ours. He made a point to say hi every time we happened to meet him in the hallways.

On the cruise we took with our kids - they were in an inside room a few doors down from ours - we both had the same steward - he quickly put the four of us together and would always let us know which direction our kids had gone.

The only time we had a dirty cabin was on the POA - we went down to the front desk and complained - they sent someone to clean it and gave us a free drink while we waited. This was with the US crew during the time NCL America was having nothing but problems staffing the ship with a good crew.

So having an "invisible cabin steward" is not something I have encountered on NCL.

So far, most of my cabin stewards have taken care of the cabin while we were out. That may be, in large part, because we are normally away from the room except for sleeping or changing. I will note that we have always had good service, we just rarely saw them.

If you ever have an issue with staff performance, I would bring it to their attention first. This gives them the opportunity to correct it without any job repercussions. If that fails to resolve the issue, I would go to their superior and let them know that it was brought to the offenders attention.

Half way through the trip her boss (I assume an asst. hotel director) stopped by to ask whether we had met her, how she was doing, etc. I thought this was a basic quality control visit as clearly this woman was a top notch employee.!

Did you go to the meet and greet? I've wondered in the past whether some supervisors check such people are happy to try to avoid bad reviews.

On a 7-day Epic last month and we saw our cabin stewardess a grand total of twice and one of those was when she came in while we were still in the cabin.

 

On Carnival, our stewards would introduce themselves as soon as they saw you the first time and then we would always run into them around the cabin somewhere almost every day.

 

On the Epic, our stewardess never introduced herself, never asked if we needed anything and didn't appear to do a good job of cleaning, e.g. hair from the last guests still in our tub three days later, garbage that missed the can still on the floor after cleaning, etc. It just didn't seem like the service for the cabin was as good as on past cruises. Is this the norm for NCL?

Randy, that is not my experience!

They have always introduced themselves in our experience. Only once was the job not done well and that was a lady on the Dawn who was leaving at the end of our cruise. I put it on that she was getting ready to leave but maybe she is now on another ship. Only one, any line, who has not emptied the trash every time and replaced glasses, etc. Only time we didn't give an extra tip, either.

Vast majority do a great job.

I don't mind if we don't meet them as long as it is obvious that the job is getting done. I would have brought the cleanliness issues to someone's attention (no way I would shower with someone else's hair in the shower for three days and if I throw something in the trash and miss I am the one that picks it up).

On the sky and pearl both were amazing.ive been on the epic 2 times the first time we only saw her once and that was it..on our last cruise we had the most amazing staff ever we constantly saw him he always greeted us always doing the best towel animals for us even calling us on the room if we needed any extra ica or any extra towel he was unbelievable

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The best cabin stewards I have ever had were on the Disney ships.

They introduced themselves at the beginning of the cruise and then never saw them again (actually has to stake out to tip them at then end).

The steward we had on the Spirit last summer on a 12 night cruise I think we saw 3 times after the introduction.

There job is to get in and out of your room without inconveniencing you, Therefore the very nature of the job dictates the better they are at their job you shouldn't really see them.

If they didn't clean properly, now that is a different issue.

We've been on Dawn, Gem, Star, Epic, Breakaway and Sky, and never did we go more than a day without bumping into our room steward. Never had any issues with the jobs that they do either. And we don't go out of our way looking for him or her as having our room steward greet us daily is not really high up on our priority list. In fact, out of all the cruise lines we've been on (Carnival, Princess, Royal Caribbean), the NCL ones have generally been more engaging and attentive.

That is the kind of steward that I like. As long as my cabin is made up, and I get my dailies, and any special requests are taken care of I don't care if I see them or not.

That is the kind of steward that I like. As long as my cabin is made up, and I get my dailies, and any special requests are taken care of I don't care if I see them or not.

I agree. Timing on meeting your steward depends on your schedules not conflicting. We are always up and out early. Some cruises we run into them lots of times and other cruises we hardly ever see them.

I wrote a hero card for my last steward on the Gem, Terrance. He greeted me by name from the first night, and never failed to say hello... He was fantastic. No other steward I ever passed failed to say hello either, except for one that never said hi once ( on my hall so I passed him often) I think the OP's experience was way outside of usual...

That is the kind of steward that I like. As long as my cabin is made up, and I get my dailies, and any special requests are taken care of I don't care if I see them or not.

I agree! As long as our cabin is clean, I get my dailies and DD gets her towel animals, we're good. :)