Where can I indicate dining time & bed set up preference?

[Cruslovncpl]

We are booked on the Gem 9/26 sailing. When I logged in to our booking, I was unable to find where I can indicate or verify what our dining and bed setup preferences are. Can this be done online?  If so, where in the online booking record?

 

Thanks in advance,

Irene

[hallux]

Bed setup - you may need to call (or have your TA do it), or be sure to find your room steward on embarkation day and ask them to set it up.

 

Dining time - FREESTYLE!  No need to book MDR dining, just show up when you want to eat.  Specialty is done through your cruise planner.

[Two Wheels Only]

With bed setup, it's 50-50 that it will be done even if you call. Most times, the bed is left how the previous guest had it. If it is incorrect, simply tell the room steward or leave a note for the room steward. 

[complawyer]

if youre booked as a married couple, the beds are automatically placed together.  if you want any other arrangement, by all means, advise your cabin steward and he/she will take care of it for you

[casofilia]

@Cruslovncpl

 

I presume that you are used to another cruise line which has Traditional dining; the only fixed time for dining is when you book a Specialty restaurant.   Otherwise, as stated above, NCL is Freestyle.

The other cruise line we use has the bed choice in your information, NCL doesn't ask.   Go by what is written above, we check and ask our steward to change if necessary.

[Middleager]

6 hours ago, complawyer said:

if youre booked as a married couple, the beds are automatically placed together.  if you want any other arrangement, by all means, advise your cabin steward and he/she will take care of it for you

No the beds are not automatically put together (for my wife and I, married couple).   Many times we had to move the night table and pushed the beds together ourselves.

[casofilia]

@Middleager

 

We have never had to do that; the steward does it when able to so long as asked.    We wouldn't have access to double sheets etc to remake the beds.

[Middleager]

35 minutes ago, casofilia said:

@Middleager

 

We have never had to do that; the steward does it when able to so long as asked.    We wouldn't have access to double sheets etc to remake the beds.

It's your choice to wait for the steward to do it for you.

 

We've always moved night table and pushed beds together ourselves.  After that we either find the steward or call, to get the sheets done.  When we get in our room, we wanted to unpack with the beds in the right position, rather than wait.

[complawyer]

we've always had the beds together when ever we arrived at our cabin

[zerooveride]

Make the Stewards your best friend. If you take care of them, they will go out of their way to help you. They are absolutely fantastic and have always helped with what I have asked them to do (within reason).

 

Example: On our POA cruise we got very lucky and didn't get an American Steward (I think he was from Haiti). At the time we had two dogs and my wife was really missing them. Everynight he would do the usual towel animals during turndown service. I went to him one afternoon and asked him to do two dogs, one bigger and one smaller for the nights towel animals and explained to him why. He said no problem and said he hoped my wife wasn't upset too much and he would do what he could to cheer her up. He didn't ask for money and I don't think he expected it. After he agreed to help I made sure to give him a $20 just for doing that simple task for me. I made sure to find him on the last morning to thank him for everything he did during the cruise and let's say I tipped him nicely. But my impression is that he would have happily done it for me, tip or no tip. The "dogs" sat on our cabin's couch the whole rest of the cruise 

 

 

 

[billslowsky]

1 hour ago, zerooveride said:

Make the Stewards your best friend. If you take care of them, they will go out of their way to help you. They are absolutely fantastic and have always helped with what I have asked them to do (within reason).

 

I find that first an foremost, treating them as you want to be treated will get the best results.  Don't trash the room, don't leave gross messes (like food covered plates), don't make the bathroom a mess.  Keep it easy for them to keep your room in clean order.  You'll see the messes others stick the steward with as they clean other rooms, it's revolting.

[zerooveride]

6 minutes ago, billslowsky said:

I find that first an foremost, treating them as you want to be treated will get the best results.  Don't trash the room, don't leave gross messes (like food covered plates), don't make the bathroom a mess.  Keep it easy for them to keep your room in clean order.  You'll see the messes others stick the steward with as they clean other rooms, it's revolting.

Very true!

I am quite messy, but I try to be a mess only in a couple of places where they necessarily don't need to clean on an everyday basis (like on the couch or the desk area). I NEVER leave dirty dishes in the cabin. As soon as I am done I put them right outside the door NEATLY on the tray they came on. 

[JamieLogical]

22 minutes ago, zerooveride said:

Very true!

