Do Not Disturb sign problem

[cle-guy]

I'm with the OP. The attendant doesn't belong in the cabin unless the sign says to makeup the room.

 

On Celebrity, three is no sign to "make up the room" front is english "Do Not Disturb" back is written in foreign languages.

[Big_G]

On Celebrity, three is no sign to "make up the room" front is english "Do Not Disturb" back is written in foreign languages.

 

 

Our last cruise was on Independence of the Seas. There should be a makeup room sign but even if not, they should honor the DND.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Edited February 14, 2015 by Big_G

[betmust]

I do not believe that Guest Relations was just agreeing with me to basically pacify me. I was told it was the policy of the ship not to enter a cabin if the sign was on the door. The room attendant actually said the same thing - it is policy not to enter.

 

I have been on many different cruise lines and if a Do Not Disturb sign was on the door no one entered the room. Which I believe should be honored - whether I am there or not, it was put there for a reason.

[ORV]

On Celebrity, three is no sign to "make up the room" front is english "Do Not Disturb" back is written in foreign languages.

 

Actually on the Summit in Oct there was a Make up the room sign but they didn't have them on Equinox. So maybe it's a M vs S class thing.

[Orator]

Yes, there was a sign. Yes, the Cabin Attendant entered in spite of the sign. Lots of hypotheticals given in this thread, but none of them happened in this case. The cabin was cleaned and bed was made. People in cabin did not return before Attendant left cabin. Nothing was taken. The incident was reported and discussed by all those involved. "No harm, no foul".

Edited February 14, 2015 by Orator

[celle]

The room attendant was standing outside my room as we left - he watched us put the sign on the door. He KNEW it was not left from the night before. We never put it out at night as we are very early risers...

 

So, he was right there when you left the room. I just don't understand why you didn't speak to him. A couple of sentences would have avoided your whole problem. It seems odd to me to leave a sign and not speak.

 

As someone else said, the poor room steward can't win.

[Tark]

The couple left the room. What part of that don't YOU understand. The attendants have a lot of rooms to take care of. When an opportunity comes they'll take it & get the room cleaned. They should have told him not to do up the room while they were away.

 

I have yet to go on a cruise but have stayed in many, many hotels.

As far as I am concerned a Do Not Disturb Sign is for the room and not just about occupants. What I mean is that if the sign is up you keep out regardless if the people in it have gone out.

 

It is not up to a guest to tell someone not to go in, even if the steward was outside and said hello. The sign says it all!! If the guest returns later and wants there room done, then its there own fault if it is not poss.

The steward was 100% wrong to go in and as far as I am concerned, no if's or buts.

That said it is only my opinion :)

Edited February 14, 2015 by Tark

[warmwinds]

I think the sign should say "Do Not Enter" - who cares WHY the people do not want their room entered, it should simply be respected that they do.

 

It happened to us once, same as the OP, that they entered when they saw us leave for breakfast, the DND sign still on the door. I was very upset, but talked to both of them and said when the sign is on, please do not come in, even if you know we're not there.

 

And of course, a day later we forgot to take it off, and came back to a dirty room. But it was entirely our fault.

[monicajay]

Try as I might, after reading all three pages, I just don't understand the OP.

 

I would not want the steward entering while I was in the room, but once out, I can't see why one moment is better than another. I understand their need to clean many rooms in a short period of time.

 

Plus, if he was there in the hallway why not speak to him?????

 

Nor can I understand the person who is worried about going to the bathroom, if you arrive and steward is in, ask him to leave. Simple.

 

 

Lastly, MSC (yes, many have criticisms) have an energy saving system, your sea pass card must go in a slot in the wall as soon as you open the door in order for both the lights or the TV to work. Five minutes after removing it, all shuts down. And, as long as the card is in the slot, a tiny purple light goes on over your door (hidden in a corner). The steward is always able to quickly determine who is in and who is out. Works wonderfully! No knocking, no signs, no peering down the hall trying to figure who is leaving, very discreet.

[warmwinds]

Our reason was we like to go swimming in the Solarium right after breakfast. So we do not want our room cleaned because all he would do was make the bed...we haven't used the towels yet. So we feel we are actually saving them a trip because if they made the bed while we were swimming, we'd come back and shower and they'd have to come back again to clean the bathroom - that doesn't seem very efficient.

 

But even forgetting that "logic" - the sign is on the door, DON'T COME IN. Period.

