Problems on the Oosterdam

We don't trust HAL for many things including a Security Issue . I won't go onto details ;but , it could have gone into a pretty stiff law suit against HAL for failure about their security when required

Why throw t the bomb' and not explain? What is the point of not telling but 'posting this.? :confused::confused:

Even though we receive free laundry service for being 5 star mariners, I am very judicious about the items I send to the laundry. I only send items that I don’t really care about such as pajamas, socks, underwear and some button down the front casual shirts.

Everything else is either saved until we get home or hand washed in the cabin.

It has been our experience that whites come back grey and coloured things are “off” in colour. A lot of items seem to have the life beaten out of them.

My husband once had a waiter spill wine on his tux and he was given a chit for dry cleaning. He chose to wait until we got home to have it cleaned.

As I was told by a local dry cleaner——The facilities on the ships may be the newest and most up to date but they are only as good as the person pushing the buttons.

I always wear an undershirt shirt under my dress shirt (I am male), so my dress shirt will last for a few wearings, and it is easy to bring extra undershirts. I also have found that a mesh polo shirt will be good for two days. I am not too concerned about repetitive wearings from a fashion standpoint while on a cruise.

I would not trust my clothes to the ship's laundry service. All I have to do is to bring a lot of socks and underwear!

igraf

We really enjoy getting dressed up for Gala nights, it is sad that we feel next time, like you, we will not be bringing our best clothes with us. On a two week vacation they either need a reliable laundry/dry cleaning service or a self service laundry.

Even though we’re 4 ⭐️ so have complimentary laundry, I wish all the ships had laundromats for passengers to use. I really dislike entrusting our clothing to the ship services.

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Even though we’re 4 ⭐️ so have complimentary laundry, I wish all the ships had laundromats for passengers to use. I really dislike entrusting our clothing to the ship services.

 

 

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Even if the ship had a selff service laundramat, that would not have been useful for cleaning a tuxedo. Sure, it would be useful forgolf jerseys but that tuxedo was doomed. :eek:

Even if the ship had a selff service laundramat, that would not have been useful for cleaning a tuxedo. Sure, it would be useful forgolf jerseys but that tuxedo was doomed. :eek:

For sure—it was the kiss (or splash) of death. :)

Having apparently been very luck to not having had any dry cleaner damage my clothes, what is the usual level of compensation by non-ship cleaners: 75% 50%, 25%, 10%? I have never used HAL's dry cleaning, but I have always been satisfied with their laundry service and consider our 4* status to be most valuable because of the free laundry. OP's bad experience would leave, however, a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. Not to mention the garlic!

Our only laundry complaint on board is white socks coming back somewhere between grey and blue. I took one of the socks that came back blue to the Concierge and asked that if they were going to dye my socks the same color as the ship at least they could sew the logo onto them. As I recall they sent a bottle of wine to our stateroom.

They do go back to white after several washings at home.

I sent my new dress shirt out for laundry on our recent cruise on the Maasdam and it came just fine, ready to wear again which I did. The only problem we had was we made a mistake in stating the number of an article we sent out incorrectly, so they returned the laundry items not done. They asked us to confirm we made an error and to call them, which we did. However it was too late in the cruise now for it to get done and the response was that now if we wanted the items laundered we had to it ourselves. We were a little upset at first but we decided that maybe it was the difference our speech tone that made it sound unpleasant and for sure by the time we found the laundry returned it was too late. Fortunately were going home in two days so we let it pass without further complaint.

Sorry to hear of your damaged clothing, and yes I agree if the service offered is not of a high standard then why offer a service at all....BUT having participated in a behind the scenes tour of an HAL ship, I for one would NEVER send anything at all to the laundry on any ship.

Sorry to hear of your damaged clothing, and yes I agree if the service offered is not of a high standard then why offer a service at all....BUT having participated in a behind the scenes tour of an HAL ship, I for one would NEVER send anything at all to the laundry on any ship.

So lets assume you are on a 60 day cruise and the vessel does not have a self-service laundry. Would you simply wear the same clothes for 2 months without laundering, or wash everything out in your sink and hang to dry (with no iron)?

Hank

Sorry to hear of your damaged clothing, and yes I agree if the service offered is not of a high standard then why offer a service at all....BUT having participated in a behind the scenes tour of an HAL ship, I for one would NEVER send anything at all to the laundry on any ship.

We use HAL's laundry services all the time (almost 500 days) and it has been a wonderful perk. I have no hesitation using this very welcome onboard benefit. We too took the behind the scenes tour that included visiting the laundry facilities - it is a huge operation when you think about just the amount of sheets, towels, linens and uniforms they must process 24/7.

We also saw the personal service section where they processed passenger items and the individual garment pressing station. It was an awesome operation. We additionally have had an item returned to us and not processed, since the staffer thought they might be damaged due to small holes that I had not even noticed. That is a remarkable level of personal attention to each item.

This is a very convenient passenger service - use it according to your own comfort level, but please do not reject it out of hand as 100% patently careless and negligent. That is unfair on all counts.

Why throw t the bomb' and not explain? What is the point of not telling but 'posting this.? :confused::confused:

I wondered the same thing.

Of course, on another sort of problem, I have never had as bad and experience on HAL as occurred repeatedly and with increasing severity on Celebrity - the details of which I will not mention.

We couldn’t wait to get to 4 Star status to have free laundry service. We use the heck out of it on every cruise and only had one mishap ... an item for dry cleaning was laundered and the color changed a bit. I had a photo that was taken of it just a day before and could show them the difference. They offered compensation ... I can’t renember what it was but we were satisfied.

There’s no way I’ll ever do laundry on a cruise!!! I do have a couple of items that cannot go in the dryer, so I’ll wash them in the sink and hand them to dry but that is limited to just a couple of items. I love HAL’s laundry services. Liked the $20 a bag options but love the free service even more!

