How often do you send out your laundry to be cleaned?

[luv2ndhalf]

Just curious what others do…… How often do you have laundry cleaned while on board? For example, 10 day cruise-Do you pack for a week and send out cleaning at like day 5? I always tend to way overpack 🙄

[grandgeezer]

We send laundry about every other day, we are Elite Plus so we each get two free bags per cruise. It allows us to travel with two carryons on 14 day cruise.

[Ommadawn]

2 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

We send laundry about every other day, we are Elite Plus so we each get two free bags per cruise. It allows us to travel with two carryons on 14 day cruise.

 

That is what my wife and I did on our two week cruise earlier this year. We were in London for four days before the cruise. Once we were on the ship, we had laundry that needed to be done. We sent out laundry about every other day in the little bags. We were in a Sky Suite, so they didn't charge us much and it was all good. 🙂

[chemmo]

3 hours ago, luv2ndhalf said:

Just curious what others do…… How often do you have laundry cleaned while on board? For example, 10 day cruise-Do you pack for a week and send out cleaning at like day 5? I always tend to way overpack 🙄

I think it depends on how much free laundry you have! If you pay for item by item it is very expensive.
 

When we cruised without free laundry we would send it out once per cruise when they had the ‘stuff the bag’ offer.

 

Then when we became E we would usually send in a bag day 3 which would include bits from pre cruise overnight and then about day 6.

 

When we became E+ we often sent another bag the last day possible so we were returning with less dirty laundry.

 

Now we tend to cruise in higher suites we just send it in when we want…

 

The laundry is great for items that you would happily put in a mixed wash at home but we never send in delicate items so no matter how much free laundry you have there is a limit to what most people send in. There is a dry cleaning service but we rarely use it..

 

 

 

 

[wineoclock]

When we have been in PH we have had the laundry done & also being elite we get the vouchers as well. As we travelled as a family there was always lots of washing.
 

This time it’s just the two of us in a CS (I assume no free laundry) so will see how we go with E vouchers. 

 

One of our port stops is where we have a holiday home. We may go there for the day with our washing. Gary wants to do an excursion & be a tourist there for a change. 

Edited September 7, 2022 by wineoclock

[chemmo]

42 minutes ago, wineoclock said:

 

 

One of our port stops is where we have a holiday home. We may go there for the day with our washing. Gary wants to do an excursion & be a tourist there for a change. 

Don’t do it! You will switch out of holiday relaxation mode…Go on a tour or enjoy a day on the empty ship enjoying sipping a cocktail or three. 

 

Remember, if you are both Elite that is two bags. In suites (as you know) they usually give you those big fabric bags, you can stuff loads in them! If you have a paper one just ask your butler for a fabric one.

 

 

 

 

[wineoclock]

That’s very true, it’s our holiday home though so while the WM is on we will be by the pool. Gary really wants to do an excursion though & we are going to our holiday home next week for a couple of weeks. 

[letsgogogo]

4 hours ago, luv2ndhalf said:

Just curious what others do…… How often do you have laundry cleaned while on board? For example, 10 day cruise-Do you pack for a week and send out cleaning at like day 5? I always tend to way overpack 🙄

That’s exactly what I’d do. I wear a lot of thin dry clean only thin sweaters and just wear fresh t shirts underneath. And as long as weather isn’t too warm I will rewear pants and shorts a couple times. So I can rewear a lot of what I pack. Laundry for all underwear socks and tshirts  and polos half way in keeps total packing lighter. 

[Cruise a holic]

9 hours ago, luv2ndhalf said:

Just curious what others do…… How often do you have laundry cleaned while on board? For example, 10 day cruise-Do you pack for a week and send out cleaning at like day 5? I always tend to way overpack 🙄

We typically send out laundry 2x a week.  On a b/2/b same second week.  We do pack heavy- but like underwear, socks, pj's and some inexpensive polo's cleaned.  I hand wash swim suits, and if necessary dry clean an occasional pair of pants and tops.

[mfs2k]

We each pack one 50 pound suitcase and a carry on. If I run out of clothes I send out a load 

[lexmiller]

We usually send laundry out roughly every other day as we are elite plus so a total of 4 free bags per cruise. However, beware-we are currently onboard Summit, (veranda - not in a suite nor Aqua) and it’s been 4 days and we still have not gotten our laundry back. This is unheard of, for us-longest return time ever, and still counting. Our steward gave us the standard low staffing, covid story to excuse the delay. But 4 + days is a very long time when 2 has always been the most ever. 

[DCPIV]

We don't send anything out unless we absolutely need it done.

[TrulyBlonde]

I  have my husband turn his underwear inside out and wear it a second time to save money 😉 

[mfs2k]

2 minutes ago, TrulyBlonde said:

I  have my husband turn his underwear inside out and wear it a second time to save money 😉 

 

He's so lucky to have you.  lol

[Notalotofinfo]

10 minutes ago, TrulyBlonde said:

I  have my husband turn his underwear inside out and wear it a second time to save money 😉 

O hell I hope my wife doesn’t read this!