[varoo]

......Lastly, MSC (yes, many have criticisms) have an energy saving system, your sea pass card must go in a slot in the wall as soon as you open the door in order for both the lights or the TV to work. Five minutes after removing it, all shuts down. And, as long as the card is in the slot, a tiny purple light goes on over your door (hidden in a corner). The steward is always able to quickly determine who is in and who is out. Works wonderfully! No knocking, no signs, no peering down the hall trying to figure who is leaving, very discreet.

We have stayed in a couple of hotels that also use such a system and did not care for it at all

 

From the customer's point of view, we found it to be a pain and much prefer using a Do Not Disturb sign.

Best of all to us is having a choice of Do Not Disturb or Make Up the Room sign.

 

 

Whether in the room or out of the room, we want to be the ones who control whether or not someone else will enter the room, not have it tied to the card in the slot that turns the power on or off.

 

 

When we both wanted to leave the hotel room but did not want anyone else to enter while we were gone, we would leave one of our cards in the slot to give the appearance that the room was still occupied. That left one of us without a room key.

 

I don't know how a single occupant handles it, except perhaps to request a second card at the front desk so you can take one with you to open the door while leaving the other card in the slot.

 

When a hotel provides a Do Not Disturb sign in addition to the card in the slot, it eliminates that problem as we are both able to take our cards with us when leaving the room.

 

 

I agree that a light over the door that can be seen from down the hall would be ideal for the room steward or maid, as long as the guests can have an override to turn it on or off as desired rather than having it set automatically by the insertion or removal of the card.

 

[Charles4515]

The couple left the room. What part of that don't YOU understand. The attendants have a lot of rooms to take care of. When an opportunity comes they'll take it & get the room cleaned. They should have told him not to do up the room while they were away.

 

I agree. Also they should not make it difficult for the attendants to do their job by putting up the sign when they won't be in the room.

[Charles4515]

What part of DO NOT DISTURB don't you understand. Seems clear to me. :rolleyes: I could care less how many rooms they have to take care of.

 

Hello -- DO NOT DISTURB.

 

To me it means don't disturb me as I am in the room. If I am not in the room how can I be disturbed?

[Charles4515]

I have IBS and my OH has Crohns Disease. Both these conditions mean that sometimes use of the bathroom is needed very soon after eating.

 

I do not know of any other way to ensure that our bathroom is available to us (and not being cleaned) other than to leave the Do Not Disturb notice on the door.

 

 

Whenever I return to my room and the attendent is cleaning they have always offered to leave and finish later.

[knittinggirl]

If I see the attendant in the hallway, I tell him we'll be back soon, and we were grabbing some breakfast before leaving on a shore excursion. Also, didn't want to disturb him while he was in the middle of work.

 

Our cabin steward on Grandeur complained when people leave the do not disturb on 24-7, because she can't clean the room.

[aquaclass]

of all the things to complain about in life

 

Come on man !

 

Give the guy a break.

[julia]

of all the things to complain about in life

 

Come on man !

 

Give the guy a break.

 

 

Best post yet. Seriously. Get over it and move on.

The intention was good on the part of your steward.

Your indignation is duly noted.

In the future, speak to the steward in the hallway.

Their goal is to serve, not invade your space....

[cle-guy]

Actually on the Summit in Oct there was a Make up the room sign but they didn't have them on Equinox. So maybe it's a M vs S class thing.

 

I'm just off summit Jan 31, and mine was dual language, in my 10 cruises in last 2 years, always the same DND sign, blue plastic with white writing english one side foreign languages the revers. Also sailed Summit in May and August, both had normal DND in English and Multi language. I sailed Aqua, Inside and PH on these 3 sailings, so it's not even a cabin category thing.

 

It's not to say there may not be some odd ones floating around, but any that have MAKE UP ROOM are the exception,not the rule.

[Cindy]

I always speak to my cabin attendant if they're in the hallway when I leave, whether I'm going to be gone minutes or hours. If I don't want my cabin cleaned at that time, I tell them so. I do try to be mindful of the number of cabins they have to clean and their limited window in which to get the job done.

 

I the case of the OP, I would have spoken to him after the fact and made sure he understood that if the sign was out I didn't want the room serviced, regardless of whether I was away from the cabin or not. I would only make a complaint if it happened again.

 

Generally speaking, I think direct communication is far better than relying on the sign. The cabin attendants have a much greater number of cabins they're responsible for than they did just a few years ago. I think in order to complete the task they try to take advantage of any available time to do their job.

Edited February 15, 2015 by Cindy

[cle-guy]

Generally speaking, I think direct communication is far better than relying on the sign. The cabin attendants have a much greater number of cabins they're responsible for than they did just a few years ago. I think in order to complete the task they try to take advantage of any available time to do their job.

