Housekeeping moving to once a day?

[not-enough-cruising]

26 minutes ago, Sophie75 said:

Currently on Wonder, we have 4 people in our cabin (2 adults, 2 kids).  I assumed with paying double the gratuities than a reg double occupancy cabin, we could get the kids bed put away in the morning and made up in the evening, but nope.  Informed by my attendant that he’ll do one or the other and we will have to do one.  He did offer to show us how though 😜.  OK then….I guess it’s really not a big deal, but with cruise fares and gratuities, we are paying a pretty penny for this vacation.

This is in direct contradiction to the statement put out by the cruise-line. 

[Ocean Boy]

24 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

This is in direct contradiction to the statement put out by the cruise-line. 

Probably the first time I've ever heard of  stateroom attendant outright refusing to do something.

 

Welcome to the New World Captain Ramius.

[nelblu]

51 minutes ago, Sophie75 said:

Currently on Wonder, we have 4 people in our cabin (2 adults, 2 kids).  I assumed with paying double the gratuities than a reg double occupancy cabin, we could get the kids bed put away in the morning and made up in the evening, but nope.  Informed by my attendant that he’ll do one or the other and we will have to do one.  He did offer to show us how though 😜.  OK then….I guess it’s really not a big deal, but with cruise fares and gratuities, we are paying a pretty penny for this vacation.

Have you spoken to Guest Services.  There also a risk of injury.

[davekathy]

Or the Hotel Director. 

[Ocean Boy]

3 minutes ago, nelblu said:

Have you spoken to Guest Services.  There also a risk of injury.

That Miami lawyer guy's ears just perked up.

[nelblu]

You know what, on the last day/night when he leaves the WOW envelope on your bed, I would simply put a note "No, not my job Man."😆

[Ryder101]

1 hour ago, Sophie75 said:

Currently on Wonder, we have 4 people in our cabin (2 adults, 2 kids).  I assumed with paying double the gratuities than a reg double occupancy cabin, we could get the kids bed put away in the morning and made up in the evening, but nope.  Informed by my attendant that he’ll do one or the other and we will have to do one.  He did offer to show us how though 😜.  OK then….I guess it’s really not a big deal, but with cruise fares and gratuities, we are paying a pretty penny for this vacation.

This the 3rd story like this I have read today. And one of the stories the attendant had attitude about evening cleaning bet 4 to 6pm and not happy the people were still dressing for evening and had attitude. Things are changing, not for the better. Attitude with me gets attitude back, not a tip. 

[resetjet]

1 hour ago, Sophie75 said:

Currently on Wonder, we have 4 people in our cabin (2 adults, 2 kids).  I assumed with paying double the gratuities than a reg double occupancy cabin, we could get the kids bed put away in the morning and made up in the evening, but nope.  Informed by my attendant that he’ll do one or the other and we will have to do one.  He did offer to show us how though 😜.  OK then….I guess it’s really not a big deal, but with cruise fares and gratuities, we are paying a pretty penny for this vacation.

Thats piss poor.  If they are gonna do this they should only charge for two gatuities per stateroom.

[Cruzinforpeace***]

It sounds like you have to schedule your vacation days around the cabin cleaning schedule.  Doesn’t sound very relaxing.  Some days you may want to sleep in and others you may want to nap in the afternoon.  

[pilot]

Again, I don’t think the issue is about whether we NEED our cabins serviced twice a day. The issue is that they have cut back to once a day while increasing the daily service charge. So we paying more money for half of the previous service. 

[spanky]

Regarding the once a day housekeeping services, does anyone know what times the "morning" or "evening" choices would be?  Do you know if it's something like mornings would be considered approximately 10:00 - 1:00 and evenings 5:00 - 8:00?  Just trying to figure out if we had the choice, which one would be more convenient for us.  

[lovesthebeach2]

11 minutes ago, spanky said:

Regarding the once a day housekeeping services, does anyone know what times the "morning" or "evening" choices would be?  Do you know if it's something like mornings would be considered approximately 10:00 - 1:00 and evenings 5:00 - 8:00?  Just trying to figure out if we had the choice, which one would be more convenient for us.  

