No Laundry? Oh my! Really?

[deltahog]

2 days in Athens, 8 days Athens-Barcelona on Voyager, 2 days Barcelona.

 

The entire plan of "no checked bags" revolves around doing laundry on the ship.  We just did this last year on Princess, our Alaska cruise, on which laundry rooms were on most cabin floors.  

 

Couldn't find a laundry room on the Voyager deck plan.  Huh?

 

Googled.

 

"Q.  What laundry services are available onboard all Royal Caribbean cruise ships?

A.  For safety concerns self-service laundry facilities are not provided onboard our ships, but we do offer washing, pressing and dry cleaning services."

 

Huh?  "Safety concerns?"  Can anyone detail what "safety concerns"?  The reasonably equivalent Princess ships have laundry and I must have missed all the ships going down due to the self-serve.

 

[time4u2go]

LOL "safety concerns". Apparently Princess and Carnival and Disney and I'm sure others don't have those same "safety concerns".  I'm guessing they meant "profit concerns".

 

Edited April 30 by time4u2go

[Cherful59]

@deltahog We get several pool towels, hand wash undergarments and socks, squeeze and roll them in the towels to get additional water out, then hang them dry.  You can also washout many other items, roll in towels and hang dry them. 

Edited April 30 by Cherful59

[Anton]

The list of cruise lines that have self-serve laundry is not very extensive.  Carnival, Holland America, Princess, Disney, and Oceania are the ones that spring to mind.  NCL doesn't (they used to but removed it many years ago).  None of the Royal Caribbean Group brands have it.  I don't recall Royal ever having it, but they may have on their original ships.  Royal did install machines on the world cruise aboard Serenade, but only because it's a unique cruise.  They will be removed once the voyage ends.  I don't think laundry service is a huge profit center for Royal Caribbean.  They just don't want to deal with the maintenance, stocking supplies, etc.  It is what it is. 

[fenton04]

Hey we saw laundry facilities (for crew) behind the stage on a recent stage.tour. One of the crew was walking out.  I am not advocating that when tipping the bar staff slip them a couple pair of underwear.  But it might be worth a try.

[Kellie in Texas]

@deltahog I am with you 100%. We've cruised on Princess a couple of times and were able to do laundry during the week, but mostly we've cruised RCCL and have to make do. There is a weekly "stuff laundry in this bag" special that's around $30-35, but seems like it's toward the end of the week so you don't have to travel home with dirty clothes. There are lots of folks on this forum that have collapsible laundry tubs that they bring and wash things out in the shower. Maybe look for dry-fit type shirts that you could wash by hand and let drip dry. My husband got some -- I call them fishing pants -- but they are khaki pants in a very thin fabric that dries really fast. 

[mo&fran]

The safety concern is lint buildup in the dryer ducts catching fire.

[firefly333]

Starting with the new mardi gras carnival has also removed self serve laundry. So last 3 carnival ships also no laundry. A good portion of us on carnival like on royal have free laundry as a perk.

 

They have it but not free except as a perk, same as royal. 

[crzndeb]

I survived 54 nights last year and I don’t use laundry service. It can be done, if you don’t mind creative handwashing. I pack magnetic hooks and also have a clothesline with clips attached. When I would wash things in the evening, they would be dry the next day. And as mentioned, rolling in towels and walking on them to get as much water as you can,  before hanging to dry.

Edited April 30 by crzndeb

[Cruise a holic]

We pay for a couple of loads of laundry.  We also bring plenty of clothes

[Keksie]

We just  check bags and have plenty of clothes.  I don't want to do laundry on vacation and other then swimsuits I don't hand wash items either.

[time4u2go]

48 minutes ago, mo&fran said:

The safety concern is lint buildup in the dryer ducts catching fire.

I wonder why that's not an issue on other cruise lines that do have self-service laundry.

[alfaeric]

12 nights carry on is easy for us. Heck, just sailed 20 nights w/o needing to do laundry. 

[rncruiser]

41 minutes ago, Keksie said:

We just  check bags and have plenty of clothes.  I don't want to do laundry on vacation and other then swimsuits I don't hand wash items either.

I agree. I have no desire to do household chores while on vacation. I would much rather check my luggage. That way I can also bring larger sizes of toiletries and not worry that travel sizes won’t last for 2 weeks. 

