NCL wins the service charge race !

[hawkeyetlse]

In the past I think it was reasonable to expect the first cleaning to be done by lunchtime or 2pm, except maybe on sea days. But if each cabin attendant now has more cabins to do (certainly not double the number, but more) and each cabin now takes longer to make up (because it hasn't been serviced for a full 24 hours), then everyone needs to adjust their expectations accordingly. Someone earlier in this thread said that their attendant went from 15 to 22 cabins.

 

But if the everyday cleaning takes until 6pm, I'm amazed that they can have all cabins ready on turnaround day earlier than that. Imagine turning around 22 cabins in one morning!

Edited March 4, 2023 by hawkeyetlse

[RNPJN]

56 minutes ago, hawkeyetlse said:

In the past I think it was reasonable to expect the first cleaning to be done by lunchtime or 2pm, except maybe on sea days. But if each cabin attendant now has more cabins to do (certainly not double the number, but more) and each cabin now takes longer to make up (because it hasn't been serviced for a full 24 hours), then everyone needs to adjust their expectations accordingly. Someone earlier in this thread said that their attendant went from 15 to 22 cabins.

 

But if the everyday cleaning takes until 6pm, I'm amazed that they can have all cabins ready on turnaround day earlier than that. Imagine turning around 22 cabins in one morning!

FYI it is double the number of what they had  with 2 attendants   ours in Jan had 55 to do by himself

[RNPJN]

On 2/23/2023 at 3:05 PM, mpk218 said:

While I was looking around for an Alaska cruise next year , I came across this .

My loyalty is beginning to wane ..  ( Dont shoot the messenger )

 

The prices shown reflect the current service fee for a 7 day cruise for 2 people.

Cruise Line	Standard Service Fee	Premium Service Fee
Norwegian Cruise Line	$280.00	$350.00
Oceania Cruises	$252.00	$322.00
Celebrity Cruise Line	$245.00	$294.00
Carnival Cruise Line	$224.00	$252.00
Holland America Line	$224.00	$245.00
Princess Cruises	$224.00	$252.00
Royal Caribbean International	$224.00	$259.00
Disney Cruise Line	$203.00	$217.00
MSC Cruises	$196.00	$196.00
Costa Cruise Line	$168.00	$168.00
Windstar Cruises	$168.00	$168.00
Cunard Cruise Line	$161.00	$189.00

      Virgin Voyages                         $0.00                           $0.00

[RNPJN]

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...

Hello Long time no see Glad your still sailing, Rick   LOL

[ngrund]

9 minutes ago, RNPJN said:

      Virgin Voyages                         $0.00                           $0.00

You are still paying with Virgin, its just already priced in with your fare

Edited March 4, 2023 by ngrund

[CruiseMH]

2 hours ago, hawkeyetlse said:

 

But if the everyday cleaning takes until 6pm, I'm amazed that they can have all cabins ready on turnaround day earlier than that. Imagine turning around 22 cabins in one morning!

 

Well,on turnaround day every cabin is empty at latest 9 am.

The turnaround days are probably the only days where they have this situation.

 

[CruiseMH]

1 hour ago, RNPJN said:

  ours in Jan had 55 to do by himself

Sorry,but that is for sure nonsense.

Usually they have 15 minutes for each cabin.

that would mean 13-14 hours of work to clean all 55 . But max. work time of cruise line crew is 10-11 hours per day.

Also it would mean if they start at 8 am(in the hope that any cabin is already available for cleaning) they would finish at 10 pm.

thats mathematically impossible

[hawkeyetlse]

1 hour ago, CruiseMH said:

 

Well,on turnaround day every cabin is empty at latest 9 am.

The turnaround days are probably the only days where they have this situation.

 

I thought about that, but they only need a handful of cabins to keep them busy before 9 am and I think they get that on most port days, too. 

 

When it gets to 20+ cabins for one cabin attendant I start to understand people that bring their own Lysol wipes etc. and do their own cleaning on embarkation day. Nothing against the housekeeping crew, it’s just not a reasonable task for a single human. 

[Davechipp74]

It is what it is we all saw this coming a long time ago. My only concern is the final price, the ship and the itinerary in that order. Itineraries last because I’ve been to all the Caribbean ports that I go to dozens of times my biggest concern is the overall final price and the ship because many times I don’t even get off the ship in the Caribbean.

[luv2kroooz]

But the final price can be whatever you want it to be. Outside of us on CC, I doubt most couples are going to paying $280 per week in service charges. We were looking at pricing for an upcoming cruise. When we considered the base fares as a percentage of total price included taxes, service charges, beverage charges, the base fares was like 40% of the cruise. This model is broken and needs "rejiggered". I would be predisposed to lower the $20 down to $16, which is more consistent in the industry. I simply don't believe NCL is giving the recent increase to the hard working cruise. NCL is always talking about keeping up with standards in the industry.....or maybe they just say that when it matches a policy they want to implement.

[ctlyf]

On 3/2/2023 at 11:57 AM, SeaShark said:

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

Is it half the work? I always thought the second "clean" was more of a touch up and turn down, not a full clean. 

[SeaShark]

49 minutes ago, ctlyf said:

Is it half the work? I always thought the second "clean" was more of a touch up and turn down, not a full clean. 

The "they have double the cabins to clean" was made up...so why can't this be made up as well? Fair is fair, no?

[AmbitionatBay]

On 2/26/2023 at 6:44 PM, Sthrngary said:

My first cruise was 43 years ago and it was on the Norwegian, SS Norway.  That company name is now NCL.  My go to cruise line for many years has been NCL.  I like it and I am not alone.  I like is a little bit less today than a year ago or before covid.  

 

What I like even better than NCL is CruiseCritic.com.  All the blogs on many cruise brands.  I found CruiseCritic.com to be a nice place to talk about cruising with other that feel the same.  Some topics sometimes brings out the worst in us.  They are tough topics.  In most cases we are all nice to each other yet still can express our opinions.  

 

Please consider taking the high road with each other.  There are many more blogs and social media site that are know for hateful talk and putting down posters.  From my standpoint, if you like a cruise brand and it policies, book it.  If you don't but once did, explain yourself and simply spend your money another way.  The high road is to "Agree to Disagree".  Life is to short to be aggressive to each other.  

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

Our first cruise was 33 years ago also on the Song of Norway for our honeymoon  and we will never forget it.  The ship was small and beautiful and the staff was beyond fabulous!  We met many other honeymoon couples and visited 7 islands in the Caribbean.  Those midnight buffets were amazing!

 

Things have changed quite a bit since then but we are still sailing!

[fshagan]

On 3/2/2023 at 9:22 AM, Oakman58 said:

 

The only thing cruise critic members can do is spend their money with other cruise lines.  Since my last cruise on the Bliss, I've cruised with Carnival which was an excellent cruise and Princess which was a cruise for the dead and in a sucky balcony cabin that was not my cup of tea.  This June I'll be cruising again with Holland in Alaska and in December with RCL in the Caribbean.

 

All of those still have the DSC or equivalent added on at the end of the cruise, at various prices. If that's what's really bothering you there are cruise lines that do not have any kind of DSC, like Virgin Voyages, Oceania, etc. As to reduced services, RCL has already reduced housekeeping to once per day; I expect most of the others to follow suit.

 

One good thing about the separate charges for the DSC is that it is fully refundable if you have to cancel or miss your cruise. If they were rolled into the fare you would lose it based on the cancellation schedule (or, have to insure that amount if you take out trip insurance). But that's about the only good thing about it.

 

 

[njhorseman]

51 minutes ago, fshagan said:

Oceania

Oceania has a daily gratuity/ service charge.