We just got off serenade and our room steward asked us on day 1 what we would prefer, morning or evening..we chose evening and when we left the room around 4pm we put the magnet on the door and that told him we were gone.  He said he worked until 7pm

[Ryder101]

25 minutes ago, spanky said:

Regarding the once a day housekeeping services, does anyone know what times the "morning" or "evening" choices would be?  Do you know if it's something like mornings would be considered approximately 10:00 - 1:00 and evenings 5:00 - 8:00?  Just trying to figure out if we had the choice, which one would be more convenient for us.  

I read today someone on board this morning was told 8am to 12:30 and 4pm to 6pm.

[karebare22]

Just get home after a B2B on Harmony and want to share our experience since the once a day service started for our second week. We keep our room tidy, and only ask for ice and 2 clean wine glasses to be available for later afternoon, when getting ready for dinner (late seating). We’ve cruised with Royal many times pre- and post- covid.

 

Week 1: Typical friendly, efficient, great service. Our room steward didn’t miss a beat, never had to hunt him down for soap/towels etc. It was the last week of his contract, and his experience showed.

 

Week 2: Very disappointing experience, probably the worst of all our cruises. These were our issues: 

a) We changed cabins for the second week. Our understanding (from previous B2B) was that the cabins for consecutive cruisers were priority for cleaning, but not this time. Hubby just wanted to quickly drop off his bag in the cabin at 11, and it wasn’t even close to being ready - not an issue, but the cabin steward seemed angry with my hubby for being there.

b) We didn’t have evening service on day 1, I assume that was because all rooms were prepped in the morning.

c) Although clean, the cabin just felt dirty. It seemed that none of the surfaces and handles had been wiped or cleaned properly.

d) Only met our room steward late morning on day 2, and we gave him the choice of when he preferred to clean our room. I think many people choose morning so he told us evenings (he didn’t tell us of any specific working hours). We just asked if he could drop off 2 fresh wine glasses and some ice at the end of his morning shift, and with a late dinner seating, we would be cleaned up and out of the cabin by 7:45/8 for the daily cleaning.

e) Service OK the first couple of days, but day 5 & 6 no ice or wine glasses delivered. Usually service improves during the week? 
f) Here’s a first for us - we felt pressured to leave our cabin so that he could clean it when HE was ready to clean it.  One evening he called our cabin at 7:55 (we were just heading out the door for dinner) to tell us he wanted to clean our room and told us his shift was almost done. Another time he knocked on the door to ask if he could clean and we were still getting dressed for dinner. We felt like we were inconveniencing him! 

My overall thoughts:

a) Next cruise we will ask for morning service: I don’t like having to make my bed while on vacation, and this way the room steward doesn’t need to make a second visit for daily ice and wine glasses.

b) I understand this was just the first week of the once a day service implementation on this ship, and there were bound to be some blips. I don’t blame the cabin attendants, it’s a new adjustment for them. As well, I believe our cabin steward was fairly new (I certainly hope so! maybe his 2nd/3rd week?) and still learning, so I’ll attribute this for some of the issues we had.

c) I still prefer 2x daily room service, and not  happy with the increased gratuities/reduced service. 

[time4u2go]

12 minutes ago, karebare22 said:

Just get home after a B2B on Harmony and want to share our experience since the once a day service started for our second week. We keep our room tidy, and only ask for ice and 2 clean wine glasses to be available for later afternoon, when getting ready for dinner (late seating). We’ve cruised with Royal many times pre- and post- covid.

 

Week 1: Typical friendly, efficient, great service. Our room steward didn’t miss a beat, never had to hunt him down for soap/towels etc. It was the last week of his contract, and his experience showed.

 

Week 2: Very disappointing experience, probably the worst of all our cruises. These were our issues: 

a) We changed cabins for the second week. Our understanding (from previous B2B) was that the cabins for consecutive cruisers were priority for cleaning, but not this time. Hubby just wanted to quickly drop off his bag in the cabin at 11, and it wasn’t even close to being ready - not an issue, but the cabin steward seemed angry with my hubby for being there.

b) We didn’t have evening service on day 1, I assume that was because all rooms were prepped in the morning.

c) Although clean, the cabin just felt dirty. It seemed that none of the surfaces and handles had been wiped or cleaned properly.

d) Only met our room steward late morning on day 2, and we gave him the choice of when he preferred to clean our room. I think many people choose morning so he told us evenings (he didn’t tell us of any specific working hours). We just asked if he could drop off 2 fresh wine glasses and some ice at the end of his morning shift, and with a late dinner seating, we would be cleaned up and out of the cabin by 7:45/8 for the daily cleaning.

e) Service OK the first couple of days, but day 5 & 6 no ice or wine glasses delivered. Usually service improves during the week? 
f) Here’s a first for us - we felt pressured to leave our cabin so that he could clean it when HE was ready to clean it.  One evening he called our cabin at 7:55 (we were just heading out the door for dinner) to tell us he wanted to clean our room and told us his shift was almost done. Another time he knocked on the door to ask if he could clean and we were still getting dressed for dinner. We felt like we were inconveniencing him! 

