Laundry Services on Oosterdam

[hondar]

We will be on the Oosterdam next week and just noticed they don't have self service laundry. Does anyone know if they have any special packages for cleaning? We try to travel light, but don't want to spend a fortune on dry cleaning and laundry.:D

[hmh]

Hi, WE were on the Noordam last week, for the NZ/AU cruise and they have no self-service laundry. However, they had an offer of using the provided laundry bag, stuffed as full as you could get it, for only $20 US. .Even got my husband's wash slacks in to it. We tried it and it was fine, tho, I don't think they separate the colors, wash the whole bag at once. Came back on the same evening. We would do it again, but the whites were a bit dingy. Cheers. HMH:)

[regnig]

The Oosterdam also has the $20 stuff all you can bag. It is available any time you want. Additionally if you desire, for $7.00 a day, you can get Unlimited Laundry service. Either way you will fill out an inventory form for the items you are sending. Everything will go into a blue cloth bag, leave it on your bed and your room steward will see to it that it gets delivered to the laundry. The form will have a space for you to indicate whether you want your laundry "folded" or hung on hangers. Although it isn't "advertised" everything will come back pressed. Those garments that can't be hung are folded neatly, wrapped in tissue and returned in a basket. We've used the unlimited service for the last 4 years and won't sail without it. Best bargain on the seas!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Dry Cleaning is a separate package -- unless you have a ton of clothes that need to be dry cleaned -- not worth the price.

Definitely be careful what you send out to be washed and dried. Everything is washed together in hot water and dried on hot.

On a 7 day cruise the unlimited laundry is not worth it considering you can't send out clothes to be washed and dried 7 days. There is a cut off date -- 2 days before the end of the cruise.

Don't always count on laundry coming back the same day -- that rarely happened to us. We had the bag ready when the cabin stewards came in to clean the cabin at 8 AM and most times did not get laundry back until dinner time the next day -- and we stay in the Penthouse!

[Crew News]

Definitely be careful what you send out to be washed and dried. Everything is washed together in hot water and dried on hot.

!

 

During my visit to the Oosterdam Laundry Facilities on a Behind the Scenes tour, I asked the hot water question and was assured that passenger laundry was washed in warm or cold water. We have been sending laundry out every day (160+ laundry bags) on our HAL cruises since 2008 and have never had anything damaged. This includes items that are jeans, "cold water only" items, permanent press, and whites. We merely enter the "cold water and dry low" in the comment page.

 

With a very few exceptions, most HAL passengers are satisfied with the HAL laundry.

There is a CC HAL thread from 7-22-2013 that discussed the hot water situation.

From Chenkp75 post on 7-23-13 of the thread:

"This has been my experience while working on cruise ships, and being the "Maytag repairman" on the laundry equipment. The large machines that the OP describes are used for the sheets, towels, tablecloths, and napkins that come to the laundry in bushels. There will also be smaller machines (some the size of the ones you have at home, some smaller in the 15-20 kg load size, and these may be in a separate laundry room. These machines are used for the guest laundry, the officers' laundry, and the crew uniforms. These are generally in the same area or room with the dry cleaning machines, the pressing stations (for clothes, not the large roll ironers used for sheets, etc). While the OP is correct about the chemical injection in the large machines, it is carefully metered, as the company does not want to spend money replacing sheets and tablecloths all the time. The small machines typically only have a detergent injection.

 

Having said that, the laundry crew are not the most careful folks around, so some clothes do get damaged, but most come out fine, and clean.

 

Generally, the machines for uniforms and guest laundry is not set for hot water, but generally warm or cold."

[hondar]

Thanks to everyone for the great information. We will probably go with $20 bag for underwear, tee shirts, etc.