Plates, cups, and leftovers...

[jawas]

I've been on 10 cruises, and have always wondered about these piles outside other passengers' cabins. I know they have either received room service or brought food back, but my question is this: where are these items technically supposed to be left - in your cabin or in the hallway, on the floor?

[klfrodo]

I travel for business

Every place I have ever stayed that offered room service advised me to just set my service outside the door when I was finished.

Some left a card on the service tray advising me to do so. Some ask that you call room service when you have completed your meal and have placed the tray outside your room.

 

On a cruise ship,,,,, I treat this the same way.

[NLH Arizona]

I would say they should either be left in your cabin or one should call room service to take them away. One major reason is that the hallways are so small, that someone with a wheelchair, walker, scooter or walking difficulties, has a major issue getting around when passengers leave these in the halls.

[Shorex]

The simplest answer is to inquire of the person who delivers the room service. When I have done so, the response has been to call housekeeping when the dishes are ready for removal, and not to put them in the hall. While a cruise ship is in many ways a floating hotel, some practices are different.

[gwsster]

On our last cruise a month ago, thankfully I noticed less dirty dishes being left outside the doors in the hallway. This is a safety hazard as the hallways are narrow and if the ship is rocking, I don't want to step in leftover shrimp cocktail. It is also stomach turning to come back from a show or dinner to see someones "leftovers" parked outside their door. If you must leave the dishes outside the door, call the front desk to have housekeeping remove them. Courtesy and safety to other guests is a nice consideration; just sayin'

 

I travel for business

Every place I have ever stayed that offered room service advised me to just set my service outside the door when I was finished.

Some left a card on the service tray advising me to do so. Some ask that you call room service when you have completed your meal and have placed the tray outside your room.

 

On a cruise ship,,,,, I treat this the same way.

[CruiserBruce]

The simplest answer is to inquire of the person who delivers the room service. When I have done so, the response has been to call housekeeping when the dishes are ready for removal, and not to put them in the hall. While a cruise ship is in many ways a floating hotel, some practices are different.

 

Agree. A ship is not the same as a land based hotel. Leaving them in the hall is not the best solution for safety reasons.

[wwcruisers]

You don't see this much, on Celebrity. You just call your room steward, and they take care of any dirty dishes, etc, from room service.

[SadieN]

One cruise we asked our steward where to put our dishes. He took them out of the cabin and placed them on the hallway floor.

[klfrodo]

A cruise ship is a floating resort/hotel. Nothing less, nothing more.

 

I will agree that it is less than a pleasant view/experience to see a bunch of trays in the hallway. The solution is not to put the problem on the guest. Especially when the guest is doing what they are told to do.

The solution is on the management of the hotel department leadership. If guests tell the leadership that there is a problem, it's up to leadership to resolve the problem.

[OCruisers]

There is no choice but to leave trays outside of the cabin door when you are TOLD to do that by some cruse lines. :rolleyes:

 

On Princess & HAL you are requested to call room service when you're finished for pick-up.

[leaveitallbehind]

RCI also requests a call to room service for pick up and to leave items outside the door. You can also leave the in your stateroom and the stateroom attendant will take them during their normal service rounds.

 

You should not just leave them in the hallway without notification, however.

[GTO-Girl]

On our last cruise on RCCI I made my husband call room service because I was sure they wouldn't want the tray left in the hall..........

 

.......he was told to please leave it in the hall....:confused:

[Lionesss]

We always left our dirty plates, bar glasses in the hall outside our door for pick-up.

 

We were told on our first Mariner cruise 9 years ago and have done it on all subsequent cruises.

 

So does everyone else.

 

The food and plates and trays in hallways, thanks God, I haven't seen bugs or mices:eek:

 

Safe journey

[beachbum53]

I've been on 10 cruises, and have always wondered about these piles outside other passengers' cabins. I know they have either received room service or brought food back, but my question is this: where are these items technically supposed to be left - in your cabin or in the hallway, on the floor?