 

Curious how many did they have before and how many do they have now? And when did the number of cabins change.

 

I've seen may posts and rhetoric about the workload, but have yet for anyone to provide specific details, that I have been seeking.

 

Appreciate the assist...!

[Gracie115]

I think the sign should say "Do Not Enter" - who cares WHY the people do not want their room entered, it should simply be respected that they do.

 

It happened to us once, same as the OP, that they entered when they saw us leave for breakfast, the DND sign still on the door. I was very upset, but talked to both of them and said when the sign is on, please do not come in, even if you know we're not there.

 

And of course, a day later we forgot to take it off, and came back to a dirty room. But it was entirely our fault.

 

I'm glad someone gets this......and maybe "Do Not Enter" would be a better sign. It is NOT about whether you are in the room or not. That is the guest's personal space and by breaking through a barrier with a DND on it you are invading that space.......they may have left something out that they didn't want someone to see and it doesn't have to be something expensive....personal items are personal items....we all have our little quirks....trust me when I say things that get left behind and wind up in lost and found at hotels have some pretty interesting stories....just let your imagination go and we've probably found whatever item you're thinking of....so who knows why the DND was there but it doesn't matter, it means they don't want you in the room.....

[Joanne G.]

of all the things to complain about in life . .

 

 

I'd say this comment covers a good deal of the issues that are discussed on these boards! But, to all of us, our cruises are important, and this is where we can discuss things that affect our cruises. We shouldn't be coming to these boards to complain about the big problems in life.

 

I'm with those who feel "Do not disturb" means - or should mean - "don't enter the cabin." We exercise in the morning and shower afterwards. We prefer the cabin attendant to clean our room after our showers. If he or she cleans the room while we are exercising, then we don't have clean towels in the evening when getting ready for dinner.

 

Yes, I know we can call for more towels. But we prefer not to, just as the person who needed ready access to the cabin bathroom after breakfast prefers not to encounter the steward in the room.

 

We are friendly and polite to the cabin steward, we keep our cabin neat in order to minimize the work to clean it, and we are not making an out-of-the norm request such as for the room to be cleaned at 3:00 in the afternoon. But I believe our wish to delay the cabin service until after our morning showers should take precedence over the cabin steward's desire to finish his or her job early.

 

As for communicating our wishes directly to the steward, of course we can. But we expect the "do not disturb" sign to be sufficient communication.

[caladezi]

Our reason was we like to go swimming in the Solarium right after breakfast. So we do not want our room cleaned because all he would do was make the bed...we haven't used the towels yet. So we feel we are actually saving them a trip because if they made the bed while we were swimming, we'd come back and shower and they'd have to come back again to clean the bathroom - that doesn't seem very efficient.

 

But even forgetting that "logic" - the sign is on the door, DON'T COME IN. Period.

 

Go to the spa locker room, take a shower there. More room, unlimited towels. and you don't have to drip down the hall.

[Lisah101]

These Room Stewards work something like a crazy 14-16 hour day I've heard. They have an enourmous workload and using the "do not disturb" sign to indicate you don't want them to service your room at this time is a bit crazy to me.

 

Do not disturb = I'm sleeping, leave me alone.

It does NOT mean do not service my room if you know I'm not there in my opinion.

 

Can you image if even half the cabins used the sign to indicate they didn't want their room serviced at that moment, but the steward should keep running back and forth to figure out which rooms are not yet done and which of these have the signs changed? This is a logisitcal nightmere.

 

They have an insane amount of work to do - so let them do their jobs without making it more complicated. If you have special circumstances, talk to guest relations and plan it out ahead of time - don't keep make the room steward's job that much more difficult. I know on Port days for some cruise companies, they often can't leave the ship until the morning rooms are done which means they can't find a wifi spot to talk or email their families.

Edited February 15, 2015 by Lisah101

[Ma Bell]

Ok - this is the OP.

 

There are a lot of different opinions here so let me say how it ended.

 

I talked to a guest relations person without saying who I was or who the room attendant was. It was more "hypothetical". She told me under NO circumstances should the room be entered. Even if he saw me leaving the room, he had NO right to go in there. Never, ever... The sign on the door is so they will not go in, whether we are there or not.

 

I did talk to the room attendant about it - he apologized for it and also said he was NOT supposed to enter any room with a sign on it. Whether he thought it was left over or not - he should have checked with us.

 

So why did you find it necessary to post here?