NCL wins the service charge race !

[2Cruise4Ever]

On 2/23/2023 at 6:17 PM, styles27 said:

I have no problem at all paying a higher service charge as long as they don’t take away services. 
 

 

Yet, they have.  Cabins are no longer being serviced twice a day... just once now.  On our last cruise last month I asked our steward if he was happy with the change.  He said no, because they now have twice the number of cabins assigned.  

 

Don't get me wrong.. I'm all for paying the service charges.. they deserve it!  And, in fact, we always tip in cash way more than what they would get with our service charges.  But, having the highest in the industry is eye-opening.

[SeaShark]

24 minutes ago, 2Cruise4Ever said:

On our last cruise last month I asked our steward if he was happy with the change.  He said no, because they now have twice the number of cabins assigned.  

 

Interesting that the stated reason for the unhappiness is the number of assigned cabins and not an increase in either the amount of work or in the length of the work day.

 

Assign 8 cabins, 30 min service twice a day is 8 hours of work.

Assign 16 cabins, 30 min service once a day is still 8 hours of work.

 

(Numbers above are illustrative only, and are not intended to accurately reflect the exact work load of a room steward)

[cruiseny4life]

37 minutes ago, 2Cruise4Ever said:

But, having the highest in the industry is eye-opening.

Well...someone's gotta have the highest rates in cruising. Why not NCL? 🙂 

[2Cruise4Ever]

8 minutes ago, SeaShark said:

 

Interesting that the stated reason for the unhappiness is the number of assigned cabins and not an increase in either the amount of work or in the length of the work day.

 

Assign 8 cabins, 30 min service twice a day is 8 hours of work.

Assign 16 cabins, 30 min service once a day is still 8 hours of work.

 

(Numbers above are illustrative only, and are not intended to accurately reflect the exact work load of a room steward)

I didn't elaborate.  He was not happy due to the fact that he had double the cabins and expected to finish the work in the same amount of time he used to have before.  

[SeaShark]

7 minutes ago, 2Cruise4Ever said:

I didn't elaborate.  He was not happy due to the fact that he had double the cabins and expected to finish the work in the same amount of time he used to have before.  

Which isn't a problem given that he only has to do half of the work per cabin...

Edited March 2, 2023 by SeaShark

[Mrdell]

6 minutes ago, 2Cruise4Ever said:

I didn't elaborate.  He was not happy due to the fact that he had double the cabins and expected to finish the work in the same amount of time he used to have before.  

This seems so unfair and unreasonable for these workers … I wonder if it’s just a matter of time before word gets around and NCL has a hard time trying to find decent help. Further more, if people are not getting good service, how many are going to keep paying an exorbitant $20.pp per day without feeling the need to adjust the daily fee. 

[clojacks]

2 hours ago, 2Cruise4Ever said:

 

 

Don't get me wrong.. I'm all for paying the service charges.. they deserve it!  And, in fact, we always tip in cash way more than what they would get with our service charges.  But, having the highest in the industry is eye-opening.

So, are you saying you cash tip more than $40 per day or more than what the Stewards share of the $40 DSC is. It the latter, how do know what portion of each cabins DSC goes to the stewards, as I believe the DSC is a shared amount isn't it?

 

[Topdog52]

I have the answer to NCL's problem. Give each cabin the option to clean their own room. They can pick up towels at one location, just like at the pool where they hand out towels. garbage can be taken to another location. Then no one will have the right to complain. I wonder how many people would do this to save $500 off their cruise.

[The Traveling Man]

46 minutes ago, Topdog52 said:

I have the answer to NCL's problem. Give each cabin the option to clean their own room. They can pick up towels at one location, just like at the pool where they hand out towels. garbage can be taken to another location. Then no one will have the right to complain. I wonder how many people would do this to save $500 off their cruise.

Some hotels have begun offering different rates for maid service vs. no service.  Perhaps someone familiar with hotel experience can comment on that.

[ChiefMateJRK]

19 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

Some hotels have begun offering different rates for maid service vs. no service.  Perhaps someone familiar with hotel experience can comment on that.

Really?  Which ones?

[The Traveling Man]

9 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Really?  Which ones?