[MarinerAlex]

8 hours ago, Ommadawn said:

 

That is what my wife and I did on our two week cruise earlier this year. We were in London for four days before the cruise. Once we were on the ship, we had laundry that needed to be done. We sent out laundry about every other day in the little bags. We were in a Sky Suite, so they didn't charge us much and it was all good. 🙂

What's the laundry (just washing, not dry cleaning) cost / discount as part of staying in a Sky Suite? I'm in one in a few days, no status, so curious if its small then maybe I can pack less.

 

[canderson]

Depends a little on itinerary.  Still 'dress for dinner' each night, and certainly don't wear sweaty shorex duds in the evening, so can go through a bit of laundry.  Our last cruise was an E+W Caribbean B2B, and sent out laundry 4 times as I recall, dry cleaning twice.  

[chemmo]

36 minutes ago, MarinerAlex said:

What's the laundry (just washing, not dry cleaning) cost / discount as part of staying in a Sky Suite? I'm in one in a few days, no status, so curious if its small then maybe I can pack less.

 

Laundry perks start at RS level. 

 

9 hours ago, Ommadawn said:

 

That is what my wife and I did on our two week cruise earlier this year. We were in London for four days before the cruise. Once we were on the ship, we had laundry that needed to be done. We sent out laundry about every other day in the little bags. We were in a Sky Suite, so they didn't charge us much and it was all good. 🙂

Technically there is no discount for SS or CS. Usually just the stuff a bag offer available to all.
 

However, perhaps, PRH are allowed to offer laundry regularly at the ‘stuff a bag rate’ on longer cruises? Just an idea. I do know friends of ours in a CS on a TP (17 days) were given one free bag mid cruise…It would be interesting to hear the experiences of others.

[cangelmd]

11 hours ago, luv2ndhalf said:

Just curious what others do…… How often do you have laundry cleaned while on board? For example, 10 day cruise-Do you pack for a week and send out cleaning at like day 5? I always tend to way overpack 🙄

I pack for a week and send out laundry about day 5. I also wash out things in my room, and that starts on about day 5 too. Our last cruise, 12 days, plus 3 in AMS prior, we sent out laundry twice, once first week once second, both bags almost full (we are Elite). I probably washed out and hung 5 tops/sweaters in the room.

This was a cool weather, port intensive itinerary, with evenly distributed sea days - all that makes a big difference for me.

The laundry is getting less reliable post-Covid. Allow 36-48 to get your things back, and the 4 days doesn’t surprise me Never send anything you aren’t ok with having washed on hot, really hot. Dry clean anything you are worried about.

 I had 2 interesting laundry things happen on our last 2 cruises, that I’ve never experienced before. I sent out a small bag on a 7 day cruise, just because it’s free and I could pack lighter, and it came back smelling like it had been washed in an old dorm washing machine - just faintly moldy. It’s was mostly undies and socks, so I sink washed the one shirt I absolutely had to have, and then cleaned it all back home. The 2 bags sent out on the next cruise was perfectly fine, so I’m saying smell was a one off.

The other cautionary laundry tale - I got a bag back and I was missing a cotton PJ top. Our hard working cabin attendant tracked it down for me, it was on a hanger with a note ? T shirt and another cabin number. I realized when I looked at the laundry ticket that this relatively heavy T shirt pj top wasn’t obviously part of a pajama set, so they didn’t match it up with my laundry ticket. The next bag, I thought hard about how to fill out the ticket.

[capsplace]

We use the laundry service but have found they use a fair amount of bleach.  So, tread cautiously if we don’t want your red shirt coming back pink.

[Lastdance]

Whatever we send out, usually items that do not need lots of care, we allow extra time.   We also get two bags of laundry each, so it is nice to have that opportunity on long cruises like b2b's.  However, since we frequent the gym and take longer vacays, hand-washing items is fairly routine for us with a close line.  My DH and I have a system that seems to work well for us.  In addition, we separate out clothes into all suitcases just in case they get lost.

Edited September 7, 2022 by Lastdance

[Peteymil]

8 hours ago, lexmiller said:

We usually send laundry out roughly every other day as we are elite plus so a total of 4 free bags per cruise. However, beware-we are currently onboard Summit, (veranda - not in a suite nor Aqua) and it’s been 4 days and we still have not gotten our laundry back. This is unheard of, for us-longest return time ever, and still counting. Our steward gave us the standard low staffing, covid story to excuse the delay. But 4 + days is a very long time when 2 has always been the most ever. 

After many cruises, I always thought we had 2 free bags (elite plus), but you're saying it's 2 bags each or 4 total. This will change my strategy, especially on our upcoming 12 day cruise. 

[bigbenboys]

We only send out t-shirts, underwear and socks. Our next cruise is carry-on only. We dont plan on having any laundry done on a 7 night cruise.

[Northern Aurora]

We reached that level of the Captain's Club where we receive unlimited free laundry.  We send out a small bag of laundry every several days.  It is a wonderful perk.

[phoenix_dream]

We are also Elite Plus (until after next cruise when we turn Zenith woo hoo!!) , and we send out a bag our first night (we always spend some time in port ahead of time), as well as usually every other day or two after that.  We tend to send out more often on warm weather cruises where you sweat too much to wear the same shirt or shorts over again.