Not a good cabin steward start today on the Conquest. (With once day service mention)

[gtonda]

Let me start off with saying this is not a major complaint or rant. This is me simply telling my story and expressing my little bit of frustration from my experience. No one is threatening to remove gratuities (yet, lol).

 

Boarded Conquest today, got to the room about 12:30pm, grabbed some grub on lido, returned to the room for awhile longer, luggage arrived, unpacked, went to the pool for about 30min, muster, then back to room until we left at 6pm for dinner. The point of this timeline is that we were in the room for the vast majority of time between boarding and dinner, plenty of opportunity for our steward to pop in and introduce himself. We did not see or hear from him by the time we left for dinner. Not a big deal. Although I think have only had 1 other cruise (out of 13-14) where I hadn't met the steward prior to leaving for dinner.

 

Again, this was not a huge deal and I figured we'd meet him sometime tomorrow. Well, we get back to the room about 8pm and much to my disappointment, it was clear he never came by at all. Wet pool and bath towels on floor, which I could have lived with until tomorrow, but the no turndown service was unacceptable. The main reason is that we are in a scenic ocean view room with a double pullout sofa, so both my kids had to sleep on this sofa bed. The fact that this was not pulled out and made was not ok in my book. I figured I would just call the steward phone and ask him to come by, but when I dialed, it did not ring. I then called guest services, that just put me in a never ending loop of options, none of which actually get you to a guest services employee. (Steakhouse, shore excursions, etc. All revenue items. Shocker there.) At this point I realized that I was going to have to go down to guest services myself. This irked me a bit more, as it was a long travel day and I just wanted to get our kids to bed.

 

Guest services attendant gets a hold of steward and says he'll be there asap. I let her know I was frustrated based on the bed not being pulled out. She then tells me that it is a new thing that you either get morning service OR evening service. Never does she mention both as an option. I tell her that excuse doesn't really make sense as we have not yet even met him let alone been given the choices. I also inform her that we will require both evening and morning, she then tells me to tell our steward that when I speak to him. Okie dokie.

 

Steward shows up about 15min later, I ask him to please make up the pullout and that we will need 2x/day service. He acknowledges and proceeds to pull out the sofa bed, and in said sofa bed is the old linens from previous cruise. That is a little gross in and of itself. Bed gets made and he lets us know he'll bring fresh pool towels tomorrow.

 

So a few points:

 

I just don't understand how they think it's ok, especially on the 1st night, to not convert the sofa bed. What if I had an upper pullman that needed to be unlocked?

 

The old bedding still inside the pullout is pretty gross. So you want me to make up the sofa bed myself AND remove the old linens? I don't think so. Do you ever just have the thought cross your mind where you wonder just what if a place didn't change out sheets between guests? Just makes me wonder more now. So many rooms to turnover in such a short time.

 

I also just didn't appreciate having the GS woman try and pass it off as part of the 1x/day service, ESPECIALLY when I had yet to even make this mythical choice.

 

Is this the end of the world, will it ruin my cruise? No

 

It's not going to make me remove tips, but we will have to see how the next 8 days go.

 

On a side note, as he had not yet been to our room, we had no Welcome Back letters, pins, waters, or platinum gifts. When he finally came, he brought all but the gifts. I can't recall if those are usually delivered on day 1. If anyone could remind me, I would appreciate it.

 

I realize this is long winded, but we turned in early tonight and I have nothing but time. Lol.

[Shipcats6]

We were on the Conquest last October and received the Platinum gift about half way through the cruise. Only received one gift. We are both Platinum. The Steward said he had to go "see". He finally came back with the second gift.

[gtonda]

We were on the Conquest last October and received the Platinum gift about half way through the cruise. Only received one gift. We are both Platinum. The Steward said he had to go "see". He finally came back with the second gift.

 

 

Thank you. I think my last cruise (1 year ago) was my first plat cruise, and this is my wife's first plat cruise, and I couldn't remember when I received it last year.

[sk8rmomof3]

Sounds odd to me. I've only went on one other cruise and our room attendant met us immediately. By the second time we saw him in the hallway, he already knew us by name. I was amazed. It was not Carnival and we had twice a day service. I personally think the less in the room the better, however, there are times where it is necessary. I liked coming back from dinner and having the next day's itinerary in the room waiting.

I was wondering about the fast turn around of people leaving the boat and then boarding with such a quick time to do laundry and prepare the rooms for the next group of cruisers. Kind of scary to think about if they can't get to it all. Obviously your attendant doesn't pay attention to details if the sofa still had old sheets on it. GROSS! I agree, I wouldn't be pulling tips yet, but I would definitely keep note of it and maybe get a percent off the next cruise.

[SadieN]

Platinum gifts don't arrive until CE night. The paperwork should have been there. No idea who distributes the large water bottles.

 

The sofa situation is not acceptable at all.

[easyboy]

You have all the reason to complain on the steward's and GS staff's actuation. I also agree that it is not the reason to remove gratuities where other outstanding crews may be affected.

[SadieN]

Platinum gifts don't arrive until CE night. The paperwork should have been there. No idea who distributes the large water bottles.

 

The sofa situation is not acceptable at all.

 

 

Thinking on....

Last cruise where we had a fold out sofa the bed was a bare mattress upon boarding. (We checked.) No reason why your mattress wasn't stripped when it was last used.

[Micahs Grandad]

Someone was not doing their job.

 

We dont always meet steward first afternoon but by dinner time we have always done so.

 

Not acceptable when they tell you either morning or evening service.

[pcvtmom]

Unacceptable service, for sure. Platinum gift usually arrives later in the week, though.