Can't remember off the top of my head, but we have been to Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express, La Quinta, and a whole bunch of independents over the past couple of years and have been offered a choice at several of them.  Usually it's just for multiple night stays and sometimes its an option for daily service, every other day service, or weekly service.  I don't recall encountering the option at Marriott, Hilton, or other similar hotels, so it probably was with some of the second-tier spots.

[ChiefMateJRK]

8 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

Can't remember off the top of my head, but we have been to Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express, La Quinta, and a whole bunch of independents over the past couple of years and have been offered a choice at several of them.  Usually it's just for multiple night stays and sometimes its an option for daily service, every other day service, or weekly service.  I don't recall encountering the option at Marriott, Hilton, or other similar hotels, so it probably was with some of the second-tier spots.

I've been offered to take less cleaning, but it's been to save the planet, not to lower my bill 🤣

[cruiseny4life]

2 hours ago, The Traveling Man said:

Some hotels have begun offering different rates for maid service vs. no service.  Perhaps someone familiar with hotel experience can comment on that.

Pre-pandemic Disney used to give out gift cards to folks that refused housekeeping. The pandemic gave them a wonderful reason to provide fewer services to their customers by no longer offering a discount. Ahh, 21st century corporate grabs.

[mizLORInj]

Celebrity gives extra loyalty points if you do the one/day.  In the evening the cabin steward just swapped our towels out.  It worked fine.  And it is less than $20 per day unlike the leader in the dsc $, NCL.  

[mpk218]

22 hours ago, SeaShark said:

Which isn't a problem given that he only has to do half of the work per cabin...

Big difference .  The early Stateroom clean is much more work than the evening turndown . It is not apples and apples . The early cleanup includes making beds , cleaning/ stocking the bathroom , picking up clothes and dishes , ect.   Evening turn down is a quick once over and maybe a towel Turtle .  So 10 early and 10 turndown Do Not equal 20 earlys ..not even close    .. Make sense ?  

[The Traveling Man]

1 hour ago, mizLORInj said:

Celebrity gives extra loyalty points if you do the one/day.  In the evening the cabin steward just swapped our towels out.  It worked fine.  And it is less than $20 per day unlike the leader in the dsc $, NCL.  

Thanks for the info.  We were on the Celebrity Beyond a week ago and I don't recall that being offered.  If we had opted to skip the evening service, though, we would have missed out on the pillow chocolates, so an extra Captain's Club point might not have offset the loss of the chocolate!

[SeaShark]

25 minutes ago, mpk218 said:

Big difference .  The early Stateroom clean is much more work than the evening turndown . It is not apples and apples . The early cleanup includes making beds , cleaning/ stocking the bathroom , picking up clothes and dishes , ect.   Evening turn down is a quick once over and maybe a towel Turtle .  So 10 early and 10 turndown Do Not equal 20 earlys ..not even close    .. Make sense ?  

 

As much sense as the (already disproven) premise that the number of assigned cabins doubled. So sure, why not, we can just make up our "facts" as we go.

 

Question: Steward starts work at ##:##am and finishes at ##:##pm. Has their work day doubled, or are they still doing 1 day's worth of work?

[mizLORInj]

43 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

Thanks for the info.  We were on the Celebrity Beyond a week ago and I don't recall that being offered.  If we had opted to skip the evening service, though, we would have missed out on the pillow chocolates, so an extra Captain's Club point might not have offset the loss of the chocolate!

 

Isn't Beyond fabulous!   I was on it Feb 5. 

I had read about it on here or FB, that's the only reason I knew what GO GREEN was when I got the email and it was also in the app somewhere in the check-in option.    I'll have to be sure I got my points--you get more than one.    

[dcipjr]

On 3/2/2023 at 1:57 PM, SeaShark said:

Which isn't a problem given that he only has to do half of the work per cabin...

 

Well, not really, right? 

 

People expect their cabins to be serviced sometime between 8 and noon, right? Previously they had 8 to service within 4 hours, then those same 8 to service during a 4 hour span at night.

 

Now they have 8 hours to do 16 cabins—but passengers will surely complain if it's 4 PM and their cabins haven't been serviced yet. So the pressure is there, even if the workload is the same.

 

Which it's probably not, right? Since you'd have to make every bed in the morning shift and not necessarily every evening shift, since not everyone naps, the morning service would have been more work.

 

I get where the stewards are coming from. If this change actually gave them a break, I'd like it. Since they were already busy, and now it's worse, I don't like it.

