Clearing out the Fridge

[livsea2]

I recently sailed on the Radiance and when I asked the room attendant to clear out the fridge so I could use it for water and medicine he told me he wasn't allowed to and I would have to make arrangements with food services?? I have always had the steward do this in the past. Is this something new? I certainly was annoyed!

[bigque]

On the Serenade in October we just took it out ourselves and put on the shelves on the side of the dresser/vanity. It was no problem. On the last night of the cruise we put everything back.

[cb at sea]

Used to be, the room attendant was responsible for the stuff in the fridge....and for charging you! So, I would still make them aware that you plan to move the stuff....

[seadog67]

I am sure the time is coming when they will go to a system like Vegas hotels have, (at least several do), where once you remove an item it is automatically recorded via sensors and charged to your account. The Venetian in Vegas has small fridges like the cruise ships and have this system.

 

If you just accidentally pickup the item you are charged.

[FLACRUISER99]

I recently sailed on the Radiance and when I asked the room attendant to clear out the fridge so I could use it for water and medicine he told me he wasn't allowed to and I would have to make arrangements with food services?? I have always had the steward do this in the past. Is this something new? I certainly was annoyed!

I always make room in mine and put everything back the last day.

[vafatboy]

Be sure you put the items back before you go to dinner. The bar service people come by and check on your last night. I just got billed on Liberty. The front desk was able to get the charge removed, but slowed down leaving the ship.

 

Rob

[SoCalCruzzing]

Liberty was the same, our steward said it was food services that were responsable now. Hw suggested we just move everything out and place to side of fridge in the cabinet and then return on last night. We followed the suggestion and were never charged for anything. If RCL were going to an automated system I would of expected to see all the fridges on the Allure with that from the start, it would make no sense to change out 4000+ fridges on a brand new vessel.

[tahqa]

I honestly think it all depends on the cabin attendant. I've been on cruises where they were perfectly happy to do it and I've also been on cruises where they wouldn't do it.

[CVU]

We left our fridge the way it was and then were charged for a bottle of water on the last day. We never used the fridge.

 

They reversed the charge for the bottle but then on the day we disembarked, I found a half empty bottle of water under the sofa, when checking for things we may have missed!!

That was a mystery........:confused: as no kids, just DH and I in the cabin. From now on we want the fridge emptied so we don't have a hassle again, or have people checking daily into our cabin.

[M&M Hayden]

We were on Radiance from the 6th to the 16th and on one afternoon we were on the balcony and heard a knock at the door.....it was actually one of the bar staff doing a "mini bar" check. Told him, we haven't even opened it....he said, it's full with good stuff! Lots of soda, candy and peanuts.

[BillOh]

I recently sailed on the Radiance and when I asked the room attendant to clear out the fridge so I could use it for water and medicine he told me he wasn't allowed to and I would have to make arrangements with food services?? I have always had the steward do this in the past. Is this something new? I certainly was annoyed!

 

Our attendant told us he wasn't responsible for that content as we were short two packs of M&Ms prior to our arrival and were billed for, but refunded. We just put everything on top of the cabinets and put our water in there. There was nothing that would spoil. (that would only be a problem if there was rough weather)

[Scotty G]

The contents of the fridge are the responsibility of the Food and Beverage Dept. now. The cabin stewards cannot get involved anymore. We have had a bar person come to inventory several times during a cruise. Not always at the most opportune time either. They can also enter your cabin with a passkey if you are not there.

[karena1]

We always take it out and have never had any problems. We just put it on the dresser wherever there is room so they see it sitting right there. Have never been charged for anything we have taken out.

[Pumbaamd]

We were charged for two bottles of water on Allure mid way thru the maiden voyage. We moved them to make room for champagne. Someone from beverage service would visit the fridges while the cabin attendants were working. We got that straight (the cabin attendant was really a big help with that). Two days later we were charged for a Diet Coke which was never touched and in plain view. I called guest relations and expressed dissatisfaction with this new system having a beverage person in our cabin almost daily. We eventually got the Diet Coke deal straight. Both charges had the 15% gratuity, so someone works for commission here.