 

We've done it both ways, but MY preference is to leave the items in the cabin and call housekeeping to have the items picked up. That works pretty well for us. ;)

[YubaSutter]

We generally leave the tray and dishes in the hallway.

[leaveitallbehind]

On our last cruise on RCCI I made my husband call room service because I was sure they wouldn't want the tray left in the hall..........

 

.......he was told to please leave it in the hall....:confused:

 

As I mentioned in my post they request leaving it in the hallway with your notification because they then send someone to retrieve it - usually within 30 minutes. In this manner they don't have to disturb you to get it from your stateroom. But the key is to notify them prior to leaving it outside in the hallway so that it is not just sitting there without their knowledge and not picked up.

Edited November 1, 2015 by leaveitallbehind

[NLH Arizona]

On NCL's Pearl it has been reported that they now have a sign/card on the room service that says to call a certain number for pick-up and not to leave trays in the hallways. Now do I think everyone will abide by the request, no.

[sail7seas]

I travel for business

Every place I have ever stayed that offered room service advised me to just set my service outside the door when I was finished.

Some left a card on the service tray advising me to do so. Some ask that you call room service when you have completed your meal and have placed the tray outside your room.

 

On a cruise ship,,,,, I treat this the same way.

 

Aside from the obvious major difference between hotel and cruise ship rooms, is the very narrow hallway on some ships. Some are very long and very narrow and a person in a wheelchair would have a hard time passing if anyone else was in the hallway along with dirty dishes.

 

The obvious diffierence, of course, is ships move and dirty dishes can be dangerous for people trying to pass down the hallway when there are rough seas.

 

I always neatly stack whatever dishes we used, place the tray on the coffee table and lay the cloth napkins over the dishes so we don't have to see the dishes. Our steward always sees to it the dishes are removed.

 

[CruiserBruce]

We always left our dirty plates, bar glasses in the hall outside our door for pick-up.

 

We were told on our first Mariner cruise 9 years ago and have done it on all subsequent cruises.

 

So does everyone else.

 

 

Not sure how you would knoweveryone else does. We never have. Seems like a few others on this thread have not...

[Hflors]

On our last cruise on Ryndam we called the number to have them come and remove the dirty dishes. They never did. After two hours we sat them in the hallway!

We were on a two week cruise and almost every day we followed the same procedure (except when we were in port) Morning time was the worse for anything. No cleaning the room until at least after lunch and no pick up of dirty dishes until sometime after we left them in the hallway.

 

I think our last cruise was an anomaly. Dining room service not good, food ok, cabin service ok. Not a usual HAL cruise. It summed it up for me when the drink server gave us our drinks. I noticed that instead of a lime there was a lemon in our Gin & Ginger ale drink. The second round when he came back I said to him that this drink gets a lime in it and not a lemon and he replied that he was sorry, but they were running out of limes! I was nice about it but I said if they don't have limes don't bother getting us another drink. Now for many its no big deal, but this drink is 8.00 each so that is 16.00 every time we order a drink, plus the tip we always slip the server. For $18.00 per round I want a lime!

 

I guess what I am saying to HAL is if you want me to not leave dirty dished in my cabin come and get them with in two hours. And if you want me to buy drinks have the proper ingredients.

[kelkel2]

This is definitely a problem throughout the hospitality industry, not just cruise lines, but hotels too. Is is technically a safety hazard? Yes it very well could be if there was a situation where the power was out and you had guests trying to travel the halls and there were an abundance of trays in the hallways.

But honestly, it comes back to management of the food and beverage department. If they want the guest do to something one way or the other, they need to make it known to the guest. Whether it is leaving a note on the tray or just a sign in the room. it's likely the guest will comply if they know what is expected of them. But the guest needs to know. This issue comes up on here all the time and no definitive answer is ever arrived to. If you leave the trays out will they get picked up? Yes, but they'll also get cleaned up if you leave them in your room. But, people don't want them in their room because the rooms are small and it cuts down on the space you have, which isn't much to begin with.