[neverbeenhere]

Plenty of safety concerns in self service laundromats on ships. Haven’t you seen the fights over washers and dryers. (of course,  the worst is the person that removes clothing after a cycle is completed.) Irons are handy weapons. 

[roupa]

After many cruises I have learned to streamline my packing with travel size toiletries and mix-match outfits.  With the fees for checking luggage, I prefer to roll and jam stuff in a carry on then send clothes out for PRESS ONLY once unpacked… less $$ than checking luggage and less packing stress. Wash and fold services can be cheaper than checking luggage also.

I don’t mind hand washing and hanging to dry overnight.  If not completely dry, I hang inside the closet until the cabin cleaning is done so not in the stewards way. Washing undies or a shirt while taking a shower is multitasking. 😉

 

Safety issues with a self-serve laundry:  overloading, over detergent, hot irons (yes, even auto shutoff), lint traps….

[roupa]

…and carry-ons relieve me from worrying about the dreaded lost luggage fears!

[BND]

3 hours ago, mo&fran said:

The safety concern is lint buildup in the dryer ducts catching fire.

True.  Just ask any university/college.  My youngest went to a small one in Pennsylvania and I knew a volunteer fireman from there.  They had numerous calls for fires from lint as college students aren't very good at cleaning out lint traps.  How good do you think cruisers clean them out if they think it's "not their job"?   

 

As D+ we each get one bag of free laundry, but it's just underwear, socks,t-shorts and pjs which is fine.  But, before we got any free laundry, we just packed what we needed and occasionally washed a few items in the sink.  Not a big deal.

Edited May 1 by BND

[PhillyFan33579]

5 hours ago, crzndeb said:

I survived 54 nights last year and I don’t use laundry service. It can be done, if you don’t mind creative handwashing. I pack magnetic hooks and also have a clothesline with clips attached. When I would wash things in the evening, they would be dry the next day. And as mentioned, rolling in towels and walking on them to get as much water as you can,  before hanging to dry.

Did you do 54 consecutive days last year? I had over 100 days last year but the longest I was ever on a ship was 9 straight days. Easy to survive without doing laundry on 9 day cruises and less. I am impressed if you “survived” 54 consecutive days. 

[Tin can]

I applaud anyone who travels to a cruise with no checked luggage, three of us flying to New York from the UK this summer for 9 nights on Liberty and three checked bags. 

 

[sowhat]

8 hours ago, mo&fran said:

The safety concern is lint buildup in the dryer ducts catching fire.

That's why they should have a scheduled mantainance routine.

[Scottdalfonso]

14 minutes ago, sowhat said:

That's why they should have a scheduled mantainance routine.

On the world cruise they have a laundry attendant who, from some posts I've seen, goes by a few times a day and clears them out

[ONECRUISER]

9 hours ago, time4u2go said:

LOL "safety concerns". Apparently Princess and Carnival and Disney and I'm sure others don't have those same "safety concerns".  I'm guessing they meant "profit concerns".

 

Instead of multiple self serve Laundry rooms Royal make lot more money having Cabins in those spaces, not to mention the charging for full service Laundry. This way more profitable with no safety issue or time manning/maintaining/servicing the machines. 

Edited May 1 by ONECRUISER

[chengkp75]

9 hours ago, time4u2go said:

I wonder why that's not an issue on other cruise lines that do have self-service laundry.

It is a decision as to whether or not they want to dedicate man/hours to maintaining the equipment, and whether or not their insurance club wants the additional risk of the added laundry machines.  It is a simple risk/reward calculation.  It's just like the decision as to whether or not to have coffee makers in every cabin.  Some lines do, some don't.  Some lines have them on certain itineraries, and not others.  Why?  Because if the line provides the coffee makers, they have to inspect and test them on a regular basis, for safety, and this takes up a massive amount of man/hours.  Does the reward of giving each passenger their own coffee maker outweigh the cost of the units and the time required to inspect/test them taken away from other maintenance tasks, perhaps on more important equipment?

1 hour ago, sowhat said:

That's why they should have a scheduled mantainance routine.

They do, but given the limited size of technical departments onboard, it becomes a question of where do we better utilize our resources.

Edited May 1 by chengkp75

[Cruise a holic]

I don’t get it?  People spend thousands on a cruise but have a problem paying for a piece of luggage?  Also, we have tracking devices in our luggage.  If misplaced at airport or pier we can track. Of course we carry on a change of clothes and a swimsuit, etc. for emergencies