My overall thoughts:

a) Next cruise we will ask for morning service: I don’t like having to make my bed while on vacation, and this way the room steward doesn’t need to make a second visit for daily ice and wine glasses.

b) I understand this was just the first week of the once a day service implementation on this ship, and there were bound to be some blips. I don’t blame the cabin attendants, it’s a new adjustment for them. As well, I believe our cabin steward was fairly new (I certainly hope so! maybe his 2nd/3rd week?) and still learning, so I’ll attribute this for some of the issues we had.

c) I still prefer 2x daily room service, and not  happy with the increased gratuities/reduced service. 

Thank you for the perspective. Did you let your feelings be known to anyone?

[Ryder101]

11 minutes ago, karebare22 said:

Just get home after a B2B on Harmony and want to share our experience since the once a day service started for our second week. We keep our room tidy, and only ask for ice and 2 clean wine glasses to be available for later afternoon, when getting ready for dinner (late seating). We’ve cruised with Royal many times pre- and post- covid.

 

Week 1: Typical friendly, efficient, great service. Our room steward didn’t miss a beat, never had to hunt him down for soap/towels etc. It was the last week of his contract, and his experience showed.

 

Week 2: Very disappointing experience, probably the worst of all our cruises. These were our issues: 

a) We changed cabins for the second week. Our understanding (from previous B2B) was that the cabins for consecutive cruisers were priority for cleaning, but not this time. Hubby just wanted to quickly drop off his bag in the cabin at 11, and it wasn’t even close to being ready - not an issue, but the cabin steward seemed angry with my hubby for being there.

b) We didn’t have evening service on day 1, I assume that was because all rooms were prepped in the morning.

c) Although clean, the cabin just felt dirty. It seemed that none of the surfaces and handles had been wiped or cleaned properly.

d) Only met our room steward late morning on day 2, and we gave him the choice of when he preferred to clean our room. I think many people choose morning so he told us evenings (he didn’t tell us of any specific working hours). We just asked if he could drop off 2 fresh wine glasses and some ice at the end of his morning shift, and with a late dinner seating, we would be cleaned up and out of the cabin by 7:45/8 for the daily cleaning.

e) Service OK the first couple of days, but day 5 & 6 no ice or wine glasses delivered. Usually service improves during the week? 
f) Here’s a first for us - we felt pressured to leave our cabin so that he could clean it when HE was ready to clean it.  One evening he called our cabin at 7:55 (we were just heading out the door for dinner) to tell us he wanted to clean our room and told us his shift was almost done. Another time he knocked on the door to ask if he could clean and we were still getting dressed for dinner. We felt like we were inconveniencing him! 

My overall thoughts:

a) Next cruise we will ask for morning service: I don’t like having to make my bed while on vacation, and this way the room steward doesn’t need to make a second visit for daily ice and wine glasses.

b) I understand this was just the first week of the once a day service implementation on this ship, and there were bound to be some blips. I don’t blame the cabin attendants, it’s a new adjustment for them. As well, I believe our cabin steward was fairly new (I certainly hope so! maybe his 2nd/3rd week?) and still learning, so I’ll attribute this for some of the issues we had.

c) I still prefer 2x daily room service, and not  happy with the increased gratuities/reduced service. 

New or not, I would blame him for his attitude. That doesn't fly with me. 

 

Most folks seem to be saying they will

pick evening service. Saw a poll it was like 68% evening. Yet, this is 4th story today about attendant being pushy and annoying when wanting to get in to clean while people are still getting ready for the evening. Not a great start.

[John&LaLa]

6 hours ago, island lady said:

 

Ironically, the one cruise we would most have liked a suite...is the longest one and can't have it.  

 

By the time we were able to book 1/2 of the world cruise, which was originally two legs of the four legs,  (after the whole 274 pax cruisers had their pick and choose) we could not (and still can't) book anything over a regular balcony cabin.  

