AM or PM cabin cleaning

[G8R On Board]

It's my understanding that on Carnival ships, your room steward will ask if you want a morning or an evening cleaning.  I realize a lot of that decision depends on personal habits like if you prefer to sleep in or if you're an early riser and out the door all morning, etc.  I've been thinking about which option is best, but I'd like to hear some of your thoughts as to pros and cons of each.  I like to have ice in the room, so a morning cleaning would be better for that.  However I like the idea of not having to vacate the room for a bit of time if we are slow to get ready on a particular day.  We're out of the room in the evenings anyways.  So what do you all think, and what has made you decide one way or the other? 

[icft]

We like to stay up late and sleep late so the first time this nonsense started we selected evening. The only problem with that is that often in the afternoons we go our separate ways for a few hours and plan to meet in the room before dinner. Well the meeting in the room often ran into the room being cleaned.

 

After that we asked how late could we get a morning cleaning and were told till noon or a bit later. We started going with morning with the understanding it would not be before 10 a.m. and that has worked great.

 

We have also had occasion to have an early afternoon option. That is the best for us.

[TNcruising02]

Even though we stay up late for the comedy shows, we are usually up before 9 am.  Once we leave for breakfast, we are out of the cabin for awhile doing other things so we choose morning cleanings.  However, on our last cruise, the cabin steward said that he would clean the cabin when he had time.  LOL. We told him that was fine with us.  Somehow, that actually worked just fine.

[icft]

3 minutes ago, TNcruising02 said:

Even though we stay up late for the comedy shows, we are usually up before 9 am.  Once we leave for breakfast, we are out of the cabin for awhile doing other things so we choose morning cleanings.  However, on our last cruise, the cabin steward said that he would clean the cabin when he had time.  LOL. We told him that was fine with us.  Somehow, that actually worked just fine.

Sounds like he was an old style steward and just kept an eye out for people's patterns and cleaned when he expected them to be out.

[TNcruising02]

2 minutes ago, icft said:

Sounds like he was an old style steward and just kept an eye out for people's patterns and cleaned when he expected them to be out.

Yes, and it actually worked.

[kctwinmommy]

I didn't realize it was only once/day on our cruise last week. Apparently, my husband just said whichever, and he picked the A.M. one. We were usually out of the cabin during the day (4 port days in a row, gone by I think 8:30 at the latest), and even on sea days we were out by like 9. However, I would have preferred the evening service, so things were clean when we came back for bedtime. It was weird to come into our room at 3 or 4 p.m. and see our towel animal. I know it's stupid, but I just like it all at night.

[csoud68]

I liked two times a day but after staying in hotels that don't clean your room unless you stay 5 days or more I will gladly take 1x daily.

 

Hotels now are gross..I am amazed they allow that with those tiny trash cans.

[BabyJacks17]

On our last cruise our family chose the AM time - which at first I was against because I loved the thought of coming to a turned down bed in the evening following dinner and activities. 

 

However, my families thought process was that they'd rather have a fresh cabin from morning til evening as opposed to a unmade cabin from morning til night - where we barely got to enjoy the freshness of it all, lol. 

 

In the end, they were right with the choice for us - I don't think coming back from a day in port to a messy cabin would have had the same relaxation effect as it does knowing your cabin is done up & refreshed. 

[csoud68]

9 minutes ago, BabyJacks17 said:

On our last cruise our family chose the AM time - which at first I was against because I loved the thought of coming to a turned down bed in the evening following dinner and activities. 

 

However, my families thought process was that they'd rather have a fresh cabin from morning til evening as opposed to a unmade cabin from morning til night - where we barely got to enjoy the freshness of it all, lol. 

 

In the end, they were right with the choice for us - I don't think coming back from a day in port to a messy cabin would have had the same relaxation effect as it does knowing your cabin is done up & refreshed. 

Exactly...I can't imagine having a messy room all darn day on a cruise..

[wesorbeth]

We prefer evening, we usually take a nap sometime in the afternoon.  We also keep the cabin pretty tidy.

[crusin okie]

We have not sailed on Carnival since Nov 2019.  I do remember we were asked about morning or evening service.  We responded "both" and that did not seem to be an issue.  Hopefully the additional gratuity made up for the extra effort.  The same situation presented itself on RCCL and Celebrity and our response was the same.  All without issue.

Edited April 19, 2022 by crusin okie
Incorrect date in first sentence.

[maluhia87]

We prefer evening cleaning since we do not get up early. We also ask for ice and transfer it into our insulated cups and store in the mini fridge. Last month the ice from the first night was still frozen the day we left (we try to only use one of the cups and keep one full of ice). 

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

1 hour ago, crusin okie said:

We have not sailed on Carnival since Nov 2019.  I do remember we were asked about morning or evening service.  We responded "both" and that did not seem to be an issue.  Hopefully the additional gratuity made up for the extra effort.  The same situation presented itself on RCCL and Celebrity and our response was the same.  All without issue.

 

I really like the Go Green program on Celebrity. In a nutshell:

 

Go GreenSM is a program offered by Celebrity Cruises where guests can opt-in to receive reduced housekeeping services while onboard. Captain’s Club members that opt-in to this program will receive an extra night’s worth of Club Points based on their stateroom category (“Go Green Bonus Points”).

 

We took advantage of this on our Feb 26th Reflection cruise, and earned an extra 12 club points (and didn't really see and change in the service). Already signed up again for our B2B in November, where we'll get an extra 24 points!

 

It's nice to feel you're getting something back for (voluntarily) giving up something.

 

Tom

[ray98]

1 hour ago, crusin okie said:

We have not sailed on Carnival since Nov 2019.  I do remember we were asked about morning or evening service.  We responded "both" and that did not seem to be an issue.  Hopefully the additional gratuity made up for the extra effort.  The same situation presented itself on RCCL and Celebrity and our response was the same.  All without issue.

