Doing laundry on a cruise

This is the first of two posts inspired by this thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2226551 , which started out about irons, but veered into discussion of laundry.

I'm curious about what other people do to wash their clothes on the ship. BTW, don't count single-item spot cleaning.

Thank you for your replies.

Depending on the length of the cruise I either send out to ship's laundry, dry cleaning, including RC bag to stuff, or take enough clothes to last. I do hand wash some delicate items and hang in the shower to dry. Would not use washer or dryer even if available.

We have sailed enough with Princess to get free laundry. So we take advantage of it

Having the ship do our laundry is no extra charge for us. Still, there are items we don't trust to the ship's laundry and pay to use the self-service laundry for them. We've had too many things ruined by the HAL laundry. When we have limited clothing with us on 3+ week cruise that is an issue. I do NOT do hand laundry at home and it is definitely NOT something I want to do on vacation.

If it is a short cruise (less than 7 days) I just do the delicates in the sink

Longer cruises I use the self serve laundry

I do occasionally send stuff to the ship's laundry but have had bad luck with that on occasion

Do what works best for you why worry what others do :rolleyes:

Well, I'm still not sure why we need two separate polls on the same subject -- but, I'll play along. As I said on the other poll/thread, as an RC/X cruiser, I'm used to not having self-service laundry facilities available. We are Elite on X (D+ on RC), so our loyalty program perks usually cover our laundry/pressing/dry cleaning needs. :cool:

The one category of clothing that I won't send out is bathing suits, and any other "delicates". Those, I rinse out in the sink, using my travel-size Woolite. I have to say that it irked me when X decided to take the retractable clotheslines out of the Solstice showers and tubs. I now have to pack a travel clothesline, on some cruises. :rolleyes:

If there is a self service laundry I wash all of our stuff myself.

If not and since I have sensitive skin, I wash our undies and my polyester tops myself. I occasionally wash other things as well. The rest I stuff into the mid cruise bag. I am always amazed how much I can squeeze into a small bag - lol!

One cruise we had daily laundry but I still hand washed our undies and my tops.

Except for our bathing suits and my undies which I wash in our cabin, everything else gets sent out. :)

LuLu

Self serve laundry is included on Crystal, so I usually do my own stuff in their machines - which is how I answered. However, I have also sent something out, but that's the exception (for better quality stuff), not the typical for my undies, t-shirts, shorts, etc.

I am on vacation. I take vacations to get away from doing chores. While on vacation I don't cook my own meals, or clean my own living quarters. I certainly am not going to waste my time washing my clothes. Vacation time is too rare to waste it in any way.

We usually travel for an extended period. We will typically either do laundry in port just prior to embarkation or have it done for us in port.

The upside.....we have met some really interesting travellers in self service laundromats. Some interesting and useful travel stories and some great tips.

More than once we have sat outside a self service laundry in Europe, drinking a cold beverage and taking to folks, most especially Ozzies, while our clothes were going round and round inside. BUT...we travel with carry on only and take clothes for seven days max so this routine has become second nature. Better than doing it on the ship! On the ship, depending on the cruise line, it is sometimes free or worst case we fill a bag for $20. In a pinch we can easily wash out some of our own clothes-especially underwear or casual shirts.

We were on a Princess cruise this past Feb. We were told that there were a number of scuffles in the laundry room resulting in more than one couple being put of the ship. Not certain how true this is but we did hear a story about a woman assaulting another with an iron ( I guess they have an iron in the laundry room). She and her husband we put off the ship in Fiji. We pass on that kind of excitement. Though mind you, it would be more entertaining than a lot of the entertainment acts on board cruise ships.

We took a 13 day cruise with no ship's self serve laundry, but would have used it if there was one available. We spent four nights in New Orleans before the cruise and on the morning we sailed, I walked a couple of blocks to a self-serve laundry. My time is not that valuable!

Our ship had no self laundry, so I couldn't do any washing...but I would have, if there had been facilities!

We only do short cruises of 7 or 8 days on ships without a launderette; longer cruises we pack for 10 nights and use the machines after 7 or so.

As our next cruise goes from cold climes to hot, then back to cold, we will be packing two sets of clothes, both of which will be washed after a week.