[SeaShark]

28 minutes ago, dcipjr said:

People expect their cabins to be serviced sometime between 8 and noon, right?

 

Now you get it, if you guess or just flat-out make it up, you can argue whatever you want.

[disneylover89]

19 hours ago, dcipjr said:

 

Well, not really, right? 

 

People expect their cabins to be serviced sometime between 8 and noon, right? Previously they had 8 to service within 4 hours, then those same 8 to service during a 4 hour span at night.

 

Now they have 8 hours to do 16 cabins—but passengers will surely complain if it's 4 PM and their cabins haven't been serviced yet. So the pressure is there, even if the workload is the same.

 

Which it's probably not, right? Since you'd have to make every bed in the morning shift and not necessarily every evening shift, since not everyone naps, the morning service would have been more work.

 

I get where the stewards are coming from. If this change actually gave them a break, I'd like it. Since they were already busy, and now it's worse, I don't like it.

But before they got gratuities for 8 cabins and now, they get gratuities for 16 cabins.  Yes, it is a little hairier for them to get the work done and they work a few more hours but they should be getting double the gratuities now to make up for it. Many of us work 8-10 hour days with only a 1/2 hour-1 hour lunch break. 

Edited March 4, 2023 by disneylover89

[CruiseMH]

Did NCL reduce the number of crew significantly ?

In the past every cabin steward was assigned to e.g. 8 cabins. He did the morning service within a specific time span and later the evening service within a specific time span.In between he had for sure other stuff he was told to do.

If the same cabin steward now has 16 cabins assigned to him this would have a big impact on the complete crew planning and work schedule.

 

 - doing service for 16 instead of 8 cabins in almost the same time is impossible

- if every cabin steward had double amount of cabins,this would mean that on a ship with e.g. 800 cabins they would only need 50 instead of 100 cabin stewards for the morning service. But what would the other 50 stewards do during this time ?

 - if these (now) 50 cabin stewards don`t have to do turn down service , what would they do during the time span they used for turn down service so far ?

 

It would mean that the cruise line would have to make big changes in the daily work plan for all of their crew.

I can`t imagine that a cruise would do big changes in their work plans cause every change has the risk of making the whole operations slower/less efficient.

On the other hand i don`t think a cabin steward would tell ****.

 

In general i would like to know for what the free time of the cabin stewards are used now.

As turn down services are now discontinued it means that the cabin stewards a spending less time working in the cabins.

But the length of their work days for sure hasn`t been reduced.they will still have to work 10 hours a day. So they can be "used" for other work to do instead of turn down services.

And to me it would be interesting to know for what kind of work they use the gained time now.

Or did they just reduce the total no. of crew on board of each ship ?

 

 

 

 

[Mrdell]

2 hours ago, CruiseMH said:

But the length of their work days for sure hasn`t been reduced.they will still have to work 10 hours a day

We were just on the Gem… came back from a tour at 3PM and room wasn’t cleaned yet. When I called the front desk to send up a few clean towels so we could shower, I was told that rooms can get cleaned any time between 9AM and 6PM! Personally,I think any time after 2PM is not acceptable. I know that it’s not the cleaning staffs fault because they are doing the best that they can, but it really makes me wonder how NCL can justify a $20.00 per person per day service charge for such terrible service… BTW… it really doesn’t bother me that they eliminated nightly turn down 

Edited March 4, 2023 by Mrdell

[BirdTravels]

4 minutes ago, Mrdell said:

We were just on the Gem… came back from a tour at 3PM and room wasn’t cleaned yet. When I called the front desk to send up a few clean towels so we could shower, I was told that rooms can get cleaned any time between 9AM and 6PM! Personally,I think any time after 2PM is not acceptable. I know that it’s not the cleaning staffs fault because they are doing the best that they can, but it really makes me wonder how NCL can justify a $20.00 per person per day service charge for such terrible service… BTW… it really doesn’t bother me that they eliminated nightly turn down 

Why is 2 pm the limit. They certainly don’t do that at land based hotels. To you want to hold the cruise ship to a higher standard?  

[Mrdell]

Just now, BirdTravels said:

Why is 2 pm the limit. They certainly don’t do that at land based hotels. To you want to hold the cruise ship to a higher standard?  

That’s my opinion…. And most land based hotels that I have stayed at have rooms ready by 3PM check in!