 

You don't get the 'both' option anymore after COVID.  It is strictly one time a day and they have adjusted the stewards assigned rooms as such.

[groundloop]

I was a bit surprised on our last cruise that the steward told us when he'd be servicing the cabin instead of asking.  It honestly doesn't make a bit of difference.  I'm on a ship getting spoiled,  I can sit on my balcony watching the ocean go by, and that's all that matters.

[noleguy84]

6 minutes ago, ray98 said:

 

You don't get the 'both' option anymore after COVID.  It is strictly one time a day and they have adjusted the stewards assigned rooms as such.

Any idea if this is this true for suite cabins as well?

[klfhngr]

You can also request both. But we like evening. We don't sleep in, but sometimes we come back in the room to chill or to catch a nap. So we end up messing up the room. So night works for us, UNLESS, they can do it at about noon each day.

[klfhngr]

24 minutes ago, ray98 said:

 

You don't get the 'both' option anymore after COVID.  It is strictly one time a day and they have adjusted the stewards assigned rooms as such.

We did, on Oct 21 cruise.

[TNcruising02]

4 hours ago, BabyJacks17 said:

On our last cruise our family chose the AM time - which at first I was against because I loved the thought of coming to a turned down bed in the evening following dinner and activities. 

 

However, my families thought process was that they'd rather have a fresh cabin from morning til evening as opposed to a unmade cabin from morning til night - where we barely got to enjoy the freshness of it all, lol. 

 

In the end, they were right with the choice for us - I don't think coming back from a day in port to a messy cabin would have had the same relaxation effect as it does knowing your cabin is done up & refreshed. 

That's us.  We would prefer to enjoy a clean cabin all day long instead of right before we go to bed.

[ray98]

35 minutes ago, noleguy84 said:

Any idea if this is this true for suite cabins as well?

No idea.

[ScottsSweetie]

1 hour ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

I really like the Go Green program on Celebrity. In a nutshell:

 

Go GreenSM is a program offered by Celebrity Cruises where guests can opt-in to receive reduced housekeeping services while onboard. Captain’s Club members that opt-in to this program will receive an extra night’s worth of Club Points based on their stateroom category (“Go Green Bonus Points”).

 

We took advantage of this on our Feb 26th Reflection cruise, and earned an extra 12 club points (and didn't really see and change in the service). Already signed up again for our B2B in November, where we'll get an extra 24 points!

 

It's nice to feel you're getting something back for (voluntarily) giving up something.

 

Tom

Something like this would be awesome! Both Hilton and Marriott properties used to offer extra points for reduced housekeeping, but now they have the covid excuse and don't clean and offer no extra points.

[BabyJacks17]

1 hour ago, noleguy84 said:

Any idea if this is this true for suite cabins as well?

We were on the Mardi Gras in an Excel Suite in January and our cabin steward made it very clear he would only be able to service out cabin x1 a day due to the # of cabins he was responsible for.

Since we were utilizing the couch/bed he did have it folded up in the morning and would fold out during the evening while we were out - but nothing extra, etc during this visit. 

Edited April 19, 2022 by BabyJacks17

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

1 minute ago, BabyJacks17 said:

We were on the Mardi Gras in an Excel Suite in January and our cabin steward made it very clear he would only be able to service out cabin x1 a day due to the # of cabins he was responsible for.

Since we were utilizing the couch/bed he did have it folded up in the morning and would fold out during the evening while we were out - but nothing extra, etc during this visit. 

 

Were you aware that, up until a few weeks before her inaugural sailing, Carnival had full plans of offering (wait, hold your breath - it's a HUGE addition to the Excel suites) coffee makers in those rooms? Well, that was wishful thinking - and they quietly removed them from the list of amenities. Pick your (their) excuse !!

 

Question for you - if/when you ordered room service (extra fee items) - have they got it fixed yet not to actually charge you for those items? They charged us on both our August and November sailings, saying that they should be able to remove those charges AFTER the cruise, and it was a known glitch... 

 

Tom

[BabyJacks17]

3 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

Were you aware that, up until a few weeks before her inaugural sailing, Carnival had full plans of offering (wait, hold your breath - it's a HUGE addition to the Excel suites) coffee makers in those rooms? Well, that was wishful thinking - and they quietly removed them from the list of amenities. Pick your (their) excuse !!

 

Question for you - if/when you ordered room service (extra fee items) - have they got it fixed yet not to actually charge you for those items? They charged us on both our August and November sailings, saying that they should be able to remove those charges AFTER the cruise, and it was a known glitch... 

 

Tom

I'm glad you pointed this out because I couldn't figure out if I had dreamt up the idea that a coffee maker would be apart of our "amenities"  - while the fruit and bottle of wine were a nice touch we would have absolutely preferred to have the coffee maker. 

 

Yes!  We did get charged 2x for both our orders from room service during our week onboard and now that you bring this up I'll have to do some administrative work to find out if we ever were refunded.  They had nothing but time to have all their ducks in order for the inaugural sailing so very surprising even in January the glitch was in place.  I do remember I got charged for a diet pepsi while taking in a show in Grand Central - I was unsure if it was because the waiter handed me a can  (not fountain?) so therefore this wasn't considered apart of the free bubbles package? I never went to follow up on this one either as time just got away from me. 

 

P.S. I think we may have ended up having the same cabin steward (possibly, think we referred to him as "G" ) in January as you had in November as we ended up staying in the same room - 12503 🙂

[Pyxie]

I choose AM because it's the closest option to traditional hotel housekeeping and we tend to leave the room earlier for breakfast anyway.