Cabin on embarkation

[ISLAND DIVA]

I thought I had read a thread on cruise critic that you can go to your cabin upon embarkation.That would be wonderful if that is true.However on the downside that would mean you would have to be out of your cabin earlier when leaving.We are on the N.A. March 20 for 14 days.I just can not find the thread.

[maxout]

Here is one recent thread...

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1362827

[Typhoon1]

We embarked the N.A. on February 13 at 11:25 AM, we were in the Lido when the announcement was made at 12:00 PM. Cabins are now ready.

[KirkNC]

I wonder how they are pulling this off without killing the stewards. Someone suggested that they may be bring extra help from shore. Anyone know if that is true?

 

Kirk

[sail7seas]

I think bar staff may be assisting in some way. Maybe I heard that??

 

[cnbfrank]

We chose earliest self-embarkation from the Veendam in January - scheduled for about 9:15 am, I think.

We were able to stay in the cabin, but had dressed, packed and had breakfast.

Stewards asked if they could collect the bed and bath linens, and we agreed. The bar steward came in to check on the soda, etc., which we had not used. We left the door open so we could hear announcements and left just about as scheduled.

[CruiserBruce]

I wonder how they are pulling this off without killing the stewards. Someone suggested that they may be bring extra help from shore. Anyone know if that is true?

 

Kirk

 

Killing the cabin stewards? That would seem to be counter productive!;)

[KirkNC]

Of course I meant that fugitively not literally :D. They do such a good job.

 

Cnbfrank, the OP is refering to embarkation, you are talking about disembarkation.

 

Kirk

[kazu]

I wonder how they are pulling this off without killing the stewards. Someone suggested that they may be bring extra help from shore. Anyone know if that is true?

 

Kirk

 

i did read on HAL's website, that there were other people assisting the stewards so this could be done. I don't think it said who though.

[sapper1]

I think bar staff may be assisting in some way. Maybe I heard that??

 

I got this on another cruise web site that you participate in. Since I think that cutting and pasting would be an absolute no-no, I will paraphrase.

 

This is according to Hart Sugarman, Deputy Director of Housekeeping Operations for Holland America.

 

Laundry services will come in and strip the beds and put the linens into colour coded bags and place them by the elevators, where other people will pick them up. The same is done with towels and bathrobes, all in different colour coded bags.

 

People from other departments will go through the rooms, emptying trash cans and placing the contents in bags by the elevators and then the sanitation department will collect them.

 

When the stewards come into the rooms they will have pre filled packets containing everything they need for each room--- linens, towels, kleenex, toilet paper etc. These kits are prepared a few days in advance and are tailored to fit the bed configuration requested for any particluar cabin.

 

Housekeeping staff will have been diverted to preparing the cabins so the bartending staff and waitresses will do the vacuuming and wiping up in the public areas.

 

Having the rooms ready earlier means that luggage delivery can start two hours earlier than was previously possible. No changes were needed to the delivery process---it is just able to be started sooner.

[iriemon]

We were on the Westerdam in Feb and they announced at 11:30 that our rooms were ready which was great, did not have to lug around the carry ons, plus I could get the wheel chair I reserved for my DW. Regarding disembarking, we did not find that we had to get off the ship any earlier than we did in previous cruises. I talked to one of the cabin stewards about it and he mentioned the staging makes all the difference, before they were running all over the place getting supplies, now they are right there.

[canehdn]

I also read about the new process on CC and in theory it sounds like a fantastic plan. Let’s hope in practice it actually works well. My concern would be those that have been in charge of the cleaning are the experienced ones. Wonder what kind of a cleaning job the bar staff will actually be capable of when these new duties are added to their existing list of jobs. I certainly hope it works because on paper it sounds very efficient and will make for very happy passengers on embarkation. If we start seeing complaints from cruisers here on CC about lack of cleanliness on board … that will tell the story. Keeping my fingers crossed that this new process works well.

[Boytjie]

Cnbfrank, the OP is refering to embarkation, you are talking about disembarkation.

 

One man's embarkation is another man's disembarkation. :D

[Akheila]

Well it gets done on Princess. WHich is under the same family, so I suspect they implemented the same process over on HAL. We were asked on Princess to be out of our room by 8 am ish. But we were given another area to congregate based on our disembarkation time or status. But on our embarkation even though we were one of the first on the ship our rooms were ready.

 

So it seems the process can work.

[Spinner2]

We were just on the Oosterdam for a week. When we boarded the ship at about 11:30 the cabins were ready--at least all of the ones around us were. We noticed as we unpacked that on the floor of one of the closets there was a semi-transparent plastic bag, shaped like a box with a zipper all the way around, that seemed to hold an extra bed coverlet. On the final day of the cruise that bag now held linens, so someone had come by and placed them in the bag. When a crew member came in on the last morning to ask if he could strip the bed he got that bag out and used the contents, so the linens needed for the next guests were in that bag. Other personnel did come in to pick up trash, etc as mentioned in the earlier post by Sapper1.

 

We noticed that while the Cruise Director no longer mentioned specifically that people could wait in their staterooms until called for disembarkation he didn't forbid it either. We stayed there; the staff left the hand towels we were using in the bathroom for our use when they removed the rest of our towels. Presumably they just change out those last couple of towels after we've left, vacuum, do the last-minute sanitizing and the room is ready for the newcomers.

 

Judging from the huge crush of people lining the walls of the hallway that was used for our exit from the ship most folks, despite the admonition not to do so, chose not to wait in their rooms, the lounges, etc. They congregated in the hallway. The staff moved all whose colors didn't match the currently- or previously-called ones over to the side of the passageway but they took up the equivalent of an entire lane that could have been used by the disembarking passengers. We were late in disembarking--those last 5 cabins whose occupants did not come to meet the immigration officials and who were steadily paged in multiple languages until they were all found--but gathering before called in the exit passageway is hardly the solution to a quick departure.

[jkrislc]

One man's embarkation is another man's disembarkation. :D

 

Well said, unless of course you're on a B2B ;)

[Typhoon1]

Someone suggested that they may be bring extra help from shore. Anyone know if that is true?

 

Kirk

 

I doubt this is the case. The cruise lines are always cognizant of the spread of Norovirus. Having shore help running from ship to ship would just increase the threat.

[Two@Sea]

I think bar staff may be assisting in some way. Maybe I heard that??

 

 

Excellent! Getting the cabins ready is hard work, and I'm certain they could USE a drink afterward! :D

[jkrislc]

I doubt this is the case. The cruise lines are always cognizant of the spread of Norovirus. Having shore help running from ship to ship would just increase the threat.

 

It's not entirely out of the realm of possibilities. NCLA did this, although it was more of a personnel and speed issue than anything else. In fact, it might behoove the cruise lines to do so to give the stewards a bit of a break.

[jtl513]

NCLA did this, although it was more of a personnel and speed issue than anything else.

I think this was necessitated by their problem of keeping the ship(s) fully staffed. Maybe that's what you meant by "personnel issue"?