We use HAL's laundry services all the time (almost 500 days) and it has been a wonderful perk. I have no hesitation using this very welcome onboard benefit. We too took the behind the scenes tour that included visiting the laundry facilities - it is a huge operation when you think about just the amount of sheets, towels, linens and uniforms they must process 24/7.

 

We also saw the personal service section where they processed passenger items and the individual garment pressing station. It was an awesome operation. We additionally have had an item returned to us and not processed, since the staffer thought they might be damaged due to small holes that I had not even noticed. That is a remarkable level of personal attention to each item.

 

This is a very convenient passenger service - use it according to your own comfort level, but please do not reject it out of hand as 100% patently careless and negligent. That is unfair on all counts.

Well said and totally agree! (y)

Since when would a $500.00 OBC be adequate compensation for an expensive tux? The OBC has to be spent on the ship. Big deal. You still have to pay to buy another tux.

While I sympathize with anyone who has had a valuable piece of clothing damaged/destroyed, I do have a couple of questions: how can a tux be "valued at $800" if it only cost $450 to buy? Either OP cheated the seller, or he got it at an appropriate value. So, given the alterations, the maximum value NEW would have been $550.

Had it ever been worn before? A used suit is rarely worth what it cost to buy. At the end of the day OP did apparently receive appropriate "value".

Just from reading many posts demonstrating outrageous feelings of entitlement on CC, it is obvious that all cruise lines must protect themselves from hugely inflated claims for compensation.

Yes, it is unfortunate that it happened and that OP had to spend significant time in obtaining compensation - but what is also unfortunate is the close to universal unrealistic expectations expressed here of tender service from a shipboard laundry.

Perhaps I have just been lucky, but I greatly appreciate the $20 per bag charge for the regularly fully satisfactory laundry service I have received on many HAL ships. My wife would not send a silk blouse, but the piling-on on this thread concerning unmet expectations regarding routine laundry service is simply ludicrous.

Since when would a $500.00 OBC be adequate compensation for an expensive tux? The OBC has to be spent on the ship. Big deal. You still have to pay to buy another tux.

This attitude might be a large part of the reason why cruise lines are so slow to offer reasonable compensation. How much is a used tuxedo worth?

Does your auto insurance pay enough to buy a new car - or what they figure your old car was worth when you wrecked it?

Without facts as to age/condition of a damaged article no one can be reasonably expected to pay full cost of replacement with a new item.

My point isn't the amount offered. It could be $200.0, but it should be either a check, or credited to their credit card., not OBC.

We would never consider sending a delicate fabric item or an expensive garment to ant cruise ship dry cleaning facility. We are careful in how we select a dry cleaner at home, let alone at sea. Fortunately it is no longer an issue for us because of the way we pack.

Compensation is in order and that is for to OP to negotiate with HAL

Apart from this the trend we see is that some people appear to expect an OBC for the smallest of cruise line transgressions. We see a downside and we do not understand how people can be so petty or at times so greedy.

Some cruise lines now seem to think that a small OBC or a bottle of cheap wine is a satisfactory response to real issues. Like someone having a cabin with no air or plumbing,flooding ,or inhabitable to the point where they have to sleep and bathe in another cabin. We think that this encourages cruise lines to, at times, knowingly sell cabins or cabins in areas they know to be deficient. Cabin revenue is offset by a small OBC to keep the customer sweet and is much less expensive than truly remedying the on going problem.

One room steward once told us that he was happy that he no longer worked in 'the flood zone'. A specific area of the ship we were on that routinely experiences flooding and thus made for extra work, customer complaints, and fewer gratuities.

My point isn't the amount offered. It could be $200.0, but it should be either a check, or credited to their credit card., not OBC.

Why?

An OBC credit is as good as cash - unless, of course, the person receiving it was planning to stiff the crew by removing service charge.

Primarily, an OBC can be settled on board. The process any corporation would need to follow to create a check is a lot more cumbersome.

Of course, if it were a truly serious matter involving a serious amount of money - and the claiming passenger were willing (and able to really prove his claim) he could pursue the claim against the corporation. If he wants to settle the matter on board, he has to be willing to settle it in an on board fashion - meaning OBC.

Why would you think it's to stiff the crew? Maybe, like me, they pre paid gratuities.

Why would you think it's to stiff the crew? Maybe, like me, they pre paid gratuities.

Not being satisfied with an OBC suggests that one plans to spend very little on board - and one of the best way to spend very little on board is to remove the service charge. Not saying that was poster's intent, but it is a possibility.

While on the gratuities topic, why would someone want to prepay gratuities? That is a concept hard to understand: if you can pre-pay, you certainly can pay after the end of the cruise, and paying something a month -or several months - before necessary simply seems curious.

Not being satisfied with an OBC suggests that one plans to spend very little on board - and one of the best way to spend very little on board is to remove the service charge. Not saying that was poster's intent, but it is a possibility.

 

While on the gratuities topic, why would someone want to prepay gratuities? That is a concept hard to understand: if you can pre-pay, you certainly can pay after the end of the cruise, and paying something a month -or several months - before necessary simply seems curious.

I am sorry you have a hard time understanding this concept.

Lots of people like to prepay on board expenses - whether it be laundry, shore excursions, specialty dinners or HSC. Lots of reasons for it but the 2 that come to mind are: 1)They may want to budget and prepay so that they don't have a large bill at the end of their cruise or.

2) Not everyone who cruises is from the U.S. And prepaying if the exchange rate is "right" can make a big difference to their total cost.

My own reason to pre pay gratuities is that even with OBC, I'd rather use it for enhancing my cruise experience, not for something I will pay anyway.