 

Otherwise...yes, we book a JS as a minimum with a lot of GS, OS, and rare CLS cabins tossed in.  

 

One OS, 2 GS, and a JS are available now😉

[Jimbo]

20 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

One OS, 2 GS, and a JS are available now😉

Cha Ching !!

[John&LaLa]

6 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Cha Ching !!

 

There were two OS's

 

One went immediately 

 

FWIW, Bailey, and likely a few other Miami suits plan on joining us off and on thru out the voyage. Guess they could get some suite digs.

[Jimbo]

12 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

There were two OS's

 

One went immediately 

 

FWIW, Bailey, and likely a few other Miami suits plan on joining us off and on thru out the voyage. Guess they could get some suite digs.

No worries you and many others will be buying their suites for them. 😉I guess having a Bingo game in the beginning  of the cruise to upgrade your cabin to a Suite is pretty much off the boards right? 0% chance of that happening?

 

Maybe a large Jack Pot at the end of the cruise though to Pay Off your Sea Pass card.

 

Maybe @island lady jumped on  one of the open Owners Suite's?

Edited March 6, 2023 by Jimbo

[resetjet]

1 hour ago, karebare22 said:

Just get home after a B2B on Harmony and want to share our experience since the once a day service started for our second week. We keep our room tidy, and only ask for ice and 2 clean wine glasses to be available for later afternoon, when getting ready for dinner (late seating). We’ve cruised with Royal many times pre- and post- covid.

 

Week 1: Typical friendly, efficient, great service. Our room steward didn’t miss a beat, never had to hunt him down for soap/towels etc. It was the last week of his contract, and his experience showed.

 

Week 2: Very disappointing experience, probably the worst of all our cruises. These were our issues: 

a) We changed cabins for the second week. Our understanding (from previous B2B) was that the cabins for consecutive cruisers were priority for cleaning, but not this time. Hubby just wanted to quickly drop off his bag in the cabin at 11, and it wasn’t even close to being ready - not an issue, but the cabin steward seemed angry with my hubby for being there.

b) We didn’t have evening service on day 1, I assume that was because all rooms were prepped in the morning.

c) Although clean, the cabin just felt dirty. It seemed that none of the surfaces and handles had been wiped or cleaned properly.

d) Only met our room steward late morning on day 2, and we gave him the choice of when he preferred to clean our room. I think many people choose morning so he told us evenings (he didn’t tell us of any specific working hours). We just asked if he could drop off 2 fresh wine glasses and some ice at the end of his morning shift, and with a late dinner seating, we would be cleaned up and out of the cabin by 7:45/8 for the daily cleaning.

e) Service OK the first couple of days, but day 5 & 6 no ice or wine glasses delivered. Usually service improves during the week? 
f) Here’s a first for us - we felt pressured to leave our cabin so that he could clean it when HE was ready to clean it.  One evening he called our cabin at 7:55 (we were just heading out the door for dinner) to tell us he wanted to clean our room and told us his shift was almost done. Another time he knocked on the door to ask if he could clean and we were still getting dressed for dinner. We felt like we were inconveniencing him! 

My overall thoughts:

a) Next cruise we will ask for morning service: I don’t like having to make my bed while on vacation, and this way the room steward doesn’t need to make a second visit for daily ice and wine glasses.

b) I understand this was just the first week of the once a day service implementation on this ship, and there were bound to be some blips. I don’t blame the cabin attendants, it’s a new adjustment for them. As well, I believe our cabin steward was fairly new (I certainly hope so! maybe his 2nd/3rd week?) and still learning, so I’ll attribute this for some of the issues we had.

c) I still prefer 2x daily room service, and not  happy with the increased gratuities/reduced service. 

You note so many issues. 2 cleanings can never equal 1.  They are overworked and getting the rooms done in the evening is sketchy.  Miss your one service as we did and by the time he comes the next evening your ice is melted,  glasses are used,  dishes line the cabin,  towels are dirty and trash is full. 

[poocher]

35 minutes ago, resetjet said:

You note so many issues. 2 cleanings can never equal 1.  They are overworked and getting the rooms done in the evening is sketchy.  Miss your one service as we did and by the time he comes the next evening your ice is melted,  glasses are used,  dishes line the cabin,  towels are dirty and trash is full. 

All that in one day?  