Rick and Deirdra

[mjrager444]

Just off FOS.. The stateroom attendant told us that was handled by someone else now However she made the arrangements with them on our behalf. We sailed Sunday and Monday morning the fridge was emptied.

[Kellie Poodle]

Thanks for all this info! I just called RCI Special Needs to check that they had all of our stuff in the file and they did. I asked about what I'd heard of the new business of the cabin attendant not removing the stuff in the mini fridge and she said she hadn't heard anything about that.

 

She did offer to put a "medical refrigerator" in our cabin for the insulin so I guess we'll be okay.

 

I called just in time, it seems. She was sending the fax with the needs of the 1/2/11 sailing today.

[matj2000]

I have always have had them offer. I bet the guy was just lazy....

[Cruiser 4 Life 66]

On my first day on the Jewel I told my stateroom attendant I would like everything removed from the fridge except the water and the Sprite. She said she didn't handle that but would let someone know. Just to be safe I also went to the guest relations desk and told them. I saw them even write it down. Nothing was ever removed. Failure on two counts. Bad customer service all around on this issue.

[CariBear]

We had the same situation occur on the Oasis in November. With the limited shelving space we already had I did not want to place the water, cokes, boxes of peanuts and M&M's on the shelves....but the cabin steward said he did not handle the contents of the fridge and that the "bar staff" handled it. He suggested we take the items out of the fridge and place them on the shelves.....

[Ander026]

I have sailed on the Monarch recently and evebthough I did not have a fridge as the soda's etc was on the desk. I did ask my room attendant about taking it away and he said it was the bar staff area now. He did suggest putting it on the top shelf above the desk. Enough room for everything and was not charged at all.

[Langley Cruisers]

I certainly was annoyed!

 

You were "annoyed"? Sorry to hear that. Instead of being annoyed you couldn't understand that someone else handles it? Not a big deal. Emptying the fridge yourself takes 30 seconds. Hmm.

[imjoyful2]

We were on the Explorer a few weeks ago and said something to the room attendant that we wanted the fridge emptied. We put all the stuff on the counter for him and it was gone. Not sure who eventually took it.

[matt615]

The contents of the fridge are the responsibility of the Food and Beverage Dept. now. The cabin stewards cannot get involved anymore. We have had a bar person come to inventory several times during a cruise. Not always at the most opportune time either. They can also enter your cabin with a passkey if you are not there.

 

This is quite true. Kind of inconvenient now to have two people entering the room on a regular basis (stateroom attendant and food staff) instead of just one. Also, the stateroom attendants tend to find out when you're going to be out of the room, and take care of the room then so as to not disturb you. But these other folks had a much higher tendency to show up when the room was actually in use.

 

As for them entering with a passkey: This happened on our last cruise, and led to quite a bit of shock on the part of one of our female friends, who was in the midst of dressing when the gentleman started to come in unannounced, haha. Our stateroom attendant was fantastic, but the guy who handled the fridge didn't have much in the way of customer service skills.

[Langley Cruisers]

...who was in the midst of dressing when the gentleman started to come in unannounced...

 

This is why we always always put the Do Not Disturb in the keyhole, even if we are in the room for just a few minutes at any given time during the day.

[Merion_Mom]

You were "annoyed"? Sorry to hear that. Instead of being annoyed you couldn't understand that someone else handles it? Not a big deal. Emptying the fridge yourself takes 30 seconds. Hmm.

 

This is the problem, Langley. On the Oasis, the storage space is EXTREMELY limited. "Emptying it" yourself and "just putting it somewhere" means losing precious counter space, shelf space or floor space. There is very little of all of those in all of the non-suite cabins.

 

 

We had the same situation occur on the Oasis in November. With the limited shelving space we already had I did not want to place the water, cokes, boxes of peanuts and M&M's on the shelves....but the cabin steward said he did not handle the contents of the fridge and that the "bar staff" handled it. He suggested we take the items out of the fridge and place them on the shelves.....

 

The same thing for us..........and the bar staff didn't take it, even when asked.