Royal changing to 1x day room cleaning

[Jsoenning]

We experienced this on Carnival last November and it was frustrating as the couch bed stayed out unless you put it away yourself.

 

[Bellhop97]

I personally like the once a day cleaning.. we just got off Carnival and it was great, not worrying about being bothered in the morning, could sleep in late, and when we got back in the afternoon , the cabin was made up. Perfect.

 

[Bellhop97]

So if they are increasing the number of rooms they are responsible for, when you read between the lines it seems that they are either cutting staff or adding to their duties and using them elsewhere as well. There will be three of us in our cabin, one will require the sofa bed to be made up every evening. So does that mean either we have unmade beds all day and put away the sofa bed ourselves until they come in the evening to set up bed things or will we get beds made but have to deal with the pullout sofa bed ourselves? Or will they make beds but set up sofa so we have no couch all day? Unless they are going to make an exception for allowing time to adjust the extra bedding in rooms that have them this is not acceptable. Not good, RCCL!

All the cruises lines are starting to do this, not just RCCL.

 

[Bellhop97]

Im ok with cut backs, maybe they can cut their gratuities in half while they're at it.

Nah.. for what they get paid, I actually give them extra, they work 10 plus hours a day, 7 days a week. Keep the gratuities where they are at.

 

[mom2missmous]

Nah.. for what they get paid, I actually give them extra, they work 10 plus hours a day, 7 days a week. Keep the gratuities where they are at.

While I am not ok with the cut-backs, I would NEVER cut what I tip the crew(in fact we usually give them an extra tip in cash ).
These decisions are not their doing and I agree they work very hard!

 

[sam_gordon]

Do people think this is strictly a cost cutting measure by cruise lines, or is it possible a way to make do with fewer crew (because they can't get enough help, not because they're intentionally cutting crew)?

On our past cruises, we've done auto grats and then given extra to room steward and wait staff. We will probably still do the same, but the amount we give "extra" may decrease. Of course, we're 16 months from our next cruise, so who knows what will happen.

 

[mikehn]

It is all about maximizing revenue and profits, in accordance with whatever their formula is. One day room cleaning is what maximizes their revenue at the moment. Passengers can take it or leave it. At some point in time this will change, and they will adjust accordingly.

 

[Bellhop97]

While I am not ok with the cut-backs, I would NEVER cut what I tip the crew(in fact we usually give them an extra tip in cash ).
These decisions are not their doing and I agree they work very hard!

Well to each their own, having a room cleaned only once a day isn't really a big deal. Housekeeping at many hotel rooms is only once a day. I still tipped the room steward just as much as if he cleaned it twice.

 

[sam_gordon]

Well to each their own, having a room cleaned only once a day isn't really a big deal. Housekeeping at many hotel rooms is only once a day. I still tipped the room steward just as much as if he cleaned it twice.

Housekeeping at many hotel rooms is once every 4-5 days.

 

[Bellhop97]

Housekeeping at many hotel rooms is once every 4-5 days.

That's kinda my point with the whole thing, having a room cleaned once a day instead of 2 times really isn't a big deal.

 

[sam_gordon]

That's kinda my point with the whole thing, having a room cleaned once a day instead of 2 times really isn't a big deal.

I've brought that up on CC and was told a cruise room is different than a hotel room. I don't understand that argument. I mean, yes, you're travelling while on the cruise, but as it concerns the relationship between the passenger and room attendant, I don't.

 

[DCLMP]

I prefer once a day cleaning, but that would be annoying with a couch bed. I can’t see Disney being able to do that with so many kids onboard.
My next cruise on Royal is just my son and I and it will be fine with the split beds.

 

[Anna131517]

The big deal with once a day cleaning is the beds. A cruise is not at all like a hotel. We recently sailed on The Disney Wish and we really had a hard time getting our beds put up in the morning and out back down at night. We’re a family of five so that meant the couch, pull down bed, and Murphy bed (which blocks the balcony when down) all had to be put up for us to be able to move around and access the balcony, and then put back down so we could go to sleep. We literally couldn’t do it ourselves - the beds are locked into place when put up. Having the beds down most of the day, then not ready when the kids needed to go to sleep, was a big problem every day for us. Luckily it was only a 4 night cruise. Reading this thread I wonder if DCL is trying to do something similar with once a day cleaning.

 

[Denise W]

My daughter is on Anthem this week and they are getting their room serviced twice a day.

 

[Frozen2014]

We are on Oasis next week and heard that we are their first cruise where they are switching to just 1x per day. Not a big deal for us, but definitely a pain for those who need pullmans pulled down or sofa beds opened at night/closed during the day. Think I'd prefer just the morning over night then...but then the downside is no more towel animals.

 

[peacefrogdog]

Do people think this is strictly a cost cutting measure by cruise lines, or is it possible a way to make do with fewer crew (because they can't get enough help, not because they're intentionally cutting crew)?

On our past cruises, we've done auto grats and then given extra to room steward and wait staff. We will probably still do the same, but the amount we give "extra" may decrease. Of course, we're 16 months from our next cruise, so who knows what will happen.

I suspect both. I support whatever makes the room attendant happier and less stressed.

I've never found the evening service to be necessary - the room typically gets most use in the evenings to the next morning, and beyond the occasional nap, have not found the room to be in dire need of cleaning due to use over the day. I also have no issue with having the pullman bed down and left that way - yes it may make the room look smaller but it's not in the way.

At this point having sailed many cruises , the time spent to make towel animals is a bit wasted on us. Albeit we haven't had to use a sofa bed recently, so I appreciate concerns people may have especially if it is difficult to reposition. Hopefully there is a nice in between in which attendants can be asked to pull in/out a sofa bed or pullman bed without having to do a full clean.

I just feel lucky to be in a position to travel and cruise such that if my biggest problem is deciding whether having housekeeping one vs twice daily is an issue - I really can't complain. I realize not everyone has the same perspectives of travel.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We are on Oasis next week and heard that we are their first cruise where they are switching to just 1x per day. Not a big deal for us, but definitely a pain for those who need pullmans pulled down or sofa beds opened at night/closed during the day. Think I'd prefer just the morning over night then...but then the downside is no more towel animals.

Please let us know how it goes!

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Housekeeping at many hotel rooms is once every 4-5 days.

Are you still seeing that often? DH also travels for work. The vast majority of hotels we've stayed in this year have offered daily housekeeping. I agree that wasn't the case last year. Most hotels in 2020 would clean your room every 3 or 4 days, or allow you to sign up the night before, if you wanted your room cleaned the next day. Technically, you could have signed up every evening for housekeeping the next day, but we never bothered.

 

[mousetom]

Here’s what I don’t get. If they service your room once in the morning, and you have a family and need the pull out, will they come just take out the bed in the evening, or is your only choice to leave the bed out all day or pull it out yourself?

I would much prefer it if they offered an incentive to decline a second service, like OBC or additional status points points to decline.

On our last cruise they left the couch as a bed for the whole cruise, it was very inconvienent

 

[mousetom]

I know NCL and Carnival are down to once a day cleaning as well, there appears to be staffing issues post Covid.

They left our coach a bed on Mardi Gras in December and our Couch a bed on Adventure of the seas. in August Seems to happen on all ships now.