Last Night of a Cruise.

[Smokeyham]

Only time I've noticed the decline was on the last cruise MSC Poesia at 11:30pm the last night, the heads of the depts started walking around the ship and any staff not in direct contact with passengers was ordered to start cleaning. Bars shut down even if people were sitting there and some fire doors were closed and locked to block areas being cleaned making us passengers have to go to the outside deck to get from one end of the ship to the other (it was raining hard too)

 

Following morning the staff seemed like they were at a funeral, giving very short answers to questions - which was the same way they were when we got onboard but within an hour they were happy and all smiles.

 

The strangest part was when I gave my cabin steward a tip - ONTOP of the auto tips he took the envelope didn't say anything and rushed down the hall like his pants were on fire. Other cabin staff were going door to door saying goodbye an have a safe trip home putting all their tips in their pocket and moving to the next cabin.

 

Wow.... What a strange end to your cruise!

[Cruise staff]

The last night for us as at the passenger services desk involves dealing with passengers who are rude, demeaning and sometimes just plain on silly. Most passengers will dispute every single thing that is on their bill on the very last day and even sometimes in the morning of disembarkation.

 

The best is when they will scream and shout that the cruise line over charge on certain items at the bar or the line charges them erroneously and that they will never sail with the line again. After we pull the chit to verify signatures, the best line that they will always use, " I forget or my husband or wife got that and I didnt know about it." Then they will just walk away without saying thank you or anything. Part and parcel about dealing with cruise passengers...;)

[Suitcasefull]

In his book "Devils on the Deep Blue Sea", author Kristoffer Garin describes the passengers huddled in the public areas with their luggage on the morning of disembarkation: "Just the night before, these people were royalty; now they're refugees."

 

Personally, I've never noticed a drop-off in service on the last day of a cruise -- I'm just always sad to have to pack. But many crew members have told me that "turn around" is undoubtedly the most hectic day of the cruise for them.

 

Now I have to read that book! Have noticed a different "feel" but mostly figured it's me being sad about end of vacation.

 

re: hectic day.........One year on a cruise, further down the hallway about twenty or so rooms so not in our steward's area, the entire cruise, every time we passed one cabin we noticed a stench if the door was ajar, like the passenger in there had horrible BO or something awful.

Didn't matter if the occupants were in and the door not tightly closed (didn't ever see them) or if the steward was cleaning and had the door wide open. It wasn't a "sick" smell, just a dirty-person smell that worsened every day of the trip. We often commented to each other about feeling sorry for the steward.

The last day I was visiting with our steward and thanking him for being so thoughtful and helpful and said I bet this was a hectic day with us leaving and new passengers coming on. He smilingly agreed.

Then I asked if it was also a rather difficult or "tense" time, not knowing who would be in the room the coming week. He laughed and said, "Yes." and from the look on his face, am sure he knew the reason for the question. Then he said was that it was kind of a relief when the new passengers arrived so they (stewards) knew if they got nice passengers or other kinds.

Although we try to be reasonably neat and not much trouble for our stewards, it really hadn't dawned on me until then that these hard-working folks not only have tons of physical chores but each cruise brings the possibility of having jerks or slobs or stinky occupants in their assigned areas........and they have to be nice and smile. Guess it's the luck of the draw for them but they have to always be holding their breath until they know what the next cruise holds for them.