I am quite messy, but I try to be a mess only in a couple of places where they necessarily don't need to clean on an everyday basis (like on the couch or the desk area). I NEVER leave dirty dishes in the cabin. As soon as I am done I put them right outside the door NEATLY on the tray they came on. 

 

Wait, I thought we *weren't* supposed to leave dishes in the halls on cruise ships because the halls are so narrow?

[complawyer]

6 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Wait, I thought we *weren't* supposed to leave dishes in the halls on cruise ships because the halls are so narrow?

youre right, we're not, but it's done anyway, so far  we havent had any complaints from management

[CardFanDubG]

Upon embarkation I always leave a note for the room steward asking that the beds be separated and the mini-fridge emptied. I leave a tip with the note and it gets the cruise started great. 

[zerooveride]

43 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Wait, I thought we *weren't* supposed to leave dishes in the halls on cruise ships because the halls are so narrow?

 

Never thought about it. I've always done it and have never been told not to. I actually think I've been told in the past to do that. I guess I will have to ask my Steward what he would like next week (well 8 days).

[Two Wheels Only]

6 minutes ago, zerooveride said:

Never thought about it. I've always done it and have never been told not to. I actually think I've been told in the past to do that. I guess I will have to ask my Steward what he would like next week (well 8 days).

 

This is one of those subjects that has (in the past) lead to threads going back and forth for 50+ pages with neither side changing the other's opinion. 

 

The story goes.... 

 

Frank Del Rio was unhappy with the appearance of dirty dishes in the hallway and was unhappy with the stains that dirty dishes/food were leaving on the carpet. FDR told Andy Stewart to do something about it. NCL came up with the idea of not allowing guests to take food from the restaurants/buffet back to their stateroom. The idea was "an endeavor to create a higher quality guest experience by eliminating dirty trays, plates and glasses that were observed in the ship's hallways"

 

The idea was not well liked by NCL guests and the resulting complaints caused NCL to quickly reverse the decision on not taking food back to the stateroom. 

 

My opinion is that dirty dishes should remain in the stateroom until the steward can take them away. A person's trash/dishes shouldn't be put in the hallway for others to walk past as they are walking to/from their stateroom. Some will mention that the hallways are narrow already and dishes make it more difficult for those with mobility issues....plus, it looks really bad. 🤮

 

The room stewards might find it easier for guests to leave dirty dishes in the hallway because it is easier for the stewards to swoop them up versus having to enter the stateroom and possibly clean other parts of the stateroom while they are there. 

 

Certain cruise lines such as Carnival might even tell guests to leave dirty dishes in the hallway and that crew members are assigned to patrol the halls and to keep the halls clean. 

 

In a post-Covid world, another solution could be that guests are to leave the dishes outside and call room service to pick them up. This is what we were asked to do in the last 2 hotels that we stayed at and the system worked. Even if we had wet towels and needed new ones, we were told to call for clean towels and to leave the wet towels outside. The swap would be done followed by a knock on the door. 

 

Maybe the decision is left up to the hotel director on each ship. Who knows?

If anyone is onboard or will soon be onboard, let us know what the hotel director suggests.

[ChiefMateJRK]

I've had a bigger "problem" with cocktail glasses accumulating...  😂

[BermudaBound2014]

One additional thing I do for my steward is offer him/her time off. I've gotten some heat on this forum for suggesting this because people believe it will lead to reduced services in the future, but I always tell my steward to skip my room every other day. If it's a port intensive trip where we aren't in the room much I may ask for service every 3rd or 4th day. Every single steward that I have explained this to has been MORE than grateful.

[hallux]

We're kind of straying off topic here..  However, @BermudaBound2014do you know what might happen if your cabin steward's manager happens to spot-check your room after they've marked it 'clean' on a day they were to skip it?  I wonder if their system has a way to mark it as skipped per guest request...

[BermudaBound2014]

7 minutes ago, hallux said:

We're kind of straying off topic here..  However, @BermudaBound2014do you know what might happen if your cabin steward's manager happens to spot-check your room after they've marked it 'clean' on a day they were to skip it?  I wonder if their system has a way to mark it as skipped per guest request...

Yes, sorry for off topic, I thought this was a tipping thread lol.

Most of the time (maybe each time I can’t remember) the steward asks me to write a little note indicating my preference. Depending on the room steward it can be a bit awkward if they think I am reducing tips, but 90% of the time the steward is sooooooooook grateful- they have a lot of cabins to do and every minute helps. 

[complawyer]

as long as i can get extra bath towels on a daily basis, im ok with the cabin steward skipping cleaning.

 

we're not that messy!