[Micahs Grandad]

We were on the Conquest starting Feb 4th, 2017. My brother and sister in law had a cabin right next to ours. We both had FTTF. When we boarded, we went straight to our balcony cabins on the Panorama Deck. Brother's was first in the passageway. Ours was next. When we got to our cabin, the door was open. We walked in and the cabin hadn't been made up yet. Clifford, our steward was in an inside cabin across from ours. He shouted out "It's not made up yet." No kidding.

 

It wasn't the end of the world so we left our luggage and went to get something to eat. When we got back, the cabin was made up. A short while later he came back and introduced himself. He ask which we wanted early or late. I ask if we could have both. He said yes and ask if there was anything else. I said that we didn't have an ice bucket. He said they don't put them in the cabins unless you ask. He said that the ship is like a hotel, if you want something you have to ask for it. So I ask. He had one in there when we returned from dinner and the bed had been turned down.

 

The next day I told him that we were out of facial tissues. He said they didn't have any. What?? Later that day we were talking with other guests and mentioned the tissue issue. She laughed and said that they had four boxes in their cabin. Finally on the fourth day of the cruise he handed me a box when I passed him in the hall. Didn't put it in there, just handed it to me.

 

He was real friendly, always speaking to us if we met him in the hall but he sure wasn't very good at his job. We never gave it a thought to take off his tips but he sure didn't earn them.

 

Wow next thing you know you will have to go to guest services towels and soap and ___.

[Deanaboy]

My past three or four cruises with Carnival I notice a lot of small changes that is going on with the company especially in room service, dinning and entertainment. I didn't get to meet my steward until dinner the second day. During my last cruise a four day, we did not get room service at all. Carnival is cutting back on a lot of things except their cruise prices and fees. I am booked on Conquest in two weeks. Got to Go cruising.

[bnorris10]

That is what i like about the Disney boats they actually tell you what part of the tips goes to each person and if you want to remove it from said person you can - of course they also panhandle by giving you extra envelopes to tip even more

[Travel Bear]

I suggest you ask to speak with the hotel manager directly. Explain your concern. This steward is a poor carnival representative and needs counseling. This is not how CCL expects their employees to do their job. This is an individual service matter, the steward tried to cut corners, and the supervisor needs to monitor this employee.

 

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[Sitzmark]

This sounds a lot like the guy we had on Oasis of the Seas.

 

I really didn't mind except that everyone makes such a fuss about how hard they work and how much they deserve.

[pusywillow]

M first Carnival cruise was on the Conquest. I had a terrible steward. The supervisors made excuses. Lots of other bad things happened on board this ship. I almost swore off Carnival, but all the other employees said, try the Breeze. I did, and haven't had a problem since. Doing the Vista in a week.

[gtonda]

Thinking on....

Last cruise where we had a fold out sofa the bed was a bare mattress upon boarding. (We checked.) No reason why your mattress wasn't stripped when it was last used.

 

 

Ya, normally I would have expected just a bare mattress. I wouldn't expect it to be made upon boarding, but definitely after I come back from dinner for turndown service. The last thing I would expect would be for it to have dirty linens in it. I mean the one time you'd expect the room to be at it's cleanest would be between sailings.

[ItsAllAboutTheSass]

I never had a cabin steward refresh pool towels. I just do that on lido myself.

 

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[LMaxwell]

OP; let us know if service improved to an acceptable level. IMO you did the right thing; you went to guest services and you let the steward know the level of service you expect to receive so they should be able to do that now.

[Micahs Grandad]

If service didnt improve to an acceptable level would let the steward know about it and if necessary reduce his tips and put this info on survey after cruise.

[N2Mischief]

On our last cruise, the steward was on his last cruise, ever. He was retiring and we were so happy for him. Super nice guy, and the room was always spotless. He told us that they used to have 15 rooms assigned to them and they had a helper. Now he had 32 rooms assigned to him and NO helper. He said it was very sad because the guest suffered (and of course so did he). He was so happy to be getting out after 31 years with Carnival. We were doing a B2B for a total of 21 days. On the turnaround day, we had to change rooms. They simply didn't have enough staff to help like I've always read about. We moved all of our stuff by ourselves. Not complaining, just pointing out that the cut in staffing is getting very noticeable.

[summersigh]

We speak with a smile but leave no doubt we expect morning service and evening towels, ice and Fun Times.

We let the steward know we appreciate them verbally when we see them during the trip and in some extra cash the last night .... as a tip for good service not a bribe :D

[SadieN]

We had a 'steward from hell' on Princess. We left auto tips on but we wrote a scathing review. Reviews almost are better (or worse) than changing the tips. Reviews effect their contracts.

[Micahs Grandad]

On our last cruise, the steward was on his last cruise, ever. He was retiring and we were so happy for him. Super nice guy, and the room was always spotless. He told us that they used to have 15 rooms assigned to them and they had a helper. Now he had 32 rooms assigned to him and NO helper. He said it was very sad because the guest suffered (and of course so did he). He was so happy to be getting out after 31 years with Carnival. We were doing a B2B for a total of 21 days. On the turnaround day, we had to change rooms. They simply didn't have enough staff to help like I've always read about. We moved all of our stuff by ourselves. Not complaining, just pointing out that the cut in staffing is getting very noticeable.

 

Having more cabins to clean might lead to large increase in earnings. Many times steward will hire members of crew to help him and pay out of earning.

[cb at sea]

Our very BEST cabin attendant was one we NEVER met or saw! Still don't know if it was a man or woman, but our cabin was totally cleaned and refreshed twice a day, with clean towels and linens daily...but we never, ever saw the person! I don't feel a great need to "get to know" my housekeeping staff, so this worked out great! We did leave an extra tip, since the room was always immaculate!

[Je Souhaite]

I would have removed 1/7th of the tip right away in my calculation for my steward tip.