[NLH Arizona]

This is definitely a problem throughout the hospitality industry, not just cruise lines, but hotels too. Is is technically a safety hazard? Yes it very well could be if there was a situation where the power was out and you had guests trying to travel the halls and there were an abundance of trays in the hallways.

But honestly, it comes back to management of the food and beverage department. If they want the guest do to something one way or the other, they need to make it known to the guest. Whether it is leaving a note on the tray or just a sign in the room. it's likely the guest will comply if they know what is expected of them. But the guest needs to know. This issue comes up on here all the time and no definitive answer is ever arrived to. If you leave the trays out will they get picked up? Yes, but they'll also get cleaned up if you leave them in your room. But, people don't want them in their room because the rooms are small and it cuts down on the space you have, which isn't much to begin with.

I use to travel a lot for business when I worked and now a lot for pleasure and I've never stayed in a hotel that had room service that didn't have a card on the tray with a number to call to pick it up. Never once has there been a card that says leave the try in the hallways, but every morning there were a lot of trays outside some of the rooms.

 

Even though, at least on one ship, NCL has a card that says call this number for tray to be picked up, as well as saying don't leave the trays in the hallways, I would be that the next time I cruise on the Pearl, I'll still see trays in the hallways. It is because some basically don't care about anyone but themselves and it is easier for them to put it in the hallway, even though someone in a wheelchair or walker would have difficulty walking down the hall.

[klfrodo]

I use to travel a lot for business when I worked and now a lot for pleasure and I've never stayed in a hotel that had room service that didn't have a card on the tray with a number to call to pick it up. Never once has there been a card that says leave the try in the hallways, but every morning there were a lot of trays outside some of the rooms. I guess the Sheratons and the Marriotts that I stay in are just dumps because they don't have cards. The room service delivery person may tell me to place the trays outside of my room and to also call them. What time they return to pick them up is something I don't know.

 

Even though, at least on one ship, NCL has a card that says call this number for tray to be picked up, as well as saying don't leave the trays in the hallways, I would be that the next time I cruise on the Pearl, I'll still see trays in the hallways. It is because some basically don't care about anyone but themselves and it is easier for them to put it in the hallway, even though someone in a wheelchair or walker would have difficulty walking down the hall.Yep, you're right. Not one single person actually cares about anyone but themselves. EVERYBODY is careless and thoughtless. Everyone but YOU of course.

 

My thoughts in Dark red

[Hflors]

I use to travel a lot for business when I worked and now a lot for pleasure and I've never stayed in a hotel that had room service that didn't have a card on the tray with a number to call to pick it up. Never once has there been a card that says leave the try in the hallways, but every morning there were a lot of trays outside some of the rooms.

 

Even though, at least on one ship, NCL has a card that says call this number for tray to be picked up, as well as saying don't leave the trays in the hallways, I would be that the next time I cruise on the Pearl, I'll still see trays in the hallways. It is because some basically don't care about anyone but themselves and it is easier for them to put it in the hallway, even though someone in a wheelchair or walker would have difficulty walking down the hall.

 

I agree that its better to call a number and have the trays picked up which we did every morning. (on hal you are supposed to call another number and give them your room number), but after what we experienced last time (2 hrs) wait enough is enough. And if people ask how I knew it was 2 + hrs its because dh hurt his knee and sat for three days in our cabin with ice on it. Which I after the first day I got myself from the cabin servers room up the hall. The first day we waited so long that I finally called the front desk. When the person came I followed them as I needed it often for dh's knee. After that I didn't bother calling, but got it myself. Our last cruise on Ryndam was not one of our top cruises. Actually it was pretty low on our list of favorite cruises.

[NLH Arizona]

My thoughts in Dark red

I've never stayed at a Marriott or Sheraton that didn't have a card on my room service tray that told me to call for pick-up. Also, I've never had a room service delivery person tell me to leave a tray in the hallway at a Marriott or Sheraton, but then I don't ask because I know there will be a card giving me the number to call.

 

Also, never said all people don't care about others, just those that sail on a ship and put their trays in the hallways, so that people have a difficult time getting around. If the shoe fits....