[cruiseguy1016]

10 hours ago, sjb317 said:

Currently on Jewel, I don’t know who seems to be grumbling about the new once a day service the most, cabin stewards or passengers.  
 

We were asked the first day to choose either evening or morning for our service. We chose evening which meant we had none the first evening which was fine.   2nd day, we were getting ready to go out for the evening. 6 pm, our steward knocked on the door to ask if we wanted our cabin service or not?  She did not seem happy with us.😂

 

Sherri🙂

 

 

 

5 hours ago, Sophie75 said:

Currently on Wonder, we have 4 people in our cabin (2 adults, 2 kids).  I assumed with paying double the gratuities than a reg double occupancy cabin, we could get the kids bed put away in the morning and made up in the evening, but nope.  Informed by my attendant that he’ll do one or the other and we will have to do one.  He did offer to show us how though 😜.  OK then….I guess it’s really not a big deal, but with cruise fares and gratuities, we are paying a pretty penny for this vacation.

 

2 hours ago, karebare22 said:

Just get home after a B2B on Harmony and want to share our experience since the once a day service started for our second week. We keep our room tidy, and only ask for ice and 2 clean wine glasses to be available for later afternoon, when getting ready for dinner (late seating). We’ve cruised with Royal many times pre- and post- covid.

 

Week 1: Typical friendly, efficient, great service. Our room steward didn’t miss a beat, never had to hunt him down for soap/towels etc. It was the last week of his contract, and his experience showed.

 

Week 2: Very disappointing experience, probably the worst of all our cruises. These were our issues: 

a) We changed cabins for the second week. Our understanding (from previous B2B) was that the cabins for consecutive cruisers were priority for cleaning, but not this time. Hubby just wanted to quickly drop off his bag in the cabin at 11, and it wasn’t even close to being ready - not an issue, but the cabin steward seemed angry with my hubby for being there.

b) We didn’t have evening service on day 1, I assume that was because all rooms were prepped in the morning.

c) Although clean, the cabin just felt dirty. It seemed that none of the surfaces and handles had been wiped or cleaned properly.

d) Only met our room steward late morning on day 2, and we gave him the choice of when he preferred to clean our room. I think many people choose morning so he told us evenings (he didn’t tell us of any specific working hours). We just asked if he could drop off 2 fresh wine glasses and some ice at the end of his morning shift, and with a late dinner seating, we would be cleaned up and out of the cabin by 7:45/8 for the daily cleaning.

e) Service OK the first couple of days, but day 5 & 6 no ice or wine glasses delivered. Usually service improves during the week? 
f) Here’s a first for us - we felt pressured to leave our cabin so that he could clean it when HE was ready to clean it.  One evening he called our cabin at 7:55 (we were just heading out the door for dinner) to tell us he wanted to clean our room and told us his shift was almost done. Another time he knocked on the door to ask if he could clean and we were still getting dressed for dinner. We felt like we were inconveniencing him! 

My overall thoughts:

a) Next cruise we will ask for morning service: I don’t like having to make my bed while on vacation, and this way the room steward doesn’t need to make a second visit for daily ice and wine glasses.

b) I understand this was just the first week of the once a day service implementation on this ship, and there were bound to be some blips. I don’t blame the cabin attendants, it’s a new adjustment for them. As well, I believe our cabin steward was fairly new (I certainly hope so! maybe his 2nd/3rd week?) and still learning, so I’ll attribute this for some of the issues we had.

c) I still prefer 2x daily room service, and not  happy with the increased gratuities/reduced service. 

 

Wow. I can't believe this is what is being experienced on other ships. We just got off Voyager this morning. We had twice-a-day service every day. Our room steward left us his card on the first day and told us to call him if we needed anything. He seemed to always be around. We spoke to him every day, usually multiple times each day. We had towel animals on 3 nights. I have nothing bad to say about cabin service this past week on Voyager.

[resetjet]

19 minutes ago, poocher said:

All that in one day?  

Well 2 days as we missed one.  In the past if you slept i. Or Took a nap

after s port nobody cared.  You missed a one of the two services.  Now

miss one and its an issue.

[Homelines]

We try hard to keep our room clean and to make conversation and show appreciation to our stateroom attendant.  However, I go on a cruise to be pampered and want twice a day service.  It is nice to have a cleaned stateroom late morning and when going to bed.  I am not there to make life easier for the attendant, although we truly try and show our appreciation with additional tips and kindness.  I don't think twice a day service is too much to expect.