I've heard all the launderette rumours, especially the one of the missing elegant gown, which someone was seen wearing on the next formal night...the story is always about the ship we're sailing on. In fact, all the launderettes I've used have been quiet, friendly places, and I've yet to see a disturbance.

I haven't seen one where you have to pay anything, but with the cut backs, I suppose that will happen one day...

We use the ships laundry except for 2 or 3 delicate items I hand wash in the sink.

We usually travel for an extended period. We will typically either do laundry in port just prior to embarkation or have it done for us in port.

 

The upside.....we have met some really interesting travellers in self service laundromats. Some interesting and useful travel stories and some great tips.

 

More than once we have sat outside a self service laundry in Europe, drinking a cold beverage and taking to folks, most especially Ozzies, while our clothes were going round and round inside. BUT...we travel with carry on only and take clothes for seven days max so this routine has become second nature. Better than doing it on the ship! On the ship, depending on the cruise line, it is sometimes free or worst case we fill a bag for $20. In a pinch we can easily wash out some of our own clothes-especially underwear or casual shirts.

 

We were on a Princess cruise this past Feb. We were told that there were a number of scuffles in the laundry room resulting in more than one couple being put of the ship. Not certain how true this is but we did hear a story about a woman assaulting another with an iron ( I guess they have an iron in the laundry room). She and her husband we put off the ship in Fiji. We pass on that kind of excitement. Though mind you, it would be more entertaining than a lot of the entertainment acts on board cruise ships.

Here's what I have a problem with. With a laundry room available onboard, we can put our clothes in there and go do something on the ship (YES, we return in a timely manner - we've never returned to the laundry room with our clothes just sitting in the either the washer or dryer). Hitting up a Laundromat in a port, you waste time just sitting there. Yes, you can meet others doing their laundry, but we'd rather use the limited port time to actually see/do stuff in port.

we never plan on doing any laundry. we always bring enough plus a spare outfit.

the one time we needed to SOMEONE (who shall remain nameless but is half way through a deployment right now ) got shrimp cocktail sauce on his Mess Dress uniform shirt on the first formal night so we sent it out to be cleaned for the next formal night.

It is clear that based on the results of the two virtually identical polls started by the OP, the majority of people can do just fine without self service laundry facilities. I am sure that those cruise lines who don't provide such facilities know these results quite well, and prefer to make better use of what would otherwise be under-utilized spaces. As a business decision, they seem to have made the better choice.

Thanks everyone.

Well, I'm still not sure why we need two separate polls on the same subject -- but, I'll play along.

They're on the same general subject, but different questions - this one is about what you did for laundry on a past cruise, and the other one is about how one laundry option (self-service) affects your choice of cruises.

I thought both questions were worth asking, and I couldn't find a good way to combine them. I apologize for any confusion.

We use the ships self serve laundry. We will sail on a 28 day cruise later this year on a ship without self serve laundry. It will be interesting seeing if the ship ruins any of our clothes. We travel with around 9 changes of clothes. No way could we do as some have said and carry enough to never do laundry. Our trips are too long. The one this fall is a 4 month trip. Our longest so far was 6 months.

Depends on the length of the cruise depends on the ship.

Short cruises up to about 10 days, just take enough clothes.

Longer cruises with self serve laundry do a load every week or so.

Without self serve wash some things by hand, send some out for cleaning.

Being Elite with Princess we get free laundry....it sure cuts down on the packing.:)

Being Elite with Princess we get free laundry....it sure cuts down on the packing.:)

Except DW just refuses to let ship laundries do some things.

Crystal has do it yourself laundry room. Cabin is close to it and my DH puts it in early in AM before his workout and I do the rest. We did a load every day regardless of size. Once it was done early we did not think of laundry again.

Any ships we choose MUST have laundry do it yourself facilities!

Crystal has do it yourself laundry room. Cabin is close to it and my DH puts it in early in AM before his workout and I do the rest. We did a load every day regardless of size. Once it was done early we did not think of laundry again.

Any ships we choose MUST have laundry do it yourself facilities!

We do pretty much the same.

One pops a load in.

Make sure we are back a few minutes before it ends, into the dryer, same back a few minutes early out of dryer.

Done and dusted, must take abut 5 minutes each.

I won't say we wouldn't cruise without laundry, but for a longer cruise just makes it so much easier, and havng an iron available ... priceless.